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#11
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
On Jul 7, 5:35�pm, es330td wrote:
On Jul 7, 2:04�pm, John Smith wrote: I'm not scratching any reasonable plane off my list just yet; in fact, this doesn't become viable until I get my IFR ticket which is at least a year off. �It doesn't hurt to start educating myself because I can always start building even before I am ready for cross country commuting.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - When you start your IFR training and flying you will really learn about the old saying "the only time you can have too much fuel on board is when you are on fire". Plan on at least a 20 knot headwind on some of those westbound trips, and add in the range and time to your alternate, plus a 45 minute (minimum). Suddenly your airplane is much less capable and your normal 700 nm range requires a fuel stop somewhere between A and B, or GA and TX . Fuel starvation is still a leading cause of accidents. Buying big enough tanks for your mission helps your odds. Denny |
#12
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
On Jul 7, 4:35 pm, es330td wrote:
On Jul 7, 2:04 pm, John Smith wrote: es330td wrote: My mission requirements are a 700 nm range with reserve and a flight time under 4 hours facing occasional IMC weather as I will be flying between GA and east Texas. I'd also prefer something with as low a fuel burn as possible for cost savings. Michael Henry wrote: Vans RV-7 -http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv-7int.htm Vans RV-8 also meets the speed and range requirements but as a tandem may not have enough panel space for IFR. I would recommend a Van's RV for several reasons: - excellent builder support along your route (RV builders area everywhere) - excellent aircraft for high-speed cruise, low fuel consumption, low-airspeed takeoffs and landings at short fields, providing more options IIRC, there are more RV's out there than any other homebuilt. Before I posted I checked out the -7 but was a little concerned about the range. According to AIRNAV, the distance between my airports of interest is 684 nm direct and my path takes me through/around the general aviator's Hell that is Hartsfield-Jackson. They aren't always accomodating to GA IFR pilots and will route you all over the place. Depending on whether I am coming or going, if I am VFR I can just cancel and fly under the class B or file a pop-up IFR but if I have to take off or land in IMC I have to let them send me where they will. With a 775 sm range at 75% power on the -7 I start running into problems of getting low on fuel and pushing into my reserve if the flight encounters any kind of rerouting. I can, of course, slow down but now I start getting over 4 hours and given that a lot of my flying would be early evening I'd rather not push myself. I'm not scratching any reasonable plane off my list just yet; in fact, this doesn't become viable until I get my IFR ticket which is at least a year off. It doesn't hurt to start educating myself because I can always start building even before I am ready for cross country commuting. What about adding additional tanks for the commute? After all it is experimental Lou |
#13
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
On Jul 7, 6:32*pm, Bob Fry wrote:
Just curious, any build will take a year or two at least, will you have time for this living away from home? -- Living by myself, I think I should. I am assuming that the time I spend now on the "honey-do" list at home (lawn, dishes, errands) will be mine since I simply won't be there. I usually spend an hour or so each night playing with my kids so I get that time back too. I am most likely going to go with something that is kit built, rather than plans built, to reduce my build time. I am not going to be one of the homebuilders that in reality pays somebody to build a plane but I am going to base my choice in part on getting one that I can buy major pieces already constructed so this rules out the Cozy. I know someone at both airports who is an A&P mechanic so I'll have expertise available for hire as needed. Even if it takes me 3 years, I still get an airplane at the end of it. |
#14
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:32:08 +0800, Stealth Pilot
wrote: have you ever realised that the fuel caps come off pretty easily. you could refuel enroute :-) http://www.bowersflybaby.com/stories/longrange.jpg Ron Wanttaja |
#15
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
"es330td" wrote in message
... On Jul 7, 6:32 pm, Bob Fry wrote: Just curious, any build will take a year or two at least, will you have time for this living away from home? -- Living by myself, I think I should. I am assuming that the time I spend now on the "honey-do" list at home (lawn, dishes, errands) will be mine since I simply won't be there. I usually spend an hour or so each night playing with my kids so I get that time back too. I am most likely going to go with something that is kit built, rather than plans built, to reduce my build time. I am not going to be one of the homebuilders that in reality pays somebody to build a plane but I am going to base my choice in part on getting one that I can buy major pieces already constructed so this rules out the Cozy. I know someone at both airports who is an A&P mechanic so I'll have expertise available for hire as needed. Even if it takes me 3 years, I still get an airplane at the end of it. ___________new messages begins___________ It appears that you might be moving both to and from locations with multiple EAA chapters, and they are a very good source of second hand experience. Visit each chapter a couple of times; because every member does not attend every meeting. You can then gain a lot of additional information by visiting some of the builders and/or participating in the chapter's "hangar invasions". As to some of wheat you might look for: 1 Kits are not all equal--some kits take more time than some plans and some need different kinds of workspace. 2 Builders are not all equal--both skills and priorities vary. Some builders have good three dimensional thinking and manufacturing skills--and they can build a good solid aircraft in a few hundred hours. Others will spend a tremendous amount of time staring at the project and reinventing one wheel after another--so that the project takes thousands of hours if it is ever finished. All the best for your project--even if you only buy a slower airplane are convert part of what would have been your building time to be used as commuting time instead. Peter |
#16
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
es330td wrote:
On Jul 7, 6:32 pm, Bob Fry wrote: Just curious, any build will take a year or two at least, will you have time for this living away from home? -- Living by myself, I think I should. I am assuming that the time I spend now on the "honey-do" list at home (lawn, dishes, errands) will be mine since I simply won't be there. I usually spend an hour or so each night playing with my kids so I get that time back too. I am most likely going to go with something that is kit built, rather than plans built, to reduce my build time. I am not going to be one of the homebuilders that in reality pays somebody to build a plane but I am going to base my choice in part on getting one that I can buy major pieces already constructed so this rules out the Cozy. I know someone at both airports who is an A&P mechanic so I'll have expertise available for hire as needed. Even if it takes me 3 years, I still get an airplane at the end of it. That last sentence you wrote is as close as I've seen you say the one thing you need to say before you start a build project but it isn't quite there yet. Building itself needs to be one of your goals otherwise you probably won't ever finish and then at the end of 3 years you will have a pile of very expensive aluminum. The old saying "If you want to build, build. If you want to fly, buy." is as true as it ever was even if the quick build kits make the building easier. |
#17
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
On Jul 7, 1:48�am, es330td wrote:
I Are there any good alternatives outside the canard family? This discussion seems to have come down to whether you should build with aluminum or composites, leaving out wood and tube & fabric. The way I see it, if you build your own composite airplane, you are the manufacturer and should be pretty good at repairing hanger rash by the time you are ready to fly. I know of at least one compostite airplane that flipped over and was damaged, as one would expect. The spar and wings were intact. The insurance adjuster said repair it. Had it been an aluminum airplane he would have scrapped it. What does all this prove? Not much. If one method was clearly superior, the other would disappear. Sunlight may not bother aluminum, but corrosion sure does. Until we start mining nonobtainium, you're stuck with compromises. Take your pick. More important in picking your plane is your mission requirement. When you start your IFR training you will find the true meaning of the old saying "The only time you can have too much fuel on board is when you are on fire". You need to plan on at least a 20 knot headwind for some of those trips to TX, sometimes both ways, (like the day you actually get to go). If the destination is imc, you need altenate fuel plus 45 minute reserve (minimum). If you have a barely 700 nm, no wind, VFR range, you will need to make an enroute fuel stop on some trips. A five hour duration becomes more like three if you have to plan the whole trip IFR. Better to land with two hours fuel in your tanks than zero while diverting. Fuel exhaustion is still a leading cause of accidents. Your four hour trip just became closer to six. Good luck in your research. Denny |
#18
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
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#19
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
Morgans wrote:
"Ron Wanttaja" wrote http://www.bowersflybaby.com/stories/longrange.jpg Oh, I see you must have the model with the refueling probe in the spinner, huh? g No, it uses an interupter gear that only squirts between the prop blades. |
#20
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Best homebuilt for ~700 nm commute
"Ron Wanttaja" wrote http://www.bowersflybaby.com/stories/longrange.jpg Oh, I see you must have the model with the refueling probe in the spinner, huh? g -- Jim in NC |
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