Homebuilding Archives - Golf Hotel Whiskey

Its a bird, its a plane, its a flying rooster!

Hat tip to David Cenciotti for bringing our attention to the “Aerogallo” or “flying rooster” aircraft designed by Italian aircraft designer and homebuilder Ottone Baggio which apparently has been making the rounds at Italian air shows:

Image credit: Daniele Beltrame and the Aviationist.

According to Flight Journal, Ottone’s homebuilt flying rooster design was first hatched on a bar room napkin of all places (naturally after a few drinks led to a challenge) and consists of wooden wings and a steel tube fuselage covered in fabric. The rooster’s neck and head contains a 100-horsepower Rotax 912 engine while the control stick comes down from the cockpit roof – meaning the pilot must push forward to go up and pull back to go down.

However and on the initial test flight, the flaperons on the inboard two-thirds of the trailing edge of the wings were less than satisfactory to the test pilot – forcing the rooster back into the coop for some “molting.”

Nevertheless, one does need to give Ottone Baggio some credit for coming up with a homebuilt aircraft that’s as creative as the flying rooster and perhaps the only thing more creative would be a flying Ostrich, Dodo or Penguin as Flying Journal suggested – something to think about next time you are in a pub having a whiskey after a flight!

The collapse of GA aviation at two airports: A warning for the industry?

General Aviation News and Ron of the House of Rapp blog have picked up a story from the Long Beach Business Journal about the collapse of general aviation at the Long Beach Airport (LGB) in California, once the busiest general aviation airport in the world but that activity has declined 24% in the first six months of the year and a staggering 47% over the past five years. Meanwhile, Ron (who is based in Southern California) pointed out a second article about the once busy nearby Van Nuys Airport which had 607,000 takeoffs and landings in 1999 but by 2010, that figure had declined to 339,000 — the lowest traffic count since 1963.

One obvious reason for these declines is the poor economy but the second article about the decline of the Van Nuys Airport also pointed out that:

Airplane fuel sales, whose city fees were nearly tripled two years ago, have fallen by 30 percent.

And:

“My biggest beef is: No one can make a decision or do anything,” said Mike Konle, an entertainment industry businessman who owns a twin-engine Cessna and is a member of an airport hangar association, who has flown out of Van Nuys Airport since 1975. “No one’s running it like a business.
“We’re overtaxed. Rents are too high. We’re all paying (to support) the few people that are left.”

Obviously there are more factors at play here but whatever the root causes, the decline of these airports means less business for surrounding hotels, bars, restaurants and airport service facilities.

Moreover, Ron also pointed out that:

Meanwhile, in the past two years, Superior Air Parts, Cirrus Aircraft, Glasair Aircraft, Hawker Beechcraft, and other U.S. aviation assets have been sold to China. The Chinese are building general aviation airports as fast as they can. We, on the other hand, shut down an average of one airport a week in the United States.

In Ron’s backyard, Santa Monica residents are trying to close Rialto Airport – one of the world’s oldest and most historic airports. However, Ron did note and wrote extensively about how the experimental aircraft industry is still growing by leaps and bounds – offering one bright spot for the future of general aviation.

Otherwise, its not looking good for general aviation in Southern California and no doubt in many other places. Maybe at some point, general aviation pilots and buffs will need to move to China to still enjoy flying.

Chinese farmer builds his own helicopter videos

Hat tip to the Flight School blog for posting three videos of a homebuilt helicopter in China. Apparently, a farmer named Chen Zhao Rong who has only a primary school education but a dream to fly built the helicopter by making and welding all of the parts himself and then checking the design against photos he found on the Internet. After buying a second hand motor for the helicopter, his overall cost amounted to about RMB70,000 (or £6,600 or US$10,600).

Unfortunately and after only a few months of flying, his engine stopped while flying 70km/h to another village and crashed into a field. Although unhurt, his wife threatened to leave him unless he stopped flying while the local police made him sign a document stating that he would never fly the contraption again. Hence, he then sold it to a friend for RMB20,000 (US$3,000 or £1,900).

However, there is some debate in the Youtube comments section about whether or not some of these videos are real or phony. Nevertheless, they look pretty authentic to us so decide for yourself!

Accidents involving homebuilt aircraft rise sharply

Scott Spangler on the Jetwhine blog has recently noted an interesting statistic: According to the results of the 2009 Nall Report published by the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, there has been a sharp increase in the number of accidents involving amateur-built experimental aircraft. The study, which analyzed general aviation accidents in 2008 to identify accident trends, found that if the fatality numbers for homebuilt aircraft had been removed from the overall statistics, GA would have had a much safer year. In fact, the study found that:

Per 100,000 flight hours, the homebuilt accident rate was 5x higher than store-bought airplanes while the fatal rate was 7x higher.
Many homebuilt accidents were caused by mechanical problems and other causes that often start with a sudden loss of power.

Scott then noted that from his first-hand experience, he knows that amateur aircraft builders “have a lot of questions that usually start with How do I…? How do these parts…? And, Is this right?” However, he further noted that:

Today, it seems to me, most of these questions are broadcast online, often accompanied with digital photos. The answers come from the other members of these online communities of builders. Certainly, this is a good thing, but it shouldn’t be the only thing. Builders need to get face-to-face with their peers and old hands, preferably in the shop.

Scott then concluded by saying that:

Regulating safety is only effective after the fact. Prevention is the ultimate, effective remedy, but it depends on a human trait often in short supply: personal responsibility. And that’s something you cannot get online.

In other words, building an aircraft is just like learning how to properly fly one: There is no substitute for hands-on training and experience.

Buyer’s market for recreational flyers

Scott Spangler of Jetwhine is reporting that it is once again a buyer’s market for recreational flyers with “homebuilding” (which allows pilot-owners to build an aircraft one section at a time and thus spreads the investment cost over a period of time) along with sport pilot and light-sport aircraft seeing an upsurge not seen since the last big economic downturn in the early 1980s. For example, Scott reports that with Sonex Aircraft, getting a whole kit at once will cost:

$13,995 for the kit and $200 for dual sticks, for a subtotal of $14,195, plus a $150 crating charge, for a grand total of $14,345…. When you add the cost of the five Sonex sub-assemblies and plans, the total is $18,650, and the crating charges add another $525. But you don’t have to pay it all at once. The sub kits run from the $1,750 tail kit to the $6,300 wing kit, prices less likely to need financing.