Dale Seitzer's latest project
Monday September 9, 2024
7:00 p.m.
Dale Seitzer has held almost every job at Chapter 54: president, newsletter editor, and secretary among them. He's also an EAA technical counselor, which makes sense since he's something of an airplane-building savant of Sky Ranger aircraft.
Seitzer is completing his second such endeavor after flying his original production for 20 years and about 1,400 hours, many of them in the company of a Young Eagle, 180 of them, to be precise. For the record, he's also the author of two books, "The Mormon Conspiracy" and "Zombie Siege," a title which elicited giggles from the three dozen members who gathered at the Chapter House to hear him speak.
"You think that's funny?" he said. "Just wait 'til it happens!"
Seitzer got his start in flying when his wife gave him a certificate for lessons at Wings in downtown St. Paul. After he soloed, "they said, 'well, you're going to need to practice, and this is how much it costs.' And I go, 'Whoa!'. That's when got started in ultralights."
The Sky Ranger kit was designed in Ukraine, manufactured in England, and sent to a dealer in Massachusetts.
The tube-and-fabric airplane is very safe, he says. "There's only, like, four or five Sky Ranger crashes," he said.
"Young Eagles like it because you can look straight out."
"The cool thing about having a plane where everything is wide open is you can do an inspection really quickly; every preflight is a pretty thorough inspection," according to Seitzer.
It's a "draggy" airplane, though. "It's not designed to be a speed demon. It's designed to be very efficient. It's easy to repair, easy to build and you can fly a lot."
Seitzer says he's been told his newest Sky Ranger will be about 600 pounds and faster. "I'm skeptical," he admits, "because I'm seeing a lot of thicker aluminum pieces."
But the cool thing is it's got a wide range of uses. "You can fly at 65 degrees all day long (but) one of the problems with it is keeping the engine warm enough in the wintertime," Seitzer says. "So, I've never had a problem keeping the engine warm enough in the cold winter."
The Sky Ranger is powered by a Rotax 912 engine with advantages and disadvantages. There's no fuel valve, for example. "If you need to shut off the fuel, you reach down and pinch the fuel line," according to Seitzer.
He estimates that the cost is about $15,000 to $20,000 less than other kits. "I don't have that much money," he says. "So I'm willing to make that compromise for something that's simpler and less expensive."
"One of the bad things about the Sky Ranger... with Van's or Ran's or Zenith or some of the other kits, there's really a big network of other builders. When I have a question, I text the dealer and he doesn't even respond anymore," says Seitzer. "It's all part of the compromise."
Everything on his new project is "super light and easy to work with." His engine came off a Zenith 701 with just 6.5 hours on it. Its owner crashed the plane. "He was a GA pilot. He had built all this stuff into it, and I was calling Wentworth, like, every week and he goes, 'Well, we just got one in.'. And I said, 'I'll be over in an hour.'"
His new engine even has warranty left on it.
He describes the landing gear as "super beefy".
"I never had any problems with the old one," he says. "This allows you to carry more weight."
"The reason I bought it is this new dealer was at Oshkosh last year and I looked at the plane they had it and I go, 'Whoa! This is really good. This is much better.' So, I ... ordered it in August but it didn't get here until August of this year. It was supposed to be here in February and was going to sell my plane and work on it through the spring and summer and fly it now," he says. "But that didn't work."
Performance, of course, will be determined during Phase I testing. The stall speed on his old Sky Ranger as 32. He thinks the new one will be about 37, owing to a wing that's a foot-and-a-half less on each side. He figures it'll cruise at 100 to 110, while the old airplane cruised at 80 to 90.
Other meeting news:
Dave Syverson cautioned hangar owners and renters to look around their hangars for possible accelerants after the latest hangar flying at Lake Elmo Airport. "We should be going through our hangars and making sure there isn't a pile of crap or something combustible," he said. "Fortunately the hangar is still there."
He believes Mark Holliday had sold the hangar as recently as last week.
January 2024:3D printing aviation applications (and Lake Elmo noise complaints)
February 2024:A fireside chat with Marlon Gunderson
March 2024: Mark Schaible, owner and president of Sonex
April 2024: Joe Harris, MAC director of reliever airports
May 2024: Sim pit design with Jeff Dale
June 2024:Annual picnic and hangar tour
August 2024: Your Oshkosh experience and fly-in breakfast debrief
September 2024: Dale Seitzer builds another Sky Ranger
