Visibility is excellent. She has two overhead skylights and the door plexi is bowed outward to improve your ability to look down or back. The low panel makes the view out the front very good as well.
Hi. Random question that maybe you could answer: Why does this Sportsman (and a few others I've seen) have that extra air inlet in the front bottom of the cowl and others don't? (Thanks in advance!)
The firewall-forward portion of the kit is pretty much up to the builder, for us non-Two-Weeks-To-Taxi folks. So, it depends on what engine you chose to install, and what sort of induction system you have. Some engines are fed vertically, and some are horizontally fed. For some, they grab air for the engine off the front baffle (about behind the landing lights) on one side. For those builders there really isn't any obvious air intake for the engine. Others use a large NACA scoop on the side of the cowl. I'm probably in the minority, using the intake arrangement on my Sportsman. I took an RV intake system and cut most of the scoop away, bonding the parts I needed to my cowl. On fast airplanes like an RV, they say you get a small amount of intake pressurization from the ram-effect. I'm guessing there is little to none of that on the slower Sportsman, but it can't hurt!
@@russbeers9613 Thank you so much! I've seen some Glastars out there with the circular round inlets, too, but never on a Sportsman. I've just always wondered the meaning behind those kinds of little differences. Can never study too much about airplanes, haha!
Thanks, Andrew. I try to post videos as often as I can. Winter is a little slower on flying due to the Condition Inspection process. If you want to see more about teh construction, you can visit my Blog. It details the entire multi-year build. Here's the site: russsportsman.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Dan. The paint scheme is not strictly that of a war-bird, but it is inspired by the aircraft in my father's WWII unit, the 1st Air Commando Group. He was a Crew Chief (Staff Sergeant) on both P-47 and P-51 fighters that were in that unit. Their Unit recognition markings was the 5 diagonal stripes on the tail of all the aircraft. It was a rather unique unit, and included fighters, B-25H bombers, C-47 transports, CG-4 gliders, light aircraft and even helicopters
Gorgeous aircraft. Thanks for the tour. How was the build? I got from your other comment it took almost 8 years to complete, is that correct? What kind of man hours when into it?
Thanks! It took about 2100 hours to build the plane, spread out over about 8 years. The extended schedule was mostly to allow finances to catch-up to my requirements. It is a very well engineered kit with great on-line support. I'm not sure what the kit costs currently, but I think they are pricing it to encourage folks to use their Two-Week to Taxi program.
The price of their kit has gone up (maybe to discourage folks from slow-building - closing the gap to the TWTT). Also, the TWTT program locks you into certain engines/props/avionics, so I'm not sure what those features that are different from my choices would run. All that said, I think the difference in price is something like $50-70K. In the end, you are still far ahead of a new Cessna or Piper, and will have your Repairman Certificate, saving more each year at the Condition Inspection. And you'll have far more knowledge of the aircraft and its system than the average Cessna driver...
Good to know. I’m looking at this and the 4 seat bear hawk . The glastar has some features that I like that the bearhawk doesn’t. This would be build #5 if I do ever decide which way to go.
beautiful ! thanks for sharing
Very nice plane, and nice avionics! Would enjoy more videos/details about building & flying it.
Great looking aircraft.
Thanks!!
Very noce plane. Congrats! How is the visibility in there?
Visibility is excellent. She has two overhead skylights and the door plexi is bowed outward to improve your ability to look down or back. The low panel makes the view out the front very good as well.
Hi. Random question that maybe you could answer: Why does this Sportsman (and a few others I've seen) have that extra air inlet in the front bottom of the cowl and others don't? (Thanks in advance!)
The firewall-forward portion of the kit is pretty much up to the builder, for us non-Two-Weeks-To-Taxi folks. So, it depends on what engine you chose to install, and what sort of induction system you have. Some engines are fed vertically, and some are horizontally fed. For some, they grab air for the engine off the front baffle (about behind the landing lights) on one side. For those builders there really isn't any obvious air intake for the engine. Others use a large NACA scoop on the side of the cowl. I'm probably in the minority, using the intake arrangement on my Sportsman. I took an RV intake system and cut most of the scoop away, bonding the parts I needed to my cowl. On fast airplanes like an RV, they say you get a small amount of intake pressurization from the ram-effect. I'm guessing there is little to none of that on the slower Sportsman, but it can't hurt!
@@russbeers9613 Thank you so much! I've seen some Glastars out there with the circular round inlets, too, but never on a Sportsman. I've just always wondered the meaning behind those kinds of little differences. Can never study too much about airplanes, haha!
Thanks, Andrew. I try to post videos as often as I can. Winter is a little slower on flying due to the Condition Inspection process. If you want to see more about teh construction, you can visit my Blog. It details the entire multi-year build. Here's the site: russsportsman.blogspot.com/
Never saw a nice paint like that !!!
Thanks, Dan. The paint scheme is not strictly that of a war-bird, but it is inspired by the aircraft in my father's WWII unit, the 1st Air Commando Group. He was a Crew Chief (Staff Sergeant) on both P-47 and P-51 fighters that were in that unit. Their Unit recognition markings was the 5 diagonal stripes on the tail of all the aircraft. It was a rather unique unit, and included fighters, B-25H bombers, C-47 transports, CG-4 gliders, light aircraft and even helicopters
if the wing wasn't so fast it would be an amazing plane....
Gorgeous aircraft. Thanks for the tour. How was the build? I got from your other comment it took almost 8 years to complete, is that correct? What kind of man hours when into it?
Thanks! It took about 2100 hours to build the plane, spread out over about 8 years. The extended schedule was mostly to allow finances to catch-up to my requirements. It is a very well engineered kit with great on-line support. I'm not sure what the kit costs currently, but I think they are pricing it to encourage folks to use their Two-Week to Taxi program.
Very cool . Was this a two weeks to taxi build?
Nope. A Four-Hundred and Two Weeks to Taxi program built in the basement... :-)
Cool . Have you added up the final cost . Was curious as to the cost difference between the Twtt vs slowbuild.
The price of their kit has gone up (maybe to discourage folks from slow-building - closing the gap to the TWTT). Also, the TWTT program locks you into certain engines/props/avionics, so I'm not sure what those features that are different from my choices would run. All that said, I think the difference in price is something like $50-70K. In the end, you are still far ahead of a new Cessna or Piper, and will have your Repairman Certificate, saving more each year at the Condition Inspection. And you'll have far more knowledge of the aircraft and its system than the average Cessna driver...
Good to know. I’m looking at this and the 4 seat bear hawk . The glastar has some features that I like that the bearhawk doesn’t. This would be build #5 if I do ever decide which way to go.