> > Are they still in business? I'm sure you can buy the construction > > manual and build from scratch
Don't know if Steve is still selling parts, but that should be something of a non-issue. As a member of the builders list I can guarantee that he's still selling plans and actively supporting the plane. He puts a great deal of effort into being straight with people, explaining that the Vision is primarily a plans-built plane (ok, more like instruction-manual-built, but that's beside the point). No manufactured parts from third parties are required. Besides... >> but the 'fold-a-plane' stuff would sure save time and weight if it is still >> available. Two points here. First is that you can, and some have, do fold-a-plane yourself, the components aren't something you have to buy. It's a process, just another (very clever) way of doing layups. Second point is that the time savings of fold-a-plane seem to be missed by most casual observers, and I suspect the basic method can also be applied to more than just the top and bottom halves of the fuselage, ie probably the wing skins and tail feathers as well, although I don't know of anyone that's tried yet. The time savings using this method for just the fuselage alone are in the hundreds of hours. Done right, the exterior glassing is little more that making the joints, just like a Lancair, etc, and the only sanding would be on said joint areas. >> The building construction process does lend itself to the processes that >> are used in the KR I bought a set of Vision plans a while back, and was ready build when I fell into a deal on another homebuilt that I couldn't resist. I'm too far into that one to back out now, but a fold-a-plane LSA KR2 is probably going to happen next. I'm probably obsessing here, but just about anything that is made of fiberglass, doesn't have compound curves, and takes thousands of hours of sanding to finish is just screaming fold-a-plane to me. To be honest, I'm having a hard time not bailing on my current project and starting a KR-FAP, now that gas is hitting $3.00 a gallon. Five gph is starting to sound real good. Bob
