Looking good. The side by side seating being center is a good choice for sure.

The down side of side by side is you loose some performance because of the wider cabin over a tandem layout aircraft. The truth is it all comes down to compromises.

The joys of give or take design.

Yes.

I wish I knew more about aeronautics; I'll just accept this will fly.

I wish I did too... or maybe it's better I don't. The way it is now I think outside of the box with a lot of the stuff I have designed and built. As an aeronautical engineer they are trained to think a certain way so they have a hard time thinking out side of their box or cubical of knowledge.

Myself I have knowledge in many different fields so I have a larger pool of knowledge to draw from.

I'll confess to have expected a larger wing so you could get away with a shorter wingspan for the needed lift (but all I've ever done is RC planes a generation ago - so please take anything I say with a big grain of salt! )

I understand my friend, I too have flown RC, but the narrower wing cord has less induced drag for a given wing area. The narrower cord wing has better rate of climb and service ceiling than a lower aspect ratio wing of the same area and power. The narrower cord wings works better on low horsepower aircraft.

Learn something new every day!

Glad I could help.

better looking than a cybertruck!

I agree... the cibertruck is butt ugly and looks to be near useless as a pickup truck.

Have you run this through any sort of simulator?

I have used a spreadsheet to numerically model the design to get projected performance numbers. I also used them to work out tail volumes and stress loads. When we build it we well static load test to prove the numbers. The nice thing about the design is it has a gross weight of 1300 pounds but we may designe it for 1500 pounds in case someone moves it out of the light sport class of aircraft.

So, this isn't exactly aerospace engineering software, but it also isn't tens of thousands of dollars. Might be worth checking out to refine your work before building.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/...../SimplePlanes/

No it's not aerospace engineering... it is a few steps up from pencil, paper and a sliderule... by the way that's how pre computer era aircraft were designed... I haven't used a sliderule in so long I have forgotten how to use one...

All my design work will be checked by a good friend who is a mechanical engineer, that is an aviation enthusiast and pilot. I know I'm doing something right because he is thinking strongly about building my design over his own work. Yes his hobby is designing low powered aircraft. He likes what he sees in the Nuthatcher and the utility of the design. That flat slope behind the cabin has a reason... where do you put the folding camp chairs in a light aircraft? Or other light and bulky things? You lash then to the slope on the outside of the aircraft in that space.

I'm sorry, I think you may have misunderstood my meaning. I was suggesting that the software I linked to would let you create and test a virtual mock-up very inexpensively.

I understood your reasoning but I'm sure the game is not going to have the airfoil I'm using and is programmed for a generic airfoil so it wouldn't handle the same. I'm also not a gamer. The game is not going to have the feel or likely to react the same as the real bird in the real world.

she's comfortable looking and a very good 'camping' craft to be sure...

V.

That's the hopes my friend...

Yep.

Excellent! Here's wishing you the best going forward with her. ^__^

Thank you much. It's going to be interesting.

Looks great.. dang makes me want to get some Balsa and build a rubber band powered version....

Wait till I post the three view drawings. Hopefully I'll get them done this weekend.

looking forward to that. Pod and boom look very interesting . I can see where you could store a flight bag and some other gear within weight limits behind the seat.

How about 75 to 100 pounds behind the seat and still be within the cg range.

Not bad at all. My stepmother's previous husband was a pilot - Flew bush planes in Canada for a number of years - supplies into a gold mine, flew gold and personnel in and out. Did charters for flying in hunters and fisherman. I've heard some interesting stories about him

Dad did the same thing off and on in Alaska and Western Canada in the late 40s to the early 70s. Dad learned to fly before WWII in Southeast Alaska, so I do understand the stories... the scary part how much of them are true.

Dang interesting. The guy (Karl - aka Charlie and Whiskey Charlie) I mentioned, well he was Austrian and his flight training was at age 15 - gliders and trainers then in the cockpit of a ME 109 in 1944 thru 1945 on the Eastern Front. Must have been a damn good pilot to survive that. By the Mid 1950s he was flying again after moving to Canada. One of his sportsman clients was some big shot with Eastern Airlines. He asked Karl about his flgiht hours - he pulled out his flight books going back to 1944. Ended up flying for Eastern first in Canada then in the US. Went from shooting at Boeing Products to flying them. Eventually captained 747s on the Hawaii route

Dad had some 14,000 hours in the the logbooks and half again that not in the logbook. He would just post enough hours in the book to prove he was current before he had the stroke.