Chip's Sportsman
It's finally happened. I have completely lost my tenuous grip on reality. I have decided to attempt to build an airplane. I mean a real airplane that you can get in and go places in. The airplane that I hope to build and fly is called a GlaStar Sportsman. You can read all about it at www.newglastar.com.
This airplane is incredibly versatile. It is set up to carry two adults and two kids (Sportsman 2 + 2), or 2 adults and a whole bunch of gear. It was designed from the get-go as a float plane. My goal is to have this plane sitting on floats at the end of our dock on Sebec Lake in Maine. But it also has tricycle gear for conventional flying, or can easily be converted to a ‘tail dragger’ with conventional gear. If you put big tundra tires on it, it could land in fields, on gravel river beds or other out of the way places. The wings fold, so you could put it on a trailer.
It is very easy to fly. I flew one of these a few years ago. It’s almost impossible to stall, or spin…two no-no’s of flying. It can fly FAST…150 miles per hour. It can fly FAR…1000 mile range (my bladder has a 300 mile range). And it can fly SLOW…around 50 miles per hour for sight seeing and short field landing.
Now building this critter can be a bit of a challenge. I’ve been ogling this creature for about 5 years, but the challenge of building it has always sobered me. What’s different now? Am I drunk? Well perhaps…but let me tell you about the three ways to build this thing:
+ The old fashioned way. You get a whole bunch of pieces of aluminum and fiberglass and 7 years later…an airplane.
+ The Quickbuild way. Major components are already built for you. The wings are 90% complete. The tail is virtually done. The fuselage shell is completed. There is still a lot stuff to do inside the fuselage like hooking up all the controls, seats, doors…still a lot of work. Then there is the little matter of installing the engine and instruments.
+ The Really Quick way. You go to the factory customer assembly center and you build the plane with the help of company mechanics. Your done in 3 weeks. That’s right, I said 3 weeks.
Chip’s Way. I’m going to try to build the tail of the airplane (tail kit) the old fashioned way. With a little luck…I’ll be done by summer. I want to see if I can do it…not a forgone conclusion. It could be incredible fun…or it could become a real pain in the ass. Only one way to find out. The tail kit is pretty cheap…and if it doesn’t work out, it will make a nice coffee table. The next steps depend on how step 1 goes. If I decide to continue, I will probably then do the quick build fuselage kit followed by the quick build wings. The 3 week program is pretty expensive…and you have to come up with the money all at once…plus I’m not sure I want this process to be that easy. My opinion on that could change.
This Blog:
My goal is to document the project with this web log. Blog structure starts at the beginning with latest events at the top. So you have to go back to the beginning to find this intro…and the latest progress report is at the beginning. You can enter questions, comments, or opinions yourself and they will appear on the blog along with my response.
Let the adventure begin….
This airplane is incredibly versatile. It is set up to carry two adults and two kids (Sportsman 2 + 2), or 2 adults and a whole bunch of gear. It was designed from the get-go as a float plane. My goal is to have this plane sitting on floats at the end of our dock on Sebec Lake in Maine. But it also has tricycle gear for conventional flying, or can easily be converted to a ‘tail dragger’ with conventional gear. If you put big tundra tires on it, it could land in fields, on gravel river beds or other out of the way places. The wings fold, so you could put it on a trailer.
It is very easy to fly. I flew one of these a few years ago. It’s almost impossible to stall, or spin…two no-no’s of flying. It can fly FAST…150 miles per hour. It can fly FAR…1000 mile range (my bladder has a 300 mile range). And it can fly SLOW…around 50 miles per hour for sight seeing and short field landing.
Now building this critter can be a bit of a challenge. I’ve been ogling this creature for about 5 years, but the challenge of building it has always sobered me. What’s different now? Am I drunk? Well perhaps…but let me tell you about the three ways to build this thing:
+ The old fashioned way. You get a whole bunch of pieces of aluminum and fiberglass and 7 years later…an airplane.
+ The Quickbuild way. Major components are already built for you. The wings are 90% complete. The tail is virtually done. The fuselage shell is completed. There is still a lot stuff to do inside the fuselage like hooking up all the controls, seats, doors…still a lot of work. Then there is the little matter of installing the engine and instruments.
+ The Really Quick way. You go to the factory customer assembly center and you build the plane with the help of company mechanics. Your done in 3 weeks. That’s right, I said 3 weeks.
Chip’s Way. I’m going to try to build the tail of the airplane (tail kit) the old fashioned way. With a little luck…I’ll be done by summer. I want to see if I can do it…not a forgone conclusion. It could be incredible fun…or it could become a real pain in the ass. Only one way to find out. The tail kit is pretty cheap…and if it doesn’t work out, it will make a nice coffee table. The next steps depend on how step 1 goes. If I decide to continue, I will probably then do the quick build fuselage kit followed by the quick build wings. The 3 week program is pretty expensive…and you have to come up with the money all at once…plus I’m not sure I want this process to be that easy. My opinion on that could change.
This Blog:
My goal is to document the project with this web log. Blog structure starts at the beginning with latest events at the top. So you have to go back to the beginning to find this intro…and the latest progress report is at the beginning. You can enter questions, comments, or opinions yourself and they will appear on the blog along with my response.
Let the adventure begin….
posted by Chip at 4:42 PM
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