Looking for feedback/reviews of the Karat Motorglider from AMS
Peter
motorglider, I'd ideally like to hear first-hand experiences or better
still anyone know of one based in California that I can go look at one
weekend ?
I have only found a very few articles on the plane with the minimum of
info but it caught my interest...
Cheers,
Peter
Mal
"Peter" <peter.a...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2006.07.14.07.17.29.746751@prosys...
It is spelt Carat
Jeremy Zawodny
Bob Kuykendall
>
> I'm looking for any user/owner opinions, good or bad, on the [C]arat
> motorglider, I'd ideally like to hear first-hand experiences or better
> still anyone know of one based in California that I can go look at one
> weekend ?
{plug:shameless=on}
If you like the Carat, you might also keep an eye on:
http://www.hpaircraft.com/glidair
{/plug}
Bob K.
hel...@stanford.edu
> motorglider, I'd ideally like to hear first-hand experiences or better
> still anyone know of one based in California that I can go look at one
> weekend ?
A good approach is to join the Auxiliary Powered Sailplane Assn, an SSA
affiliate, and you'll get the membership list which shows who flies
what, and their phone numbers. When I was trying to decide on a MG some
years back, I found this invaluable. Most owners are quite happy to
tell you what they think of their ships, though I'll admit most loved
what they had. For example, when I talked to the Grob 109A owners, a
number said, "Who'd want a B when they cost almost twice as much?" In
turn, the 109B owners put down the A for its poor climb performance.
This might not be as biased as it sounds: If the A owners live near sea
level and the B owners at higher altitudes, then they're both right
since the A has adequate climb performance at sea level, but is
marginal at altitude.
Good luck with your quest.
Martin
chris
Bob Kuykendall wrote:
> If you like the Carat, you might also keep an eye on:
> http://www.hpaircraft.com/glidair
> Bob K.
Bob,
I saw that project too, and it made me wonder why reinvent the wheel?
Is there some real advantage for the glidair vs the Carat?
Chris
Bob Kuykendall
> Regarding your engine options, It would certainly appeal
> to me more with a four stroke, than one of the Rotax's
> mentioned on the site.
We've (Brad and I) recently gotten a couple of messages to that effect.
We'll keep it in mind, but it's pretty important to keep the engine
installation weight as low as practical in order to get decent sink
rate and soaring performance from our basic 108 ft^2 15m wing.
Thanks, Bob K.
Bob Kuykendall
> I saw that project too, and it made me wonder why reinvent the wheel?
> Is there some real advantage for the glidair vs the Carat?
I guess it depends on how you value your time and money.
The last time costed out the proposed Glidair kit (at oil=$67/bbl), it
came in at about $32000 including engine and typical options and
accessories; the build hours looked to be around 500.
I don't know the current Carat price, but I think I remember hearing
that it's around $130000. If so, that places it right around 4x the
proposed Glidair kit price. And if I can't think of a lot of neat
things to do with $98000, I'm sure my family can.
Or they might just prefer the 500 hours, I dunno...
Brad
pulled a cockpit area mock up fuselage shell and displayed it at the
Museum of Flight Glider Expo in Seattle years ago.
Then made a master tool fuselage plug that sat in various locations for
years until I started getting serious about it again, thanks to Bob and
my involvement in the HP-24 project.
So............the Glidair preceeded the Carat by many years, but
history is written by the winners and those with the money to
capitalize such projects.
The idea was to create a modern day ASK-14, the Carat is no such
animal, the Glidair will be.
Cheers,
Brad