Hotshot- It was not too difficult to build but very frustrating at times. The factory is comprised of a great group of guys but id rather have them sitting besides me flying than designing a build manual. The build manual is shotty at best and by far the single best resource for the build was www.wingsforum.com which has a just aircraft section that was worth its weight in gold. No special tools were needed except maybe some sheet metal sheers and some cleco pliars and some nicopress crimpers to do the flying wires. We bought a sheet metal break and used it quite a bit for fabrication but you would certainly not need it. The hardest part of the build is that most of it is open to interpretation as far as you know where it goes but not exactly how it goes there and there is alot of fabrication involved. For me the hardest was wiring the panel. I have a strong electronics background that helped but it was still foreign to me in a sense.

We had no prior experience at all. My father is a non practicing ase master mechanic and I have a pretty strong electronics backround to include fabrication along the lines of one off interior panels etc. We had never done anything along these lines though. My father built a jeep CJ3 from the frame up and restored a few motorcycles, every little bit helps. I would say that having basic handyman skills and patience is all that is needed. Challenges were listed above. You want to door to lift on pistons..you figure out which pistons, where to get them, how to mount them etc etc. Besides the basic things such as control surfaces and the like, everything is up to you as far as how you mount it, fabricate or build it. Again, the wingsforum helps alot not unlike this site helps aviators. You post a question and within a day or so you get pictures and tricks of how those before you got it done. As for how much of the kit came completed, we bought a "quick build" it came with the wings, fuselage and horizontal stabilizer finished, covered with fabric and painted basic white. We did the aileron and flap rigging, mounted the horizontal stab and elevator, put on the main gears and tailwheel, did the break system and you get the idea. The plane comes covered with fabric and bone dry empty. You fabricate every piece of the interior except the seats and do the entire panel and firewall forward although they include an engine mount. Plan on a good amount of trial and error in the beginning which tapers off towards the end.

700 lb useful load so figure on 21 gal of fuel (we went with a 3 gallon header tank with sight guage instead of the 1 gal with no visual indicator) so 700-126=574lbs. Then factor in the FAA standard 180 pax times two so 574-360=214lbs it leaves you with 214lbs of rear baggage capacity. That can change with the fuel you carry and the amount of beer you drank in your days that may have elevated you above the standard weight. From others that own the plane it will hold every bit of weight that it says it will hold. You can license it as experimental as far as I know although we went with E-LSA and im not sure of the rules but I cant see why you could not throw a third seat in there.

any other questions let me know, I am at the crashpad now and will be spending nights in hotels so it leaves me a little more time. If you guys want a little more insight as to what others say for the build just go to wingsforum.com and click on the just aircraft section and you will see what others are saying regarding the build. (wingsforum is not in competition with APC and is not in the same genre as APC so you will not get addicted)