Glasair III owner here - intoduction

Looking good Todd!! Get it up in the air - you will love it! If you want any pointers for you first flight let me know. Mike Kiamy from Kiamys Inc in Piqua, OH (same place as Hartzell) did the entire interior. It has 3 hides of Porsche leather covering the sidewalls, seats, and headliner. After doing the interior he said "this will be my only Glasair - it literally killed me." I thought the $9k price tag for the entire interior was a good deal.
 
Polished the plane today. The fact that it leaks no fluids makes it an easy plane to detail.
 

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Do you have his number handy, I sure like what he did on your glasair, I'd like to consider him for mine and that's pretty close for me. Your whole glasair looks really nice Todd. Mine will fly soon, did first engine start today, went flawless. It will only be a few weeks at the most now.
As for the first flight I have a freind coming up to do it with me. He has a Glasair III that he raced at Reno and he already checked me out in his so I'm pretty confident it will go well.
 
Cool, if you have already flown one you know what you are doing. My only suggestion with the short tips is to keep you pattern high with a higher angle than standard on final. Altitude and speed is your friend with that wing. I have about 60 hours on mine now and feel very comfortable in all weather and low ceilings. I will not fly it at night other than the local area (same for an single for me) that I know, but other than that I will take it anywhere.

Mike claims he does not want to do another Glasair interior. He said it was the hardest interior he had ever done because there was nowhere to lay down to put things in. He really struggled with mine. When I offered to get him more business he said "I have plenty to do, but I appreciate it."
 
When you two Todds eventually realize that flying is all about low and slow tail draggers, I'm willing to take either one of your nightmare liabilities off your hands as a favor... if the price is right of course!! :D;)
 
Dav8or said:
When you two Todds eventually realize that flying is all about low and slow tail draggers, I'm willing to take either one of your nightmare liabilities off your hands as a favor... if the price is right of course!! :D;)
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He already got that out of his system. Ask him about his helicopters....
 
Dav8or said:
When you two Todds eventually realize that flying is all about low and slow tail draggers, I'm willing to take either one of your nightmare liabilities off your hands as a favor... if the price is right of course!! :D;)
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Ha! I like low and slow too! I am a tail wheel pilot and my other airplane is a Glastar. It does low and slow really well. I'm of the mind that ALL airplanes are cool and almost all kinds of flying is fun!
 
toddsanderson said:
Cool, if you have already flown one you know what you are doing. My only suggestion with the short tips is to keep you pattern high with a higher angle than standard on final. Altitude and speed is your friend with that wing. I have about 60 hours on mine now and feel very comfortable in all weather and low ceilings. I will not fly it at night other than the local area (same for an single for me) that I know, but other than that I will take it anywhere.

Mike claims he does not want to do another Glasair interior. He said it was the hardest interior he had ever done because there was nowhere to lay down to put things in. He really struggled with mine. When I offered to get him more business he said "I have plenty to do, but I appreciate it."
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A disappointment for sure but I understand how Mike feels, try building one! Everything you do is like that with small tight, uncomfortable spaces!
 
The Performance One aviation guys told me to figure at least 3000 hours to build one. I can believe it. The people I hired had 500 hours just in the panel, interior, and paint.
 
Dav8or said:
When you two Todds eventually realize that flying is all about low and slow tail draggers, I'm willing to take either one of your nightmare liabilities off your hands as a favor... if the price is right of course!! :D;)
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If I do sell this will be my last plane. I don't think I could ever go back to anything with less performance/handling and cannot afford anything with a turbine engine.
 
German guy said:
Just out of curiosity - how many hours should one realistically expect to build one of these?
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Depends how you count em, my dad and I have five years into ours. Dad is slow these days but pretty close to seven days a week. I join him two to five days a week depending on my schedule. We haven't been taking a laid back approach but it hasn't been work at a frantic pace either. Much time is spent figuring out how you want to do different parts of the build. We did our own three panel G3X panel too. We easily have 10,000 hours in it, wow, that is a lot. But, it's not really work, it's mostly fun.
 
Todd, I am glad you found it to be fun. I found that building a composite plane is outright torture. The filling and sanding goes on forever! 10,000 hours is a lot of time.
 
I showed my wife the new interior today. She still laughs when she gets in the plane because it is so different from what she is accustomed to. She said that she really likes the interior.
 

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She should Todd, it looks great. You said it above, the Glasair III is the ultimate personal aircraft. I hope you enjoy flying it for years to come. By the way, July 11th my dad and I are hosting a Glasair aircraft fly in at KBTP (butler County), I'll be feeding everyone pizza and drinks. The Ford Trimotor will also be there and a car show. Would love to see your beautiful airplane up close.
 
I would love to come, but I am heading for Disney in the Glasair that exact day. I wish I cold be there!
 
weilke said:
3000hrs to be 90% finished. Then another 3000hrs for the next 5%.
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Todd Copeland said:
[...] We easily have 10,000 hours in it, wow, that is a lot. [...]
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Wow. :eek: I envy you for your patience. :yes:

I would really like to build something, but can't imagine myself staying motivated for such a long time. 1,000 hrs, yes. 1,500 hrs, probably. 2,000 hrs, maybe. But more than that? :dunno:

Maybe I should start with something like a CH750 on floats or one of these cool kit-helicopters.... :rolleyes:
 
German guy said:
Wow. :eek: I envy you for your patience. :yes:

I would really like to build something, but can't imagine myself staying motivated for such a long time. 1,000 hrs, yes. 1,500 hrs, probably. 2,000 hrs, maybe. But more than that? :dunno:

Maybe I should start with something like a CH750 on floats or one of these cool kit-helicopters.... :rolleyes:
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You can always buy a partially completed kit. They are for sale all the time and usually a huge discount from the price of a new kit. Let somebody else put in thousands of hours and you just finish up.
 
Or you can buy one done for 1/2 of what the builder had in it not including their time! The guy that built mine did so in exact standards and used the best. New engine from Lycoming, new prop, aviation grade everything, etc. I figured that he had about $250k in it plus his time. Buy one done and built well and then upgrade it the way you want.
 
toddsanderson said:
If I do sell this will be my last plane. I don't think I could ever go back to anything with less performance/handling and cannot afford anything with a turbine engine.
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I can see the attraction. I really just wish it could land at shorter fields. I regularly operate at runways that are 3000 ft and sometimes less.:(
 
toddsanderson said:
Or you can buy one done for 1/2 of what the builder had in it not including their time! The guy that built mine did so in exact standards and used the best. New engine from Lycoming, new prop, aviation grade everything, etc. I figured that he had about $250k in it plus his time. Buy one done and built well and then upgrade it the way you want.
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Absolutely right Todd, cheaper than to build and without the time! As for me, I wanted to build it. It's my second airplane and I actualy recently bought a wing kit for an RV-14. My dad and I build together and we have a good time doing it. The RV will be a much easier more straight forward build that should take me about two years to complete.
 
The ideal set up is to get one or two other guys who want to build the same airplane and do two or three airplanes at the same time. The second and third airplane take about 1/3 the time as the first as you are making three parts at a time etc. I helped a friend finish his RV7. Since I had done one already it took less than half the time it took me on the first one I did because I didn't have to stop and figure anything out. Building isn't for everyone but it is very rewarding and I enjoy it. You have to commit yourself to working on it every day even if only 1/2 hr to keep the momentum up. It's like eating an elephant. You do one piece at a time and eventually you are finished. Don
 
Dav8or said:
I can see the attraction. I really just wish it could land at shorter fields. I regularly operate at runways that are 3000 ft and sometimes less.:(
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I can do 3000, but prefer not to as I do not like to stand on the brakes. With the short tips 3000 would really be pushing it.
 
So, short tips = higher cruise speed and long tips = slower/shorter landing and aux fuel?
 
Short tips = 50% faster roll rate and faster cruise below 9k or so. Long tips = faster cruise speed at higher altitudes, lower stall speed, better glide ratio, and more fuel / longer range.

Both have their strong points depending on what you want to do.
 
Re: Glasair III owner here - introduction

Sounds like I'd want the long tips.
 
Re: Glasair III owner here - introduction

dans2992 said:
Sounds like I'd want the long tips.
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I'm with you there. I flew the short tips and the roll rate was impressive, but that was the only advantage I could see. The sink rate with the power off was significant and with the gear out was that of a flying man hole cover. The take off and landing distance was about 20-30% longer as well and the initial climb was very sluggish. If you want to do acro above regular rolls and loops it is the way to go. If you are willing to lose roll rate and a little speed below 8-9k the long tips make sense.
 
I've flown both short and long tips. Both have advantages but I built a third set for my Glasair III. Few of them out their and they are almost exactly in between the short and long tips. I'll have to let you know how they perform.
 

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Cool Todd! The other reason I wanted the long tips was for the fuel. 62 Gallons was just not enough. It was basically a 3 hour plane using a little of the wing tanks and the header tank for reserve. I wanted a 4+ hour plane with the header tank as reserve, so I went with the wet tips.
 
Re: Glasair III owner here - introduction

Are your engines turbocharged or NA?
 
There are Glasairs that have turbocharged engines. In fact the Reno winner the last few years runs an IO580TT. He broke records last year racing at over 400mph!

Todd, I have the long tips built with fuel, just not painted yet but I get the fuel issue!
 
Todd Copeland said:
There are Glasairs that have turbocharged engines. In fact the Reno winner the last few years runs an IO580TT. He broke records last year racing at over 400mph!

Todd, I have the long tips built with fuel, just not painted yet but I get the fuel issue!
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Ya gotta LOVE homebuilt experimentals....:):):):):)
 
Todd, you will like the short tips for flying by yourself or another passenger under gross an moderate to cool days, but you will want more wing if full of fuel with passenger and a hot day. Even with all the power with the short tips until you get the gear up the plane really does not want to climb and acceleration is weak. The long tips took care of that problem. NOW, add another 100 HP and.....:yes:

BTW, I like this plane so much that I am seriously considering a turbo-normalizing system for it. Having the ability to make 75% power up around 22-25k would make for an honest 250-270 knot plane on 18 GPH or less. Range would still be the same, but would cut 20-25% of the time of of the trip and would take you over most of the weather. I'm not interested in doing any faster down low, but the ability to make it up high would be great. Currently, the sweet spot for my plane is about 12,500. It gets slower by roughly 1-2 knots every 1000 ft higher than that. You simply run out of power.
 
Re: Glasair III owner here - introduction

Sounds nice!

Is lack of de-ice a significant issue for a "traveling" airplane though? I'd think that wing would not like ice at all...
 
Re: Glasair III owner here - introduction

dans2992 said:
Sounds nice!

Is lack of de-ice a significant issue for a "traveling" airplane though? I'd think that wing would not like ice at all...
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If I do the turbo I will spend money for the De-Ice as well. Therm-X states that they can likely make a system for it.
 
Re: Glasair III owner here - introduction

Nice.... My dream plane once I no longer need more than 2 seats!
 
Re: Glasair III owner here - introduction

Then again, if you add all that stuff, maybe a Lancair IV-P would be better...?
 
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