Skyraider II grand champion ultralight light plane
at EAA Airventure airshow.
Just over 3 years ago Brian Raeder of Nampa Indiana who restores WW 11
aircraft for a living, purchased a basic Skyraider 2 kit from Flying K
Enterprises, number 6 in the two seat version. He purchased it without
powder coating, because he planned on doing a few modification to the
craft during construction, "not for safety but just for his own personal
customization." In all he "customized" over 100 items including the
rudder and vertical fin.
This boosted his original estimate of building time for a
year/1,000 hours to three years and 2600 hours! Brian indicates that
while the plane has two seats the rear seat is actually a jump seat and
can only fit a small person up to about 150 lbs, and that person is only a
passenger - he or she does not have any access to the control systems.
Brian just finished the plane about two weeks prior to Airventure 2003
and now has about 40 hours of time on it. The plane is powered by a Rotax
503, 50 HP engine using a C gear box and a three blade Powerfin prop.
Cruise comes in at around 75 mph, stall 27, and climbs out at about 800
feet per minute. Brian is planning on taking time this winter to scratch
build a set of floats for it - and "once it is on floats they will never
come off!" "I'll take off the doors, install a fishing pole tube and head
off into the wild blue yonder."
Apparently I was not the only one impressed with the quality of work
and effort Brian put into his plane - he was awarded Ultralight/Light
Plane Grand Champion at Airventure 2003.
Ultralight/Light Planes
Light Plane Grand Champion
Brian Raeder
Skyraider II
Nampa, ID
For several web video interviews on the Skyraider subscribe
to the Ultralight Flyer web video magazine.
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