Howdy Everyone,                                            5-8-95

First in a series of E-mails from my diary of my latest project.

Well most of you know that I'm what the rest of the world calls a crazy,
in that I've been flying an ultralight called Lazair.  But I have to
maintain this perception so I've embarked on another project.  Some of
you know this already, but to get everyone up to speed, my Dad, my
brother Dave, and I have each chipped in $10K to buy a kit plane called
SkyArrow.  This is a 2 place, mostly carbon fiber, kevlar, fast build kit
from Italy.  The airplane is powered by a 4 stroke, 4 cylinder, air/water
/oil cooled engine.  Cruise speed is in the neighborhood of 90 knots.

Dad and Mom drove to Baltimore to pick up the kit, and brought it back in
a 25 foot one way Penski rental truck.  Round trip was 1180 miles.  We
unloaded it last Tuesday and have spent the last few days unpacking,
cleaning up tape goo, and doing inventory.  Up to tonight, we have
approximately 20 hours into the project.  The kit supplier claims a
building time of 500 hours.  The reality of this number is usually
suspect until the first 100 or so kits are completed.  But since we have
the 3rd kit or so in the USA we are on the building edge.  Even with all
the bags of stuff that we have so far, we are still waiting for a few
more.  Since some of SkyArrow's parts are USA made or imported elsewhere,
they will be shipped directly.  This includes: prop, engine, and wheels. 
The biggy that is keeping me from diving right in is the construction
manuals are not here yet.  San Diego USA importer claims anytime this
week.  Original 10 volume set, will be translated and condensed into a 5
volume set in American. (The queen would have been proud that I didn't
say English).  Let the project begin!

So for those of you that don't have any interest in my wack-O e-mails on
this subject just let me know, and I will take you off my SkyArrow
distribution list.

Jim

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