A Project to Fill the Hours

I've undertaken to build myself an airplane.  Not a model airplane, not even a model that flies.  No, a real airplane.  And I'm not talking about an ultralight either.  Single engine, six seats, carbon fiber and fiberglass composite construction, and retractable landing gear. Probably several years worth of working away in the garage but it should be some airplane when it's done.

Okay, now ten years after I received the tail kit, it's been a little longer than I expected.  It's pretty easy to try to make things perfect the first time.  After all, you think, it's an airplane and must be exactly right.  Well, that's probably not really true.  I'm sure a lot of stuff could have been left for later.  Get the plane flying first, obviously you want a solid airframe and engine, and the fancy options can come later.

Anyway, the aircraft design is called the Stallion and here is a picture of the prototype which was the only one flying when I started on mine.   There are a few others flying that I've heard of but it's not a common design. If you want to read more about the plane, see the Stallion information from Aircraft Designs' home page.

I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping the web site up to date but progress has continued steadily, if slowly.

Here are some pictures from 2003 when fitting the wings, right, front, and left.

And my last two trips out to work on the plane November 2006 and November 2007.

More pictures from May 2008 when we sent the wings off to the paint shop, built a marker beacon antenna, and stuck most of the instruments into the instrument panel for the first time.

This is close to my current thinking for the Stallion's panel.  I've moved things around a tiny bit but once aluminum was cut, I stopped updating the picture so I don't have a more recent version.  The EFIS system is made by Op Technologies, a nice looking glass cockpit that supports remote mounted radios, substantially increasing the panel space I can devote to the screens and backup instruments.