[quote="58Skylane"]Ok Bumper, how about a helicopter? I was bummed the picture came out blurry, but you all get the idea.


Nice! Guess the camera focused on that dead bug. You can almost make out the poor little guys splattered body parts.

Nice! Guess the camera focused on that dead bug. You can almost make out the poor little guys splattered body parts.

That looks like Ernie, my record setting pet bug. He was attempting to set a new cross country speed record and never came back home. I was wondering what happened to him.

By the way, I trailer my airplane to the airport for every flight. It is nice to keep it at home so I can tinker on it when I want. However I have found that trailering is not what it is cracked up to be. It requires a hell of a lot of monkey motion. I am always looking for ideas to make it simpler. my personal best is 20 minutes from on the trailer at the airport to on the ground all put together ready to preflight. I would fly a lot more if the airplane was setting in a hay field ready to go instead.

At least you don't have to remove struts and the jury struts and then rotate 90 degrees to lay the wings against the fuselage. The Kitfox is a one man flold? Still I agree that you will miss out on more flying by having to haul the plane out and put it away again each time but if that's your only option, I'm sure you are glad its there.

dirtstrip wrote:At least you don't have to remove struts and the jury struts and then rotate 90 degrees to lay the wings against the fuselage. The Kitfox is a one man flold? Still I agree that you will miss out on more flying by having to haul the plane out and put it away again each time but if that's your only option, I'm sure you are glad its there.

Yes, a one man...or woman...fold. http://www.kitfoxaircraft.com/Web%20Vid ... gfold.html

Folding wings was a must have when I bought my Kit. IT is what makes flying affordable for me. The option does come in handy even if one can keep their airplane at the airport with the wings spread.

58Skylane wrote:Ok Bumper, how about a helicopter? I was bummed the picture came out blurry, but you all get the idea.

Geeze Pat, that thing would have fit in the back of your rig..shoulda' stopped the guy and made a trade.

hicountry wrote:Geeze Pat, that thing would have fit in the back of your rig..shoulda' stopped the guy and made a trade.

Yeah, I think there's a few of these guys that follow the NASCAR series. The cab of the rig had NASCAR stickers on it. This was a trip I was on from SoCal to I think Atlanta this year. The NASCAR rigs were running from Phoenix to I think Dallas.

I could probably for sure fit a plane like TCJ's in my rig

OK, sorry Z man for the slight thread drift

Jaerl wrote:I was thinking how nice it would be to pull your plane behind your Motorhome.

A Highlander doing just that.

k



and just in case I blew the embed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5DjFprD6jQ

I just saw a video of a Kitfox 4 with a Rotec radial and I want one, that thing looked awesome!

This one was at Oshcosh last year, super cool, in my opinion but I think a 912 is more practical.

The guy with the highlander could pull it around on the grass by hand with wings folded a lot easier if he one of these. My tail wheel scoop with high flotation tires so I can move move the plane on soft ground when wings are folded.

tcj wrote:The guy with the highlander could pull it around on the grass by hand with wings folded a lot easier if he one of these. My tail wheel scoop with high flotation tires so I can move move the plane on soft ground when wings are folded.

A great use of the shovel, and less work then using it in the regular fashion!

The other thing I noticed in the trailer sequence, they sort of cut away when he went to put the pin in the LE, like he didn't want to show how that can be a minor pain. I found that step to be much easier (and safer) when the tail is up. On my open Kitfox trailer I built, I had a point where I'd stop rolling it off, the mains on the ground and the tailwheel still on the trailer, and I'd swing the wings out then. Not fighting gravity that way, with the fusleage near level. As I recall you had to of course stand near the fuselage to reach the pin, reducing your leverage over the wing, and you really don't want to let it get away from you. If I had someone standing around, wanting to help, that would be the place/step where I'd use them. Still about as easy as a wing swing system ever designed.

highlanderninerKC wrote:

Jaerl wrote:I was thinking how nice it would be to pull your plane behind your Motorhome.

A Highlander doing just that.

k

and just in case I blew the embed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5DjFprD6jQ

Nice plane and great video highlanderninerKC!

Back to your original post. The last line was " I need two airplanes". What's wrong with that? You can find PA 22/20s all day long in the 20 to 30k range that will suit your human meat hauling needs and still offer resonable backcountry potential. Build a 2 seat STOL kit for your everyday flying. If in a couple of years you find that you need the meat wagon more, then build a 4 seat kit.

ccurrie wrote:This one was at Oshcosh last year, super cool, in my opinion but I think a 912 is more practical.

More practical, maybe, but the sound and the look just can't be beat.

tcj wrote:The guy with the highlander could pull it around on the grass by hand with wings folded a lot easier if he one of these. My tail wheel scoop with high flotation tires so I can move move the plane on soft ground when wings are folded.

That's pretty damn clever! Good on you!

Hey Z, if you get a Sportsman, you can stick it on your yacht too!

That guy has it figured out. Im hoping for the white trash version, a house boat with a 206 tied up to it.

Hi Zane
I think the bearhawk would fit your description of operation to a T. We built a scratch built bearhawk and put a Landrover 4.6 litre landrover (272hp)in it. The performance is vertually identical to the 260hp io-540 and the weight is the same. The big difference is the landrover can be pulled back to siteseeing cruise of 100mph and burn 5gallons per hour, or jump up to 160 and burn 12.5 to 13gph.
The plane now has close to 1000 trouble free hrs. Another good motor package would be and Aerosport 0-375 with a Simple Digital Systems electronic fuel injection and ignition system,it would probably make 230+ hp and be very lite.
Wth the big cargo doors and 1200 to 1400lbs usefull load you can literaly load a small atv on board and go. With the kits and stuff available you can do all sorts of things from full scratch built to quick build kit. You mentioned you don't care for the riveting so a set of quick build wings and scratch build the fusealge might work for you.
If you are at Arlington or just passing through the Vancouver BC area and want to come play just let me know i am sure we can get you a ride in a bearhawk or two.
While the bearhawk is not marketed as a STOL airplane, the standard take off proceedure for the roverhawk at 2100lbs is: 2notches of flap, set trim, center the stck, just a little right rudder, apply throttle in a steady quick motion, when the throttle hits the dash the plane is flyin, remove flaps and climb at 80mph and 2200ft/min to desired altitude

The Bearhawk people are looking at a LSA version of the tandem PATROL, that has piqued my interest.

courierguy wrote:The Bearhawk people are looking at a LSA version of the tandem PATROL, that has piqued my interest.

There's no looking, it exists and there a few flying. Kits are available, http://www.bearhawkaircraft.com/Kits/PKitsMain.html