GlaStar

Can't build a plane without another plane to fly! That's what I found, at least. I was building, and slowly, and in the meantime I was either working at a real job, or working on my place, or traveling, but certainly not flying, not even enough to keep current. Furthermore, the flying I was doing was, well, not pleasant. I was renting. I hate renting. You don't know what you're getting; you're paying too much; you have no flexibility.

What to do? Why, go buy an airplane, of course!!

Enter the GlaStar I affectionately call Babe.  

Babe was built by Charlie Eubanks, a retired tool and die maker, and a wonderful man.

Charlie didn't own the plane when I bought it. He had sold it to John Roberts and Tom Dubrouillet. These two gentlemen flew Babe for two years, adding position and strobe lights (Charlie had wired for day/night, but decided not to install the lights). John and Tom finally built an RV-7A and bought an RV-8A. They no longer needed Babe, so I got lucky and found their advertisement, gave them an offer that they could have refused, but didn't, and I am now the very happy owner of Charlie's plane.

The picture on the left was taken while Charlie still owned Babe. GlaStar's are wonderful planes. If you don't know about them, the web site for Glasair Aviation has a good write-up here.  Glasair Aviation no longer sells a GlaStar kit. They now have the Sportsman 2+2, which is a redesign of the GlaStar. Take a look here.  The Sportsman is a little longer in the fuselage, a little heavier, able to take the Lycoming 390, and I'm sure has other differences, including the tiny backseat that can hold kids (thus the 2+2 designation, not really a 4-place plane). There are those who swear by the handling of one over the other. I say they are both great airplanes, designed to hit a sweet spot of comfort, functionality and versatility.

Of course, there is a problem with buying a new airplane to fly while you're building another, especially a fun plane like Babe. You get to flying and not building! You also get to tinkering. I've had to replace the altimeter, brake pads, added two new brake master cylinders, flexible steel brake lines, tires, had the starter rebuilt, put in a new battery, and of course I did a thorough annual to not only get things all tuned up, which necessitated many hours of manual reading, but also to become very familiar with the plane and its systems. Next on the list is to add the landing light, do the fairings to clean her up, install a stereo intercom and music input, an autopilot, new seats, you get the idea.

It's been almost two years since I've worked on the RV-10. I'm going to start up again this winter (2008-09), but in the meantime I'm having a ball with Babe. I'll document my experiences here. I'm not a GlaStar builder, but am becoming familiar with the design and the construction, so might have a few things to pass on.

More than one person has wondered why build the RV-10 now that Babe is here. She's half the cost and a lot of flying fun. Well, that's a darn good question. One answer is 4-place versus 2. Another is speed. I'll have more to say on both at another time.

But, there's another way to think of plane ownership while building. I chose Babe in part because she is experimental, and thus I could work on her (having my work signed off appropriately, of course) and keep the costs down. She also represents an escrow account for the RV-10 engine and panel. When I get to the firewall forward and panel stages, I'll have to either sell the RV-10 and keep Babe, or sell Babe and finish the RV-10, because at that time I'll probably not be able to afford both. It's going to be a tough choice. Maybe the decision path should be to sell Babe when needed to finish the RV-10, fly the RV-10 for several years, then build a replacement Babe! A Sportsman! Make sense to me.

In the mean time, I get to fly my escrow account! This is working out quite nicely, indeed.

GlaStar