Car, Brian started teaching him to fly in a
Citabria. He earned his private pilot certificate barely a year before completing the
airplane. To transition into the Air Car, Doug
got his complex and high-performance
endorsements in Dave’s Yak- 52 and his float
rating in a Cessna 150.
The first flight of the Air Car was in June
2007 with Brian at the controls. It went
“amazingly well,” Doug says. It first went in
the water at San Luis Reservoir in California
barely 25 hours into the 40-hour test period.
By the time they flew it to AirVenture
Oshkosh 2009, it had 210 hours on it.
SPENCER AIR CAR S-12-E
DIMENSIONS
Wingspan: 37 feet, 4 inches
Wing area: 184 square feet
Overall length: 26 feet, 5 inches
Height: 9 feet, 6 inches
Wheel tread: 8 feet, 4 inches
Wheel base: 10 feet, 2 inches
Cabin width: 45 to 47 inches
Cabin height: 47 inches
Cabin length (rear wall to nose): 8 feet, 6 inches
Empty weight: 2,407 pounds
Gross weight: 3,400 pounds
Fuel capacity: 96 gallons
Max range: 750 miles (with 30-minute reserve)
ENGINE
Continental Tiara 6-285-C2
285 hp at 4000 rpm
2-to- 1 propeller reduction
PERFORMANCE
VC 125 mph at 65 percent power 6,500 feet
VNE 180 mph
VSO 58 mph
VNO 140 mph
VFE 100 mph
Climbs 1,000 feet/minute at full gross at sea level,
standard temperature.
ORDER PLANS
Wanda Kerans
1629 Park Dr.
Schaumburg, IL 60194
847-882-5678
robertkerans@earthlink.net
“I was out of my mind excited about the
flight out to AirVenture as I had never been
over the Sierras or the Rockies in any small
airplane, much less one I built myself,” Doug
recalls. “I couldn’t sleep for several days
before we left, and truth is, I didn’t sleep the
whole trip out.” This exhaustion kept Doug
from playing around on the water on the
way to Oshkosh, but he and Brian did complete a few landings and takeoffs on Gull
Lake in Minnesota.
Brian and Doug didn’t have any data on
how to fly or configure the airplane for
water ops, so they started experimenting
with 20 degrees of flaps. “We figured 35
degrees would cause too much drag and
interrupt the flow of air into the prop,” Doug
says. But after reading a Seabee manual that
said all water takeoffs should be done with
full flaps, he tried it and the airplane flew off
faster than it ever had. “With partial flaps, it
is difficult to rotate out of the water without
the aft hull dragging,” Doug explains. “The
full-flap takeoffs take 16 to 18 seconds.
Without full flaps, the times were in the mid-
20-second range.”
The airplane is no speed demon; still, on
the way to Oshkosh they averaged 120 mph
at 65 percent and 13 to 15 gallons per hour
depending on altitude, “which isn’t bad for
such a blunt object,” Doug says.
Doug’s experience at Oshkosh was very
gratifying. Caroline came in a couple days
after Doug’s arrival, and Doug made a point
to travel the show and the countryside with
her, rather than hang around the airplane all
the time. “I wanted Oshkosh to be a pleasant
experience for her,” Doug explains. “She’s a
very important part of my life, and even
when I was totally immersed in building, we
made it a point to leave and do things
together. We all need balance, and she has
earned everything I can possibly give her.
The airplane wouldn’t have happened with-
out her, and I couldn’t enjoy it without her.”
Doug has proven that anyone can learn
to do anything if they want to build an air-
plane.
Budd Davisson is an aeronautical engineer, has
flown 300 different types, and has published four
books and more than 2,500 articles. He is editor-in-chief of Flight Journal magazine. Visit him on
www.AirBum.com.
Top to Bottom: Wiring and welding were just two
of the skills Doug learned-the rudder pedals were
among the first components he built-wiring came
later, with the help of his friends. The Air Car’s
seats, with good lumbar support, were built by
Doug with input from his physical therapist wife,
Caroline. The overhead throttle quadrant was
custom fabricated.
