You know you could get a 383 crate motor for about 1/3 of that, buckets o power. If it was nose heavy you could just put another gas tank in the tail.

But where to put the radiator?

Good luck man, I can't even handle the RC version...

what kind of tools are you looking into william?

Because I'm building this from a kit and not a scratch build, minimal tools are required. My dad who is handing his potion of the kit over to me has everything and then some to complete the entire build. I will pick up my own set of clamps, levels, squares, and measuring devices but the rest of the things like rivet puller (manual or peunmatic), bur files, smooth edge tin snips, clecos....I can borrow it all from him as he isn't going to use them and he bought them specifically to build the plane with. As soon as I can finish the work table I'll go and pick up what he has and start working on the fuel tank install, and getting price quotes for the fuselage kit and options I want. Most likely I will have the plane close to complete before I have my sport pilot cert.

Planes don't work that way and a crate 383 is not approved by the FAA for airplane use. You can't put land vehicle logic into an airplane. You also have total airframe weight capacity to worry about and using a fuel tank to balance weight is bad because fuel is not a constant.

The rotary engines are THE motor for light sport aircraft like that and for a reason.

The plane he has will also have to be inspected and FAA approved before flight. The flying world is just a whole different animal than the way ground transportation works.

your gonna use cherry max rivets? a GOOD peunmatic will be around 900-1k and well the manual ones are a PAIN in the rear...... get ya a rivet gun an assortment of bucking bars and rent you a little mexican kid and have some fun!

Actually you can put a car engine in an airplane I have seen it done on.

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthre...light=airplane

I have even seen Wankle engines in homebuilts. The Lycoming and Contential engines are glorified VW engines (except the heads do not come off, you slide the entire "Jug" off).

I was that little Mexican kid...

Jeff

well a little american kid wouldnt have the drive or focus to concetrate and learn how to properly buck rivets and tell him when to stop....

I didn't seem to have any trouble.:wink:

Jeff Garza

Awesome new hobby dude, Looks like a great way to spend the spare time and reap the rewards when it's done. Enjoy and be safe.

I myself have never flown in a plane, However I've ben in a Heli a couple dozens of times.

The rivets for the kit are a particular brand of blind rivets, which my dad already has the gun for and a decent manual rivet puller for. I'll pick those up from him with the rest of the stuff.

I'm thinking of putting my training off till I get the ane finished. That way I can train and solo in my own light-sport to get my certificate.

Are you going for the light sport license only? My father-in-law just got his last year. He has a teknam(sp?) light sport plane that's from Italy.

My point was more to illustrate that it's not a simple drop in where as buying the proper setup will be the better and less expensive route in the long run. Not too mention that you really need to stick with the type engine the plane was designed around.

I was joking Tex.. whole 'nother set of standards, reliability issues I know. But I would like to see a giant outrunner in that thing!

Lipos would set him back a bit I reckon....

there are bigger RC planes than this :)

Like the Boeing 747 models? Betcha did not know they had 6 of them before 9/11. 4 had "unfortunate" crashes that day... But don't worry we have the patriot act now!