PB construction 121002 Jan 2003 Pg-13

About the Designer: 090708 PG-C

I like the low and slow flying of Ultralights, the minimum airplane,

the attraction of low cost and do-it-yourself.

I began building Ultralight aircraft in 1979. I've had composite, wood,

steel tube, and Aluminum tube type planes. I built a composite in 79 that

didn't turn out very well (unstable flying wing), in 1982 I went into a

partnership with a friend on a Sunburst Ultralight (tube and sail cloth),

they had a flying wire problem but once fixed was a good plane.

In 1985 a partner and I built a CGS Hawk. I later purchased more planes

including used wood ultralights with some rebuilding required (two Fisher

303's, and a Minimax). In the next years through 1998 I bought a Kolb

Firestar, a damaged Chinook, used Kolb Ultrastar, and a Mark III Twinstar

with varying degrees of satisfaction. I built the Poorboy PB-1 in 2000/2001.

My experience with “Used wood” planes had mixed results as the workmanship

varied greatly. Wood airplanes have good construction techniques and wood is

an enjoyable material to work with however it is my opinion that wood is not the

best in build time and repair. I could have used welded steel framework but

again the build time and repair technique requirement of welding skills and

tools was not optimal. Aluminum tube is the primary building material in the

PoorBoy because of those build times, easily viewed joints and tubes for safety

inspections, and damage/repair time advantages.

I am motivated to supply an aircraft design for people like myself who have

the flying bug but want to limit the cost. I started the Poorboy seriously in

the fall of 2000 which produced the PB-1 prototype. My goals are of an

inexpensive plane designed to be a steady flyer that rely on well established

flight and design principles. There are a few unique building features in the

Poorboy but not ground breaking design concepts.

I would like to make a prototype attempt at a 103 legal (weight limit)

compliant model to be called the Penny Piper, however the work and cost has

kept me from it so far.

Jim Hartung/PBA