Stace is no longer with Flying K - he and his father have started a new company called "Rocky Mountain Wings, LLC and are now supplying the light plane market with the Ridge Runner. He had on display a partially build Ridge Runner. Over the past 12 years Stace has worked for Avid Aircraft, Kitfox, and himself building kit planes. He credits his success to Dan Denny, Dean Wilson, and Phil Read - and with the knowledge and experience developed from them has now gone out, and with his father has started "Rocky Mountain Wings, LLC." The Ridge Runner will follow the lines of the "Skyraider" in that it will be a single place tail dragger, featuring a 4130 chrome-moly powder coated steel airframe, with metal leading and trailing edge spars and wood ribs, covered in 1.7 oz fabric. It will use standard stick and rudder controls, have folding wings, and be trailerable for short distances. A completed plane in the ultralight configuration should take about 300 hours to build, come in at 250 lbs with a gross weight of just over 500 lbs. The experimental version will take about the same time to build but will have a gross weight of just over 900 lbs. When equipped with the 503 Rotax the Ridge Runner should cruise at 85 mph with a climb rate of over 1400 feet per minute. |