I am hoping to catch some readers who are just now narrowing down their final choice for a first-time aircraft kit purchase. This is a big decision that will become a major focus of time and money for months to come. You have probably been doing lots of research to select the best kit that fits your needs. If you feel a little apprehensive, that is a good sign that you are taking this venture seriously! Having once been in this situation myself, let me shed some light on some critical issues that you might not have considered. I don’t want you to fall into an uncomfortable trap that might not be obvious at this stage of your building journey.

A common problem occurs when a kit builder finds they have encountered a construction task that is either confusing or appears too challenging to complete. Or worse, there is doubt as to whether the task was completed correctly and safely. The great news here is that popular kit manufacturers have nearly eliminated this issue over time with better documentation, tech support and building techniques geared toward first-time builders. We all have different talents and abilities when it comes to building. Most kit vendors have designed their products to ensure success for most first-time builders.

What Can Go Wrong?

It is easy to overlook that the kit manufacturer you have chosen does not make the engine you need to install. But because an engine is required for flying, they can steer you toward those engines that might be a good fit for your airframe—those having proper weight, power, etc. They might even sell you the engine for a one-stop shopping experience. You may get an economic advantage with this type of purchase, and at least you’ll know you are buying a recommended powerplant for your kit. Nevertheless, there are some things to be aware of.

That great documentation you used while building the airframe probably does not exist for engine installation tasks (also called firewall forward installation). Ask your kit manufacturer and find out if this is true. I cannot think of a more challenging effort than installing, plumbing, wiring and testing an aircraft engine. You need more and better documentation and tech support rather than less. Sadly, it rarely exists. This is a big bump in the road for many first-time builders.

What Tasks Are Involved?

Engine installation is one of the most complex and fascinating areas of the entire project. Once the large, metal block of an engine is physically mounted, you move on to attaching fuel lines, pumps, hoses, throttle cables, air ducts, ignition cables, batteries—the list goes on and on. If you are not familiar with the skills required for this step (and who is the very first time around?), then daunting is a good word to describe the entire task of engine installation.

Why does it have to be this way? The companies that make the airframe kits don’t usually know what engine you will install—and the engine manufacturers don’t know what airframe is being used. This arena becomes even more challenging when you consider that an engine mount is a custom item that needs to match a specific airframe to a specific engine. Who should design and create instructions for the first-time kit builder on how to install these?

If this is not your first airplane kit, then a lot of these issues are less challenging. But for the first-time builder it can easily be a showstopper when it comes to finishing the aircraft. Even if a company packages and sells all the parts needed for an engine installation, I’ll bet the step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions on how to assemble it all won’t be included!

My advice to any first-time builder researching aircraft kits is to always find out what instructional help will be available when it comes time to install the engine. Even if the engine choice is not made at the time of airframe building, that issue does not go away.

What Are Your Options?

At the top of the list of kits that simplify engine installation is Van’s RV-12/RV-12iS. Step-by-step instructions detail every nut, bolt, wire and hose used in the airframe kit as well as firewall forward. This kit all but guarantees that the first-time builder will succeed! I am not aware of another kit model sold today that can match its all-encompassing documentation.

While this might look like the perfect first-time builder kit, remember that all things in life are a compromise. Examine this kit’s price tag, single engine choice and low-wing design. If these are not an issue, then you have a great option for a kit choice.

Next on the list of aircraft vendors that do a reasonable job of supporting firewall forward installation are those that strongly recommend a specific engine model. As an example, Sonex Aircraft has traditionally urged builders to use the engine they supply (the AeroVee) in their Sonex aircraft kit. If you go this route, you receive good instructions on how to not only assemble that engine (the engine is a kit!) but also very specific instructions for installation. Again, the drawback is that you are limited to using just this engine if you want this very high degree of firewall forward instructions.

The next and largest category of kit manufacturers is those that recommend a limited choice of engines that they will “support” in their airframe kit. What this usually means is that the kit manufacturer has assembled and sells a package of firewall forward components that are needed for a specific engine. With this package you have everything you need to complete your engine installation—and hopefully the package includes some documentation. Ask to preview this documentation before you buy. Is there enough detail for you to complete the installation? I can almost guarantee it will not be in the form of step-by-step details like the airframe instructions may have been. Hopefully, the kit manufacturer will provide support if you need it. By using their engine components, they should be able to help you if you get stuck.

Compare this to purchasing an engine model that has no prepackaged firewall forward components, even if the airframe kit vendor agrees it can work. You are then on your own to find the right parts. This is a common path toward failure for many first-time builders.

Another category of engine installation support comes from custom engine manufacturers that have tried to make it easy for you to install their powerplants. This effort includes firewall forward component packages, documentation the engine manufacturer produces and videos showing typical installations. In some cases, a great engine may not be that great if you struggle to get it installed correctly or don’t understand how to wire and plumb it.

Ask to preview the documentation so you will know in advance what you are getting into. Do not rely solely on promises from the vendor as to how easy it is to get it installed. Also do a bit of research, online and by talking to other builders, to be sure you will get the support you need.

Be nice to yourself by making it easy to succeed as a first-time builder. Choose your engine wisely. Plane and Simple!

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With this, our last chapter of the Affordaplane build, I will describe how an engine mount was created to complete the last major step. As a quick recap of the previous chapters in this series, I was attempting to plans build a legal ultralight using common tools and store-purchased materials. For example: No welding allowed! So, now the biggest challenge confronting me was creating an engine mount needed for the engine installation.

First, what engine should be used in this project? This decision could not be made until we were nearly finished with the entire project. Why? The choice of engine is determined by how much weight remains after deducting the aircraft’s total weight from the 254-pound limit imposed by the FAA ultralight regulations. With the wings and tail attached to the fuselage, I weighed the entire structure. Without an engine, the scales read very close to 200 pounds. This meant that in order to remain legal and not exceed the 254-pound legal limit, I needed an engine that weighed in at less than 50 pounds. An additional weight margin is needed for various items in addition to the engine such as a mount, propeller, throttle, gauges and plenty of miscellaneous parts. While I had wished for a greater engine weight allowance, which would have made it possible to use a bigger engine, I was still happy we were seemingly on track for making our overall final weight target.

For the sake of brevity, let’s avoid a lengthy discussion about the details of choosing an engine that suits our purpose and weighs less than 50 pounds. The choice was made to go with the Polini Thor 202, a 33-hp, water-cooled, two-stroke engine weighing in the neighborhood of 40 pounds. This is a popular powerplant used in the paramotor arena (large fan strapped to your back with a parachute). It is also suitable for tractor configuration, according to the manufacturer. Based on my experience flying ultralights back in the 1990s, a Rotax engine would have been my first choice. However, all their small two-stroke engines have long since been discontinued. It was a goal of this project to make sure that all parts needed were readily available to all builders. So, no obsolete parts allowed! Another reason for going with this choice was that the next larger engine in the Polini product line shares the very same engine mount.

Having selected the engine, a suitable engine mount was needed to interface the Polini to the airframe. Keep in mind that no such engine mount exists—it is not provided by Polini unless you want to strap the engine to your back! Looking at engine mounts in general, it is no trivial matter creating such a device for any airplane. Plus, have you ever seen one that has no welds? Highly unusual for sure. This mount had to be designed in a way that any builder could fabricate it without special skills. The Affordaplane plans do have a design for Rotax engines. For all others, you are on your own.

Builder Assistance

As luck would have it, a fellow builder, Oscar Zuniga, was following my YouTube channel where I documented this Affordaplane build and wrote to me offering his expertise in creating a mount. It just so happens he is a professional mechanical engineer and has built several Experimental aircraft in his day. To make a long story short, I simply sent him the specs of the mounting ring from the Polini engine and from there he went to work. Using his creativity and technical knowledge, he came up with a simple and elegant design that utilizes materials and components we were already using. Simple to build and strong. Never underestimate the talent and resources of your audience! The last major building hurdle was now in the past.

After building the mount, the Polini engine was hung. A prop matched to this engine was installed and a minimal set of instruments needed for safe operation was included. It cannot be emphasized enough how much weight accumulates when adding all the peripheral parts required: throttle and cables, fuel lines, brackets and more. There is no documentation for a custom installation like this, so I used my experience for wiring and plumbing the engine systems. Plenty of effort went into breaking in and testing the engine while monitoring rpm and temperatures.

With the preliminary engine operations completed, the wings and tail were removed for fabric covering. As I mentioned in the prior chapter, fabric covering can seem intimidating if you never have done this operation before. But with a step-by-step video and a water-based adhesive system—it becomes not much of a big deal! The next step was to final assemble the wings and tail surfaces back onto the fuselage along with control cables and every other part and piece that is required for flight. A gap seal was added above the wings where they come together as per plans. Reaching this point in the build process after all this time meant that we were ready to now weigh the aircraft!

With the aircraft in a ready-to-fly configuration, it was carefully weighed. At this time, I performed the weight and balance exercise. It is a somewhat pleasant task with an ultralight to do this calculation as you can plug your personal body weight into this single-seater and get your balance numbers without many variables to consider. The good news was that the final weight was in the ballpark: 258 pounds. While I would not call it bad news, we were 4 pounds overweight compared to our goal of the legal limit of 254. I would call this a success for the following reason: It demonstrated that an ultralight could be built from inexpensive plans (not a kit) without special skills (no welding). The 4 pounds that need to be reduced can be addressed by carefully looking for ways to trim weight (for example, substituting a fabric seat for the fiberglass model I used). We can find multiple places to reduce weight by small amounts. It all adds up. The regulations regarding calculating total weight state that items not required for flight that can be removed are not included in this total number. In any case, we are dealing with a relatively small number so there is little concern about reducing the weight to get it spot on.

First Flight

Does this Affordaplane fly? It is beyond the scope of this article or this pilot to give a flight analysis. However, I would never allow another person to fly my creation for the first time! After taxi testing to become familiar with handling and a couple of crow hops, the next step was to fly the length of my small grass strip about 5 feet off the ground. After a couple hundred feet the aircraft lifted off the ground smoothly. I kept it at about 5 feet or so and eventually brought it down. The 33 hp is clearly adequate power to fly. This flight down the runway exhibited stable, level handling. This is what I needed from this initial “flight.”

I recommend this project to anyone who has an interest in building their own ultralight. Of course, without flight training, it would be dangerous to jump in and fly. But, for pilots looking to have fun building and flying their own creation—this would be hard to beat. No inspections; fly when ready! As mentioned in previous chapters, the build process is available to watch for free on YouTube so you can judge for yourself. The plans are about $25 and can be found at affordaplane.com. What an extraordinarily inexpensive, low-stress way to get familiar with building and flying. Plane and simple!

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More information: https://www.bluffcityaircraft.com/product-page/dingo-basic-kit-delivered

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Prepared for just about anything, a large green camp service vehicle extracts an RV from a missed turn on the campgrounds. No motor club needed and no charge!

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In my last column, I described construction details for the fuselage section of the Affordaplane ultralight project. (See the April and May/June issues for Part 1 and 2.) Now let’s look at construction of the empennage and wing assemblies. Remember, this is a plans-only type of build using off-the-shelf materials and tools intended for a novice builder. Keep this objective in mind when reviewing the construction and design details. A complete free video series on YouTube shows each step of this construction.

The components of the empennage (rudder, elevator, vertical and horizontal stabilizers) are all formed from 1-inch 6061-T6 aluminum tubing. These tubes must be bent into their respective shapes, matching template patterns drawn on your workbench. (Use some craft paper for this!) What is the easiest way to form these simple bends? I found that using an electrician’s conduit bender did the job nicely. With a little practice, each tube was formed to the proper shape and then fitted with a gusset to join its ends.

Hinges are needed between the rudder and vertical stabilizer as well as the elevator and horizontal stabilizer. The plans call for a simple, strong design using stainless steel L brackets attached with stainless steel rivets. As can be seen in the photo, the L brackets are positioned so they align for joining with conventional AN clevis pins and cotter pins. My job in demonstrating this construction was to show how to locate these hinges for perfect alignment before drilling in place. While this technique for creating hinges is not unique, it was a good fit for this project where we want easy installation using robust components. The hardware needed to attach the tail feathers to the fuselage is also shown in a photo and illustrates how only off-the-shelf hardware is used to reduce the need for complex components.

In a similar fashion, the wings for the Affordaplane were easy to fabricate from 6061-T6 tubing of various diameters. The spars, ribs and bracing structures are all made from this tubing fastened with AN hardware. Using standard lumber, I made a full-size jig for the wing utilizing the workbench as the platform. The Affordaplane wing design has a leading and trailing edge spar made from this aluminum tubing, and the lip of the workbench edge holds each of these spars in their exact position during the build. This results in wings that can be built precisely without requiring advanced skills or tools.

Wing ribs were shaped from half-inch tubing that was formed around a simple wood jig. This could be done by hand and the wood jig provided consistent bends. The ribs were attached to the front and rear spars with gussets and rivets. To obtain a strong connection to the front spar, the forward ends of the ribs were shaped by trimming with a large-diameter hole saw so that they would match the curve of the spar at the attachment point.

After weighing the wings for future reference, the tail feathers and wings were joined to the fuselage and rigged. The elevator-to-stick connection is implemented with a push-pull tube. The rudder is controlled by cables. The ailerons are managed by a combination of pulleys and cables using all AN hardware components. After rigging was complete, everything was taken apart for covering and painting.

Fabric and Paint

Is it fair to expect a first-time builder to be able to fabric cover their aircraft? Yes! My videos show the step-by-step process for covering this ultralight with the extra-lightweight Poly-Fiber fabric using water-based glue from Stewart Systems. While I am not a fabric covering expert, there is no specific task that is difficult in this process. The water-based glue system means there are no bad fumes or dangerous solvents. Scissors, an electric iron and a paintbrush will get your wings and tail covered and ready for flight. I am not exaggerating that this final step of aircraft building (which often scares first-time builders) is quite easy when you can watch videos showing each step of how to cover specific Affordaplane components.

You can’t leave the fabric uncoated—and I was not going to fall into the trap of using expensive aircraft paint—as the Affordaplane would quickly become not so affordable. I experimented with premium, exterior, high-gloss latex house paint. Just a couple coats and it worked great. I was very happy with the result and the ease of applying it with a foam roller. You can spend as much or as little time as you want with colors and designs, and the paint is available at your local hardware store.

In our final installment next issue, we will entertain the need for an engine and engine mount. Can you guess how a first-time aircraft builder is going to fabricate an engine mount? And remember, no welding! The Affordaplane plans do not require a specific engine for this airframe, so builders are on their own to choose one that fits their needs. Remember, our need is that the aircraft makes the 254-pound ultralight weight limit, so this will guide our decision. Plane and Simple.

The post Building the Affordaplane, Part 3 appeared first on KITPLANES.

In last month’s column I introduced our video project for building the Affordaplane. To review, this is the plans-only project I demonstrated on YouTube for building an ultralight from raw materials. (You’ll find this free 50-part series here.)

My objective was to build an “FAA-legal” ultralight using approved aircraft materials and techniques. This month, I will review some of the challenges encountered while building. My approach on making these videos was to show and explain to first-time builders how to take a set of plans and translate them into a series of steps for completing the project.

From a construction standpoint this ultralight design is quite unusual in some ways and very traditional in others. The designer, Dave Edwards, had a goal of making sure the aircraft could be built by an amateur with common shop tools and readily available materials. Most of the aircraft is made from round and square 6061-T6 aluminum tubing. The square tubing is used primarily for the fuselage; the round tubing is used for the wings and other flight surfaces.

The fuselage is unique in appearance as it resembles a ladder turned on its side. Yes, it is a thin, flat fuselage that the pilot straddles while sitting in an attached seat. The fuselage is fashioned from a dozen various lengths of 2-inch square aluminum tubes. These straight, square tubes are joined to one another by 1/8-inch-thick aluminum gussets attached on each side of the ends where they connect to the next tube. A set of AN-4 bolts pass through each “sandwich” of tube and gussets on either side to hold them tightly together. The construction skills needed to build this fuselage consist of cutting the square tubes to proper length, along with using a bandsaw to shape the gussets to match the full-size templates included in the plans. As holes need to be carefully drilled through the gussets and square tubing for the AN bolts, I show a technique for match drilling these items so that everything lines up when finished. You should get the idea that there are no difficult tasks required—just some easy techniques and careful use of drills and saws.

Due to the two-dimensional ladder-type fuselage design, there can be enormous stress developed at each square tube and gusset junction. These in-flight stresses include tension, shear and twisting (torsion) between the connected tubes. The AN-4 bolts that hold these joints together provide more than enough strength to do the job. A problem that arose was that many builders inquired about substituting the AN bolts with rivets, and others wanted to just weld the gussets to the tube! It is reasonable and encouraging that builders question construction alternatives—maybe for saving weight or cost. However, I felt it was my job as a teacher to address these desires by new builders to divert from the plans so that the aircraft can remain safe and strong, as well as communicating the reasons for these decisions.

One of the Facebook forums used for information about the Affordaplane seems to entertain modifications to the plans. (I refuse to participate in this forum.) On repeated posts, “professional” welders explain how their welding expertise and industry experience results in an aluminum welded joint that is superior in strength compared to using AN bolts as depicted in the plans. Forum moderators have tried to explain that eliminating the bolts, regardless of how perfect a weld might be, will drastically reduce the joint strength that comes from the side-to-side load transfer that the bolts provide with their clamping strength on each side of the tube.

The same issue is found with substituting rivets. While most builders can understand this and respect the decision to never weld or rivet, others are vocal about not agreeing and telling the community that they know better. My concern about this forum is that future new builders will read these comments made by “professional” welders and believe that it is OK to skip the bolts. It is certainly OK to experiment with your own butt on the line, but giving life to the idea that this might work well for others is not something I want my project to be associated with! This is the nature of public forums. But when it comes to building airplanes, we should take special effort to guard the facts that ensure safety. Remember—ultralights do not get inspected by the FAA. This places a huge responsibility on the builder.

The desire to eliminate AN bolts is just one example of the many requests to modify the Affordaplane design on this forum. I am genuinely surprised at how often the topics of changing things come up—everything from making the wings longer for better performance to adding reinforcements to make the landing gear “better.” It seems like a full-time job for the moderators to explain that it is best to build the plane properly first before changing things!

Learning to respect the plans while building an aircraft seems to identify which builders will have a future for more complex aircraft projects. Desiring to make changes and questioning a design is a hallmark of Experimental aviation, but only when done responsibly by way of researching known principles first and then testing.

Some components of this design are left to the builder. For example, the pilot seat, wheels and gas tank are to be of the builder’s choosing. It is in selecting these items where too much weight can creep into the final project. Take, for example, the wheels. We know the weight and size can vary widely. I made some choices that I thought would provide a good compromise. You cannot know in advance if your choices will bust the 254-pound final weight limit. I did weigh each of these “optional” components for later reference in case I needed to choose something lighter.

With the fuselage on its wheels, it was now time to construct the tail section along with the wings. Lots of round tubes of various diameters are used for these assemblies. However, these tubes need to be bent into shape following templates drawn on the table. We will discuss this building process in our next installment. Here, stainless steel rivets will now be our main choice of fastener. Plane and Simple!

The post Building the Affordaplane, Part 2 appeared first on KITPLANES.

ULPower has announced a slight reorganization of its sales and tech support for the US locations. Ray Lawrence from Kaolin Aviation Services in Georgia and Herman Eshuis from Wheels and Wings in Florida will provide sales and tech services for American ULPower engines customers. They have previously been serving these markets and are now the sole providers and main contacts. They can be reached at kaolinaviation@gmail.com  and info@wheelsandwings.net.

ULPower supplies engines for the light plane market. These engines feature air cooling, fuel injection, direct drive, and fadec control. Nine engine models range from 97 to 220 HP.

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On display in Paradise City (the show’s area for light planes and ultralights) are a pair of “Dingos” – a relatively new ultralight kit design from Future Vehicles, a manufacturer located in the Czech Republic. The Dingo is a single seat, open cockpit biplane weighing in at approx. 210 lb without engine. The airframe is riveted from sheets made of aluminum 6061 and 2024 alloys. The ailerons and elevator are operated by rods and the rudder is controlled by cables. All sheet metal parts are already drilled and it is only necessary to rivet them (matched-hole technology utilized). The construction manuals with breakdowns and part numbers are in PDF format and are available on their website for public viewing. Also, videos of each stage of construction, showing the proper sequence of assembly, are provided on the Future Vehicles website.

Rick Bennett, of Bluff City Aircraft LLC is the US distributor for the Dingo. He built 2 Dingo aircraft and has them on display at the show. Bluff City Aircraft is also a Polini engine distributor, which is the suggested engine option for the Dingo. Rick says the aircraft was designed with a focus on easy and quick assembly. His company sells the complete aircraft delivered in a set of boxes as a kit (shown below) or they will fully assemble, test, and paint the aircraft to the customer’s desire. The price for the kit, without engine, is approximately $15,800 subject to the current exchange rate. Rick says that kits are on the shelf ready to ship in anticipation of the show.

Contact Rick at Rick@bluffcityaircraft.com. Bluff City Aircraft is located near Memphis, TN.

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