Buying a Used Homebuilt Cost-Of-Flying Special
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COST-OF-FLYING SPECIAL BUYING A USED HOMEBUILT You can build an airplane for $40,000! What to ask before you put down the cash! KITPLANES J 2005 Sil T i t C t f Fl i S i l S ti Th P f t P i t J b P t 2 B ild Y O I t t P l BELVOIR PUBLICATIONS $4 99 CANADA $5 99 ® JUNE 2005 Twister!www.kitplanes.com $4.99 CANADA $5.99 Oh, You Make Flying Fun $4.99US $5.99CAN Specialized 06 BUILD YOUR OWN PANEL Training: Part 1 of a New Series To Save You $$$ FAST TIMES at PERFECT PAINT #2 LANCAIR HIGH 0 09281 03883 2 We Continue Our Series On DIY Finishes ©2004 Garmin Ltd or its subsidiaries Skyways, highways, waterways, anyways. Garmin brings new versatility to its family of aviation portables. When it’s all about traveling fast and light, these are the go-to guides you’ll want. Check out our new do-it-all “Palm Pilot® for real pilots” – the iQue 3600a PDA/GPS. It features a vivid color moving map, plus a snap-in yoke mount with aviation function keys. Much like our fast-selling GPSMAP® 296 portable, it gives you TAWS-like terrain alerting. And there’s a towers-and-obstacles database with map overlays – which you’ll also find on our grayscale or color GPSMAP 96/96C handhelds. All units, including the grayscale GPSMAP 196, offer graphic HSI steering with GPS-derived VNAV.And optional MapSource® downloads let you go from plane to boat to automobile without missing a beat. On land, sea or air – Garmin’s newest GPS portables are equipped to take you there. For more information, go to www.garmin.com A new terrain/obstacle display on the On land or water, optional MapSource CDs GPSMAP 296 provides pop-up warnings of provide the turn-by-turn street map guidance obstructions or proximity conflicts ahead. or detailed marine cartography you need. NASDAQ GRMN Contents JUNE 2005 VOLUME 22, NUMBER 6 On the cover: Sherwin Eng photographed builder Mike Friend’s Twister near Arlington, Washington. Story begins on Page 6. Flight Reports 48 PERFECT PAINT JOB, PART 2 Have design, will paint. By Rick Lindstrom. 6 A NEW TWIST 65 ENGINE BEAT The Silence Twister has arrived. And it wants to play; Oil Basics, Take 2: Special lubes for high-revvers; by Marc Cook. by Tim Kern. Cost-of-Flying Special 67 AERO ’LECTRICS 24 SAVING BENJAMINS Run two VOR receivers and a glideslope Tips, tricks, tactics and theories on cheaper fl ying. from just one antenna; by Jim Weir. 25 BUDGET BUILDS Designer’s Notebook Yes! You can build and fl y a “real” plane for the cost of a new SUV; by Dan Johnson. 73 WIND TUNNEL Drag Reduction 101: Cleaning up your fl ying cactus; 33 THE TRUE COST OF BUILDING by Barnaby Wainfan. A primer on calculating real building costs; by Marc Cook. 38 FEELING USED? Exploring You’ll fi nd these common designs on the secondhand 2 AROUND THE PATCH market—know what to look for; by Brian E. Clark. Getting seriously hands-on; by Marc Cook. 40 HOW I SURVIVED THE RV-4 FROM HELL 4 WHAT’S NEW One buyer’s story provides insight on the pitfalls of Exxon debuts multi-grade break-in oil; purchasing a used homebuilt; by Ed Wischmeyer. edited by Brian E. Clark. 46 REFLECTIONS ON A FRIEND MOVED ON 55 LANCAIR U The opposite perspective—parting with your Approved training equals insurance ; by Jack Cowell. pride and joy; by Ken Balch. Builder Spotlight Kit Bits 60 MASTER & COMMANDER: THE ELITE 582 3 LETTERS This builder opted for easy assembly 64 LIST OF ADVERTISERS and open-cockpit fun; by Howard Levy. 69 BUILDERS’ MARKETPLACE Shop Talk 72 CALENDAR OF EVENTS 16 FANCY PANELING, PART 1 75 THE CLASSIFIED BUILDER Preparing yourself for what could be the biggest and 80 KIT STUFF most expensive part of your project; by Ken Balch. Drawing on experience; by cartoonist Robrucha. 67 48 46 60 KITPLANES June 2005 1 Around the Patch BY MARC COOK Getting seriously, genuinely antsy for some hands-on. ou have no idea how tough sengers at ease. pany advertises in this magazine. You this is—or, perhaps, you do. But there’s another factor— guys are so cynical!) Y Here I am, a certifi able me- resale. I don’t think many amateur Put simply, I’m happy to see a chanical nutcase, working for the builders—and I use that term as it’s well-run business thrive. During the premier magazine about building your meant; i.e., no professionals—ever in- time I was building my Pulsar XP, I own airplane, and have no airplane tend to sell their airplanes. But life can made many trips from my home (and project to show for it. There’s noth- get in the way and one day you may then hangar) in Long Beach, Califor- ing of interest in my garage/shop fi nd yourself with a three-person fam- nia, to the Aircraft Spruce warehouse in besides a bunch of motorcycles—al- ily in a two-seat airplane. I did. an old orange-packing plant in some- most all of them made in Japan, so Ultimately, this means that you what nearby Fullerton. To appease my there’s nothing that really needs to may not give your airplane’s exterior employers, I made the trip around be done to them, and one Italian job fi nish much thought as you’re building, lunchtime and, with remarkably few with an engine made by Rotax, which but it should eventually come around exceptions, arrived back at the offi ce amounts to essentially the same deal. to being as important as worrying about with the parts I needed in time to have So for this month, I’ll have to live structure, systems and engine. a quick sandwich before getting back vicariously through this magazine’s ex- Of course, there’s the other side to to work. In many cases, I found what cellent contributing editors. I’ve always the argument, wonderfully illustrated I wanted at prices that were competi- believed that good, solid how-to infor- in Ed Wischmeyer’s recollection of his tive and, often, lower than from other mation was the heart and soul of an fi rst homebuilt, a somewhat star-crossed sources. And I can’t even begin to add enthusiast’s magazine. We are, after all, RV-4. Seduced by good cosmetics, he up the hours poring over the catalog, here to build something with our own purchased an airplane that would even- which has grown to 600-plus pages, hands. (Either that or you are among tually require a tremendous amount of looking for solutions to the inevitable the many seriously considering such effort and reconditioning to meet his gaps in the builder’s manual: Electrical a project.) And there’s nothing better (admittedly) high standards. It’s a tale system? You’re on your own, bubba. than watching someone else perform a worth remembering if you’re consider- The popular story goes that Flo task to give you a better idea of how ing buying someone else’s homebuilt. Irwin started the company when she it’s done. His story begins on Page 40. discovered that homebuilders of the This month we continue Rick 1950s were having trouble obtaining Lindstrom’s excellent series on get- Happy 40th Birthday, Sitka spruce for structural members. ting the perfect paint job. I don’t think She brought a load from Canada and, there’s any way to understate the Aircraft Spruce probably unwittingly, began some- importance of a good fi nish in your In the course of a typical month, hun- thing of an empire. The company is homebuilt. Smooth paint and clean dreds of electronic press releases show now run by her son, Jim, in a large lines will not just make you proud of up in my mailbox, some interesting building near the Corona airport. I the work but carry additional benefi ts. and some, well...not so much. (Who confess that it’s a much nicer facility It’s been my experience that hesitant put us on the Ayn Rand Institute mail- than Fullerton, a rabbit warren of of- fl yers are much more willing to jump ing list, anyway? I barely got to the end fi ces and warehouse space connected into an airplane that’s clean and tidy of The Fountainhead way back when. to a will-call room that always seemed than one with fl aking paint and wavy Still, I can’t argue too much with the bursting at the seams. I liked the “rus- trim lines. late philosopher’s theory that “produc- tic charm” of the old place, but I didn’t I know this through my test sam- tive achievement [is man’s] noblest ac- have to work there. ple of one. My wife, among the most tivity.” Sounds like an excellent excuse Rarely—and I do mean rarely— intrepid people I know, scrunches her to go build something, if you ask me.) did Aircraft Spruce fail to have the parts nose when we fl y certain rental aircraft But one release that struck home or supplies I wanted, and I was always that are, while utterly sound mechani- was the one pointing out that Aircraft treated with respect by the staff. It says cally, cosmetically challenged...so to Spruce & Specialty turns 40 this year. something that I recognize several of speak.