spaceman

Speaking of which, I'm picking up my Waiex tail kit later this week!!! Pretty much due to the reasons listed in this thread, I decided that building my own would be the only way I could ever really afford to own a plane.

I think I have heard that it won't be a very big deal because the difference is pretty small. However I'm no doctor, so GoDucks or someone can probably give you a more definite answer!

You mean Zombie Gunship

What Oh... Wait, WHAT?!

Yes! I have the same one. It goes on sale pretty often for $200 which is a good deal. The two sides seems ridiculous at first but it's actually pretty handy. Usually what I do is get some charcoal going on the right side, and at the same time throw a pot of beer and brats on the side burner. Then cook the brats on the charcoal side, and whatever else we're having on the propane side. THEN once the brats are done I can use one of the propane burners on low to keep them warm. Works great!

It looks like they pulled it from the Android marketplace. Which is good I guess since it didn't even work at all. They need to fix it and get it back on there!!!

Looks like it made its first flight last week! https://www.eaa.org/news/2011/2011-08-10_subsonex.asp

Not too surprising, I was up there on Wednesday and there were tons of those things cruising around! Must be the standard EAA employee vehicle or something.

Cool picture! And way to represent Wisconsin, Billy. I live right next to General Mitchell International Airport, in Milwaukee

I got WFG LASIK, and it was pretty amazing how fast the recovery is. Like I was good to go the next day when I woke up. But like nsplayr said it's not that big of a deal either way so don't base your decision on just that. I went with LASIK because I was pretty badly nearsighted and the surgeon and my own eye doctor both said that LASIK is slightly better in that situation.

Nice! Yeah when I started shopping originally, I was only familiar with RV's. Then I started looking at the RV-12 since it's cheaper than the bigger RV's, and that ended up leading me to Sonex. The Sonex is way cheaper than an RV-12 and it can do aerobatics, which I really wanted. I think I'll start with just the tail too, for the same reasons. Also, if you go to the workshop and then buy a kit later, they'll take the $200 you paid for the workshop off the kit price, so it's effectively free. I'm pretty sure if you already bought a kit they'll let you just show up and do the workshop for free too. Yeah, from what I've read (and what they said at the workshop), they both fly identically, so it's just up to what you prefer as far as looks. I'm leaning towards the Waiex, just because it's already a weird looking plane so I might as well go all the way weird.

Here are a few more pictures! I guess they couldn't find a jet engine small enough for their plane, so they got some R/C jet manufacturer to just make a bigger version of their model plane engine. It's tiny! The cockpit setup is also pretty slick with the side stick. They weren't letting anyone sit in this one though so I couldn't try it out.

Maybe by the time I'm done with the first one I build, the jet kit will be available! Cool as it is, I don't think I'm an experienced enough plane builder (having no experience and all that) to buy a regular Sonex airframe kit and adapt it to a jet engine. So I'll wait until they finish designing it first I took a couple pitures of it when I was there though, I'll have to post them up later when I'm home from work.

Yeah I agree they're a little goofy looking. Not as pretty as the RV's but the goofiness has grown on me! They have some pretty cool projects going up there at Sonex too. When I visited in February they were testing a single place folding-wing model, which I think is for sale now. I guess with the wings folded up it's only as wide as a car! They also had a jet-powered model that they're testing but I don't think it has flown yet. That probably won't come out any time soon, if ever, though. Here's a pretty nice cockpit video: It just seems like a simple, fun airplane!

I'm actually planning to start on a Sonex or Waiex some time this summer! I've been researching for about a year, and it just seems like the most economical thing you can build if you want aerobatics and decent cross country ability. I went to their workshop in Oshkosh back in February (I live in Milwaukee which is like 1.5 hours from there), and they went over how to do pretty much everything you'd need to know to built the plane. It seems a lot easier than I originally had thought! They say you can build a kit in about 800-1000 hours of work, which is not bad. The total price with the airframe kit, engine, and the basic avionics you'd need is supposed to add up to around $30k. I guess this is actually my first post here, even though I've been lurking since last summer! But I couldn't stay out of this discussion I'm a mechanical engineer/pilot applicant for OTS. So basically I am bored and looking for a big project to mess around with until/if I can ever get picked up by the AF. There's my intro!