Marquart Charger Biplane: Opinions.

[mcrit]

What is the membership's opinion of the above aircraft?  How is it for landing compared to a Citabria or a 180? 

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Interesting airplane.


Maybe the Colonel will know something about it.

[Colonel]

Never flown one.

It has widely spaced mains, which is always good,
and what appears to a fuselage of reasonable
length.  Both of these should make it a bit more
docile on the rollout.

Trying to figure out how much visibility you have
forward in the 3-point landing attitude.  For many
pilots, this may be their first "blind forward" airplane
in this regard, and it can be pretty challenging at
first.

I would very carefully measure the toe-in of the
mains (string method) to check for damage from
previous groundloops.  This is amazingly common
with taildraggers that have been around a while.

Mis-alignment caused by bent mains can take a
docile taildragger and make it quite nasty when
the tires are on the pavement.

The other factor is the weight, which will determine
the approach and thus the touchdown speed.  If
it is light, you can touch down slowly and have a
hope of keeping up with the foot-yaw control loop.

If it is heavy, you will have to approach and touch
down faster, and things will happen faster, which
is generally not good.

Most homebuilts are real porkers, and weigh far
more than the designer intended.  Doing your
own weighing is highly recommended.

Fundamentally it's a tube and fabric aircraft.

Inspect the 4130 tube fuselage for weld quality
and corrosion on the lower longerons, where
the water runs down.  Peek inside the fuselage
inspection holes.

Inspect the wooden wings for any signs of
distress - cracked ribs, pulled diagonal wires,
even broken spars!

Fabric is another concern.  Is the paint cracked
and peeling?  Pretty normal after 10 years,
when it dries out.  Check for wrinkles in the
fabric which is a telltale for internal damage.

The fabric in the prop blast area takes the
worst beating.  Check the top of the top
wing for peeling paint/tapes.

Lycoming engine?  Check for corrosion on the
cam lobes and cylinders from sitting.  Very
common with biplanes in Canada to sit for
months every winter.

Oh yeah, tailwheel.  Jack it up and check
for slop.  Just wiggle the fucker.  What is
the condition of the horn springs and clips?
Does it shimmy?  Have the leaf springs sagged,
allowing the vertical tailpost to lag?

Double-fork APS give the best bang for
the buck.

Good luck!  I hope this helps.

[ScudRunner-d95]

With any home built the x factor will be the guy who put it together.

Fun looking toy for sure,

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Now that is what I call an excellent post that is worth its weight in gold for content.


And to think Avcanada has banned this poster.

[Colonel]

I wouldn't sweat it.  It used to be a mark of great
distinction - a very exclusive club - being "banned for life"
from AvCan. 

In a move of incredibly childish pettiness and sheer
stupidity, the AvCan moderators also ban your IP address
from  even being able to view the website, because
they've never heard of this exotic thing called an
"IP proxy" which is some dark web KGB shit that
only Jason Bourne can master.  Like Google.

But now anyone can get "banned for life" from AvCan -
even Shiny, I've heard.  He hurt someone's feelings,
I think.  Can't have that.

Another buddy of mine, one of the best sticks I know
(flies the [i]only[/i] DH Hornet Moth in Canada, with a
swivelling shopping cart tailwheel (incredibly difficult),
and is actually (ahem) a retired four bars) got banned
from AvCan, too.

Spot the pattern?

I think I logged PIC on the DH87.  It was quite an
honour to be put on the insurance.

[ScudRunner-d95]

What would one sell for ? Might be over priced for its performance.