Left to my own devices, I'd get it flying before making any improvements or modifications.? No telling how its rigging?and alignments have worked out. I'd hate to put a lot of effort into an airframe before I found out that it won't fly in rig.?
So I got some additional info on this plane from the seller, a great guy named Fred who was kind enough to have a conversation with me even before I go up there to get the airplane.
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Apparently the original builder got a bunch of different incomplete project airplanes and made one flyable airplane out of it all. According to the build log, it's a Cougar fuselage (with Wittman engine mount/landing gear), and it supposedly has a set of Wittman W8 wings that were adapted together with that fuselage.
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Obviously, the slight difference in spar spacing between the two designs had to be addressed somehow... I don't know if the builder made an adapter, a simple spacer, or moved the spar fittings on the fuselage frame.
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But even though the plans-built W8 Tailwind has flaps, these wings do not. So this is also a mystery to me. This airplane originally had a 25 gallon fiberglass tank, which started leaking. So Fred bought a 17 gallon cylindrical shaped aluminum tank that was available commercially. Depending on the engine I decide to use on this, I might have to have a custom aluminum tank built (O-200 through O-290), or I might use the 17 gallon tank (Rotax 912, Yamaha Apex).
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Thank you to the folks who uploaded and maintain the "files" section, I did see the photos and documentation on how Wittman added the triangular tips to the short wings. If I decide to add the wingtips, I will probably make them out of wood and splice them in to the spars, rather than make a bolt-on weldment. I'm closer to being a woodworker than I am to being a welder :) But the truth is I may also put an engine in it, get it airworthy, and fly it as-is first... then decide if the long wings are worth the effort.
