Overhead Console

[Eric W]

Fish finder - that is awesome, I am going to use that term. You seem like you are pretty keyed up for the Sonex High Wing. It could be a good airplane I think.

Yes, their products fit my mission and building capabilities, and they've been available at good points in my personal timeline. I happened to see the Sonex at its very first public show (Sun N Fun 1998). I was living in Florida at the time, and it wasn't a big deal for me to get to that show. Though 1998 was the first time I went. At that time, they were selling wing plans only. ("Trust us, we'll finish out these plans and get you the rest at some point.")

I figured, give it a year and see where they're at. I saw them again at Sun N Fun 1999, and not long after that I bought pre-owned plans set #0042. That builder had collected most of the sheet stock and angle but had only cut out the main spar webs. I took it from there, but when I got to the high-dollar end of the project in about 2001, I had my own "reality check" in that I really didn't have the $ to finish it at that point. So I sold before it flew.

Knowing more about what it took, I bought plans #0815 in 2004, moved across the country in 2005, and started the build in 2005. Finished & flew in 2008 and operated the airplane for about 4 years. During all this, I had a couple of children and wasn't able to use the plane very much after a couple of years. So I sold it (it's still registered, and I have heard from subsequent owners every once in a while).

This Highwing should be selling parts when I've got 1 kid in college and another soon to follow. People say that's when the $ is really going to the kids, but we've saved along the way, and hopefully there's some scholarships. Anyway, I've made it to Airventure twice with my son, so he'd be happy to see the garage full of airplane construction rather than the couple of cars that are in there (the cars are all up and running, so there's not a whole lot to do with them).

I like the look, the robust yet straightforward construction, and after sitting in it, it has 2 major advantages over the rest of the Sonex products for me: SUPER easy to get in & out, and more space all around, especially no more clunking the headset on the canopy. In the Sonex, I had the seat as low as it could go, with a very thin seat pad, and I'd raised the windshield bow a little for a slightly higher canopy bubble, but there was NO extra headroom.