Best personal plane?

Hornblower · Post by **Hornblower** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:32 pm

Jaques;

Did you sell yours becuase of the AD? Just curious. I would think it would be pretty hard to find someone to sign out the wood spars every year.

stuckmike · Post by **stuckmike** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:32 am

Thanks to all who posted their help and insight. It is apparent that my price range limits my aircraft shopping list. As was posted earlier, I coould find a small tandem on floats, and rent a 4 seater when needed. This make the most sense.

As for the type of aircraft, I've flown only one tandem float plane, Super Cub. I know this model is out of my range, there is quite a lot of other little birds that would be suited. I'll search around and give a few updates on what I've found.

As it turns out I do have an AME friend who would be looking to partner up and maybe buy a rebuildable, split cost.

Anyone have any experience with that?

Cheers,

Hedley · Post by **Hedley** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:12 pm

Think twice before you buy a "rebuildable" project. Do you want to build, or do you want to fly? Any project, be it a certified rebuild or a homebuilt, is likely going to take many years and many tens of thousands of dollars, before it is anywhere near flyable.

There is no one perfect do-it-all airplane. The military has the same problem. They want one (fighter) airframe that will do everything, and it ends up being very expensive, heavy and doesn't do any one thing particularly well. Same old.

P.S. There's nothing wrong with a properly designed and cared-for wood spar. These all have wood spars:

http://www.pittspecials.com/images/hangar.jpg

and I would wager that they will happily pull more G than you want to

P.S. Yes, I fixed the RC51.

stuckmike · Post by **stuckmike** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 9:46 am

RC51---sweet ride Hedley.

I had a 92' FZR 600 for a while ten years ago. Not in the same league for sure.

Cheers

Jaques Strappe · Post by **Jaques Strappe** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:58 pm

hornblower wrote:Jaques;

Did you sell yours becuase of the AD? Just curious. I would think it would be pretty hard to find someone to sign out the wood spars every year.

No the wood spar didn't really bother me. Many a sailor has sailed around the world with sitka spruce spars but the AD required 21 inspection plates being installed along the top and bottom of the wing. This probably does more to damage the spar than anything else. The prospect at each annual, that you may have to scrap the wings is a bit of a nail biter and one AME's opinion may not be anothers.

Metal wing spars on the Citabria just take away all the pain and give you an added 100 pounds in gross weight.