Onex flight!

[Chad Jensen]

Hi folks...thought I'd make my first post a good one! For those of you that don't know me, I work for EAA as the Homebuilders Community Manager, as well as serve on the senior leadership team representing all of our communities and divisions. I built an RV-7, had a Thatcher CX-4 project for a while, and I'm now building a Wittman Tailwind W-10.

So...the topic is my flight in the Onex! For an upcoming feature in Sport Aviation, I was fortunate enough to be chosen to fly the Onex from Sonex. I have one word to describe flying that airplane. Wow. Okay, more than one word...that airplane is a BLAST to fly!! In order to ready myself for a flight in the single seater, I spent two afternoon's with Jeremy Monnett flying their Sonex Sport Trainer, N122SX. That airplane was a lot of fun to get checked out in as well!



Jeremy was great to fly with, and after a couple of hours in the Sonex, I was prepared to take their only tri-gear Onex up for a flight! It was quite an honor because I was just the 4th person to fly the airplane, and the first non-Sonex person to strap it on.

Taxiing out in the Onex...



Climb out from Wittman Regional airport was brisk, and the view out front (and all around) is just fantastic! I used about 90mph on the climbout. (this picture was actually taken in more of a cruise setting, as the airspeed indicates 122mph).



The Onex grin??? YUP!



I flew it around the west and south side of Oshkosh for about a half hour, and this airplane is VERY responsive. FUN responsive! Sitting on the center line in this airplane definitely gives you the fighter pilot feel, as does looking through that long sloping windshield.

Not only does it fly nice and fast flat out, it flies nice slowly too! There's one notch of flaps to put in (45 degrees if I remember right), and it'll fly all day long at 60mph if you want to (within engine temp limits). Yank and bank, fly fast, fly slow...with the best company one can have!

The opportunity to fly the airplane again is there, as is flying the taildragger versions of this and the Sonex, and I definitely plan to take Jeremy up on that!

You guys that are building these airplanes have a lot to look forward to!



Chad Jensen
EAA

[Chad Jensen]

Appears as though my pictures are too big with the right side being cutoff...sorry about that!

[N111YX]

Looks like fun, Chad. I'd love to try one out for the day. Now if there were a Y-tailed version with a Jabby 3300...hmmm...:)

[Andy Walker]

Looks like fun, Chad. I'd love to try one out for the day. Now if there were a Y-tailed version with a Jabby 3300...hmmm...:)

It would have to be redesigned with a higher Vne... :lol:

[Sonex1517]

Very cool Chad! Great to see you here.

[MichaelFarley56]

Thanks for the posting Chad! When can we expect to see your article on the plane? I can't wait to read it!

I think a Onex sitting in your hangar next to the Tailwind would be pretty cool! :mrgreen:

[Chad Jensen]

I think we will be able to get it in the magazine in the next few issues. Not sure which month yet, but soon.

I'd love to have one in the hangar with the Tailwind! My wife??? I don't have her on board with two airplane builds at one time...

Chad

[Chad Jensen]

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Flew the Onex tri-gear again last week for some in-cockpit video for EAA...thought I'd share a couple of the pics before the video comes out. 8-)

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[Mike53]

More motivation :D Thanks Chad.

[chris]

Thanks for the preview!