Marty_d

Good outcome.

Price is USD 69,500 complete. On today's conversion that's around $106,000 in proper money. Are you saying it costs another $100k to transport a plane from the US? (Not to mention the folding wing system means it fits in a 20ft container with no fuss - tie it down and it's done). Which also means it can sit in a single car garage instead of hangaring.

Just thinking too, it's probably a smart choice to make something retro. Mostly the people with the money and time to commit aviation are 60 - 80+ years old. Probably a good proportion of them prefer the nostalgic lines, polished aluminium look and all aluminium build, to the plastic fantastics. Being a single seater isn't a problem for them, as their wives are trying to get them out of the house anyway...

Plus 25 staff, not a cheap operation but it is an impressive looking plane and tempting for anyone who loves that "real plane" look (Ryans, Ercoupes etc) at a fraction of the cost.

There's a few interesting videos of the Spirit SE1. In one shot thew showed about 20 sitting in the factory. Certainly not a pie in the sky design out to lure investors. All aluminium, even the cowl. If I had the money...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3792565/Lufthansa-passenger-plane-makes-emergency-landing-massive-VULTURE-smashes-nose-5-000ft.html

Yeah Fusion is light years ahead. I've used SketchUp for renovation drawings and it's fine for stuff like that, but anything with detail that I want to print is Fusion.

Yep, Autodesk Fusion 360. I have kids in high school so using a free education version.

My design, but the idea is out there in others - probably far better than mine but using steel and machined parts, where I wanted to stick to ally tube and printed plastic.

I almost forgot - the control lock. When not in use, the two angled tubes pivot back towards the stick holder and clip parallel with the centre tube. Quite light but strong.

Thanks Bob. Yep I have the right gauge, it just doesn't have any wires connected to it! 😄

Hi Mike, yep half and half with demineralized water.

Thanks guys. I will add more. I don't know where the coolant went, as I said it was the recommended amount - but there's only a bit in the top metal reservoir, none in the plastic overflow, and the hoses all seem to be empty too. And there's been no leaks.

Thanks Mike! Hey guys - question about the cooling system. As per the manual I put 1.5 litres of coolant (50% green stuff, 50% demineralized water) in the metal reservoir with all the pipes coming out of it. There's been no leaks in the system, no puddles under the plane, but even after today's run there's no coolant in the plastic overflow container (which has min/max lines). Should I be worried about this?

Success! Well partial success. First attempt I forgot the magneto switches, so it turned over for 5 seconds before I stopped. Luckily at that point I noticed fuel dribbling in the cabin from a loose hose clamp on the fuel pressure gauge. A friend outside the plane also noticed fuel dripping from the lowest point - another loose connection on the header tank. With these fixed, I tried again. Engine started immediately and went to 2000 rpm. Tried throttling back to 1500 but it didn't drop much below 2000. Then noticed the oil pressure hadn't risen so turned off. Looks like I hadn't connected the wiring for oil pressure. Oil temp and CHT's were also zero so I will check those. All that aside though, it was great to have it running! (And I did call "Clear prop!" just before the start of the video...)