[Joeaksa]

Mike,

Flew a Tomahawk (believe I mentioned it earlier) and it was ok for just flying around but nothing exciting and after a while you would get tired of it. Unless you are interested in buying something just to build time in find something you would like and keep it for a while.

John,

Yes, but I do not take the chance of the brakes holding the plane these days. I chain the tail down if there is not another pilot to help me start the engine. Have seen a couple of engines start, throttle either set wrong or go faster and in several cases the plane took off... without a pilot. Other possibility is to have it plow into an hangar or other planes, either case expensive and possibly deadly.

Its still a hoot to have others watch if they have never seen a plane propped to start. Kinda hard to break the chain I have so its staying put until I let it loose! Have looked into putting a starter on the engine and a "total loss" battery (charge it overnight before flying) system into the plane to eliminate this issue. Some airports are banning "hand propping" unless you have two pilots and there are times I want to fly alone.

Matt,

Restored several Aeronca's over the years and help with a Varieze and Kitfox. Am an A&P so have worked on just about every type small and medium sized planes around, as well as many airline types.

Like John and Tim said, you can build your own but its really a work of love as its going to take two years minimum if you start from scratch. You can get pre-built assys but then you are not within the "51%" homebuilt regulation and thats a whole other ball of wax.

Joe A