Month: March 2021

2021 – March

This month was spent putting the workshop together, gathering tools, and planning the first part of the build. Only towards the end of the month did things start to get accomplished, when I started the Flap assembly and Wing ribs.

Time spent this month: 9 hours

Total time since start of project: 12 hours

Why a Sling TSi?

N135WT, the North America Sling TSi demonstrator

When deciding on an aircraft to build, the first thing you need to consider is the mission. My mission is mostly going to be long treks back home to the family with my wife and myself. This doesn’t mean that I wanted a 2 seat aircraft, since I also wanted the ability to carry friends around when they come visit.

With my mission defined, I came up with a list of criteria that a possible aircraft would need to meet:

  1. 4 seat.
  2. IFR capable. In the experimental world, this is nearly everything, since the builder can choose avionics.
  3. Relatively fast. I was targeting planes that can do 150ish KIAS in cruise.
  4. Fuel-efficient & modern. I’m a fan of technology. While there is nothing wrong with POWAH, I’d rather see that power come from a fuel-injected, turbo engine than pure engine size and more fuel being let into a cylinder that was most recently designed in the second world war.
  5. Aluminum, not composite.
  6. Good builder support. This is my first aircraft build, and I’d like to be successful right out of the gate instead of needing to redo a lot of it.

That was really about it, and I was amazed at the lack of options that are out there that meet those needs. Surprisingly, the combination of relatively fast and aluminum knocked out a lot of potential contenders. In the end, I was going to decide between an RV-10 and a Sling TSi, and actually let my wife make the decision at Sun n Fun. However, a used Sling came up for sale virtually next door, and although I really didn’t want to start building until 2022, the deal was too good to pass up. After taking the EAA Sheetmetal workshop together, we discovered that we liked pulling rivets so much better than bucking them, so with that knowledge, we would have likely made the same choice.

Someone will ask if I flew a TSi prior to pulling the trigger on the kit. No, I didn’t, and that was rather intentional. I’m currently a very low-time pilot, and have very limited experience in flying different aircraft, so I relied on other’s opinions who have much more time in both the RV-10 and the TSi. I compare it to asking a 16 year old which they liked driving better, an F150 or a Sliverado. I’m not sure if the typical 16 year old would be able to tell you that if you removed the badging… I did do a discovery flight in a Sling 2 though, if that counts.