wrote:
To All:

A few years ago I posted an article offering some hints about how to
build an inexpensive airplane that was safe and reliable (Flying on the
Cheap, October 2001; Google will find it for you). The key point in
the article was the use of commonly available mild steel tubing for the
fuselage. Of course, that meant you had to weld and nowadays most
folks don't, nor do they want to learn. Wood's the thing,
according to non-welding folks, citing its use in KR's and Piets and
dozens of other airframes, each held as the Perfect Design by that
particular person.

The advocates of wooden airframe construction have a valid point, at
least here in the States. Because of the rise of the box stores (Home
Depot, Lowes, etc), wood is more commonly available than steel tubing
and despite what many think, there's plenty of aviation-quality wood
lurking inside the knot-hole collection at your local box store. The
task of the lo-buck builder is to cut away the non-aviation parts, glue
the good stuff together and go flying. Thanks to modern adhesives, the
likelihood of a novice builder producing an unsafe glue-joint is small.


To support the builders of Box Store Bombers I shared my woodworking
experience in several articles posted to this newsgroup (How to Make
Ribs Out of Old Orange Crates [Nov 2002], Wooden Notes [Jan 2006] and
several others). Surprisingly, homebuilding at that level is not an
especially welcome topic on the rec.aviation.homebuilt newsgroup. This
lead to relaying such information in private posts to guys who were
interested in actually building something. Like Fred. Which isn't
his name, but work with me here.

After considerable thought Fred settled upon a single-place, VW-powered
KR-ish design as being the best match for his particular situation. In
working toward that goal he didn't find much support, especially from
the only organization that claims to speak for grass-roots aviation in
America. Thanks to an income of only $25k or thereabouts, to the EAA,
Fred and the millions of people like him simply do not exist. But Fred
is determined to build and fly his very own airplane, even if he has to
use the local box store for most of his materials. Indeed, he
doesn't have much choice. The total cost for his box store lumber
will be under $100 whereas a kit of aviation-grade spruce would cost
about a thousand dollars by the time the freight was paid. The lumber
will have to be resawn and spliced but that's the reality of Flying
on the Cheap.


Aircraft wood doesn't necessarily have to come from Wicks or Aircraft
Spruce: it has to meet the requirements as set forth in AC 43-13 et
seq. You can find aircraft wood or get it sawn if you know what to look
for. But using wood that clearly is out of those spec is going to cause
trouble.

The biggest problem with flying costs are not traditional simple
airframes: they are the overpriced ridiculous powerplants and high
storage costs.

Direct drive VW made sense in 1965. Not today. Use a liquid cooled car
engine and a redrive, perhaps a Honda since they are attractively
priced as JDM pulls.