Starting Preparation

This is our first blog post, mostly talking about a little background and starting preparation of our 2 car garage.

Background

We did a test flight for the Sling Tsi with an owner here in Dallas, TX. Previously, we have also visited The Airplane Factory in Torrance, CA where we saw the bird for the very first time and wanted to build this as our kit plane.

Kit plane vs Certified

Even before making a decision to build a kit plane, specifically the tsi, we nearly went through the acquisition process of a Mooney, and I’ll state some points below on why we decided to go away from it.

• Cost of maintenance and parts for Certified airplanes.
• Kit planes might have a higher acquisition cost, but they are brand new.
• Also, fraction of the cost of a brand new Certified airplane.
• As the builder of the airplane, you can do the maintenance on it yourself.
• The point above might be intimidating, but since you built the plane, you have more intimate knowledge of it.

Going Forward

We will be building the airplane part by part in our 2 car garage.

Building

We will be assembling the airframe in our standard 2 car garage subassembly by subassembly, starting with the Empennage and then the Wings.

Tools

For tools that we do not need for maintenance after the airframe has been built, we are thinking of buying them second hand, such as the DRDT dimpler, to be as much cost effective as possible. Another set of tools, which are relatively in-expensive such as the Clecos and the Rivetter, we are planning on buying them.

Final Assembly

Once different sub-assemblies are finished, our plan is to do the final assembly in a Hangar, and before the final assembly, we intend to take the parts to a paint shop to get them painted.

Conclusion

We are getting our Empennage kit delivery tomorrow, really excited to begin this journey of building.