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Cozy Mark IVWhy am I building a Cozy Mark IV? I received my pilot's license in July of 2003. Flying is expensive. It costs roughly $100/hour to rent a plane, and that's an entry-level Cessna 172. The 172 goes about 100 knots, can carry around 800 lbs, and can travel around 500 miles before refueling. With this performance and cost, I can travel around Colorado pretty comfortably, but it's still expensive. Oh, and with a service ceiling of around 14,000 ft (on a cool day), forget going West over the mountains. It's not practical. I could buy an airplane instead. To buy a new Cessna 172 would be around $200,000. So, for the price of a 2nd mortgage, I can still only comfortably go to places around (Eastern) Colorado. Not practical. |
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The alternative is to build a plane.
Okay, so why a Cozy? It can fly up to 200 knots, 1000 miles between refueling, can carry around 1000 lbs, and can go up to 20,000 ft. With this performance, we can go pretty much anywhere in the country in a day, for the cost of fuel (variable) and insurance (fixed).
To build the Cozy, it will cost roughly $30,000 - $45,000 (depending on cost of instruments and engine, which are still open questions). If I were to build a kit I'd have to lay out all this cash up-front; plus, kits prices typically start at twice this amount, and are often much higher. That's just too much up-front cost; I could buy a used Cessna for this amount of money (if I had this amount of money!) Building from plans I can buy the materials as I can afford them, and build at my own pace. Furthermore, there is a great community of builders, which means I can get advice and encouragement (and help) from people who are also building their own Cozies. And, this community includes the designer of the Cozy, Nat Puffer, who has proved to be extremely responsive.
Also, I am looking forward to the challenge, and the satisfaction and pride of flying something I built with my own hands.
| Copyright (c) 2003, d'Armond Speers All Rights Reserved |
Last modified: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 |