What a capable plane. I had a chance to fly with this guy. He has a lot of fun. The gear system ( hydraulic shock absorption) takes all the iffyness about slamming these balloon tire planes down short. You can get away with tundra tire murder with this thing.
I figure if Andrea would work an extra hour per day we could afford it. I'm waiting for the right moment to spring it on her.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/0zDo7hkmCNY[/youtube]

"I broke a tailwheel off one time".


What do you do when this happens?

Call on your cell phone or radio for your buddy to bring parts. It's experimental. Done all the time. Risk/benefit.

I wasn't implying experimental vs. certified.

Just curious what you do when that thing breaks a million miles from civilization on a mountain top.

Looks amazing.

Stop, pick up the pieces, then taxi with the tail up by dragging the brakes and fly home to fix it. When you land, make a wheel landing then use brakes and power to keep the tail up until you are at a good place to stop.

Those Rotax must have seen great improvement. He sure trusts his engine.

I wasn't implying experimental vs. certified.

Just curious what you do when that thing breaks a million miles from civilization on a mountain top.

Looks amazing.

Awesome! What do they cost?

The article says $36K plus engine and panel.

Unspeakably expensive last time I checked. ( more than expected anyway).

Around 100k built by others.

Carve a tail skid and lash it to structure. Only needs to work twice.
Robin

Sometime I ought to find, scan and post the picture of my dad in front of the piper pacer he bought sight unseen, very cheap. The reason it was cheap was because it was lying wrecked in the Alaskan bush. He and a buddy flew in, landed on a frozen lake, and spent a few days removing the wheels and building landing gear for it out of a couple of saplings, a pair of old fashioned skis and a lot of rope. He flew it off the lake and spent the rest of the winter rebuilding it.

My father was a much braver aviator than I will ever be.

[edit: I think they didn't even bother fixing the tail wheel. Just removed what was there and let the tail drag in the snow]

I want one!!!!

Theyre amazing. I think it literally drops in full aft stick at about 20mph.

Also, the Rotax is proven and bullet proof.

I doubt if that tailspring will break off as its built for the mission. (way stouter than my RV6 setup which i occasionally spank on the ground pretty firmly)

Several years ago I was reading a book on Irwin Rommel, (the German WWII field marshal) and it mentioned him flying around in a Fiesler Storch. I looked it up on google. The superstol is conceptually basically a scaled down version of the Storch.

Under 100k complete is unbelievably reasonable I think.

Love the part where he lands, stops under power with the tailwheel still up, raises his flaps, and the starts rolling again. You can see his arms moving a bit through the window.