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I'm about to start assembling a Companion QB kit with my build partner known here as Aggiepilot02. This will be my third or fourth airplane project, depending on how you count them. Prior experience is with a Van's RV-12 that was bought as a finished build and owned by a flying club, a Sonex legacy that was a basket-case rebuild, and a part 103 ultralight that I'm scratch building my own wings while I wait for the fuselage to be delivered. I'm the president of the RV-12 flying club and the maintenance officer for a Champ flying club. I'm about to take my Commercial license check ride in a 172 and one of these days I hope to add A&P to my resume.
We chose the Companion because the majority of our flying is 1 or 2 people. There are very few instances where extra seats would be handy, but we've been cargo-limited many times. The Champ has an "official" useful load of 385 lbs so when it's got 80 lbs of fuel on board there's not a lot of capacity left for a couple of modern-sized American dudes. My wife refuses to ride in the Champ because she hates tandem seating. The RV-12 carries a lot more load and has an amazing glass panel with autopilot. I love flying the Champ for playing tailwheel games. I love flying the RV-12 for going somewhere with 2 people on board. I've wished for the best of both worlds many times and when a local EAA chapter member showed us his Bearhawk, I just knew that it was the ticket. Our kit is delivered and stored at a hangar 4 miles from my house and as soon as we finish building the workshop space in my basement, we'll get it moved here and start the fun!
We chose the Companion because the majority of our flying is 1 or 2 people. There are very few instances where extra seats would be handy, but we've been cargo-limited many times. The Champ has an "official" useful load of 385 lbs so when it's got 80 lbs of fuel on board there's not a lot of capacity left for a couple of modern-sized American dudes. My wife refuses to ride in the Champ because she hates tandem seating. The RV-12 carries a lot more load and has an amazing glass panel with autopilot. I love flying the Champ for playing tailwheel games. I love flying the RV-12 for going somewhere with 2 people on board. I've wished for the best of both worlds many times and when a local EAA chapter member showed us his Bearhawk, I just knew that it was the ticket. Our kit is delivered and stored at a hangar 4 miles from my house and as soon as we finish building the workshop space in my basement, we'll get it moved here and start the fun!
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