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Welcome to my Excalibur Ultralight
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My Trip to Sebring, FL to Visit Excalibur Aircraft
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On July 18, 2000 I had the opportunity to visit Excalibur Aircraft. I was on vacation in Cocoa Beach, FL and made arrangements to meet with Tom Karr. I drove to Avon Park which was about 20 minutes from Sebring and called Tom. He met me and treated me to a wonderful buffet lunch. It was great to finally put a face to the emails I have been sending.
Afterwards, he took me to the hangar there in Avon Park where he keeps the demo plane that is almost ready to fly. As you can see in the photos below it still needs a few final touches, fabric and paint, but will be ready to fly soon.
After I took a lot of pictures, we headed to Sebring. Before we went to the Excalibur Aircraft shop, we stopped in at Lockwood Aviation. I have purchased many things from them and wanted to meet Tish Lockwood and the others that I have talked with. I was really nice to talk with the people there and I had to buy some things anyway so I did. Then we were off to the Excalibur Aircraft shop. Along the way, Tom asked if I would mind stopping at a metal shop so he could pick up some motor mounts. Of course it was no problem at all and in a minute we were back on our way to his shop. He mentioned that these were improved engine mounts. I thought it was really nice that he continues to improve on his already great ultralight! When we arrived, he showed me my fuselage. At last I thought, I get to touch it! It takes a while to build one of these because of all of the attention to detail, etc. but it is really nice seeing it all together like it was. Below are some of the pictures I took:
Notice the colored seats and seat belts, the improved vertical stabilizer, the push tube flight control system - NEAT! This is going to be one fantastic ultralight!
I took a great deal more pictures, but they are similar to Tom's demo plane above so I won't waste your time showing similar pictures. Tom pointed out the differences between this 2001 design and the 1998 design of the Excalibur on the Excalibur website at www.excaliburaircraft.com. The great design change is the push tube mechanism for the ailerons and the elevators. It was pretty cool! Check out the video of it by emailing me. (It is 1.4MB big so it may take a while to send depending on connection speeds.) I also met Chris, who was working on my fuselage. He was a real nice guy and was quick to answer any question I had.
I stayed a little longer to help him with some computer questions he had, but then I had to go. It is a long drive back to Cocoa Beach, so I said my good-byes and was on my way.
[Home] [Day
1] [Day 2] [Day
3] [Day 4-7] [Misc
Items Received]
[Links] [My
Visit to Excalibur Aircraft] [Muffler/Trailer]
[Fuselage]
[Nose Wheel Modification]
[Links]