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Hi Jon,
I'd love to have a coupe someday but right now money is tight. So I chose
the
Sonex because it meets most (if not all) of my wants, can be done
relatively
inexpensively (plus cost can be spread over the length of the project) and
is
a very easy build. The plans are second to none. They have sold over 300
sets
of plans in about 2 1/2 years. I'm builder #140 and I bought my set in May
of 99. Because of budget and a full time job (but mostly budget) I'm not
very far along, but then, I'm not in a hurry either. They advertise less
than
1000 hrs and I haven't heard any builders dispute that yet.
The construction in done mostly on a 4' x 12' table and it's pretty much
"self"
jigging. It's all 6061T6, mostly flat sheet of .025 and .023 thickness and
angle
of varying sizes (From 1x1x1/8 to 2.5x2.5x3/16). The only material you
must buy
from Sonex are the spar caps, which are a proprietary design. Depending on
the
depth of your pocket you can build from scratch, partial kits or all the
way up
to a full laser-cut kit. They also have pre-welded components such as
engine
mounts, control linkage and landing gear. You can also buy some pre-bent
parts
suck as control surfaces and channel stock (for fuselage formers, tail
ribs &
spars, rear wing spar, main spar carry through box), cowl,
windshield/canopy,
fuel tank and upholstery.
Check out this builders site for great construction photos:
http://dkoelzer.murkworks.com/
The plans are 100 'D' size sheets done on CAD (the co-designer, Pete Buck,
who
did the drawings works full time for Lockheed, at "The Skunkworks") and
detail
every part on the plane. Each sub component has a series of "linked" pages
(example: all sheets labeled 'W' are for the wings, sheets labeled 'T' are
for
the tail, 'F' is fuselage.) and the first page is an assembly flow chart
that
helps organize the whole thing. They also include a builders manual, W/B
sheet
and a flight manual.
Engine choices are the 3300 Jabiru (6 cyl, 120HP), 2200 Jabiru (4 cyl,
80HP) and
the 2180 VW (80HP). The factory has built and test flown all three.
Currently
there are about a half dozen customer builts flying. It can also be built
as a
trike or a tail dragger.
John Monnett (primary designer, also designed the Soneri, Moni and others)
and
his son Jeremy basically run the show, with Jeremy being the customer
contact.
They are absolutely great to work with.
If you want to find out more here are some places you can check:
Sonex Ltd.: http://www.sonex-ltd.com/
Sonex Builder's Recources: http://hayden.murkworks.com/sonex/
Builders chat: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mike "if it can't be a coupe" Dean
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