kit planes?

ewj1978

Was just wondering if anyone ever considered buying a kit plane e.g...
spitfire
I 'm just interested whether such aircraft would perform as reliably as todays modern airplanes. Was basically daydreaming at work the other day and thought of whether older aircraft were still being made but with todays technology. I know someones going to point out the 737 and other such aircraft has been around for 40 years and is continually updated but I'm more interested in the capabilities of propeller powered aircraft.
Thanks in advance for any input.

Mr Benevolent

Was basically daydreaming at work the other day and thought of whether older aircraft were still being made but with todays technology.

The Mk.26 Spitfire is modernish light aircraft technology. The most modern construction is monocoque carbon fibre, but the Mk.26 uses standard T2024 aluminium, the normal 50's method of construction - which isn't bad or dangerous, just heavier and more prone to problems. By all reports the Mk.26 a fine plane with lots of the original flight characteristics of the Mk.2 Spit - which means it's not a beginners' aircraft.

Building a light plane is INCREDIBLY hard work. You are FAR better off buying one secondhand or buying a standard ultra/microlight from the factory. They average around €50k for a mid-performance model, but there's a few people out there to split the costs with. The s/h aircraft market is quite depressed at the moment - AVGAS fuel prices are climbing out of sight. Lots of aircraft can use standard petrol though.

Davidth88

Is there an Irish version of the LAA laa.org.uk ?

Try speaking to them. They support homebuilds and help them.

France has the RSA , US EAA etc ...

Flyer1

We have our own Society of Amateur Aircraft Constructors. SAAC is what we call em. They have a website http://www.saac.ie/ . It doesn't give away huge amounts of information but there's a contact number on it somewhere.

double yellow

To realise the dream of a homebuilt aircraft is a great achievement but you need to do your homework. You will need to join SAAC which is about to merge I am told with CACI (Classic Aircraft Constructors of Ireland). You pay a small membership fee and you can attend their regular meetings in Dublin. You state what kit or plans built aircraft that you want to build and they approve/disapprove the choices you have made. That is they won't be approving that is too modified from what the aircraft design calls for. Common safety sense really.

There are hundreds of choices really. You can build a slightly smaller scale Spitfire if you want for example. There is wood and fabric, aluminium, composite and steel and fabric construction methods. Probably about 1000 designs in the world I guess at this stage or maybe more. There are biplanes, twin engine, two-seat, four-seat (but not greater than 4 seat at least in Ireland) propellor, jet, pusherprop not to mention various other categories like VSTOL, seaplane, floatplane, helicopters, gliders, microlights.

Not that I am trying to push one model over another but if you take a look at www.zenithair.com there are a lot of queries answered on their website which apply to most homebuilt aircraft. Yer man who did the show A plane is born sells the complete series DVD on his website and this is inspirational but there are other videos out there also of course on youtube etc. Composite aircraft require more set-up in that you are dealing with fibreglass, epoxy and really need a heated workshop.

If you have family now you will have another minefield of persuasion to overcome there also. Homebuilt aircraft do not come under Certificate of Airworthiness which is only given to certified aircraft assembled by professional companies but what you do need is a permit to fly. This allows you to undertake more of the maintenance on the aircraft if you wish than a C of A allows.

But the main and biggest issue to overcome generally is money, both to learn to fly if you haven't already but also no matter what a kit costs to buy there are all the added unknown extras such as engine (the biggest cost of any one component on the aircraft) avionics, instruments and paint is considerable too. You will need somewhere to build of course too. If you don't have space near your house it can be a real chore to have to travel somewhere every time you want to work on it. I think you can fairly safely say it will take over 1000 hours to build an ordinary single-engine piston aircraft. Microlight kits like the C42 or Skyranger are much quicker options if you are looking for a quicker project.

Popular choice for something more high performance are the vans series of aircraft.

double yellow

Sorry also to answer the reliability question.

When people think of homebuilt aircraft reliability they usually have the dated idea that homebuilts (experimental is also used a lot) do not come under much scrutiny.

In fact what happens in most countries including Ireland is an inspector has to sign off all work you do on it before you close it out from inspection. You will be expected to undertake at least 51% of the work yourself (not for plans-built) but the 49% you don't do includes all the key structural components like any welding, main spars which is done by the kit manufacturer before shipping it to you. You can get advice/assistance with installing the engine and electrics, instruments etc. Also a series of flights tests are conducted by a flight tester before you could fly the aircraft yourself. About 25 hours if I remember rightly.

Now if you are doing plans-built (aka scratch-build) or even kit-built you usually correspond (sometimes constantly) with the manufacturer to get queries answered. You also are given a build manual and there are very often other active and past builders of the aircraft design you have chosen out there to bounce ideas off.

Engines like the Rotax range, Jabiru are well proven or you can opt for the traditional Lycoming aircraft engines so reliability is not an issue of design. Many modern light aircraft are available as factory-built or home-built. Naturally every homebuilt aircraft is slightly different but good designers understand that most builders will have little or no previous experience in building aircraft or even kit-building at all and design the kits to a level that the layman can achieve at home.

You have probably already picked up the kitplanes magazine somewhere or researched on the internet prior to posting or reading these comments. Just like anything else you can sell your unfinished kit if it all goes pear-shaped.

Oh and not only can you build kit Spitfires but you can get kit FW190s, Bf109s, Tiger Moths etc. You dream it and it is probably already out there. You can even build a kit IFR aircraft if you want.

ewj1978

Thanks for all the replies folks... In response to double yellow.. I've actually looked into quite a few aircraft microlights etc(didn't actually find any jet propelled ones but my interest is now piqued and i'm currently searching( don't think its for me personally though)). I could possibly see myself doing most of the build work myself apart form avionics etc(not great on electronics)> but the info you provided on Inspections and test flights were new to me so I'd best get corresponding with the relevant authorities. Thanks again. Jim.

double yellow

Well you have three-axis and weight-shift. Weight-shift generally are less complex and have basic avionics to save weight. Every first time builder finds electronics daunting really afaik. Get the directory of light aircraft 2008 magazine put together by UK and US pilot magazines. (One copy in my local Eason's in Portlaoise) It has 1500 aircraft including many kitplanes.

Also between the two RTFs in Kilkenny there is a flex-wing weight-shift microlight, three-axis microlight and a VLA which is a microlight when purchased as a kit representing a couple of the types of microlight available as a kit. The Island Hop Fly-In (Cancelled this year) would be Ireland's largest gathering of microlights, Tannheim would be Europe's biggest and Oshkosh the world's biggest.