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KITPLANES Editor in Chief Marc Cook has been in aviation journalism for more than 30 years. He is a 4000-hour instrument-rated, multi-engine pilot with experience in nearly 150 types. He’s completed two kit aircraft, an Aero Designs Pulsar XP and a Glasair Sportsman 2+2, and currently flies a 2002 GlaStar.
Avoiding mission creep is the only way to stay within a modest budget. Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor at Large, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 40 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the Space Shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen, and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 that he built, an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra they completed.
Landing Gear
Figure out what you’re really going to do with an airplane, find one that does it, and get to work. The enthusiasm for the project was huge, but flaws manifested themselves from the BD-10’s very first flight. This didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of aviation publications, and big-name aviation legends such as Bob Hoover and Gene Cernan were hired by the company to pitch the aircraft.
To maintain the level of effort needed to succeed, you have to have a compelling reason to complete and fly that particular airplane. That motivation is as personal as the individual builder. For some, it’s the only way to get the machine they dream of flying. Others enjoy the act of construction itself or see the project as a personal work of art. So a friend built a motorglider and started flying it about 90 minutes per day. He’d climb for about 15 or 20 minutes, shut down that motor, and soar.
Sonex
If you follow Sonex’s worksheet, a completed Sonex-B or Waiex-B could be in your grasp for less than $40,000. At 350 pounds empty against an 800-pound maximum-gross weight, the Hawk Plus has good payload. Cruise speed is listed as between 60 and 80 mph, so whatever it is you’re carrying in the back won’t need to get there too quickly.
I want to replicate the tandem seat configuration of the PC-9. This was my first kit aircraft project, and I while I enjoy building stuff, I really wanted to be flying, so an aircraft with a good probability of completion in a reasonable time period was important. A stable company with good customer support and popular models also played into my deliberations. It’s interesting to note that most involve an investment of $35k-$50k dollars and countless hours to construct. Some factory-built airplanes can be had for less than that and you can be flying TODAY. Many of these projects are started and are handed off to many other builders along the way before they take to the skies.
Airdrome Aeroplanes Sopwith Camel
But I still didn’t have the brass ring—my own warbird. In 1994, I flew it from California to Oshkosh, where it earned an EAA award for innovative design and became the cover story for the October 1994 Sport Aviation. The seed of the idea was planted by the cover article on the Dyke Delta in the July 1972 issue of Air Progress. I was 16 at the time, and while I lacked the technical education to fully understand why the Dyke Delta worked, I was impressed by both its performance and radical look. To me, the difficulties inherent with the RV-3B made it a particularly attractive project. The skins didn’t have prepunched holes, for example, and some of the parts didn’t fit as well as they might have.
During my time at Cornell, I started building a KR-2 with my father, who suggested a plansbuilt project as a learning exercise before we started on the original-design delta. I now understand that my dad saw my still-developing engineering skills were not yet to the point where I could design a safe airplane. The KR-2 project was his way of supporting my long-term dream while postponing the delta project until I had the ability to do it right. But after spending the majority of my adult life building and flying experimental airplanes, my advice is that if you want to build an airplane, buy a kit. There’s a world of satisfaction and pleasure in building a kit aircraft, without the grinding grunt work.
MADE IN THE U.S.AKITFOX AIRCRAFT
At about 30 cubic feet, it’s not only enormous for a Light Sport Aircraft , it’s enormous for any two seat airplane. As one might expect, the space is, shall we say, density sensitive. Gross weight and center-of-gravity limits are obviously governing factors.
Working commercial pilots operating jet or turboprop aircraft can easily qualify for the LOA. That the RV-4 is still with us more than 40 years since its introduction says a lot about the design and the desire of builders to have this lightweight marvel. Originally an all-wood design, the KR-2S has a combination of wood and fiberglass—those parts are premolded—and those changes reportedly improve build time to just 800 hours. Trike or taildragger configurations are available.
Unloading a kit at your home or hangar is a simple and easy two-person task! Packaging and loading for domestic Quick Build Kits requires a $350 packing and materials fee. Then in 1985 I got hooked up again with a grade-school buddy, Tom Glaeser. We’d separated for several years while we were both starting careers and families. At his urging, I bought the pretty well beat-up 1946 C-120.
You can either fly the aircraft cross-country to an event, or utilize the SubSonex's easily removable outboard wing panels to transport the aircraft in a compact trailer. We’re talking airplanes whose cues come from the very earliest days of aviation. With the big Rotec radial, the full-sized Camel is good for 93 mph. Another option is a large VW-based engine, which does help keep the overall costs down. You can build any of the Airdrome designs for relatively little money and you’re almost certain to have the only one of its kind on your airport. For most of us, it is the single biggest draw on our resources other than taking care of necessities and our families.
Mike Van Wagenen, a Vietnam-era fighter pilot and Bede’s primary business partner and inspiration for the BD-10, took the reins of the entire project and pressed ahead. The biggest red flag for the project was when wrinkling appeared on the aircraft’s vertical tail after performing demo flights at the 1994 Reno Air Races. The tail was beefed up, and the next prototype, dubbed the PJ-1, was quickly built based on the redesign, and Van Wagenen’s new company, Peregrine Flight International, was born.
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