Re: Aeronca 11AC Chief Project FS

On 2008-06-22, Victor Bravo <dirdev@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> At anything less than six or seven thousand, for a fairly easy to fix
> one, the Chief is a very reasonably priced project.

Assuming someone has an A&P-IA handy to supervise the work, yeah. here are
probably worse projects out there.

> Have a look at the Zenair 601XL, where an airframe KIT costs you $20K.
> Now look at the unfortunate and tragic problems the 601 is having with
> the wings folding in flight, and compare it to an airplane with a 60
> year safety record, full commercial FAA certification, and tell me
> that this is not a reasonable bargain.

There are lots of Zodiacs flying. There have been a few recent accidents,
but there is no common thread among them as to the apparent cause. AMD
tested the Zodiac XL with a full FAR 23 certification schedule, even
though
it wasn't required. Further, after the only crash of an AMD-manufactured
aircraft, a thorough investigation was made of the materials, processes,
and
design of the aircraft - and nothing at all was found to be wrong.

At this point, it appears that the crashes are likely due to either pilot
or
builder error. The Zodiac has light and responsive controls, and it's very
easy to overcontrol it (as I know from humbling experience).

I put over 30 hours on N55ZC in the past week and a half, and flew it from
Georgia to Charlotte to southern Arkansas to Houston to College Station to
Austin to Dallas to Oklahoma City to Topeka to Fairmont. If I had any
doubt
that it would have gotten me here safely, I wouldn't have attempted the
trip
- let alone paid $133K for it.

> Before I insulted any of your statements or products for sale with
> regard to aviation electronics, I'd have made sure I had my facts
> straight.

Too bad you had to challenge his statements by insulting *MY* new
airplane.
-- 
Jay Maynard, K5ZC                   http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com
     http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM)                        (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (got it!)