Movin' on Up!

Steve Lee Celebrates his Grand Champion Challenger II
by Mary Jones

As the old Avis car rental commercials touted years ago, when you're number two, you just have to try harder.

That's exactly what Steve Lee of Hudson, Florida did. Last year at Sun 'n Fun, he had mixed emotions when he learned that his Challenger II Clipped Wing Special had been named Reserve Grand Champion Ultralight. That was a great honor, but he wanted to be number one!

Over the past year, he did a little more tweaking to his machine, fine tuning some of the many refinements he made to the two-place. When he returned to Sun 'n Fun this year, the judging results were different. Steve Lee's Challenger II CWS is now the Grand Champion Ultralight for Sun 'n Fun '98; his machine is number one!

Interest started with models

Lee's interest in airplanes and flying started when he was about seven years old. He built model airplanes and dreamed about flying someday, but didn't start taking lessons until he was in his late 20's. After about 30 hours of instruction, life responsibilities interrupted his dream.

In the early 1980's, Lee started attending Sun 'n Fun and dreaming about flying again, but it wasn't until 1994 that he had the opportunity to start making that dream a reality. "I came to Sun 'n Fun that year with the money saved to buy an aircraft. I originally had chosen a different design, but that factory said they'd be unable to deliver a kit for six months! I was very disappointed.

"On my way home, I stopped at Blackwater Creek Airpark and visited the Challenger dealership there. Before I left that afternoon I had written my check; within a month I received the tail kit for my aircraft."

Lee began construction of the Challenger that summer, working in his one-car garage. "It was hot, and it was crowded; I'd have to put the fuselage on an angle to close the garage door at night.  I built the wings in my driveway and then my girlfriend and I stored them behind the couch in the living room (her idea; I have a great girlfriend!) until I finished the rest of the airplane."

Although Lee has made a number of minor modifications to his Challenger, nothing he did was of a major or structural nature; his philosophy is, "I'm not an airplane designer. Making major changes to an airframe design is a good way to get yourself killed or diminish the aircraft's flying qualities."

That's the same reason Lee elected to stick with the factory-recommended 52 hp Rotax 503 engine rather than upgrading to the more powerful 62 hp Rotax 582. "You might be able to climb and cruise a little faster, but you're going to burn a lot more gas." However, Lee did choose the clipped wing version of the Challenger II for its quicker maneuverability and a little extra speed (85 mph versus 70-75 mph for the standard wing).

One of Lee's more popular modifications - i.e., he's had lots of folks ask how he did it - is the "drop-down" door built into the side of the fuselage. When Lee initially purchased his kit from Ben Dawson, Dawson showed him the difference between the high side-rail option and the standard lower side rail. Lee liked the higher side rail for appearances purposes, but he was advised by Dawson that it made entering and exiting the aircraft more difficult. "I shot my mouth off and said, 'well, I'm going to cut the door and have the benefit of both.' All I did was order a couple of extra gussets, cut the top longeron, add a reinforcing tube at an angle with some piano hinge on it and attach it to the middle longeron. I picked up some door handles at a junkyard, and it works just great. It gives me the look I like with the same ease of entry as a low side rail."

Lee also adopted Ben Dawson's idea for a baggage compartment in the nose of the fuselage - a great place to store oil that also provides easy access to the battery and the back of the instrument panel. Dawson's door used a hinge fastener to keep the door locked down, but Lee elected to go with a gas door spring. He says the only time he's see it vibrate or lift a little is when he's taxiing on a rough field. "While flying in the air it never moves because the airflow is directly overtop it."

While reading The Challenger News, the newsletter of the Challenger Owners Association (???), Lee learned of a potential problem he might face by adding doors to his two-place machine. Many Challenger pilots report that instability develops in the yaw axis when flying with the doors closed. While the factory's fix is to add fins to the rudder, Lee saw an article in The Challenger News detailing how one owner added vortex generators on the edge of his windshield as well. Lee used some leftover Lexan and masking tape to create similar generators, and then flew the aircraft. He felt the vortex generators eliminated about 80 percent of the problem, so decided to add the fins as well. He now feels he's fixed the problem 100 percent.

Lee was hesitant to try the fins first because "if they didn't work, I'd end up with holes in the rudder which would be difficult to disguise. With the vortex generators I could pull the tape off and throw them away if they didn't work and there'd be no evidence left behind. However, once I knew they helped reduce the problem, I glued them down permanently."

Rather than spend $250.00 on tip lights, Lee elected to design and build his own. He used basswood from his hobby supplies and boat trailer lights he found at a flea market for $2.00 a piece. "They had red and green lights, just like I needed, so I made these little basswood boxes and epoxied them to the left and right wing tips. I don't plan to fly this aircraft at night, but may be in the air at twilight, so I think these lights will perform well."  Lee replaced the solid white light on the tail with a strobe from Lockwood Aviation Supply, rather than adding another light on the front of the aircraft. "The strobe is very effective when flying during the day, and it doesn't make much difference whether it's on the front or back for visibility sake."

Lee used the standard covering supplied with the Challenger kit and Superflite's white paint for the aircraft. However, he wanted a "Caribbean Green," an old VW bug color, as an accent color. Superflite was unable to mix that color for him, but a friend recommended Sikkens brand as an excellent paint. Lee went to Hoover Paint at Tamiami Airport and "he mixed the color for me. It comes with a hardener and a flex agent and really applied easily and dried to a beautiful finish well. I've seen lots of aircraft he has painted over the years and they look good and hold up well, so I'm very optimistic about this paint job."

While completing construction of the Challenger, Lee continued his flying lessons and obtained his Private Pilot license but has elected to fly this aircraft as a two-place trainer. He's currently working with his first full-time student - and trying to figure out what to build next. "I'm retired, but my girlfriend still works full-time, so I need something to occupy my time."

Besides, there's an empty space behind the living room sofa!

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