On Mar 10, 9:29*pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
wrote in news:77d15da9-4a1c-4411-be3f-
:



I think a Pixie or
baby ace would be a better deal by far. Or even a Volksplane or
Hummel
bird.

Bertie- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

For a while I was looking at the Volksplane, but I thought metal would
be preferable.

The Hummelbird is neat. Bet you could fly one with a rotax 503 / 582
pretty nice.

First build? put the engine on the designer intended.

I think that's a safe way to go. However I like to think about weight
vs. HP and power loading and all of that. Even if you don't do an
alternative its a worthy mental exercise.

They don't come any simpler or easier to build than the Volksplane. Good
safe design. A determined builder can knock one up in six months. The
Pietenpol wouldn't be too much harder, but would take a good bit more
time to build. I've always fancied one of those with a model A engine on
it.

Bertie

I've been putting together the list of parts for the Texas Parasol. A
guy up in Canada has put one together. He told me he estimated that if
he'd had a whole month of free time he could have gotten it to the
point it is now (which is airframe complete sans fabric). He hasn't
done his engine and so probably has a number of such "full time
months" to go. I think their have been reasonable solutions provided
for those who object to its design as drawn.

The plane is fun looking and does enough for a first project. They've
only had one fatality -- poor guy was struggling with his engine all
day, finally got it to start, took it out for a "taxi test". Except he
took off. He wasn't a pilot and had no training whatsoever. He got to
200 feet and ran out of gas with a bad end.

On the other hand one guy has done some basic aerobatics in one
(slightly beefed up version).

They've been flying 'em since the 80s I think. Uses 503, VW, Geo and/
or Suburu as well.

I haven't seen many designs that are this simple. It can be built as
an ultralight, or could, but I won't go for that.