Tarragon Aircraft - In the cockpit, he plans to provide a more complete rear instrument panel and wants to improve cabin ventilation. Right now, the fuselage is so tight that while there is plenty of air coming into the cabin, there is no place for it to go out—and with the big bubble canopy, a sunny day makes it a warm front office.
The long Koger sunshade helps a lot, but that removes some of the visibility benefits of the big bubble. Today, the U.S.A. is dotted with “professional build centers” or “builder assist centers.” The concept means that someone who knows a kit intimately can assist the homebuilder achieve his or her 51% work effort to qualify as Experimental Amateur Built (EAB).
Tarragon Aircraft
The FAA already permits this, and nearly everyone agrees the practice results in better-built aircraft. Preflight checklists for the Tarragon are normal for an aircraft of this size, and Chiwami selected one notch of flaps to get us off quickly.
International Flair
Acceleration is not blisteringly fast—after all, this is a 115-hp motor—but it is more than you are used to from a typical certified two-seater. Europe's EASA (their FAA) has different rules for both LSA and another category called "light aircraft" CS-LVA.
The speed and weight rules are all over the place in Europe. The planes at Aero Friedrichshafen are examples of these different rules. The Riga facility is about 30 minutes out of town, according to Read, and located in a large building with 15 employees.
There is a nice hotel located right next to the factory, and in October, he noticed that there were six airplanes under construction. A builder can head to Eastern Europe right now to get started on their aircraft.
Once the builder has large chunks that look like airplane parts, they can be shipped to the builder's private workshop for installation of all the components that make it a flying machine. They aren't willing to use the Rotax 915iS engine yet as this plane can cruise at 210 mph at 75% using the Rotax 914UL engine.
Systems Design
They have a higher max load rating than any other ultralight which translates into safety when turning at higher G's. And it can fly through turbulence 30 knots faster than any ultralight currently made. Since an EAB kit may operate in the IFR system (assuming the pilot is qualified and the aircraft meets a fairly simple list of on-board equipment), and since the FAA places no speed or configuration limits on an EAB aircraft, these aircraft become European
ready candidates for importers to bring in and help with construction. At the April European airshow Aero Friedrichshafen, visitors saw several fast designs already flying in Europe. These are clean-sheet new creations that can hit 200 mph on 100 horsepower, priced at a fraction of the best selling general aviation aircraft.
The airplane taxies precisely with the steerable nosewheel and single brake lever. You can control the throttle with the palm of your left hand and have your fingers curled over the brakes, so speed control is simply a matter of flexing the hand a little to modulate both “go” and “stop.”
A modification to a swiveling nosewheel (non-direct-steering) and differential brakes is in the works, and this will probably improve ground maneuverability in a desirable way. The ballistic recovery 'chute' is standard in the Tarragon and can be activated from either cockpit with a red T-handle located on the lower right corner of each instrument panel.
New Faa Rule On The Way
Straps for the 'chute are hidden in fiberglass channels on the sides of the aircraft, just like in most composite aircraft designed for ballistic recovery systems. Deploying the 'chute will do a lot of cosmetic damage, but the point is to save lives, not preserve the aircraft.
Currently, the only factory-trained Tarragon pilots in the U.S.A. are Chiwami Takagi-Read, Greg Read, and a Renault Sport Class racer. Chiwami doesn't come from a family of pilots, but she has had a passion for flying since she was a young girl.
She was born and raised in Japan. She got her helicopter commercial pilot certificate at Oakland, California, in 1995, then went back to Japan for training and got her JCAB (Japan Civil Air Bureau) helicopter commercial pilot certificate.
She was flying AS350 and H500 helicopters in Japan as a corporate pilot. She came to the U.S. by herself and started flying fixed-wing airplanes. With 66 gallons of fuel, the Tarragon has an amazing range—or the ability to fly for weeks on end without visiting the gas pumps.
Brm Aero Bristell Rg
Rotax powerplants can sip fuel very conservatively, and 4.5 gph is a number frequently bandied about—and achieved—by pilots flying behind them. The 66 gallons is split between the left and right sides, and Read said they have done stalls with as much as a 25-gallon imbalance with little adverse effect except heavy wing drop in the break.
The system is dirt simple, with a fuel selector for the front seat to choose left, right, or off. The main gear features beautiful Beringer brakes and wheels, and lightweight gear doors that fair the struts but leave the wheels themselves exposed to the breeze, although tucked tightly into their wells.
We didn't compare speeds with the gear down to the gear up, but did note a significant acceleration on takeoff when the wheels went up. Although modern go-fast aircraft frequently leave the wheels down these days, there is something to be said for the sleek lines of an aircraft with the wheels tucked away.
Appearance does count for something. The airplane flies very honestly and quickly felt comfortable to me as we took in a few sights on the way back, banking this way and that to check out features of the desert below.
Marketing The Tarragon
The final landing was Chiwami's because of the visibility from the rear seat and because I got such a nice one my first try, I didn't want to tempt fate and get a bad one. Seriously though, the airplane is predictable, without any bad habits, and so long as you manage speed appropriately, it should reward just about any pilot with nice, smooth arrivals.
Without a doubt, one of the best ghost planes (best meaning the place with the most dead grass) was parked just outside the Brown Arch on the flight line at AirVenture 2017. The Tarragon is a new (to the U.S. market) plane from Europe
, a fast, sexy-looking craft built for the Light Sport market across the pond, but selling as a kit in the U.S.A. for the Experimental/Amateur-Built market. Why not market it here as a Light Sport? Retractable gear, a constant-speed prop, and a speed that significantly exceeds the 120-knot LSA limit.
And the truth is, while those things might disappoint a Sport Pilot, they are significant plusses for someone looking for a new E/A-B. Imagine a sleek machine burning 4.5 gph with a tank capacity of 66 gallons, cruising at 130 knots.
About Us
If that's what you want, the Tarragon is worth a look. At NCAR in 2016, she had an engine failure during the race. She declared "Mayday" and handled the situation well. The cockpit was filled up with black smoke from an engine fire that had spread to the cockpit.
With fire inside the cockpit and outside of the engine cowl, she brought the airplane to a runway and made a successful dead-stick landing. The airplane was totaled but Chiwami walked away. As a result, she received the Tommy Rose Award (Best Airman Achievement) for her extraordinary pilot skill.
In flight, Bristell is a thing of beauty with wonderful handling and an unimpeachable stability profile. Stall is a very modest 32 knots or 39 clean and "max structural cruise" is listed at 116 knots or 133 mph (fixed gear model).
Bristell RG cruises at 134 knots and never exceeds speed is 155 knots. To obtain the right to fly, a pilot's license is required, however such aircraft will be more suitable for an experienced professional. These aircraft can fly at an altitude of 3-3.5 km.
The ultra lightness and aircraft maneuverability is achieved by the use of carbon fiber materials in the production of fuselage, which is similar to how Formula-1 cars are produced. Oh, and that fuel capacity? Read stated that with 66 gallons and burning 4.5 gph, Hawaii is in reasonable reach from the west coast.
His plan is to eventually make the flight to the Aloha state in the plane to prove it. The demonstrator we flew was stressed to +4.4/-2.0 G, but the option exists to make it aerobatic. The airplane is incredibly light—weighing in at 816 pounds, it is significantly lighter than a popular single-seat aluminum airplane (or two).
It's a good thing that the European Light Sport rules allow retracts and no upper speed limit because this plane really moves for its size of engine. From the rear seat, it was apparent that I needed that extra cushion if I wanted to see over the nose on short final, but things weren't happening too fast because the approach speed over the fence was just 60 knots—plenty slow to play
the final glide for a nice touchdown. With all three wheels on the ground, Chiwami retracted the flaps and I added power for a takeoff, which was normal in every respect. Power application and liftoff were once again smooth, and it was easy to climb a pattern of altitude before we got to midfield on the downwind.
Already for sale in the USA are planes like the Technam 2008 which is a CS-LVA plane in Europe equipped with the larger 914 and soon 915 Rotax engines. The plane is sold in the USA as an SLSA but it's an eye-wink sale because the plane can already fly at much higher gross weights and speeds than US LSA standards allow.
Assembling the major components in a factory setting allows precise control of mating processes through the use of jigs and fixtures that the average homebuilder would not be able to reasonably duplicate in a home shop.
This still leaves a huge amount of work to be done when the unfinished kit arrives at the builder's workshop, of course. As any homebuilder knows, installing systems, powerplants, and finishing equipment is often much more than half of the build.
If you decide to order a Tarragon today, Read will send a five-page options list for you to study and select all of the things you want in your machine. From avionics to engines to finish items, the list is long and varied.
Read will, of course, help you make selections that make sense for an overall package. Once the choices are made, Tarragon can give you a price, and that price will be somewhere between $170,000 and $225,000, with engines and avionics always driving significant costs.
When the dust has settled and the design is complete, you will then schedule your Latvian trip to go build the structure. Shipping is via container and is reasonably priced, according to read. These two strategic approaches coincide with the FAA's apparent willingness to provide fresh opportunities in the fairly near future.
A refreshed regulation is working its way through the development and approval process and it could swing the doors wide open for the new designs discussed here. These appear to be Light-Sport Aircraft and, indeed, in some countries they can be.
The FAA presently forbids either retractable gear (except on seaplanes) or in-flight adjustable props on LSA. Both configurations are needed if these machines are to hit their full speed potential. Together this team has built, sold, and delivered 320 VL3 aircraft, primarily in Europe, with a few in other countries (two are in the USA registered under the Aveko brand).
In 2018, JMB built 50 aircraft. Company officials say they are planning on building 5.5 per month for 2019, or 66 aircraft. The Tarragon is a nice combination of performance, good looks, and nice handling that should make it successful in the homebuilt market—assuming that the pipeline flows as Read Hopes.
In our evaluation, we saw nothing not to like in the airplane, and that range is something to tempt those who'd like to really get up to the smooth air and go a long way. For those wanting to build in composites, the Tarragon is definitely worth a look, and there is no doubt that if you are flying one, its heads will be turning wherever you go.
Designed in Italy (hence, the sexy lines), the Tarragon is a great example of multiculturalism in action. The kit components are manufactured in Spain, where they have the autoclave capacity to build perfect carbon fiber parts.
The parts are then shipped to the actual kit factory in Riga, Latvia, for assembly, either as a finished airplane for the European market or as a kit for the U.S.A. market. The current business model is for the builder to travel for two weeks to Latvia to do the major structural assembly under the tutelage of the factory experts (and using the massive tooling they have for precision assembly), with the resultant “super kit” then being
Shipped to the builder's location in the U.S.A. for the all-important “90% left to go.” Next up: a few coordination maneuvers. We cleared the area and accelerated to cruise, then pulled through a military eight and finished with a chandelle.
Both of these showed good control harmony and exhibited the plane's fun side. Because of the utility class G limits, we didn't push the aerobatic envelope beyond that—but certainly, this is an airplane that is comfortable with steep bank angles.
The U.S.A. representative for the Tarragon is Greg Read of Sparks, Nevada. Basing the company at Reno's Stead airport (home of the Reno Air Races), Read has flown the new Tarragon to Oshkosh, then south to cross the U.S.A.
westbound along the route to California, then back up to his other base at San Jose. Suffice to say, he and his wife Chiwami Takagi-Read have put on the miles and figured out what they love about the airplane and what few things they'd like to change.
A multiple offender in the fast-glass category, Read has had his hand in several EAA Grand Champion Lancairs, and Chiwami has raced both a Glassair and a Lancair Legacy in the September races. After climbing to about 3000 feet agl, we made a few familiarization turns and discovered that the controls are light and harmonious.
Roll stability was good, and very little rudder was required to keep the ball centered. In fact, I am not sure any real rudder was required in the cruise regime to keep the ball centered, the airplane simply being nicely coordinated due to its aerodynamics.
Steeping the bank to 60 degrees, the airplane stayed at altitude with little effort, with a fighter-like look and feel. Leveling the wings, we checked that the plane was trimmed for level flight, then pulled to about 15 knots below trim speed and let go.
The nose fell to about 25 knots above trim speed, then recovered with just a little overshoot on the second cycle, and then settled back to trim speed. Nicely damped, plenty stable, without being heavy. Avionics in the demonstrator are simple, with a single all-in-one attitude/airspeed/altitude indicator in the back and not much more in the front.
The front seat, of course, has engine monitors, the prop and gear controls, and a flap switch—plus the com radio and intercom controls. Of course, when it comes to avionics, the sky's the limit; it will be interesting to see what builders come up with for this capable airplane.
Blackwing boasts a 75% power cruise speed of 150 knots and a never exceed speed of 190 knots, yet stall is only 35 knots, making the handsome aircraft tolerable for most pilots. Those impressive speeds are enabled by a 100-horsepower Rotax 912, but at Aero the 635 model featured the 140-horsepower 915iS engine from Rotax.
Look out, Cirrus! If you are one of the people who leaves AirVenture on the last day, you'll understand what we mean when we talk about "ghost planes." No, not otherworldly apparitions of pilots and wings from the past—we're talking about those impressions in the grass left as crowds mill about certain interesting airplanes during the week of the show.
When the planes are gone, all that's left is the dead grass in the shape of the airplane. It's one way to tell what most interested attendees at the world's biggest aviation event.
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