Just wondering if any of you have seen in person this airplane? Not sexy..but is cheap and seems to be alright. Wonder if would appeal to students for flight training?
http://www.generalaviationnews.com/?p=34708#more-34708

I have seen three in person, located at the flying club at Angeles city, Luzon, all with a small size Jabiru.. Side by side seating is nice, vis is nice....Landing gear and narrow wheels seem a little light duty to me. Check out contruction pix and final product of Xair built at Angeles at http://docs.google.com/View?id=df2gbm5m_138d2wwchgb

other stories and pix at http://www.yankinandbankin.com The pilots at this club are...quite active,

I saw one this summer at Mitchell, SD when I stopped for fuel. The owner of the X air importing company out of Bend Oregon decided he would fly it back to Oregon from Oshkosh just for fun. Observers I spoke with at the airport said he came in way too hot in a slight crosswind. He didn't flare in time and drove the nose wheel into the runway. Except for his pride he wasn't hurt. It was waiting for parts when I saw it. It had the Jab engine. Good looking plane. Also X air America is the Canadian dealer in Quebec. I know the owner, Guy de France as he is also the dealer up there for the Simonini Victor engines and where I bought mine back in late 2001. He was giving instruction in the X air powered by the Simonini at that time. He had over 500 hrs on one trainer with that combination and liked it. The Jab of course is a great addition with being a four stroke and most of these little planes getting weight increases since the sport pilot thing.

http://www.bydanjohnson.com/Featured.cfm?ID=378

I fly an X-air Hanuman. It is the homebuilt version that I bought 2.5 years ago when it had 30 hrs on it. It now has 625 hrs.

It is a very nice airplane and is affordable. It does everything that I need. It has a higher useful load than most similar aircraft. I've flown it into Mineral Canyon, Mexican Mountain, Hidden Splendor and Marble. It does not have climbing ability of the bigger engines. I get 700 fpm with me alone in the winter at 4700 ft field elevation. With two people in the summer I get 100-300 fpm. You wouldn't use it on an airstrip overgrown with sagebrush but dirt strips are fine. It holds 21 gals of fuel and burns 3.2 gph.

I'd rather have a Carbon Cub but I can't afford that so I'm happy. My recommendation would be to fly whatever you can afford and be happy with it. I think my airplane gets more use than any other plane at our airport. A lot of expensive airplanes just sit month after month. I don't know if it's because of money though.

You can watch some of my X-air flying videos on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/jrhodes973

John

I can attest to the fact the John is one of the most active pilots at our airport. And our airport has a large collection of BCP misfits. OK so it does not have tires the size of VW beetles but John has plenty of videos of landings at some of the more gnarley "strips" in this area.
He his getting plenty of smiles per gallon in his X-Air.