Best taildragger for large pilot

[Steve]

A friend of mine who is 6' 4", 185 pounds is looking ot purchase a taildragger. Speed is not an issue for him, but price is. He would like a Cessna 140 but it is a very tight fit, How are the Luscombe 8A, Aeronca champ and Taylorcraft for tall pilots? Any other 2 seat taildraggers that are in the $15K price range?

 

[labbats]

I'm 6'1" and 190 and was comfy in a citabria. May be a bit high moneywise though.

 

[Dragonbravo]

I'm 5'6" and own a Cessna 120. Its ok for me but a tight fit if I have a pax. Your buddy would probably not like it. A friend of mine (6'2"?) has a Champ and seems to fit nicely in it.

 

[Crosscheck]

champ with 85 or 90 out front.

 

[LR25]

I would say a Citabria is a comfortable airplane. I am 6.0 and I was plenty comfy.

He might want to look into a Stinson 108 as well, its a 4 place airplane and has alot of room. Most can be had for low to mid 20's.

15K is not that much money, kind of limits a good size taildragger.

 

[Flylo]

Factory spam cans are for wooses (woosi?).

Check out the brand new, do it yourself, tandem, Bearhawk Patrol. The prototype has about 30 hours on it right now and should have the FAA required check-out hours flown off in time to make it to Oshkosh. The builder is an engineer and this is his 2nd commercial design and 5th plans built; he is 6'-3", around 225#. I'm 6'-1", 250# and have all kinds of room in the 4 place model which is very similiar (yeah, I know, me and Martha Stewart). The 4 place already has about 12 flying and at least 200 building (almost 700 sets of plans sold to date). Pre-fab kits are now available for the 4 place and the 2 place kits will surely be on the market in the not too distant future if it turns out to be as good an airplane as the 4 place.

You'll have to join up to read the posts but after you do, read post #19379 which has the first pictures of the Patrol.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bearhawk/


I'll copy a link to one of the pictures but don't know if it will work ( you'll have to cut and paste for sure). It'll take a minute on dial-up. That's the 6'-3" builder flyin it. Check out all that room.

http://a3.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/wCoSPy...jGH0sW5MZEUMFR79GjIR9j-Jw/BH Two Gnd:hngr.jpg

Your 15K figure should be about right if you don't count your time and the engine.

See you at the Bearhawk Bar-B-Que

 

[Flylo]

Well, that didn't work. I'll try chopping up the address and then, maybe, if it all prints out this time, you can copy and paste and eliminate the spaces and it'll take you to the picture of the 2 place prototype. I suppose you could type in the whole address.

If this doesn't work, just join the group. It takes about 2 minutes and you might enjoy it even if you aren't interested in building your own. Several well know names in Sport Aviation are regular contributors. The 4 place which is my avatar (somebody elses' airplane) just won "Champion Plans Built" at the big EAA Northwest Fly-in at Arlington, WA this past week.


http://a3.grp.yahoofs

.com/v1/sP0SP7IVDM2k3XCx47T

qRsLxl8U-vPm5C4--iV8lTFNz

PE3YPll_AJxM75l_DhV1xEZYi

UsO0NX_iwLaRGBxGeJNnbHD

21T-Jo07sg/BH%20Two%20

Gnd%3Ahngr.jpg


They're saying this thing spits little Super Cubs out the exhaust.

 

[skyking1976]

How 'bout a DC-3. That big enough for you?

Skyking

 

[Dot_AK]

Flylo,

reccomend this site instead - no need to futz with the URL

http://www.bearhawkaircraft.com/

or a site by a builder:

http://www.siletzbay.com/Bearhawk/

 

[HAZ-MAT]

D@mn, Skyking... you beat me to it!!!

 

[skyking1976]

Ya gotta get up pretty early in the morning...

 

[Flylo]

Dot,

Good idea.

I was trying to get to a site that would show some pics of the new 2 place and I don't think either one of those sites has any yet. However, you jogged my memory and this site does have a few shots taken just before it actually flew and one of it making an early (first?) landing.

http://www.rawlinsbrothers.org/bhfaq/bh2/bh2pics.html

Keep in mind most of the fairings and a few of the finishing touches weren't completed yet. No interior shots either.

Still looks pretty good, I think.

Thanks for reminding me. The other address still didn't work. I guess Yahoo doesn't want you entering their little world without permission. They might miss a chance to throw a pop-up at you.