Okie_Pilot
Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2010
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 0
Hey guys,
It's been awhile since I've posted or been on here. It's amazing how time flies when you get distracted with life outside of aviation. It's been over a year and half since my mentor and co-owner passed away, leaving me with the Pitts project by myself. Since then I've started a career in Law Enforcement, got married, and bought a house. Don't worry, no kids though, just 2 little dogs I inherited with the marriage and now a kitten....
Unfortunately my Pitts has pretty much sat in my hangar untouched since then. I don't really have the building experience, nor the time to get her finished. However, I am not interested in seeing her sit much longer, or selling her off in pieces. I've spent way too much time over the past handful of years working on her and she's came this far just to give up on her.
So this is my question to the experienced builders out there that would be interested in taking on a project.
How much would it cost to finish my Pitts?
Starting from the front in my hangar are:
Spinner, prop, engine complete with accessories, engine mount, gas tank, wind screen, firewall, instrument panel, landing gear complete with wheels, tires, and brakes, rudder pedals, stick, hooker harness, carbon-fiber seat back, turtle deck, trim system, modified rudder, elevator, tailwheel, flying wires, I-struts, and about 3 sets of plans.
I have the original metal that goes around the fuselage, but I also have brand new sheet metal that I was going to cut and drill for it.
I have S1T wings that have been modified with a cut-out and hand hold. When we picked the wings up they had plywood leading edges, which is what I wanted. However, whoever did the leading edges didn't really know what they were doing because they did butt-joints and didn't scarf them. After gluing the leading edges on, they then took the wings and stood them straight up on the leading edge. This caused all the glue (that wasn't dry yet) to run down to the very front and form 2 inch deposits of glue all the way across the front of the leading edge.... So after many hours of using a heat gun and little scrapers, we were able to remove the plywood leading edge and glue deposits. However, cancer got in the way and we were unable to get the time or energy to put the leading edge back on correctly.
The main items that come to mind that I will have to buy is a canopy, possibly some instruments, and more fabric. Plus whatever hardware that will need to be purchased to finish it.
My question to the Biplane community here is, are there any experienced Pitts builders on here that's looking to take on a project for compensation? And if so, are you able to give an estimate how much it will take to finish this Pitts and a time frame?
I am looking for a experienced builder, preferably a Pitts owner to finish this project, not someone looking to build a Pitts for the first time and get paid to tinker around and "experiment" with someone else's life. Someone that does this full-time for a living or hobby and could get it done preferably by next Spring.
I'd like to find someone in the south. Preferably Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas or Missouri. With this in mind, I can deliver the entire Pitts project in a large trailer to your place.
Guys, I haven't a clue how much it'll cost to finish this project or if anybody in the U.S. would even be interested in doing such a thing. I'm just trying to get an idea on what I need to spend to get this Pitts in the air. I don't have thousands of dollars sitting in an envelope ready to be mailed off right now, I'm trying to get an idea on how much I need to cut the grocery bill and how much overtime I'm going to need to work in the next couple of months.
Keep in mind I'm in my mid-20's and work in the field of law enforcement in Oklahoma, so giving a figure of "Yeah, I'll finish it for $30k" isn't really going to work!
If I've fell of my rocker and you think I'm completely nuts, try not to laugh too hard or be too rough on me. I really want a Pitts, and I really don't want to "give up" on this one. If you are looking for a complete project and want to make a ridiculous offer, message me a offer. But like I said, I'm attached to this one, so it would literally have to be ridiculous.
Instead of eating up half the page with pictures I've decided just to upload all of them on PhotoBucket if you are interested in looking at them.
The first album is pictures I took 2 days ago and how my hangar currently looks:
http://s12.photobucket.com/user/Snipey852/library/The Pitts Project?sort=3&page=1
Here is another collection of pictures from when we were working on the Pitts:
http://s12.photobucket.com/user/Snipey852/library/Pitts S1S Build?sort=3&page=1
It's been awhile since I've posted or been on here. It's amazing how time flies when you get distracted with life outside of aviation. It's been over a year and half since my mentor and co-owner passed away, leaving me with the Pitts project by myself. Since then I've started a career in Law Enforcement, got married, and bought a house. Don't worry, no kids though, just 2 little dogs I inherited with the marriage and now a kitten....
Unfortunately my Pitts has pretty much sat in my hangar untouched since then. I don't really have the building experience, nor the time to get her finished. However, I am not interested in seeing her sit much longer, or selling her off in pieces. I've spent way too much time over the past handful of years working on her and she's came this far just to give up on her.
So this is my question to the experienced builders out there that would be interested in taking on a project.
How much would it cost to finish my Pitts?
Starting from the front in my hangar are:
Spinner, prop, engine complete with accessories, engine mount, gas tank, wind screen, firewall, instrument panel, landing gear complete with wheels, tires, and brakes, rudder pedals, stick, hooker harness, carbon-fiber seat back, turtle deck, trim system, modified rudder, elevator, tailwheel, flying wires, I-struts, and about 3 sets of plans.
I have the original metal that goes around the fuselage, but I also have brand new sheet metal that I was going to cut and drill for it.
I have S1T wings that have been modified with a cut-out and hand hold. When we picked the wings up they had plywood leading edges, which is what I wanted. However, whoever did the leading edges didn't really know what they were doing because they did butt-joints and didn't scarf them. After gluing the leading edges on, they then took the wings and stood them straight up on the leading edge. This caused all the glue (that wasn't dry yet) to run down to the very front and form 2 inch deposits of glue all the way across the front of the leading edge.... So after many hours of using a heat gun and little scrapers, we were able to remove the plywood leading edge and glue deposits. However, cancer got in the way and we were unable to get the time or energy to put the leading edge back on correctly.
The main items that come to mind that I will have to buy is a canopy, possibly some instruments, and more fabric. Plus whatever hardware that will need to be purchased to finish it.
My question to the Biplane community here is, are there any experienced Pitts builders on here that's looking to take on a project for compensation? And if so, are you able to give an estimate how much it will take to finish this Pitts and a time frame?
I am looking for a experienced builder, preferably a Pitts owner to finish this project, not someone looking to build a Pitts for the first time and get paid to tinker around and "experiment" with someone else's life. Someone that does this full-time for a living or hobby and could get it done preferably by next Spring.
I'd like to find someone in the south. Preferably Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas or Missouri. With this in mind, I can deliver the entire Pitts project in a large trailer to your place.
Guys, I haven't a clue how much it'll cost to finish this project or if anybody in the U.S. would even be interested in doing such a thing. I'm just trying to get an idea on what I need to spend to get this Pitts in the air. I don't have thousands of dollars sitting in an envelope ready to be mailed off right now, I'm trying to get an idea on how much I need to cut the grocery bill and how much overtime I'm going to need to work in the next couple of months.
Keep in mind I'm in my mid-20's and work in the field of law enforcement in Oklahoma, so giving a figure of "Yeah, I'll finish it for $30k" isn't really going to work!
If I've fell of my rocker and you think I'm completely nuts, try not to laugh too hard or be too rough on me. I really want a Pitts, and I really don't want to "give up" on this one. If you are looking for a complete project and want to make a ridiculous offer, message me a offer. But like I said, I'm attached to this one, so it would literally have to be ridiculous.
Instead of eating up half the page with pictures I've decided just to upload all of them on PhotoBucket if you are interested in looking at them.
The first album is pictures I took 2 days ago and how my hangar currently looks:
http://s12.photobucket.com/user/Snipey852/library/The Pitts Project?sort=3&page=1
Here is another collection of pictures from when we were working on the Pitts:
http://s12.photobucket.com/user/Snipey852/library/Pitts S1S Build?sort=3&page=1
