Folks it has been awhile since I have written about all
things aviation. The truth is money has
been tight and I've just felt that lately folks of humble means like myself
probably can't afford to fly anymore.
Even the ultra-lights are expensive nowadays. The small airports that foster inexpensive
general aviation (if that isn't a contradiction in terms I don’t know what is)
have been closing down one by one. Most
of them are turning into cornfields and Wal-Mart shopping centers filled with
products all made in China.
To be honest I've felt just a little depressed about
it. But the flying bug does not succumb to
reason, logic, or modern trends. It
knows only that it craves flight and the vehicles that make flight possible,
the airplane! So unreasonably I find
myself occasionally Google-ing aircraft companies. Sort of vicariously feeding the flying bug
quietly in the only ways left available to me.
In fact I was doing just this very thing yesterday when I
came upon the most remarkable thing. An
aircraft company GIVING AWAY plans to their planes. Yes you heard me right. Builders plans free of cost. This is unprecedented! Such a gesture of kindness to people like me
that for a moment I was transfixed. This
is the very change in the industry that I have written about and prayed
for. Companies producing designs for
those of us that earn less than six figures and then providing the construction
drawings free of charge, simply to promote flight! It's this kind of thinking that gives me hope
for the future. It's this gesture that
makes my flying bug want to build a chrysalis and grow wings.
Without further ado I would like to present the well
known Team Mini-Max. The line of
Mini-Max Aircraft are all wood and cloth aircraft, most are mid wing and some
are high wing. The aircraft have a range
of options, some are Part 103 ultralights and others are robust enough to fall
into the Experimental Amateur Built Category.
Most can be built with an open cockpit or a closed canopy. In all they are a remarkable little line of
aircraft with a very robust builder community.
These planes are available in kit form or can be built entirely from
plans. Oh...and did I mention, the plans
are now FREEEEEE!
The Mini-Max designs have all the hallmarks of aircraft for
the next century and they've even raised the bar by offering their plans free
this way. As of this writing they are
the only aircraft on the list to do this, extraordinary.
From the bottom of my heart I would like to send my
thanks to the good people at Team Mini-Max.
You have given me hope when I despaired and for that I owe you one.
