The Voyageur
"convertible!"
A number of years ago I was in Northern Ontario doing an
intensive flight training course and I came across a plane called the
Bushcaddy.
I had an opportunity to do some flying in it, and to say
I was impressed by the flight characteristics and quality of materials and
workmanship in the kit would be an understatement!
At the Toronto Aircraft and Aviation show I ran
into the people from, Canadian Light Aircraft Sales & Services.
Sean Gilmore designer and owner of the Bushcaddy line of aircraft was on
hand to introduce his newest model the "Voyageur."
The name "Voyageur" is synonymous with the
French bushmen who opened up the north in early Canadian history, and like
this famous group of men who "adapted to their environment"
the "Voyageur" is adaptable, or convertible from a
tail dragger to a trike landing configuration in a matter of hours.
According the Sean "one pin and the nose gears comes
off, and then we rotate the mains from left to right and that moves the c
of g aft, and you put the tail wheel on and you have a taildragger."
The plane is offered in kit form which should take about
1500 hours to build. It is also offered in quick build kit versions which
cuts down on the building times, or can be factory built.
The planes uses rivet together construction. "Our
planes are all designed to go on floats - and as you know float planes
take a "real kicking" so we feel you have to build you airplane
with that in mind right up front." "thus we build our cabins
with solid rivets, the rest is Avex."
Tools required to build the plane include "good
pneumatic rivet gun, a good set of straight cut and long blade shears,
deburring tools, drills, etc." "The aircraft was designed to be
built in a modular form, the cabin is one structure, the fuselage another,
and the wings the third structure." "You need to be able to accommodate
a 4 foot by 12 foot table with walking room around it, which
is used to jig the assemblies, then you can build the plane in a one car
garage."
The plane can be powered by 4 stroke engines in the
ultralight category ranging from 65 to 120 hp. with the Rotax 912 series
of engines the preferred engine.
"When powered by a 912 S Rotax 100 hp engine take off
distance will very seldom be more than 250 feet, climb rate no less than
700 feet per minute, with stall speed coming in between 22 and 30
mph."
"The control system is standard single center stick
and dual rudders, with push tube used for the elevator, and cable used for
the ailerons and rudder." While not equipped with flaps "the
aeroplane side-slips like a demon" " and gets off the water on
floats in in 9 to 13 seconds at gross."
"Most of our "owners" planes are not show
planes, they are usually covered in dried blood, or smell of fish"
"these planes are "used" thus we have removable seats, once
removed you have over 16 cubic feet of cargo space, room for an outboard
motor" "our pilot's in Quebec will use every inch of that, and
then some!"
While the wing is very similar to that used on a
"Piper" it is all metal. The model on display had a 32 foot wing
on it, while other models go up to 36 feet. "
For more information contact:
Canadian Light Aircraft Sales & Services
1700 Ste-Angelique, St-Lazare, Qc.
Canada, J7T 2X8 |
