I Have one that I built in 2002. Have over 1300 hours on it now. Avoid it. In my opinion it is a really dangerous airplane. I use it for my business, but will be chopping it up with a chainsaw when I'm finished for liability reasons. First off...the kit is a piece of crap. I threw away most all of it except the fiberglass airframe itself. Came with wheels and brakes that were way under the gross weight limit for the airplane. Came with a used, repaired tailwheel. Lots of auto hoses, fittings, etc. Instead of AN fittings on the flap rods for example, they inserted smaller diameter tubes inside the larger tubes and hogged a nasty weld on it. Two separate times, then finished it off with a piece of Home Depot threaded rod welded in. The SS control cables were not aircraft grade. The pullies were off an ultralight. No cable guard safeties on the pully brackets, etc. They used Morse cables for the elevator. Told me they were rated 1500 lbs. which would have been adequate. But that was for pull rating. Push ratings were under 400 lbs. Very dangerous set-up. They molded a fiberglass header tank behind the firewall for separating air from the fuel into the engine. It split apart one day while taxiing. My feet were standing in Jet-A. Luckily I've built an airplane before, and tossed most everything and fixed it all myself. As for the airframe....It is hand laid crap. They build boats there. Looks like a homemade boat. The two halves of the fuselage are not symmetrical. Left and right wing root molded into the fuselage is 1 inch longer on one side in chord, and about 1 degree difference in angle of incidence. It was very difficult to measure and set angles on this airplane. There isn't a straight line, or anything level anywhere on it. They started with a smaller airplane, and kept putting in spacers into the fuselage to make it longer and wider. They increased the wing area by lengthening the chord. But nowhere near enough horizontal stab or elevator is added. They had trouble flaring the plane on touchdown so they they fixed it by cranking the Horizontal stabilizer down. There is around 8 degrees difference between the wing and Horizontal Stabilizer angles. Yes...8 DEGREES! The last airplane I built, and the factory airplane I measured was about 1-1.5 degrees. This airplane has no pitch stability whatsoever. Roll stability is negative over 15-20 degrees bank angle. Even with outside rudder it will roll over on you without corrective roll input. With the flaps down on a go around you better add power slowly as the flaps come up or it'll put you on your back. A test pilot who was flying the restrictions off a customers "Factory built" plane got killed at Aerocomps home airport on a go-around. It is very, very difficult to land. Huge prop, tall springy gear, huge turbine lag, high idle thrust, poor aileron authority when slow, and fuel level right-left is very difficult to keep balanced. I consider every landing an adventure. I'm not an unskilled person. Ex-motorcycle and car racer. Good one too. over 6000 hours in 35 years. I did have a prop strike once. But it was 16, gust 26 at a 45 degree crosswind. 9" heaves in the runway too. Found out later when I flew commercial 737 out of there. We were hanging by our seat belts on the initial TO roll. $40,000 in cost to repair. And it was only 1.5" bent at the tips.
Now for the Walter engine. It is great!! Love it. Change the oil at 300 hours, change fuel filter, bleed air out of the FCU, and borescope inspection once a year. Always use Prist in the fuel. Otherwise just no maintenance on it. It's good for 1500 hours. Diemech Turbines does a fantastic job building and maintaining them. Follow their advice on operating it too, and you'll be fine. $25K every 1500 hundred hours motor and prop. Cheap. Other than the prop strike I haven't spent more than $1000 in 14 years on it. My annual inspection in 2002 on my C-320 twin was running $10K-$15K every year. The Comp 7 runs me less than $100 a year. It has been a very productive plane in my aerial surveying business in Alaska. Seen some rough duty, and bad weather, but I survived it all. But I hate the airplane, and hate flying it. Only fun part is the climb out. With a light load it'll do 4000'/min easy. Some asked if the factory has a maintenance plan. Yes they do. Required for any turbine, even a homebuilt. It was a real hassle to get it approved by the FAA too. To summarize...avoid these planes.
