Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Time to ditch the affordaplane.... and design from scratch.

The more I look at the Affordaplane the more i'm upset with it.

First off, allow me to share a resource I've built for it:  http://theaffordaplaneresource.blogspot.com/

I've been collecting data for the airplane for a month now.  And I'm less and less happy with it.  I'm finding that the frame is weak, and heavy.  The plane more or less flies on horsepower versus finesse.  The plane builds up well outside of the part 103 rules, so I'd need to register it with the FAA and do all the experimental plane approval fun-ness I was hopping to avoid. 

To make a plane I'd be happy with out of an affordaplane, I'd need to completely remake the fuselage.  And landing gear.  I could make it come in under part 103 rules.  But at that point, I've essentially designed my own airplane.

OH... Well there's an idea.

Funny that. 

Now I'm developing something of an obsession over the Davis DA-2.  And... that means a pilots license.  I'm taking a discovery flight this weekend.  So we'll see how that goes.




Pretty isn't it?  120mph on 65hp.  And a solid 510lb useful load.

3 comments:

  1. I ordered the plans, on-line three days ago and they were in my email in basket almost immediately. I sent off a quick email to the owner/designer thanking him and telling him how terrific his plans looked and he wrote me right back. We "chatted" via emails a couple times and I couldn't be happier with his attitude and caring, giving nature. I don't know where any bashing is coming from; this guy seems like the real deal.

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  2. I'm glad you had a good experience. He's been pretty toxic to me.

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  3. I purchased my original plans from Dave back in 2001 ( I believe thats right) and they were lost when my hard drive fried (moral: backup). I don't know if he still issues a serial number or not, but I had serial 222. After inquiring about purchasing a new set of plans, Dave immediately sent me a new set of updated plans, not once, but twice! I feel that he has been more than fair and honest every time I have contacted him. Micheal Frost

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