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Marks Web Site
Welcome to my experimental aircraft Web site. The term "experimental" is sort of a misnomer, though. The type of aircraft I am building would be better classified as "home built". The FAA classifies any aircraft as experimental that has been 51% built by someone, or some organization, that is not a registered aircraft manufacturer. Why build my own airplane? Price is one reason. Homebuilts are much cheaper to own and operate than FAA certified aircraft. Another reason is education and experience. I have been enthralled with aviation since I was very young. I am currently in the Army and fly the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. I have over 3000 hours of flight experience in helicopters, and still love taking to the skies. I have always been fascinated with early inventor/pioneers like Igor Sikorsky and Howard Hughes. By building, then flying, my own airplane, I can experience the joy and pride they must have felt when successfully piloting one of their creations. Plus, Nichole and I love to travel; she's my very understanding wife :^). By owning our own airplane, we greatly increase the areas we can visit on weekends. It'll be a lot quicker than driving, a lot more fun, and cheaper than flying commercial. I spent many months researching and comparing the myriad of kit-aircraft available. I finally chose the Zenair Zodiac CH-640 (pictured above) based on cost, performance, number of seats and ease of construction/ tools required. I had a tough time deciding between this airframe and Van’s RV-10, which is also a very nice plane. They are very similar in most aspects. Cost eventually turned me to the CH-640. It’ll end up costing me about $30,000 less than the RV-10. The CH-640 is based on Zenair's Alarus CH-2000 design. The CH-2000 is a two seat, fully FAA certified aircraft that is used by many organizations around the world. The CH-640 is different only in that the wings and horizontal stabilizer are a bit larger. The fuselage is mostly the same, except for the addition of rear seats; the CH-2000 has a very large baggage area behind the front seats. Also, the CH-2000 is not a kit-plane, where the CH-640 is. I plan on using a standard Lycoming IO-360 for the power plant, but am keeping a close eye on Innodyn’s turbine engine for experimentals. It’s still under development, but if they can get their company on track I’ll definitely be putting a turbine on the front of this thing. It’ll take me a couple years to build, and I’m initially estimating a cost of about $45,000 (I’m going light on the avionics initially, and looking to put on a used mid-time engine for those who wonder why the estimate seems so low). Finally, once building is complete, it’ll get looked at very closely by an FAA inspector. It’ll get an initial ok, and then will have to conduct many hours of flight testing. Once that is complete, the FAA inspector will sign off on it, it’ll be registered, then I’ll be able to fly other people and go anywhere I please. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and put the cart too far in front of the horse, though. Just keep checking in every so often. I’ll be posting updates as I complete sections of the aircraft, or uncover important information. Here is the link to the Zodiac CH-640: http://www.zenair.com/index640.html Mark Burrows
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