Advise on buying a fixed wing

[Morph]

Everytime I look at that raven I keep thinking to myself that somebody stuck the wrong rudder on it. The vertical tail looks too small for the rest of the airplane - and that wing - eish what can I say? Does it really need to be THAT thick...

I thought the same when I first saw one but, but they fly extremely well even with that moerse thick chord, cruise over 100mph. I only have two negatives, small fuel tank, 40L I think, and a bit of a mission getting in and out with the gull wing doors opening above you. you have to crouch under the door before stepping in and out

Would I buy one?, Absolutely, excellent value for money, all metal construction, proudly South African.

However i am a Bush Baby guy through and though, if you are looking for rag and tube, to me this is the best option.

The tail by the way is highly effective, not as large as the Bush Baby, but this will result in a better crosswind capability than a Bush Baby, as a large tail tends to "weather vane" you into the wind

[Errol]

What about a streak shadow?
only asking!

[Stephan van Tonder]

Streak is a decent airplane and can go places. My fat ass struggle big time to get in and out of it and your pax had better be rather petit too. Other than that you can't really fault them. They had some undercarriage issues in the beginning but that was sorted out by some aftermarket versions. In the UK that was a mandatory AD I think - not sure if it applied here.

[Morph]

Streaks are great if you fly from nice tarred runways. The propellor is exposed at the back to stones being picked up by the undercarraige, and landing on something with a middelmannetjie will result in a propstrike.

[swiftprop]

Thanks for your contribution on the Raven, Morph. To me the proof of the pudding is in the NTSB accident details on the Zenair Zodiac 601 HD......almost zero. This is about the same aircraft as the Raven although the Raven I believe has been improved in a few areas such as the area behind the canopy raised to reduce drag. Carl Babst is an engineer and meticulous as well...But I must say when I am ready to buy I will have a serious look at the other aircraft like the Bushbaby as well

[johnsa]

zimflyer, the first question is where are you going to use your fixed wing. Second what do you expect it will do for you?

[Stephan van Tonder]

uhm - swiftprop - there has been a fair amount(7 since 2006) of wing structural failure accidents on the 601 unfortunately so actually not an incredibly rosy picture for the ch601..
see some of it here.
http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forum ... 650-a.html

[Rudix]

uhm - swiftprop - there has been a fair amount(7 since 2006) of wing structural failure accidents on the 601 unfortunately so actually not an incredibly rosy picture for the ch601..
see some of it here.
http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forum ... 650-a.html

Only the 601 XL, a completely different wing from the 601UL/HD/HDS !!

Also it looks like the wing failures in the 601XL's were caused by slack aileron control cables resulting in aileron flutter followed by wing failure.

[grostek]

uhm - swiftprop - there has been a fair amount(7 since 2006) of wing structural failure accidents on the 601 unfortunately so actually not an incredibly rosy picture for the ch601..
see some of it here.
http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forum ... 650-a.html

Hi Stephan,

Not quite right what you are saying.

The original 601HD ie the fat wing has zero accidents with regard to in flight break up.

The 601 XL which has the alleged wing problems also has a new wing design, no longer the fat wing. Then to take this a step further for the 601 XL's the FAA is looking at 4 accidents of alleged in flight break up and they seem to have the following causes:

And I quote from an article By Mark Townsend from CanZac Aviation.

one involved not wearing a seat belt in a thunderstorm by a novice pilot,

another seems to have been an unsecured wing spar ( either no bolts or no nuts on the bolts).

One possibly over gross with near limits maneuvers,

even a pelican strike through the canopy had first been announced as a failure, when in reality none had happened,

another ran out of fuel but instantly the wrong information gets published by the armchair engineers. End of quote.
The full text can be seen in the link you provided

To date the FAA has not grounded a single 601HD/HDS (the fat wing) nor has it grounded the 601XL range with the new wing design.

Speculation will continue until the FAA publish the full reports, but until they do they will not make a statement and Zenith Aircraft are also not allowed to make any statements until the enquiries into the accidents have been completed.

My personal opinion of the aileron cable tension is as follows:
The plans for the 601 call for the aileron cables to have 35lbs tension in the rigged flight position at all times.
If this tension is not correct and the aircraft has an in flight flutter problem due to too loose cables this can hardly qualify as bad design of the aircraft, rather the builder of the aircraft should look at his workmanship/ inspection shedule.

The last thing we must keep in mind is that flutter usually occurs at speeds higher than VNE, now why would a pilot be in that flight regime?

Kind regards,

Gunter Rostek.

[Retoriqal]

Goodmorning guys,

Something you might find interesting: http://www.caa.co.za/resource%20center/AIC'S/23.1.5.pdf

[Morph]

Besides, the Raven uses a different wing/aileron design

[Retoriqal]

G'morning fellas...

For an updated pricelist on the Cheetah XLS ( http://www.aerotrike.co.za/cheetah/ ) , contact me at:

sales@aerotrike.co.za

Regards,
Ray