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Choosing Your Homebuilt Aircraft |
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As a potential aircraft builder, there is a bewildering number of aircraft to choose from. There are lots of options, fast, stable, cheap, replicas, vintage, IFR, big, aerobatic, single-seat, two, four, and on and on. There are no single aircraft characteristics that are right for every pilot, and there are no single aircraft that right for every builder.
When airplanes are designed, there are a host of compromises that take place. A larger engine means greater fuel consumption. Short-field take off and landing (STOL) means slower cruise speed. High speed-higher stall speed. No one airplane will do it all well. “All airplanes represent compromises” as the saying goes. The design of the aircraft also will influence the build time, tools, cost, usefulness, resale value and space required to build it.
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What do you want it to do? |
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Speed, range, room and load are probably some of the first requirements we might want to consider. Since it could take a couple years or maybe many more to build, think about how your requirements might change. If your chosen model will haul your family now, will It still haul them if it takes you 8 years to built and your kids weigh another 100 pounds each. You might be considering a single seat speedster but after flying it awhile really wish you could take a passenger to share the thrill.
Often the best choices are the planes that do a little of everything, but not for everyone. The flip side of this is, if you must compromise from your dream machine to much, you will never have the motivation to complete the project. But the point here is prioritize your needs and be realistic if at all possible. Above all make sure it fulfills it intended mission. |
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Plans or Kit? |
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Plans builders or scratch builders of aircraft are just a fraction of the sport aviation builders. Like what was mentioned previously about flyer-builders and builder-flyers, plans building is for a different person than the majority. Plans fabricating might be a better description.
Every part built starts as some tubing or sheet of wood, aluminum or steel. A whole airplane can arrive in a dinner plate diameter mailing tube 8-12 feet long. You draw the part out on some material, then cut, shave, file, sand, nail, screw and when finished you have one part. Plans building is creating an airplane out of nothing.
I like looking for the (time spent building)
In what are readers have built sections of EAA magazines and Kitplane. It’s not uncommon to find 4, 6, or 8 years building time or even more. Large parts of lives go by while building airplanes, families grow up while building. Many projects never take to the skies, or only after being bought by a second builder. If you are leaning plans-built, look around, do you have projects you have started that are unfinished because your motivation left town? Or do you dive in and complete a project only lusting for something bigger?
Kit planes arrive in big crates full of airplane parts. You open them up and start inventorying your kit. You might have a fuselage frame that the kids or kid (you) can sit in and make air- plane noises, or maybe hang wing frames on the wall. Quick build kits when available offer assemblies close to completion. Much of the difficult work like jigging frames, assembling frames, and drilling is completed to different degrees depending on kit. Kit-planes have a higher completion rate over plans-built. When you build a kit or plans-built you’re going to have some discouragement along the way. Probably less with kits. It comes down to a time/ money tradeoff. To learn more about the world of homebuilt aircraft |