Anyone else building a wood airplane?

[DaleB]

Mine has an O-235-L2C and no wing tanks. It burns about 5.5 GPH, leaving me with about 90 mins of endurance with legal VFR reserves. I'm ready to get out and stretch by then, anyway, especially if it's midday and I'm getting bounced around. Needs a pilot upgrade more than anything else.

Interesting. Dave Hertner told me I really needed to keep the engine weight at or under 200#, I’d have thought an O-235 would be too heavy. Then again there are several running Rotecs, so maybe it’s not as big a deal as that.

 

[ColinD]

Not sure why that would be - I've seen several powered by O-235s and O-290s. I'm a large pilot - about 275 lbs - and I still have over 200 lbs of useful load remaining. With me sitting in the rear hole, the airplane's CG was about an inch aft of the allowable limit prescribed by the Fisher literature, so I replaced the previous owner's 23lb AGM battery and stainless tray with it a Shorai lithium battery and an aluminum mount. In my case, a heavier engine would have been helpful.

 

[moparrob66]

Hats off to you woodworkers! My grandfather had big dreams of building a Falco. Gorgeous design and a lot of work. I have his set of preview plans somewhere. He started accumulating woodworking tools and honing his skills on more forgiving projects, but grandma's cancer turned out to be a permanent detour from his dreams.

 

[DaleB]

Not sure why that would be - I've seen several powered by O-235s and O-290s. I'm a large pilot - about 275 lbs - and I still have over 200 lbs of useful load remaining. With me sitting in the rear hole, the airplane's CG was about an inch aft of the allowable limit prescribed by the Fisher literature, so I replaced the previous owner's 23lb AGM battery and stainless tray with it a Shorai lithium battery and an aluminum mount. In my case, a heavier engine would have been helpful.

You win the prize for the most useful reply from anyone that I've had in a month, at least. I can't even calculate the odds of finding someone who is equal to my own not insubstantial bulk who's flying a Celebrity. I've been looking at small Continentals and some other alternatives, and knowing that an O-235 or -290 would be a viable option is great news. I've never actually seen a Celebrity in person...