Anyone built or flown an Affordaplane?

[WBAEngineer]

I was just wondering if anyone here has built or flown an affordaplane? If so, I'd love to ask you some questions.

[Dana]

There is a lot of talk about the A-plane, but there seem to be very few actually flying, which may tell you something. There are questions about its ability to actually meet the part 103 weight limit (which may or may not matter to you) and about some aspects of its structural design.

Similar designs like the Legal Eagle and Airbike seem to have a lot more people actually flying them.

[Eric Page]

Jon Croke at HomebuiltHELP built an Affordaplane and documented the process in 51 videos on YouTube. The first video in the series can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVxPq204jnY

[rwanttaja]

There is a lot of talk about the A-plane, but there seem to be very few actually flying, which may tell you something. There are questions about its ability to actually meet the part 103 weight limit (which may or may not matter to you) and about some aspects of its structural design.

January 2023 FAA Registry shows two active registrations for Affordaplanes (N922CG and N112DT), and nine deregistered examples.

Of course, this would NOT show any examples being flown under Part 103.

Ron Wanttaja

[WBAEngineer]

I am planning to build one as part 103. I just ordered the aluminum yesterday. I purchased the plans then a set of videos from John Croke and they are very helpful. There are a few more that he didnt put on youtube that you get when you purchase it. I would like to build an airplane someday, maybe a bearhawk patrol or another tandem design, but I thought this would be a good introduction to see how I like building planes and if I actually have time for this sort of thing. I would really like to talk to someone that has actually flown one however and Jon only made that one short hop with his and he doesn't want to discuss flying it as he focuses on building.

[WBAEngineer]

There is a lot of talk about the A-plane, but there seem to be very few actually flying, which may tell you something. There are questions about its ability to actually meet the part 103 weight limit (which may or may not matter to you) and about some aspects of its structural design.

Similar designs like the Legal Eagle and Airbike seem to have a lot more people actually flying them.

I think making weight is probably a general issue for all ultralights. 254 lbs isn't much.

[cavelamb]

254 pounds is an insane weight limit.
But it's what we have.

[erkki67]

Hello there, we have a similar building concept here in europe, called the pouchel (www.pouchel.com Le site de l'APEV ) its based on the Affordaplane structure or it's idea at least. The tubing for the fusealage used over here is of 50mm x 50mm x 2mm in 6060T6. this because the 6061T6 is not available here or only associated with huge costs. The cornerplates are made of 6082T6 which is a standard over here. Bolting is made of mm Bolts of 6 or 8mm 8.8 in quality most of the times. for the later, the bolts are not available in the lenghts you have available in the US so we have to cut them to lenght, which is less than ideal , but that is the way it is. Now regarding the Affordaplane, there is acctually one type available but for the roll it uses wing rolling like the Spratt system, but only for the roll command, pitch and yaw is made by a classic elevator and rudder. This bird is for sure not 103 eligible. Today is another bird in the pipeline, which is getting closer to the Affordaplane structure and controls, called Affordachel, with a normal ailerons control for roll control. By today the 24.04.2025 it has not flown yet. The wings are being made by 2017 tubing if I'm not colmpletly wrong and slight bigger in section, so the wing will be a little bit stronger. As the fuselage is made of .082 instead of the .125 it should be a little bit lighter even the gussets are less thick .123 instead of the 0.125, but this is marginal the difference.