EAA Sport Aviation - February 2012

MEMBERCENTRAL

Woodill, Chapter 132 vice president, counts only a little more than the minimum number of hours from start to finish for the conforming model. The highly detailed manual, which breaks the project up into logical building blocks, was a major benefit.

Pilots mount the AeroMax like a motorcycle, by throwing a leg over the center of the fuselage and settling into the comfortable seat. Feet fit snugly into the stirrups with toes on the rudder pedals. Fasten the four-point harness, complete the checklist, and you’re ready to fly. Be ready for some responsive handling, courtesy of the full-span ailerons and a generous tailplane and vertical stabilizer/rudder.

The airframe kit is ready to ship and comes complete with all wood, fasteners, fabric, hardware, and trim, including wheelpants and fairings. It sells for less than $10,000. The engines cost in the $5,000 range.

Warm weather flying doesn’t get any better than
on a motorcycle of the air.

JDT President John Graber flies the AeroMax prototype with a Hirth engine.

WHY HAVE LOCAL EAA CHAPTERS?

By Amit Ganjoo, EAA 1029710, EAA Chapter 186

BUILDING AN AIRCRAFT has been a childhood dream of mine that is slowly and surely coming true for me once I started my scratchbuilt Sonex project in January 2011.

Having an engineering background, and having built a lot of stuff around the house growing up, the various building activities that need to be performed are generally easy to grasp for me. However, a thorough understanding of the plans and their practical implementation has taken me quite some time. Since I am building this plane from scratch, I spend most of my time fabricating the parts that one would typically get with a kit.

In my effort to fabricate the wing spars, I received immense support from fellow members of the local EAA chapter. My technical counselor, Dick Koehler, volunteered to help me out since I had no prior experience with solid riveting. Dick came over with Mike Hoehne and David Watrous, who are also chapter members, on two consecutive Saturdays, and the riveting for both the spars was wrapped up in less than 10 hours.

As the rest of the plane requires pull riveting, which I am used to doing by myself, the assistance from the chapter members was of immense value to me. Needless to say, without their help it would not have been possible for me to wrap up this vital structure of the plane in such a short time without any mistakes.

It is just amazing to see how the EAA
chapter encourages and supports its
members. It is mind-boggling that even at
short notice when I have needed help, the
folks at the chapter have been there. I have
realized that I can count on the people from
the chapter not only for their tools but also
for their guidance and assistance. I hope
that someday another builder can similarly
count on me. Although I am a few years away
from completing the project, the backup
support from my local chapter colleagues is
overwhelming, and I sincerely wish to express
my gratitude to one and all at the chapter.