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Leonard Milholand started selling plans for his Legal Eagle ultralight in
1999, and has sold over several hundred sets of plans since then. When
he was approached by a customer very large customer to build a plane for
him he started building a bigger airplane to fit him.
Unfortunately
the customer passed away during construction and Leonard decided to
continue on with the project but to turn the plane into a two place
ultralight trainer. Now with the advent of the lightsport aircraft he
has just completed certification of the Double Eagle into the ELSA
category.
According to Leonard his plane went through the program about a year
ago. Prior to that all 11 planes that he built were inspected by the FAA
under the 51% amateur built rule. Leonard had problems finding an
affordable DAR to aid him getting his plane through the program.
Fortunately the EAA has been assisting some builders with their own
DAR's doing the inspections for just the cost of expenses, which
according to Leonard "I lucked out on."
 EAA
is very familiar with the style of aircrat Leonard designs as one of
their ultralight chapters completed building a Legal Eagle called the
Spirit of 03.
The craft is a part 103 legal craft and is powered by Leonard's
Better Half VW conversions.
The plane has been flown and now will be retired to the EAA Museum.
Leonard has built a dummy engine for the plane which will be installed
on the plane once it goes on static display.
Leonard indicates that the Legal Eagle can be built by a "diligent
builder" in 6 to 9 months, while the Double Eagle will take 9 months to
a year."
While Leonard "doesn't sell a whole airplane" "we do have welded
fuselages, materials packages, and a lot of parts for sale from John
Bolding in Baytown Texas, who operates in the same city as me but we are
80 miles apart."
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Leonard Milholand 3rd
from left
and his Double Eagle |
Leonard sells building videos, plans, and a few parts like prop hubs.
The plans are printed out on 8 x 10 inch paper for ease of printing and
"to keep the cost down so that I can sell them very reasonable."
"The plans contain 9 or 10 pages of written instructions and 50 or 60
pages of drawings, plus a materials list."
If built according to the plans the Legal Eagle will come in at 244
lbs giving the pilot room to add some additional equipment or
instruments.
There are four videos available on the Legal Eagle, the first is an
informational video, which shows were everything goes, how it goes
there, plus footage on covering one of the wings. It also includes a
little bit of flying footage.
He has a wings video which shows how to build the wings.
Two engine videos are available showing how to convert the VW engine
over, with the second engine video showing how to assemble the engine.
Leonard indicates that builds should spend $3,000 to $5,000 to
complete a Legal Eagle and $5,000 to $7500 to complete a Double Eagle.
Currently there are over 50 Legal Eagles flying and 4 Double Eagles.
For more information contact:
J & N Bolding Enterprises Inc.
Box 3193 Baytown,TX
77522
281-383-0113
http://www.betterhalfvw.com |
