From a Garage to the Skies!

If you wish to read about my build in detailed stages, use the link to Building a Kiss.

The build process is presented here in narrative form, to help give an overview of the whole process, and I hope you find it useful. Please feel free to join the Feedback and Discussion Forum and post your views or comments.

Introduction

When I returned from qualifying in France in July 2001, with the ink still wet on my licence, I had to start looking for a plane of my own. My Instructor, Reg Whittall of the most excellent Leading Edge flying school (based in the Loire Valley – visit http://www.europage.co.uk/leadingedge for details), had given me chapter and verse about the possibilities. What's good, what's bad, what to pay, what to avoid, etc. Trouble is, the machines he recommended are few and far between on the second hand market, and those that are advertised are always the other side of the bloody country. Add to this the danger of someone lying in the engine and airframe log (not having entered problems properly, or just plain under-logging), and I started to make enquiries about the cost of new machines.

Now I could not afford the latest 912 4-stroke powered superships (20k plus), so I made a few enquiries and found that the Mainair Blade comes in a home-build kit form for about 11.5k plus VAT. This is a highly regarded machine, powered by a 582 2-stroke Rotax engine, and was just within my budget. That'll do for me, I thought.

Mentioned it to Reg and he said "Check out the new Air Creation Kiss that's in the final stages of Section S certification". I did. It's lovely. It's cheaper then a Blade (10k+VAT), so I bought one!

(Note: The Blade kit has since dropped in price - a result of the competition perhaps?)

Starting the paperchase

Once the decision had been made to go for a home build, I started doing some research. It was at this point that the BMAA web-site (www.bmaa.org) came into its own, as all the information I needed was there. The first step is to locate the HADS (Homebuilt Aircraft Data Sheet), which tells you everything you need to know about your chosen aircraft.

Next, locate the form BMAA/AW/022, which you use to register your home build project with the BMAA. This will be returned to you once a project number has been allocated, and at this stage you can apply to the CAA to register your machine. After much chin-stroking to aid the thought processes, I decided to go for G-TRYK (my machine is a trike, geddit?). Sadly, G-KISS was already allocated, and I thought G-SNOG was a bit naff - even though it was available. I used the excellent G-INFO web-site to determine what registrations were available (visit http://www.caa.co.uk/srg/aircraft_register/ginfo/search.asp).

The standard registration fee is 50 pounds, but for 200 pounds you can select any free registration, as against the next in the list. The only downside to this is that a registration, once used, must forever stay with an aircraft, so you cannot subsequently transfer your "cherished number" to another plane.

There is one tiny loophole in this, as a flexwing microlight comprises a wing and a trike, either of which may be changed whilst retaining the registration. Therefore, it's not inconceivable that you could replace your current wing with (say) a Kiss 400 wing (with all the associated approvals and paperwork), then at a later stage, replace your old trike with an Air Creation Twin trike as used in the Kiss (more red tape again). At that point, you'd essentially have a totally different aircraft with the same registration!

An Inspector calls

I knew from my investigations that there were several formal inspections which would need to be carried out, with associated sign-offs. These are as follows:

Workspace inspection (i.e. is it suitable for the purpose?)
Rolling chassis inspection
Wing inspection before sail is fitted
Final inspection (fully assembled and complete, and the plane is weighed and the at this point)
Once the final inspection is complete, the engine is run-in. After this, a fuel flow test is carried out

Once the inspector has signed off on all the above, the reams of papers are gathered up and sent off to the BMAA Headquarters at Deddington, with an application for a Permit to Test. One this is nominated the airfields at which you will be taking off and landing, and all passengers you will be carrying in a Flight Test Observer role.

But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. The BMAA web-site also has a downloadable document listing all the registered inspectors, so I picked the one nearest to me and gave him a call. He duly visited and declared my garage fine for the build, so I was ready to start as soon as the kit arrived.

Ding-dong - special delivery

Having done the deal with Flylight, the UK importers, I was allocated kit number 4, which Flylight brought to me in seven big boxes in the back of a van. I spent an interesting afternoon unboxing everything and identifying all the build components, and ended up with a huge stack of little bags of nuts, bolts and assorted fittings in the middle of the garage floor. Each bag has an 8 digit identification number, and the build manuals refer to the parts needed using this number.

The Flylight recommendation was to sort out and order these bags before doing anything, to avoid the 'needle in a haystack' searches which would otherwise result. This sounded eminently sensible to me, so I embarked on the most boring 8 hours of my life, before ending up with a garage floor totally covered in little bags in perfect ascending order! Spotted the problem yet? I needed that floor space to actually build the plane!

After a little bit more chin-stroking, I came up with the idea of separating the parts according to the build manual page number. That only took another couple of hours, at the end of which I had a nice racked storage system on the garage wall, which I knew contained the parts I needed in top left to bottom right order, all badged with the relevant page number. Fantastic! Now then - where did I put my toolkit?

Tightening my nuts

The build manuals are very clear and easy to follow. My only criticism would be that Air Creation sometimes substitute similar parts when preparing the kit. In fact, after the audit and sort exercise, I had identified over 100 bags which were seemingly incorrect. I rang Flylight at this stage, and they said I shouldn't worry unduly, as it should be relatively easy to identify the parts required by description if the numbers were wrong (this later proved to be true). I had intended to document every substituted part, but this would be a tedious exercise now and, frankly, I couldn't be bothered!

Over the next two weeks I took a total of 5 days off work, and disappeared into the garage at every opportunity. Slowly, from the pile of parts scattered around my garage, something vaguely recognisable as an airplane started to emerge.

The quality of the parts in the kit was superb and I only had a couple of complaints:

The assembly manual calls for various grades of 'Loctite' to be used, and these were not included in the kit as they are deemed consumables. This would be fine if they were readily available in the shops but, try as I might, I could not source any but the most basic threadlock. Flylight put together a little kit of the required esoteric juices for a small fee and posted them to me. I understand they are considering supplying this kit as standard in future.
The quality of the joins in the fibreglass pod is, in my opinion, sub-standard. The join width varies from 1mm to 6mm, and there are some places where lumps of fibreglass stand proud, and others where there are craters. Given that the pod is supplied finished, this is very hard to put right as filling and sanding down runs the risk of damaging the gel-coat. To this day, I am unhappy with the quality in this respect, and hope Air Creation take heed!

Winging it

As an aside, the Blade kit is classed as a factory build, even though there is home assembly required. I believe a major factor in this is that the Blade wing is supplied pre-assembled, complete with sail. Not so with the Kiss Kit, but hey - it just adds to the fun, right?

Clearly, you need a large, open area to assemble a wing, but the weather was kind so I moved operations to my driveway. The wing frame assembled quickly and easily, and after a quick (but formal) inspection I was ready to put on the sail.

I would recommend to other home builders that you find a friendly airfield, with a nice, clean, clear hanger to do this. Even if there is a rental fee payable, it will make your life much easier! I had old sleeping bags and towels laid all over the drive to keep the sail off the various oil stains and squirrel poo, and was using domestic chairs and ladders to support the nose, keel and wing tips. If you have access to padded trestles, this will make your life easier for sure!

I had two instances of brain-fade during this part of the build:

Firstly, when I threaded the sail onto the wing, I failed to ensure the keel exited the wing fabric in the centre to expose the hangpoint (the bit from which the trike will later dangle!). So convinced was I that I'd done everything correctly, that I actually called Flylight at this point to tell them there is something wrong with my sail. Imagine my embarrassment when they immediately pointed out what I must have done wrong! Fortunately, having threaded the sail onto the wing once already, removing and refitting it correctly only took half an hour or so.

Secondly, when attaching the landing wires (ie the wires which support the wing when on the ground) to the leading edges, I got them reversed. This meant that the cap which fits to the top of the kingpost was upside down! 5 minutes with a spanner, some new nyloc nuts and a little more Loctite, and this was rectified.

Proudly, I stood back to admire my handiwork, as my wing balanced fully rigged, supported only at nose and keel. Some of my neighbours joined me at this stage, asking: "Some kind of kite, is it?". Biggest kite in the world, I'd think!

The bugger factor

My baby was essentially complete by now, and I had mounted her (ohh, err, missus!) on the trailer so I could work more easily outside my garage.

Immediately, I spotted a problem: Even with the monopole folder down, she was taller then my garage door. Noooooooo!

SWMBO to the rescue, with a blindingly obvious tip: "If you lift the front of the trailer, won't the back go down?". It did - enough to clear the garage door by millimetres! This 'see-saw' technique of putting the plane away worked well the first couple of times, then it all went horribly wrong. I tipped the trailer back a tiny bit too far, and the nose wheel lifted as the plane started to topple backwards off the trailer. I slammed the trailer back down on the ground and the plane hung agonisingly on the brink of crashing down, which would probably destroy the propellor and gearbox. My prayers must have been fully up to date because, after what seemed like an age, she settled back down with a thump on the trailer.

Phew - a total disaster, narrowly averted!

OK - one judiciously applied bungee later, and I was ready to try again - no way she topple now!

My garage has a little ramp at the door, only about 1 inch high - but it's just enough to mean you can't get the trailer in on your own with a gentle push. Instead, a tiny run up is required. Combine this with the see-saw action, and you'll see why putting the plane away is a one-man job, as if anyone tries to help, they invariably push at the wrong moment! Carefully, I backed up a foot, inclining the trailer to the required angle then running it smoothly into the garage. Not quite hard enough as it turned out, because I failed to achieve enough momentum to clear the ramp. The nose wheel bungee held fine, but the rear wheels jumped off the trailer, buggering both spats into the bargain.

The air, as you may guess, turned blue with the quality and volume of profanity that issued from my usually cultured gob, and I nearly broke my foot as I kicked the dustbin across the driveway.

My baby sat forlornly in the garage for the next 3 months, spats akimbo (Note: 'akimbo' means standing with hands on hips - but you all know what I mean, right?), before I got over it and went back to work.

Losing her Cherry

Eventually, I put the damage right and took her to Sywell for test flights. Paul Dewhurst, one of the owners of Flylight and a BMAA Test Pilot, did the necessary and declared her a fine machine. Once he'd signed the Draft MAAN (Microlight Airworthiness Approval Note) I was able to apply for my test permit and, several hours flying time later, my full permit to fly. Since then, my Baby has been across the channel to France and back (next time she's promised to take me too) and is flying like a dream.

The last words

To sum it all up:

	The kit quality was superb.
	The support given by Flylight, equally superb.
	Anyone with rudimentary mechanical skills could do it. It took me just over 100 hours
	The BMAA are there to help, and help they do!

Go on....build yourself a plane....you know you want to!

Steve Elsbury, proud owner of G-TRYK, July 2002

This site is owned by Steve Elsbury - all content is copyrighted unless otherwise stated.

Last Revised: 28 September, 2004