Sounds safest bet. But how many of you have built any kind of personal flying machine without being an engineer?

Had some nice days to fly out by the Holland MI beach. The new sensenich carbon prop is working great!

The vertical stab is complete on our project - check out the build video on youtube

My Glasair has two of these exhaust hangars that stabilize the tip beneath the belly of the plane. These parts are no longer available for purchase but I’ve taken it as a personal challenge to fabricate my own replacement.

The metalworking itself I’m comfortable with and I’ve already tried out a mockup with basic hardware store welding steel, but the inevitable high temperatures and exposure to the elements have me wanting to make sure I’m choosing the right material carefully. The original is 0.03” thick with 1/8” ID bends.

Online research leads me to think 321 stainless would be a good candidate, but anyone else have an opinion?

The F1 Rocket is said to cruise around 200 kts at 12 gph depending on altitude and how the engine is leaned. The Legacy can cruise 20-30 kts faster on the same horsepower and fuel burn (some Legacy’s have an io-550 mounted, but I’ll probably settle for an io-540 rated at 260 hp). The Legacy is also side-by-side I strongly prefer. I don’t hate tandem-seating, but if I need to get something from the rear passenger seat (if I’m flying solo) or baggage compartment, I basically have to land whereas I won’t have that issue in a side-by-side. However the Legacy is also a retractable-gear and that can drive the maintenance costs up.

There was a thread on Lancair Talk about maintaining the landing gears, and the overall generalization was that while there’s always an added expense for RG’s, the maintenance costs were pretty negligible and worth the airspeed if you did the maintenance. But if you hire a mechanic or go to a shop, it’s far more cost-friendly to stick with a fixed-gear plane. I could probably start another thread on this topic alone.

Edit: I’m already aware of the insurance hurdles; I’m strictly asking about cost of maintenance vs. performance.

Hey guys, I have a very rough idea for an aircraft design that I would like to show you guys. It's a design for the European 120kg class which would be the equivalent to part 103 in the US. It would be based on the facet opal record aircraft but with some remedies to the design. It retains the straight cord wing and its dimensions but replaces the high speed s curve airfoil with a regular Clark-y. The fuselage is about 1m longer forward of the main wing and a canard is added which acts as the elevator and has a GU-25 airfoil (like is used on some Burt Rutan designs) that stalls before the main wing does. The wing dimensions and lift calculations can be seen in a picture below. The stall speed would in this case be 59kmh / 36.6mph which is below the requirements for this class. The canard should fix the fatal flaw of pitch stability that the facet opal struggled with. A wood truss fuselage with wooden wing spars and foam wing ribs should be easy to achieve for the home builder. The rudders would be placed on the wingtips and face downwards so that they could incorporate the main gear with minimal drag a lot like on the Rutan Quickie. Attached is a rendering of what such a design with a canard could look like and of the CG and lift calculations for canard aircraft . Let me know your thoughts.

I've thought about building a corvair based airplane engine. I've talked to WW (10 yrs ago) about my ideas. He has strongly held opinions.

I've not been in a position to do anything about my Ideas so I thought I'd share some and see if they help any.

Dynamic compression ratio. Keep it low and you don't need high Octane fuel. NASACAR restrictor plate tech shows high static compression helps make power, throttled expansion followed by re-compression allows a much higher static compression ratio to be used than would normally work. So why not use intentionally bad valve timing and a high static compression ratio? You could use a turbo to push enough air/fuel mix in to make normal power. It would be a form of turbo compounding. Using the turbo to pre-compress the air, with inter-cooling.

Blow through carburetor, take the heat out first, add air second, carb heat is an issue. A pressurized heat exchanger after the inter-cooler, before the carb that can be selected.

WW had an engine quit on him, carb ice, why not dual carbs? Both don't ice up at the same time. Gives you time to keep the other carb from icing up too.

Gravity feed a blow through carb, two haeder tanks and switch them.

Hey everyone, very new to this community but I've been enjoying it so far and I had a question and hopefully, I can get some good answers.

Well im an A&P and I work in a GA shop. I don't have any real desire to build my own experimental at the moment but I want to get involved locally and be helpful.

I want to get involved in build and help anyone with thier questions that maybe my experience can help with, love working on powerplants love to get in on rebuilds. Is this something the community honestly interested in or does do it yourself mean do it yourself.

The news I read it for us to enjoy. Come see what's happening with Mini-Max USA.

I want a rv8 but I think a sonerai would be a better value so I am looking for owners of a 2ls to get their opinion on it

We have a rudder! Van's RV-15 Build Ep. 22: Building the Rudder | Empennage Kit Begins
https://youtu.be/edOL_6taPEY

Hey everyone,

GA A&P I/A here

Looking to do a pre-purchase on a Lancair. Haven't done much work on them. I have been combing through the Lancair documents trying to find a "continued airworthiness inspection list" style checklist. I know it's experimental so they don't require one. I'm just hoping someone here might know about a helpful check list floating around online.

I have the generic single engine 100/annual checklist from TBX, but I wanted something with a little more focus.

I am planning on doing SB/AD checks, along with combing through the builder forms and reaching out to builder clubs.

If anyone has some helpful suggestions that would be awesome.

Cheers

Ive got a great opportunity to buy a RV 10 kit that the owner lost interest in.

Overall discount / deal aside I'm pretty scared. I'm going to have into this plane about what my initial mortgage value of my house.

I'm competent with electrical and electronics. I'm absolute shit at high precision finish work, but I have a friend who will participate in the build who does well in that space.

I'm super excited, but super freaking out. I'd say talk me out of it, but I know it won't work.

Tell me what I need to know, or where I should start. I'm going to an eaa RV building class. The kit includes

Emp (mostly done)

Wings qb still in crate never opened (control plus tanks, not complete wing)

Fuse QB

Finish kit not ordered

What y'all seeing for paint, interior, lights, avionics etc pricing budgets?

🚀 Looking for 4 Teammates — Aeromodelling Workshop

Hey everyone! I’m participating in an Aeromodelling Workshop and we’re forming a team of 6.

We already have 2 members, so 4 seats are still vacant.

You don’t need prior aeromodelling experience — just be interested in aviation, RC planes, aeromodelling, or engineering and willing to participate and work as a team.

⚠️ Only 4 spots left, and the number of teams is limited, so if you’re interested, DM me ASAP before the spots fill up!

✈️ Let’s build something that actually flies!

Hi everyone,
I recently came across an MD-550 engine that had been sitting in a garage, and I’m considering rebuilding it and using it as the powerplant for a small homebuilt ultralight aircraft.
From what I’ve been able to find, the MD-550 is essentially a copy/derivative of the Limbach L550E — a 548 cc, four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, air-cooled two-stroke producing around 50 hp (37 kW) at 7,500 rpm.
The engine itself is very compact and lightweight, which makes it interesting for an ultralight project.
The main issue I see is propeller speed. At 7,500 rpm, running a reasonably large propeller directly from the crankshaft doesn’t seem practical, so I assume I would need some kind of PSRU/reduction gearbox.
I’m currently trying to figure out:
Has anyone here built or flown an ultralight using a Limbach L550E or a similar engine?
Were there aircraft that used the L550E with a reduction drive and a larger propeller?
What reduction ratio / propeller RPM would make sense for a ~50 hp engine like this?
Are there existing PSRUs or gearbox designs for the L550E that could realistically be adapted to the MD-550?
Is a belt reduction worth considering, or would you strongly prefer a geared PSRU for this engine?
Are there any particular reliability, cooling, vibration, crankshaft, or torsional-vibration issues I should be aware of before going down this route?
I’m not looking to simply bolt a propeller onto it and fly. The plan would be to rebuild the engine, run it extensively on a test stand, characterize it, and develop/test the complete engine + reduction drive + propeller system before putting it anywhere near an aircraft.
I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has hands-on experience with the L550E, older two-stroke aircraft engines, PSRU design, or similar homebuilt ultralight projects.
Thanks!

The latest update from our Van's RV-15 wing build for those interested https://youtu.be/nzzjl5_Zd0A

1981 original build Weedhopper Model B with a Cuyuna 2si 460 F35.

Converting it to a Model C. Conversion parts should arrive in a few weeks.

About a year and a half ago, I asked a question here about Murphy aircraft. The responses to that question were a little good, and a little bad, but not bad enough to stop me from putting down a deposit on a Radical. I’ve spent the time between now and that fateful day a year and half ago waiting through misleading promises, multiple disappointments, and learning how credit card chargebacks work. Now that my money and I have been reunited, I am back in the market for a kit plane and am having a really hard time settling on a specific brand or model. I want something easy to build, that is moderate STOL capable, has a decent cruise speed, has a decent useful load and could be put on floats someday. I think I’ve settled on the following models, but am open to opinions

- zenith super duty or new super cruzer
- rans s-21
- bearhawk 4 or companion

The struggle is this; the zeniths are tricycle gear planes and are kind of um… ugly, the rans doesn’t appear float friendly, and the bearhawks are too expensive and on the longer end of build times. I’m sure someone will mention the RV-15, which may be a great option but I don’t like that they don’t have a fuselage kit out yet

Thanks for reading through my ramble, I know this question gets asked constantly, but I want to feel special and get my own unique responses. Any help is appreciated.

I live in Indianapolis and would like to buy a home built that is in progress. If you started a kit and have lost the ability to finish, please leave a comment. I'm familiar with Quickbuild Kits and would be most interested in them.

Anyone interested in an 18A? They have been sitting as pictured for 20+ years. Never even run up. 2 complete the rest in various stages of completion. Warehouse full of parts available as well. Standard Type certification.