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My 1994 Challenger I was originally
built by Joe Able of Mission Texas during the summer of 1994. I bought
it from Joe in June of 1999 and started rebuilding it in September of 1999.
It only had 77.5 hours on it when I purchased it, but it had lead a rough
existence and needed to be completely redone. The Rotax 447 engine was
in very good shape but the airplane had been kept in a moist environment
and had corrosion and mold over most surfaces.
I changed the tinted windscreen (which was scratched) to clear, moved
the fuel tank aft 5 inches to both gain additional baggage and to put the
CG closer to center. I added a fuel access door of approx. 10" X 13" to
the left side behind the cockpit to give better access to the tank and
to permit fueling without the need for funnels or hoses. This mod worked
out great and is highly recommended for others. The plane had the "chisel"
nose and this was changed to the pointed fiberglass enclosure which really
made it look better. The paint job just came to me as I was looking at
some Air Force Thunderbirds pictures and I realized how simple it would
be do, and how spiffy it would look on this particular plane. I threw the
damned worthless factory brakes away and put on the same external band
type installed on my RagWing Special. They are
probably the lightest, best brakes around and will stop the plane quick
and hold it during run-up. I buy mine from a local go-cart distributor
for about $20.00 per axle.
I do not currently have the lift strut fairings installed but hope
they will give a bit better performance. At present the 447 with old 2.2:1
re-drive and swinging a Tennessee Propeller 60 X 34 prop is giving 65 mph
cas at 5600 to 5800 rpm and using 2.5 gals/hr. The climb rate is very good
and is almost twice what my Special gave me. I'm hoping the strut fairings
will give enough added performance to justify the cost.
Check out the Challenger list at http://challenger.maverick.net/
Revised March 17, 2000
This site is maintained by ddmorrow@flash.net