Building Pipistrel Sinus 912 Kit Serial 196

My name is Paul Kuntz, and I will be using this web site to describe my progress as I construct a kit for the aircraft pictured on the left. This plane is a motor glider, manufactured by Pipistrel D.O.O., located in the lovely town of Ajdovscina, Slovenia. That's me in the picture on the right (red shirt), with my wife, Mary and Ivo Boscarol, the CEO of Pipistrel. The picture was taken at the Pipistrel factory in Slovenia in April, 2006 when we visited to look at the aircraft and the factory, and to fly with the factory pilot. The factory web site is: http://www.pipistrel.si/intro The specific model that I am building is the Sinus 912 (That's pronounced sin-us, not sine-us). The Pipistrel line of aircraft is imported into the US by Pipistrel USA http://www.mcp.com.au/pipistrel-usa/index.html

Briefly, the Sinus 912 is two-place, side by side, high wing aircraft, powered by the Rotax 912 80 hp engine. It weighs 612 lbs empty, 1200 pounds max take off, has a controllable-pitch feathering propeller, a 15-meter wing with a 30:1 glide ratio, cruises at 110 knots while consuming 3.1 gal of fuel per hour, with a range of 650 NM. There's plenty of room and load capacity for two people, luggage and full fuel (26 gallons). All in all, it's just a delightful aircraft.

The Sinus has a sister aircraft -- the Virus (pronounced Veer-us). It is identical in all respects to the Sinus, except that the wing is truncated just outboard of the flaperons, giving it a 12.5 meter span. The shorter wing yields a 120 knot cruise at the expense of glide ratio, which is reduced to 24:1. Both the Sinus and Virus are available in tail wheel or nose wheel configuration.

So, please use the links on the left to see more about the purchase and shipping process, the FAA kit evaluation, and follow my progress over the coming months.