I had started the bird in April '07 in north Louisiana then retired later in '07 and moved to north TX (Wylie, NE Dallas metroplex). I ORIGINALLY completed it in Nov. '08 but found that the hardest part of the project was finding hangar space. That took almost 3 months and I finally had to settle for McKinney, TX (almost 30 miles NW). I got it moed ther and completed the rigging, etc. by mid-Feb. '09. I started taxi tests hrn I thought the north TX winds would allow. However, in early April, after I got out of the bird, a gust of wind turned her over ripping the starboard wing from the fuselage and the engine out (destroying only one blade of the IVOprop. I had to dismantle her and take her back to my garage in Wylie to do "repairs".
With the engine mount and cockpit carry through areas destroyed, I built a new fuselage, beefing up the engine mount and slightly chainging the aft turtledeck structure from the original. This fuselage went together much more quickly (learing curve from the original) and I had her back at Areo Country airfield in late July. Since then the north TX winds seem to be constantly too gusty and I've been fighting engine electrical problems ... turns out that my "new" Odessey battery was dead and wouldn't take a charge. It was under waranty and the Interstate Battery folks were quick with a replacement. However, I'm presently tracking down a possible wiring problem as I still get no spark to the plugs. As soona s ai finish this, I'm off to the field to track the problem.
I'm told that the winds will die down in the fall and that early mornigs and late evenings are the best flying times for LSA's. I'm looking forward to it.
This is my 2nd project. I had a Fly Baby (in New Orleans) almost completed (mount/plumb 65 Franklin remaining) when hurricane Katrina came through ... we couldn't even find it ... a real bummer.
Kurt