My Journey to the Next Project: Sling TSi Build

[edwardb]

This is probably going to be more like an autobiography than a forum post. So, dig in for a long read. Or not. Your choice. Here goes. I’ve had a lifelong interest in aviation. Probably started when I was quite young when my dad and uncle built and flew u-control model airplanes. Flying in circles with lines attached to the models and you weren’t allowed to get dizzy. With model names like Smoothie, Nobler, Flight Streak, Flying Fool, and engines like Veco, Fox, and McCoy. If you remember any of this, you’re as old as I am. Later, in high school, I met the woodshop teacher who was also really into model airplanes. I joined an after-school club in his shop that mainly just built model airplanes. None of us had much money. But the teacher would buy balsa logs, sharpen things up, and cut strips and sheets for us to use. We still had to buy it. But sold by the board foot. I remember a fairly large glider I scratch built. The cost was around $2.00 for the balsa. We got into radio control, but again due to the cost, none of us could afford a radio. So, we made quick change trays so that we could quickly swap the teacher’s radio at the flying field and took turns. It was a somewhat new at the time proportional system. Bonner as I recall. Crude, large, and heavy by today’s standards. Later, with my paperboy money, I bought my own radio. It was a single channel setup that I could afford. One button push for right, two for left, and three to change the throttle position if you were really advanced. I started with rubber band powered escapements and later upgraded to battery powered servos. I remember the brand as Controlaire. Flew it a bunch. Carl Golberg and Sig kits. Even had one flyaway that was found months later miles away when a farmer was harvesting his field.

All of this fostered an interest in a career in aviation. Or full-scale as R/C’ers often say. To the humor of real pilots. I had my first lesson on my 16th birthday and later took off for college as an aviation major. Life and priorities changed, and I went in another direction. No regrets because I had a rewarding career in a completely different field. Along the way the radio control airplane hobby made the scene again and I was very active in multiple aspects for many years. Our oldest son joined me, which in turn, also caused his interest in a career in aviation. The difference was he stayed with it. He was specifically interested in mission and humanitarian related aviation. He graduated from Moody Aviation, in Elizabethton, Tennessee at the time, with a technical degree and a whole list of certifications. Later added a master’s degree. He taught A&P and beginning flight at another university while his wife finished her schooling. He joined Mission Aviation Fellowship, now in Nampa, Idaho, and off they went to Ecuador where they stayed for six years. He flew in and out of dozens of airstrips in the rain forest. I had the privilege of joining him a few times. Plus, I saw firsthand where the highest percentage of model airplane balsa wood came from. Then off to Africa for another six years. Less flying as he was the program manager. To finish that story, they’re back in Nampa at MAF headquarters where he’s their international director of safety. One of the reasons they returned was to improve educational opportunities for their kids. Two of which are now in university and the other will start high school next year.

When I bought my first Factory Five kit, a partially built MK3 Roadster, in 2009, that was a bucket list item I’d thought about for many years. I was still deep into R/C at the time. But after a year or two of car building and not touching any of the basement full of models and gear, I sold everything which financed my first engine. I’ve had a blast since then now completing my fifth Factory Five build. But my interest in aviation has never lessoned. Another bucket list item has always been to build an actual airplane. Not to get too dark, but last February, while in the hospital for a couple weeks with some health issues, realized the time to do that might be running out. I spent a lot of time looking at videos and brainstorming how I could do it. I didn’t have all the answers, but as often the case, sometimes you have to start a journey without knowing all the details or even the final destination. I decided to go for it. My wife (and pilot son…) thought I was a little crazy. OK, a lot crazy. But that hasn’t stopped me before.

There are a whole bunch of homebuilt airplane options. But for multiple reasons I kept coming back to the Sling TSi from Sling Aircraft in Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s a mostly all-aluminum airplane built with many of the same techniques and tools used for our car builds. It’s a 4-place low wing with full IFR instrumentation, Garmin glass cockpit, autopilot, FADEC engine, constant speed prop, among many cool features. I won’t spend much time here giving more details, other than to say it’s all pulled rivets (like our car builds) as opposed to solid bucked rivets. This is debated among experimental builders. I was very interested to see that Van’s Aircraft, one the largest and most well-known companies for homebuilts, except for their one LSA model, has long promoted solid and bucked/squeezed rivets. But their latest high wing model, just introduced at Oshkosh, is pulled rivets. Interesting. Anyway, enter “Sling TSi” in the YouTube search window and there are dozens of build and flight videos if you want to see more. I posted a picture at the end of this post.

Interestingly, Sling has been working on a high wing version of the TSi. Production kits already have a long backlog and I’m not interested in waiting. But to introduce them, three flew from Johannesburg, South Africa to Oshkosh this past summer and landed during the annual EAA show to great fanfare. Pretty crazy. Multiple YouTube’s on that too if you’re interested.

There are several options for the Sling TSi kit. The ”flat” version has all the parts loose except for the wing spars and a couple other parts and you do everything. There’s a “quick build” version that has the wings and part of the fuse pre-built. Just enough to stay within the 51% owner-built rule for experimental. There are also build assist centers where you can complete an entire build in about six months. One of which is less than an hour from me and I’ve had a chance to visit, get to know them, and see multiple kits underway. Quick build and build assist add significant cost and this isn’t a cheap exercise. I’m going with the “flat” version because that’s what I want to do plus avoiding the added cost. I ordered the empennage and wing kit in June of last year with a quoted lead time of 8 months. I received them on April 4. I’ll order more as lead time and my build speed dictates. I’m expecting this will be at least a 3-year project. I can do the subassemblies here in my basement and garage shop. But final assembly and beyond will have to be in a hangar. Will cross that bridge when it comes. Documentation is key for an experimental build. I’ll be taking a lot of pictures, marking the assembly manual as I go, and also recording my time. I have an app on my phone I can use for that. So far, I’ve logged just over 100 hours. I’ll share the link for pictures at the end of this post.

Maybe you’ve noticed by now I never said I’m a pilot. A few hours of training including a logbook with my son listed as the CFI which I’m very proud of. But I never completed anything and don’t expect I will. So, what am I going to do with this thing when it’s done? Again, I don’t have the final answer. I’m doing it because I’ve always wanted to and I love the build process. That’s enough for now. I would love to keep it in the family. But I haven’t gotten a clear signal from my son that he’s going to fly in it. A career in certified airplanes and now a professional safety manager, he has some reservations about experimental. Even though the Sling TSi, by all accounts is a robust and very safe airplane. Plus, it will be very carefully built. But I understand. It definitely would be sellable, so that’s an option. So is possibly donating. We’ll see when the time comes.

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