New member from Canada

[Charlie Mike]

Hi all,
I've been lurking for some time now and just registered.
I'm in QC, Canada, in the more or less wild countryside, one hour drive from ME border or 62NM from the closest airport to 59B.
I saw only one Bravo in the province and I contacted the owner. Waiting for his answer.

I'd like to build my own, but not yet decided on which path to follow.
The goal is to have a 4 seater and being able to fly south to the beach or north for fishing with darling or with a pilot pal.
I'm not in a hurry, I'm not rich, and got a few skills, but I'd like to fly in a few years, not decades.
That's why I might be going quick build for some parts.
I am also looking at floats, as we have many lakes around here, and would be nice to be able to land on the water.

I'm born french, now I'm a subject of her Majesty, canadian, and my mother tongue is half french, half brit english. My pronunciation of 'th' as in thunder make people laugh here !

Cheers,

[Aero_tango]

Hey Charlie Mike,
Welcome to the group.
I’m at CYND (Gatineau-Ottawa) and flying the 4-place since almost 2 years. Enjoying ever minutes of it. I went the lazy way and build a quick-build. There are few other builders nearby. One near Mont-Laurier and the other one south of Ottawa. Both are plan-build, and the builder in Mont-Laurier should be flying this summer. Where are you located exactly? Eastern Township?
Mike.

[Charlie Mike]

Hi Mike,
It's you I sent a message on PilotesQC forum
I'm in between CSM3 and CSH5. Closer to CSH5 in fact, in St Jean de Brebeuf.

I wrote to bob, and he told me a companion would do what I want, and that I could add a 3rd seat if needed and keep it lite with a 180HP O-340.
I bought the plans to study that.

I'd be curious to see of my own eyes your planes.

Cedric M

[Aero_tango]

Salut Cédric,
i don’t really monitor the PiloteQC forum...sorry about that.
If you come by my place, we can certainly go for a flight, not a problem.
email me at aerotango99 gmail.com
Much easier to reach me that way.
A la prochaine, Michel.

[Charlie Mike]

No problemo
I'll send you an email when I'll be able to visit you
Thanks a lot

[Pbruce]

Bienvenue Charlie Mike. I would also like to offer encouragement and fellowship. If you have built planes before, I imagine this build would hold few surprises, but you sure could save a ton of time with prebuilt ribs, spars, fuselage, or ANYTHING from Avipro. If you are new to building like I am though, buy the full QB kit if you can possibly afford it. You will be really happy with the quality, and you will save years. The exchange rate is brutal, but I doubt that it will get much better for you, so that can’t be helped. Cest la vie.

Companion looks cool. And similar enough to my Patrol that I will be really interested to see how you find it on floats. I’ll bet it’s excellent. Something to consider: the difference between an O-360 and the O-340 is probably in the order of 15 lbs, whereas the dollar difference could be enormous between a used, serviceable 360 vs a new 340 (you wouldn’t find a used one, I expect). Also, the 4-place typically needs a heavy engine to get the C of G comfortable with a load. I don’t know if the Companion shares this characteristic or not, but one would definitely want to know for sure before spending extra money to take weight off the front of the plane. One truism is there are no “overpowered” float planes!

When I first learned of the Companion, I assumed that one of the advantages was the ability to use the angle valve O-360/IO-360,which are too wide to use on the Patrol. Probably too heavy as well, since it would pull the of G pretty far forward on the tandem plane with only one person in it and no gear. I suspect this would not be an issue on the Companion. In any case it seems like the Companion might provide a lot more used-engine options than the other models.

Please share your decision-making process with us. It’s always very interesting and we can all share in the excitement.

Pat from Airdrie (Calgary)

[Charlie Mike]

Thanks Pat.

The only planes I built where RC models
I stayed too long at school and I learned mechanical engineering before finding that at that time there was no interesting job after the school. So I went back to univ in electrical eng.
It's more a matter of time for me than being able to build from scratch. I learned that we can always learn, but it takes time to master something.
I work for a company producing lots of steel parts. So I have access to plasma, laser cutters, brakes and such. I exchange services for homebrew beer sometimes

My reflexion started when exploring some build logs.
I guess I can do some things like a fuselage jig, put the tubes in place, tack them and have them welded by a real welder.
I could also just order some wing components and assemble them.
I have yet to talk to put numbers on the parts when I'll have the plans in hands.

Same thing for the engine. They are a few possibilities, and CG and money will decide
I'm just at the beginning of a long journey.

Bob sent the plans on 16th but with Canada Post delays, I don't know when they will arrive !

Cheers,

[way_up_north]

Welcome to the forum...I`m up in Toronto
feel free to ask any building questions you want...guys on here are very helpful...