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Perhaps the Sportsman’s
best feature, according
to most owners, is
the aircraft’s ability
to fly fast when you
want to, and slow
when you need to.
extremely versatile airplane, equally
happy flying as a nosedragger or a taildragger, on skis or on floats. With full fuel
it has more payload than a Cessna 182, is
faster than the Skylane, and costs a whole
lot less to operate. Given that a Sportsman
built in the Two Weeks to Taxi program is
also about half the cost of a new C-182,
many owners will tell you it’s an excellent
way to double your money when buying
an airplane.
BY THE BOOK
As remarkable as the Two Weeks to Taxi
program is to many, it is troublesome to
others. For archetypal amateur aircraft
builders who often work years perfecting
every curve, the thought of building an
entire airplane in two weeks is approaching laughable.
The FAA visited the Glasair facility to
determine once and for all if the program
matched the rule that an amateur builder
must build at least 51 percent of the airplane.
After several days of watching the program
in action, the government ruled that Two
Weeks to Taxi completely satisfied that level
of contribution. The Glasair Sportsman can
be built legally in just two weeks.
A Benefit of Building
One of the real advantages of building your own airplane is the opportunity to customize. Amateur builders often
have a choice between several engines and
propellers, a rainbow of paint schemes, and
a variety of options when it comes to avionics. Typically the Glasair Sportsman is a
glass-paneled airplane with panels manufactured by Oregon-based
Advanced Flight Systems.
The company makes three
high-resolution LCD screens
ranging from 8. 4 inches (
diagonally) to 6. 5 inches, all of which
can be configured to operate as
an EFIS or an engine monitor or
both at the same time.
Advanced Flight Systems uses an
uncertified version of the TSO’d Crossbow
AHRS that is widely used in glass cockpit avi-
onics upgrades for Part 23 aircraft. The glass
cockpit Sportsman features synthetic vision,
a fuel computer, NEXRAD and METAR weather,
plus a TFR overlay. The Advanced system can
also handle WAAS and ADS-B. Add Jeppesen’s
electronic charts to the mix and you even get
a moving map showing geolocation on the
chart itself. In simpler terms, you can see
where you are on the approach plate while
you shoot an approach.
