After many years of enjoying flying my Cessna Cardinal, I decided that I would proceed down the experimental path. Many reasons played into this decision, among which were education and recreation, lowering operating costs, and acquiring modern avionics at a reasonable cost.
Although most of my flying has been by myself, I wanted the option to seat up to 4 adults. I didn't have experience working with either aluminum or composites, but I felt that going the sheet-metal pathway would be best for me. To that end, I signed up for an EAA metal workshop to try my hand before making the final decision to pursue that path.
There are currently only a few 4-seat experimental metal kit options. I had seriously looked at the Vans RV-10, but that is a lot more airplane than I currently fly and the build time was rather daunting. I came across some information on the Sling 4 and decided it was a nice compromise. Yes, I would prefer something that had a little more top end speed, but the reality is that the Sling 4 will cover all my planned uses. I still have not actually seen a Sling 4 in person, but have test flown the Sling 2 at the US factory office and thoroughly enjoyed the handling and visibility. While there certainly will be some differences between the Sling variants, I am sure that the Sling 4 will be every much as enjoyable.
The blog will follow the build process by the major airframe components/activities:
- Empennage, including horizontal and vertical stabilizers, elevator and rudder;
- Wings, including fuel cells, flaps, and ailerons;
- Fuselage, including canopy, doors and landing gear;
- Firewall forward, including engine, propeller and associated electrical and fuel components;
- Interior, including seats, panel and avionics;
- Final finish (painting or perhaps even wrapping)
Whatever your reason for dropping by, I hope you enjoy the blog.
Gord
UPDATE: The empennage kit arrived on Friday, Aug 22, 2014, meaning the build has officially started!
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The Airplane Factory Sling 4 (Photo from TAF SA website) |
1 comment:
Nice... congratulations and best of success!
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