Skycather's not TOO ugly, just needs tailwheel

On Jan 8, 6:53 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
William Hung wrote in news:c53d5aba-e8fb-4897-b245-
:





On Jan 8, 6:48 pm, wrote:
On Jan 8, 3:40 pm, Ricky wrote:

After looking at Skycatcher quite a bit I decided it looks fine,
nice,
not great, just o.k.

My dad was responsible for the "Texas Taildragger" C-150, 152, 172
conversions and I think the Skycatcher would look GREAT with a
tailwheel.
Then again, almost anything looks better with a tailwheel. Those
C-172s had quite a bit of sex appeal with the conventional gear, so
did the 150s-172s.
Then putting the 150 or 180 horses on the nose of the 150s-172s
(another of my dad's conversions & STCs) made them an altogether
different aircraft, a beast akmost...

Skycatcher looks fine, just needs a tailwheel.

Ricky

I would expect that the composite construction woul
d make
it much harder to convert. No hard points and difficult to retrofit
them.
Not many folks building "real" airplanes any more.

Dan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I seem to remember a very nice composit highwing kitplane that had the
option of trike or conventional gear that could be converted in a
matter of hours.

Sounds like the Glastar.

Bertie

We did a Glastar in the taildragger configuration. It has a
steel-tube frame inside it, to which the wings, gear, engine mount all
attach. Converting it from a trike, say, involves taking the nosegear
strut out of its socket in that frame and turfing it, and moving the
mains forward into another set of sockets already there. The tailwheel
bolts through hard points in the aft tailcone.

Dan

wrote in news:5d010219-865f-4d06-a28e-
:

We did a Glastar in the taildragger configuration. It has a
steel-tube frame inside it, to which the wings, gear, engine mount all
attach. Converting it from a trike, say, involves taking the nosegear
strut out of its socket in that frame and turfing it, and moving the
mains forward into another set of sockets already there. The tailwheel
bolts through hard points in the aft tailcone.


Is the glass at all structural, or does the steel tubing extend to the
tail?

Bertie

Is the glass at all structural, or does the steel tubing extend to the
tail?

Bertie

I think all the way to the tail. Met a glastar rep on the ramp once.
He gave me their promo DVD for the Sportsman. II found the plane very
appealing because it was about a hour (2 max) of work to go from trike
to tail dragger with two people. The DVD shows the operation -- it is
really cleverly engineered.

It's a pretty fast bugger, too, for being able to land all over the
place. Tundra tires!

Does cost a lot though. Another dream not happening

wrote in news:4b4b1971-e454-4d56-957a-
:

Is the glass at all structural, or does the steel tubing extend to the
tail?

Bertie

I think all the way to the tail. Met a glastar rep on the ramp once.
He gave me their promo DVD for the Sportsman. II found the plane very
appealing because it was about a hour (2 max) of work to go from trike
to tail dragger with two people. The DVD shows the operation -- it is
really cleverly engineered.

It's a pretty fast bugger, too, for being able to land all over the
place. Tundra tires!


Yeah, I remember seeing pics of it on tundra tires. They were appearing
like mad in SA for a while. Saw one at an airshow a little while back. Til
prefer a ragbag though!


Does cost a lot though. Another dream not happening

Well, that's the other thing about an airplane like that..

Bertie

On Jan 9, 8:44 pm, wrote:
Is the glass at all structural, or does the steel tubing extend to the
tail?

Bertie

I think all the way to the tail. Met a glastar rep on the ramp once.
He gave me their promo DVD for the Sportsman. II found the plane very
appealing because it was about a hour (2 max) of work to go from trike
to tail dragger with two people. The DVD shows the operation -- it is
really cleverly engineered.

Pictures he
http://www.glasairaviation.com/kitcontentglastar.html

You can see the structure ending immediately aft of the forward
cabin. There are a couple of brackets attached to the composite shell,
just aft of the windows, where the struts from the cagewill go. The
struts aren't installed in the picture.

Dan

* * You can see the structure ending immediately aft of the forward
cabin. There are a couple of brackets attached to the composite shell,
just aft of the windows, where the struts from the cagewill go. The
struts aren't installed in the picture.

* * * * * Dan

So, what happens to these composites when they crash? There are a lot
of composites these days, and a bunch of LSA composites.

I imagine that stuff shattering on hard impact cutting the passengers
into tiny shreads. Or at least cutting them up really bad.

But maybe they do really well. Anyone got some facts on it?

wrote in news:9a6dc13d-0a34-4154-84ba-
:

* * You can see the structure ending immediately aft of the forward
cabin. There are a couple of brackets attached to the composite shell,
just aft of the windows, where the struts from the cagewill go. The
struts aren't installed in the picture.

* * * * * Dan

So, what happens to these composites when they crash? There are a lot
of composites these days, and a bunch of LSA composites.

I imagine that stuff shattering on hard impact cutting the passengers
into tiny shreads. Or at least cutting them up really bad.

But maybe they do really well. Anyone got some facts on it?





FRom what I've read, they're not so good in a crash. Wood is supposed to be
even worse, with aluminum considerably better and all bested by good old
fashioned steel tubing.


Bertie

On 2008-01-11, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
wrote in news:9a6dc13d-0a34-4154-84ba-
:
I imagine that stuff shattering on hard impact cutting the passengers
into tiny shreads. Or at least cutting them up really bad.
FRom what I've read, they're not so good in a crash. Wood is supposed to be
even worse, with aluminum considerably better and all bested by good old
fashioned steel tubing.

I dunno how they are in general, but my roommate's dad crashed his Quickie,
and said that it looked like one of those styrofoam beer coolers that had
been hit ont he freeway: lots and lots of tiny little pieces.

He wasn't hurt too badly, however; biggest problems were fractures to the
left kneecap and heel.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
http://www.hercules-390.org (Yes, that's me!)
Buy Hercules stuff at http://www.cafepress.com/hercules-390

On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:40:44 +0000 (UTC), Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

wrote in news:5d010219-865f-4d06-a28e-
:

We did a Glastar in the taildragger configuration. It has a
steel-tube frame inside it, to which the wings, gear, engine mount all
attach. Converting it from a trike, say, involves taking the nosegear
strut out of its socket in that frame and turfing it, and moving the
mains forward into another set of sockets already there. The tailwheel
bolts through hard points in the aft tailcone.


Is the glass at all structural, or does the steel tubing extend to the
tail?

The glass is structural. The tubing is a sort of "cage" around just the cabin
area...it includes the wing and strut attach points, the pickup points for the
engine mount, the seat mounting, and the main and nose gear attach points.

http://www.wanttaja.com/glastar.jpg

Ron Wanttaja

The glass is structural. *The tubing is a sort of "cage" around just the cabin
area...it includes the wing and strut attach points, the pickup points for the
engine mount, the seat mounting, and the main and nose gear attach points.

http://www.wanttaja.com/glastar.jpg

Ron Wanttaja

That's right, I forgot!

Doh!