Next, I asked if I could visit the customer construction area, because I wanted to see how new Comp Air owners and pilots were doing building their own aircraft on site. The place was huge! When I said I never expected it would be this large, my guide told me it had started out smaller, but because of the enthusiasm of homebuilders who wanted to use the facility, it had been expanded several times. I watched as each of the builders worked to perform various assembly procedures on his particular Comp Air. Trained factory workers were beside them, advising them and helping them with whatever tasks they were undertaking at the time.

"What a great way to build your own airplane," I thought. There were all the various jigs and all the special tools a builder might need for construction. The factory workers, each highly experienced in his own field, were there to advise and help each builder every step of the way. With this setup, a builder can not only do the job of assembling his aircraft much more swiftly, he knows it will be done correctly. Should a customer opt for a firewall-forward engine combination, he‘ll find that this greatly reduces the amount of time spent on installation. With Aerocomp's highly enhanced assembly facilities, some owners can put together their new airplane in a matter of weeks, and it’s certainly worth the extra cost for the peace of mind they get, knowing for certain that every part of the construction process was done carefully, correctly and safely.

I hated to leave, because it was so

interesting, but it was time to head back to the hangar where the Comp Air 10 had been refueled and inspected, and was waiting to be taken on its last photo flight of the day. Because this aircraft is equipped with the same engines and controls as the other Aerocomp planes, the same preflight and start procedures were used. This particular aircraft’s tri-gear made it easier to steer the big plane out to the takeoff end of the runway. While we were taxiing, I noticed that this pilot also used the beta control of the prop rather than the brakes. After the pilot had done a pre-takeoff runup and a check of the prop, he launched the big plane. It came off the ground within 3 seconds, then climbed out rapidly at about 2000 fpm - really good acceleration for a 10-place airplane.

Soon after takeoff, the pilot turned the controls over to me, and I kept climbing to the location where we’d prearranged to rendezvous with the Comp Monster. Hurricane Dennis had been wreaking havoc with the weather all along the coast that week, but it also left a variety of gorgeous

As I flew along, the plane’s handling reminded me of a 600hp deHavilland Otter I'd once flown, but in the turns, it felt a little like a DC3, too. In other words, it flew like a big airplane. I could easily imagine taking this super-comfortable airplane on a long cross-country flight and enjoying every minute of it.

When I mentioned the Comp Air 10’s high level of fuel consumption and the possibility of pilots needing to make quite a number of fuel stops on a long cross-country flight, the pilot replied that the company was addressing this problem by installing much larger fuel tanks, in this version at least. I wasn’t surprised that the Comp Air 10 flew like the Comp Air 7 and the Comp Air 8, because they all share the same design specifications and, as a result, the same excellent flight characteristics.

After I put the huge homebuilt into several 360-degree turns, did some slow flight and stalls, I could see no differences between its performance and that of the other two Aerocomp aircraft, except that, of course, the Comp Air 10 was somewhat heavier.

 It’s easy to predict that the production version with the longer fuselage will be even easier to fly, because it should be even more directionally stable than the prototype, due to its extra length. On the advice of the pilot, I made an easy full-stall landing to keep the prop tips from hitting the ground. Then, once the nosewheel settled down on the asphalt, the plane smoothly rolled straight to a stop. I hated to see the end of what had been a successful and satisfying flight.

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COMP AIR 10

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