advice for kit

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Hello,

I was hoping to get some thoughts/opinions on purchasing a complete
Glasair III kit that has been sitting untouched in it's original crate
for 10 years. Never been opened or inventoried.

Is this a bad idea? I'm worried about things like delicate composite
parts which through the years may have shifted and lost their shape,
that sort of thing.

Any advice would be appreciated,
Thanks!

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On Apr 9, 2:11*pm, wrote:
> Hello,
>
> *I was hoping to get some thoughts/opinions on purchasing a complete
> Glasair III kit that has been sitting untouched in it's original crate
> for 10 years. Never been opened or inventoried.
>
> Is this a bad idea? I'm worried about things like delicate composite
> parts which through the years may have shifted and lost their shape,
> that sort of thing.
>
> Any advice would be appreciated,
> Thanks!

Our commune built one... about 5000 hours labor invested. N1ML.
A major project in anyone's estimation.

The early serial numbers did not have gear downlocks and are difficult
to insure without them. ~sn 3000 as I remember?

The thing flew like rocket. 220kts on 13-14gph. And landed very
fast... I'd think one would
want the wing extensions to lower the landing speed. A forced landing
would be problematical at the really high speeds. Ours didn't have
them;
over the fence was 95kts; if one got below 75kts, it was not possible
to
accelerate without giving up altitude, even with that 300hp engine.
This
took it out of the novice class flying airplane in my opinion. It did
have
nice stall characteristics.

The later ones had some sort of screen embedded to make them
conductive;
that would be a plus.

Donno what factory support is like these days.

Bill Hale

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On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 13:11:00 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

>Hello,
>
> I was hoping to get some thoughts/opinions on purchasing a complete
>Glasair III kit that has been sitting untouched in it's original crate
>for 10 years. Never been opened or inventoried.
>
>Is this a bad idea? I'm worried about things like delicate composite
>parts which through the years may have shifted and lost their shape,
>that sort of thing.

They were generally well-packed, I wouldn't expect any problems that
way.

Normally the bonds you'd be making would be to uncured surfaces. But
after so long those surface will be fully cured, so some extra prep
will be needed. Not a big deal IMO although some might disagree.

>
>Any advice would be appreciated,
>Thanks!

It was common for those kits to be shipped somewhat incomplete, with
backordered parts trickling in as long as a year later. Make sure to
do a very careful inventory. The kit price normally included the
resin, which was shipped when needed. There's a slight chance that the
company may still owe it to the registered kit owner, but since there
was a bankruptcy and new owners a while back, most likely you'll have
to pay for the chemicals a second time. You should sign up at
http://glasair.org and discuss your situation with the members there.
I can imagine lots of little details that would be good to know
*before* settling on a price with the seller.

Don't forget to get the original invoice from the factory, I think
you'd probably need it come registration time.

Wayne

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Thanks for the replies! Very much appreciated