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A very interesting read. Before I got my group A ppl I started on fixed wing microlights (for cost) I flew the Ikarus C42 , it was a super little plane and a whole lot of fun to fly.  The only thing that held it back was the weight limit meant that you could fly two light people, with a two or three hours fuel but no baggage. MTOW 450kg. Just going for a local bimble on a nice still evening is really a pleasure that is difficult to beat.
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Apr 1, 2012 11:39
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helno posted:I'm surprised more people dont start off in planes like that. I think the new price is about £50'000 depending on engine and avionics. Second hand, a fair bit less. There is a shared ownership set up with one at my airfield, and it seems to be great for them, they seem to use it a fair bit. Especially when the weather is good.
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Apr 1, 2012 23:53
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Looks great, when are you expecting to get airborne?
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May 10, 2012 12:19
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Sounds like cracking progress. Depending how comfortable you are with flying it, I'd definitely wait for a nice flat calm evening or early morning. The still air definitely helps. Looking forward to hearing how your first flight goes.
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May 23, 2012 17:18
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Fantastic, there's nothing like getting airborne in your own plane. I imagine it is pretty sensive to turbulence and thermic activity. I also notice that the tailplane looks pretty low to the ground, how do you manage the flair out? Or is it supposed to contact back first. Looking forward to some more pictures.
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Jun 9, 2012 19:32
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Fantastic, going into fly-ins really is great fun. I imagine with a tailwind your return journey was a fair bit quicker. With regards to the radio, are you using a handheld? Although flying nordo is quite good fun it is always a handy backup to have.
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Jun 11, 2012 17:07
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Fantastic stuff! looks like a huge amount of fun. Does the microlight have twin strut mounted fuel tanks? That's a really interesting solution. presumably that could lead to some interesting balance problems. were you in the right hand seat for the Lear? Must have been a blast.
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Jun 25, 2012 00:41
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That looks like incredible fun. Although I imagine the fuel burn would make the eyes water when filling up. I flew our aeroplane down for its annual inspection this week, I hadn't been in the air much recently and it was great to get a decent flight in. Also got about 20 mins IMC in, busting up and back through the clouds on my initial leg. What is the maintenence routine like on your aeroplane?
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Jun 28, 2012 00:16
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That rebuild is fantastic, so simple. I imagine that re-covering is quite an involved process. Does it use a doped fabric? I've got an Aviat Husky, which is a lot of fun. As the plane is relatively new fortunately the maintence costs aren't too bad. with annuals being around the £1100 mark. I do the oil changes myself at 40-50 hours. Otherwise the main stuff is Avgas (equivalent to $14.8 a gallon at my home airfield) Landing fees and hangerage. I'd love to switch the 76" hartzell for an mt205 prop and have a set of bushwheels but that would be some serious spending.
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Jun 28, 2012 02:44
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Looks great helno, Has your cruise changed much? I'd guess not so much as they probably have a pretty set comfort zone in terms of cruising speed.
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Jul 14, 2012 19:30
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Glad to see there is some improvement. How did you get on drilling the props? The new cam should make for some cracking low and slow videos.
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Jul 15, 2012 23:45
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It's an interesting question. I'm guessing that only one spark plug per cylinder would be a bit of a problem, as well as wanting to have dual magnetos / or coils if using them. I'm not sure how keen people would be on using chain drives to drive the prop as it is a rather obvious failure point which would put you in trouble instantly. They'll be runing extremely quickly compared to the big lazy lycomings or even the revvier rotax engines That being said it would be fascinating to see someone pull it off.
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Jul 29, 2012 23:07
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Looks like a great day to fly, looking forward to seeing more videos. Where are the throttle controls on your aeroplane? I assume that you have seperate throttles rather than just one control interconnected.
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Jul 30, 2012 00:55
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If I had the time and the patience to home build, I think I'd perhaps go for an RV-8 . A friend of mine has one and it is an impressive beast, when he's going places 180knots for about 8us gal/hr is quite something.
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Jul 30, 2012 23:47
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Excellent video, and good job on the landing. Out of interest, what is the maximum crosswind for it?
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Aug 1, 2012 11:35
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helno, just watched your longer videos, looks like a great day to be flying. Do you carry the bag as luggage for your land away flights? The landing again was a cracker, do you find it easier to land as you're closer to the wheels and the ground than a typical spam can? babyeatingpsychopath, that sounds like an interesting project, especially for something light and quick, with weight restrictions. how would you handle mixture control for altitude? I wouldn't have thought shock loads through the prop should be a big concern, because one hopes that it would just spin around without coming into significant resistance, and if it does then that probably means a fair bit of prop damage.
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Aug 21, 2012 11:56
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helno posted:I was able to bring the plane home tonight, landed just after sunset. Superb video, looks like a very enjoyable flight. You seem to have the best luck with these things. Also well done on getting the aircraft back. It is no fun sitting around waiting for a spell to get your plane back to base.
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Aug 23, 2012 01:48
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Blistex posted:WAR Aircraft Replica plane? I've read a little from a chap who had a p-40 WAR replica, who spoke very fondly of it. It seems there are a few about. I was looking at that kit supermarine spitfire 26b. Looks like a lot of fun, but big money.
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Aug 23, 2012 23:16
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Is it me, or is there no obviously control stick / yoke on that KR? Also helno your first two videos are private. Looking forward to some close formation videos.
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Aug 24, 2012 15:07
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I've been out the past couple of days in a friends kit built plane.  It's a vans rv8 and I've been very impressed with it's abilities. It has to be up there with one of the best sensible private aircraft to own.
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Sep 5, 2012 22:11
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The timelapse is great. Is flying in the winter completely out of the question? I really enjoy some of the crisp calm days with almost unlimited vis, and terrific aircraft performance. Nonetheless I'd be interested to see it coming apart. Is it quite a quick simple procedure?
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Sep 23, 2012 18:27
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Yes, I can't imagine that you'd want to keep anything with fabric on outside if you can avoid it. The ski's video looks like it could be a whole lot of fun. Bitterly cold though I imagine. What endurance do you have on those ? I hope all goes well on the disassembly. On my front I've been bending and drilling the perspex "rear instrument panel" which is just used to attach the gps and efis. The suction mounts were a bit bulky though so I'm now trying to set up various mounts for them to put them directly on the perspex.
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Sep 28, 2012 22:09
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The rear panel is for the Husky, the intention is to have the aera and dynon d1 on the perspex to give the rear passenger enough to continue flying if needed. Then we just need to work out where we will put the ipad which is running skydemon. When combined with the photography kit it gets very cramped in the back! I've just watched your timelapse, that was fascinating! Are the bolts that you remove all wire locked? It really comes apart pretty neatly for storage. I've also got a huge soft spot for cubs, they're fantastic little aircraft too. Sounds like there's quite a good aviation community where you are. At the field I'm based at there isn't too much going on, someone has just finished a nosewheel rv (not sure which type) but it hasn't flown yet.
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Oct 1, 2012 12:36
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Sounds great that you've possibly got some more local fields to visit. Camera rig wise, it's not too complicated, just bulky. We tend to do a bit of photography of sites so mostly it's done with a big dslr and a long image stabalised lens. When combined with the stick and some gps to help find where we're going (easier to put waypoints into a hanheld gps than putting them into the 430). Opening the side window isn't too bad, but opening the doors makes it quite draughty inside.
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Oct 2, 2012 23:12
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Excellent idea with the camper van for getting the ultralight to a fun flying destination. I'd never thought of that but it makes a whole lot of sense. I've spent all day in the hangar today with my a&p working on the husky. We got the bushwheels mounted and aired up on to the wheels. Removed the old tailwheel assembly and spring and fitted the new husky tailspring and baby bushwheel and fork assembly. There was a whole lot of fiddling with bits and pieces to get it right and getting the rudder chain tension in the right vicinity for the tailwheel steering took a bit of work but we got there in the end. Tomorrow it is just a case of paperwork and me coming up with a way of lifting the husky the 12" or so needed to switch up to the bigger wheels. I've got an idea so I'll try to fabricate something first thing. If I get some reasonable pictures I'll pop them up here.
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Dec 6, 2012 00:39
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I can't comment on the Piet directly, but I know a few homebuilders, and the big thing they tend to say is that it took longer than expected, but was tremendously satisfying in the end. That and if you can keep at it, doing a few hours reasonably frequently it can make a big difference. After having a look at the Pietenpol it looks like a lot of fun in a light aircraft. Looks perfect for summer evening bimbles . Before jumping into the first aircraft you look at though, I'd strongly consider what sort of mission profile you want in an aircraft as it'd be a shame to invest a huge amount of time on something that doesn't do everything you'd want it to. Some things to consider include, do you want to do aeros, touring, short / rough field work, photography, prefer high / low wing, speed , are you able to hangar it or might it have to live outside?
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Dec 30, 2012 21:47
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Pham Nuwen posted:
Sounds like you've got a pretty good idea what to do already. Going for the taildragger training is a brilliant idea as I think it's a whole lot more fun and it certainly opens you up to far more interesting aircraft. I also agree that low and slow is a terrific way to relax and enjoy the scenery. I'm fortunate that I can pootle about at 70 or 80 mph sipping fuel or pop up to 120 if I want to go places. Depending what your local fields are like, or perhaps if you have your own fields that may be suitable I'd look at the lengths for take off performance of anything you're interested in. I like going into really short stips / fields but you need to know your aircraft well or have bags of performance to spare. I'd certainly get my licence as soon as you can reasonably afford to do though, as insurance is likely to be pretty high for a fresh homebuild on a low hours PPL but it may not be, something to consider anyway.
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Dec 31, 2012 15:44
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Cockmaster posted:
Agreed, although diesels are promising I think that they have a long way to go yet. It seems that most modern diesels need a whole lot of maintenence to keep them going and they never reach tbo. I'd also be a bit worried about things like running out of battery power causing the engines to switch off. That being said when they do get the problems sorted they should be formidable machines. Especially from a fuel burn point of view on a small vans sized aircraft. For the time being though I think something like an RV8 with an o or io 360 180hp engine is really quite something.
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Dec 31, 2012 15:47
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That looks like a nice clean 172, I imagine that it's nice being warm when up in the winter! Do you fly it from grass or tarmac? I've not much of an update on the flying front, I've been refused a request to use some of the grass at the airfield to taxi and take off / land from on the bushwheels. However, I've been extremely busy with work so have only flown a handful of times in the last few months.
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Feb 19, 2013 22:28
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Some good questions there, you have plenty of options for travel / camping. If you want to land off field I'd suggest something with a decent set of balloon type tyres. I'm not sure what the US regulations are, but there seem to be a lot of places where you can land anywhere. When you're thinking about aircraft you really need to think about mission profile. Do you want to go really long distances? is short take offs and landings more important? and then there is cost. Sounds like a supercub type aircraft might fit your bill, or a light sport equivalent. Although there's also the cessna 170 in all metal format which would allow you to fly in more types of weather. It's a great hobby and I understand in the states there are plenty great airfields where you can camp. Jhonson creek has a great repuation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnaXor86Ep0
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Mar 18, 2013 10:42
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Perhaps I might chime in on this one. The thing I'd say most of all is try to work out what your mission profile is and what you want to get out of it. Microlights and ultralights are fantastic for bimbling around at low cost when the weather is excellent. They give you a lot of feeling for the air and are cheap to run. I think Helno posted a video of him flying later on in the evening and it just looked like a brilliant way to relax and unwind. I'm no expert on the actual building of kits, but the people I speak to who've done it say that the quality of the kit and how much comes asembled makes the biggest difference to construction time rather than the size of it. That being said there is an rv9 in our hangar which is now ready for test flying which has taken their group 8 years to build. The four stroke little engine of choice at the moment seems to be the 80 or 100hp rotax, it seems to be put on nearly all that category of planes at the moment. It also has the advantage of running on mogas and using very little. If you do want to go places though, a little bit extra size and weight helps a lot. I learned to fly on fixed wing microlights, which are fantastic little flying machines, but I have found that group A stuff deals with turbulence a whole lot better.
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Apr 11, 2013 18:34
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Glad to hear you've got it ready for the year again. Did you do much maintenance over winter or just reassemble?
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May 28, 2013 22:04
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Do you worry about timber frame hangars during the bad weather? When we had some heavy snow a few years ago there were one or two steel framed hangars that collapsed, it wasn't a pretty sight. I managed to get out for a flight yesterday that was the first for a nearly two months which was great. I'm also trying to put together an organised toolkit for the aircraft and maintenance on it. I'm going to help the a&p doing my annual in a few weeks and will attempt to get an idea of what I should be getting together.
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Jun 3, 2013 09:55
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I found this and thought it would fit in well here. http://vimeo.com/32121344 . an 80's short on microlights.
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Jun 8, 2013 11:52
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How was it? I'd love to go one of these days. I'd heard that Stu at Aviat took in a gas powered husky.
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Aug 8, 2013 11:10
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That looks like incredibly good fun. I'd like to do a bit of formation flying in the future, the only formation stuff i've done has been pretty informal with someone formating on me.
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Sep 23, 2013 22:22
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I'm not quite sure if this counts as homebuilt but I think it's the best place for it. A friend of mine has just purchased a chipmunk. It's in pieces at the moment but he's having it rebuilt to a high standard. It'll be going on the permit to fly system which is generally for homebuilts. I'm pretty excited as I'll certainly get to fly it and may go in with a part purchase on it. I've been looking at Pitts specials but I must admit I'm almost more excited about the chippie.
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Oct 31, 2013 21:17
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It'll have the gipsy major inline inverted 4 in it as original. Over here they're the only ones we had and also the only ones certified for aerobatics. Yes I understand they're very sweet little aircraft to fly and have a bit of a feel of a warbird. I'm very excited to fly it. The chap who has bought it tried to buy back his old t6 harvard a month or two ago but it'd been sold already. The weather has dropped off a bit here too, I've not had a chance to fly and fuel up the husky as my free time hasn't matched up with any decent flying days. Will you be flying the 172 much over the winter? good job on getting it tied down properly, I'm always wary when i fly away of getting it tied down properly. airfields in the uk often don't have very good tie down points, I prefer using my own anchors I've made on a grass patch.
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Nov 3, 2013 10:46
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Sir Cornelius posted:
I feel similar about when Spitfires were being sold off for £1'000 or whatever it was. MrYenko posted:Buying a retired military primary trainer is akin to buying a retired rental car, except it has also been literally bounced off the ground several thousand times. And it's probably been puked in even more. At least trainers were designed to take that sort of use, rental cars not so much. That being said I still wouldn't mind a Harvard at some point. helno posted:Not sure how much flying I will get in this winter. I have at least 5 hours of dual time to finish my night rating. It is tough to get a dairy farmer/flight instructors schedule to line up with mine. Best of luck, I have completed all my night qualification training and sent off my application but they wanted to take a ridiculous extra charge to convert my licence, so I'm waiting until it runs out to put in for it. Night flying in the UK isn't all that usefull as there's not many airports open at night and the ones that are have pretty hefty landing, handling and parking fees.
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Nov 3, 2013 16:49
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I don't know too much about the gearboxes on ultralights other than having anything made will be aviation prices. I was involved a little in a project to build a replica pre first war floatplane where the intention was to use a rotec radial and a box for that was pretty expensive. I've been following the rebuild of a turbulent on another flying shed where they seem to think it'll cost around £5k all in, but that uses a VW engine, and I understand that they also end up needing a fair amount of checks when used in an aeroplane.
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Feb 6, 2014 03:35
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