Hello from Winston, GA. We just put down our deposit on a Highlander taildragger quick build kit. We plan to fly it as an Experimental Amateur Built aircraft, with weight at 1320 pounds so it can be flown on a Light Sport license.
I’m Dick, a mostly-retired manufacturing engineer turned software jock. Josh is an IBM iSeries senior engineer who designs, installs and repairs midrange and high-end computer systems. Yeah, we’re geeks. I have a private pilot license with a far-from-current instrument rating and some taildragger time, but I haven’t flown much for 25 years. Josh is a student pilot new to taildragger behavior.
I had originally intended to build a Bearhawk, but right now it seems to be more airplane than I want. I guess we could have gone with the Bearhawk Patrol, but the Highlander seems to offer nearly the capability of the Patrol, but with much lower build time and lower cost of operation, and it fits the LSA rules. The Highlander seems to be more of an airborne sports car, too, and we’re both hot rodders at heart.
We’d seen the Highlander over the last few years at both Oshkosh and Sun-n-Fun, and liked what we saw. Watching Steve put the Highlander into seemingly impossible situations in the Deadstick videos was pretty convincing, too. Comments on this forum really sealed the deal. By the time Troy took us for demo rides in Gary’s Back Country Monster, we’d already handed the deposit check to Harry. He says the kit should be ready in February, 2011.
This is gonna be fun . . .