Brändli Cherry BX-2

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Posted

how did brittney say.. "ups i did it again" ... almost a year after i bought my unfinished Avid Flyer Model C, and about half a year after I sold my "daily flyer" (i wish it was daily), i bough anogher airplane :) ..

here is the story that led to me purchasing another airplane.. or at least that's how i found a reason to buy another one ;) .. 

i sold my other aircraft last summer and with it i had lost my hangar space. the airplane was bought by the flight school where i had learned to fly and i made a deal that would allow me to rent it back for a very attractive price.. as a matter of fact i would be able to fly it for about half the cost than when i owned it. the airplane was supposed to be used as a rental for touring only and not for trainig new pilots.

however, around new year another airplane of that flight school crash landed after an engine failure. luckily nobody was hurt but the airplane was totalled. at around the same time i got an unexpected invoice for the rental of "my" hangar space. turns out, the school never informed the airport authority about the owner change of "my" aircraft. knowing, that it is extremly hard to get a new hangar space in the future (10+ years waiting lists) and suspecting, that my former aircraft will probably now be converted to a school airplane which means, it won't be available as much and it will most likely get more expensive for me to rent it due to all the extra equipment (brake upgrades, silencer, some more avionics etc.) i called the school and asked them, if they still needed "my" hangar space, as they had moved the airplane to the space of the crashed one recently.

they responded that they did not plan to replace the crashed plane, so there i was, i suddenly had an empty hangar space and potentially a struggle to find a slot to rent my airplane back.. so the decision was made, to buy something small and cheap to operate to keep me flying whenever i wanted in the near future, at least until i finish my avid and potentially even longer.. 

i started to look around for a cheap to buy and fly experimental aircraft, preferrably registered in switzerland. ideally it would be something different from an avid or kitfox, possibly something that covers a different mission.. a fast traveller for example.

with a bit of luck i found exactly that within about a week of searching around the web. what was important was, that i wanted to have an airplane that was flyable as is and did not need too much extra work because i already have my avid project which is not progressing as fast as i would like due to a new member in our family ;) ..

the airplane i bought begining of this week is a plans built wood and composite aircraft. it is a two seater with retractable gear and it is powered by a Continental C90-8F, which means it has no electric starter! Actually even the alternator was retrofitted to the engine. with the 90 hp of the continental engine the airplane will cruise at around 130mph and carry two people with a little bit of baggage. it is fairly tight, but nothing i would not need to get used to anyway for the avid ;)

it has removable wings and a trailer was included in the deal, which comes in very handy right now as it is currently deregistered as the owner had stopped flying it two years ago, so it needs a fresh annual and a airworthyness check by our FOCA (like FAA). I had the engine checked for corrosion prior to buying it and it was deemed to be in good shape. one thing i want to do is replace the radio with a newer one, as we are no longer allowed to use 25khz band in europe since about a year ago, so my other option would be to fly without radio or use a handheld. no radio is not an option because of the complex airspace my home airfield is in, and a hand held will be fiddly to operate due to the same reason.

my plans are, to actually replace the entire dashboard and only keep the transponder out of all my existing instruments and equipment.. everything else will have to go. i will then install a MGL MX1 with a hidden MGL V16 radio operated through the touchscreen of the MX1.. add to that a panel mounted tablet for my nav software and i'm all set :)

so some work to do after all, but i have to wait for my Mechanic to be available for the annual anyways, so i might as well do that in the meantime.

i've attached  a few pictures of the airplane and the current dashboard. i've hand-propped it already and still have all my body parts attached to me, not so difficult to do after all.. i'm really looking forward to flying it later this summer.. it will be my first time landing a tri-gear :)

 

cheers

pascal

 

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Posted

Very Cool!  130mph on 90hp is nothing to sniffle at!  Looks like fun!

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