NX-4L
Coming soon to a lake near me.
Greetings,
I am building an L-4 from Wag-Aero' Sport Trainer plans. It's pretty incomplete right now.
This is most of it. (I actually bought the instrument panel first because it's almost exactly perfect,then the guy I bought the panel from said, "I have plans and a few more parts somewhere." So I bought a (partially finished) empennage kit and two sets of plans from him.)
It has to be Cub Yellow. I learned to fly in a yellow L-4, with no electrical system, and a handpropped A-65.
I bought a set of float plans but haven't decided whether to build Wag's or Zenair's.
12 or 13 gallons should be sufficient, I'd basically be flying it within a 60 by 90 statute mile box, with a theoretical occasional maximum leg of 180 statute miles, and plenty of places to stop enroute to buy a sandwich and fuel.
I'm undecided on the cowling, open is iconic and what the plane I learned to fly in had. But Piper put a pressure cowling later models for a reason. Weather here varies year round mid 60s F to mid 80s F and the hottest months are also have 80-100% humidity. But the lake it will be based at is 10 foot AMSL. The highest I will "have" to fly is 1000 feet (over a 500 foot terrain feature). I won't be taking off or landing anywhere over 240 foot AMSL.
Some have also suggested clipped wingtips, which don't bother me too much from an aesthetic point of view. I get that it surrenders a tiny bit of lift to save a tiny bit of weight. I want to build it light. But I won't be doing any aerobatics in a floatplane.
Andrew
I am building an L-4 from Wag-Aero' Sport Trainer plans. It's pretty incomplete right now.
This is most of it. (I actually bought the instrument panel first because it's almost exactly perfect,then the guy I bought the panel from said, "I have plans and a few more parts somewhere." So I bought a (partially finished) empennage kit and two sets of plans from him.)
It has to be Cub Yellow. I learned to fly in a yellow L-4, with no electrical system, and a handpropped A-65.
I bought a set of float plans but haven't decided whether to build Wag's or Zenair's.
12 or 13 gallons should be sufficient, I'd basically be flying it within a 60 by 90 statute mile box, with a theoretical occasional maximum leg of 180 statute miles, and plenty of places to stop enroute to buy a sandwich and fuel.
I'm undecided on the cowling, open is iconic and what the plane I learned to fly in had. But Piper put a pressure cowling later models for a reason. Weather here varies year round mid 60s F to mid 80s F and the hottest months are also have 80-100% humidity. But the lake it will be based at is 10 foot AMSL. The highest I will "have" to fly is 1000 feet (over a 500 foot terrain feature). I won't be taking off or landing anywhere over 240 foot AMSL.
Some have also suggested clipped wingtips, which don't bother me too much from an aesthetic point of view. I get that it surrenders a tiny bit of lift to save a tiny bit of weight. I want to build it light. But I won't be doing any aerobatics in a floatplane.
Andrew
