Minimax 1100r Aircraft Build Vlog

Minimax 1100r Aircraft Build Vlog is about my journey constructing and experimantal airplane. This is actually my third build and the second time I've constructed a Team Aircraft.
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[@RandysQuest247]

It’s great that you are able to build your plane at your workplace. I will be building a Fisher Flying Products Super Koala soon.

[@DTMinimax]

That’s a great airplane!

[@DTMinimax]

Really enjoying flying mine!

[@TheBMOCishere]

I appreciate this series! this is great insight into construction for someone looking into building an ultralight, cant wait to see the finished results!

[@DTMinimax]

Thanks so much! Glad you’re following along.

[@normd5776]

Dennis Tyson is the Bob Ross of aircraft construction.

[@DTMinimax]

That’s funny....”cutting up happy little trees”

[@mmichaeldonavon]

Built an 1100, also an EROS 1650. Flew the 1650 for over 13 years, and put over 750 hrs on it. Loved flying it. Oh, built the EROS in 6 MONTHS. March to September 2000. Still the Piper Arrow is my favorite. :) Love your build. N-6395T

[@DTMinimax]

In Michigan I was flying a Warrior. It was such a nice airplane. I’m gonna jump to the fuselage after the wings and then do the tail last. That’s sure a fast build on the EROS!

[@michaelklepacz]

I am really looking forward to watching all of this and happy to see that you have recently posted as well.

[@DTMinimax]

Welcome Michael, enjoy!

[@JamesSmith-op7yc]

Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing man, your plane is going to fly like a dream.

[@DTMinimax]

Thanks James! I sure hope so! I’m certainly trying really hard to get it all right

[@JamesSmith-op7yc]

@@DTMinimax You have it man, very good! I like that you're sharing this with everyone. Fly safe Brother, J.

[@DTMinimax]

I couldn’t find what I’m doing so I figured, just do it so others can

[@PetrincicBrosRC]

This is amazing my friend. I have subscribed so I can follow your progress. Great work. Just great. Big salute from Slovenia, Pilot Robert

[@DTMinimax]

Thanks Robert! I’m glad to see you are testing so many planes these days.

[@waltwalton8106]

Enjoyed this video, looking forward to the build. Love the looks of the Minimax especially the mid-wing design, looks sporty. I rebuilt a similar design Fisher 303 and now seriously considering a V-max so I'm subscribed for the build.

[@DTMinimax]

Fisher has some great designs as well. My last project was a Sonerai...glad to be back to wood!

[@waltwalton8106]

Oh cool the Sonerai is another favorite of mine. I'm slowly building a Cassutt also. If I do build a Minimax I think I'll use a Rotax 582 and the Vmax airframe. Did you buy the full kit or cut all of your own wood?

[@DTMinimax]

I’m scratch building mine

[@BSCHAFER11]

Please keep going your such a help to me. Thanks I am also building an 1100r about to start wing soon as I get materials.

[@DTMinimax]

That’s awesome! I’ll keep the videos coming.

[@charlesharris7947]

Also Dennis was found out that there was a what a call on the bottom of a soda can all soda cans have a convex bottom and you can use those to mix up my new amount of epoxy if you need to if you ever run out a little cups I like the little cups that you got too which I have those that little medicine cups but the bottom of a soda can works real great for mixing small

[@mattt6511]

I just found your Chanel how are you getting such flawless pieces cut?!? Are you using a cnc router? You’re a true craftsman I had my minimax on hold for 3 years but after seeing your video it’s motivated me to get started again!!!!!

[@DTMinimax]

You’ll see a couple tools I used from Rockler Woodworking that made all the difference! So glad you found my channel and some inspiration.

[@Kevin_747]

Nice work. I'm building a Legal Eagle but still use my Mini Max plans for reference since Leonard Milholland borrowed the wing design from Wayne Ison with a few changes. I've had the Mini Max plans a long time and always considered them some of the best on the market for homebuilt airplanes.

[@DTMinimax]

Hey Kevin! I’m planning to use a 45hp 1/2 VW on mine so I’m sure we’ll have something in common along with wing design. It is such a simple design and well thought out. Thanks for following along.

[@Kevin_747]

@@DTMinimax Awesome. Fun engine to build. I've curtailed wood work and I'm building my engine during the cold wx(southern Indiana) You'll have no problem finding a good VW machinist in SoCal but for me there is no one in rural Indiana. Shipping bare cases is expensive.

[@Douglasgamer-vn2pw]

Estou começando a acompanhar sua construção, sou do Brasil e também estou com o projeto para começar um himax

[@DTMinimax]

That’s awesome you’re going to build a Himax. They are also great flyers. The construction is similar. Thanks for following along and I hope you enjoy the build!

[@agp7073]

Hi Dennis, Why did you choose the 1100r? It seams there’s not much difference in costs between the different Minimax models except for the cost of the engines.

[@michaelsmokovitz3108]

Merry Christmas Dennis, I have viewed all 38 videos so far. They have been a great reference for my own 1100R build. What are you planning to work on next? Fuselage, rudder, stabilizer? Thanks for all your work into making these videos, it's greatly appreciated.

[@DTMinimax]

Thank you Michael! I really enjoy making the video’s. I’m going to jump to the fuselage next just for some variety.

[@DTMinimax]

I forgot Merry Christmas!!!🎄

[@mmichaeldonavon]

Dennis. Did you use a "scraping type device" on the parts to be epoxied? I used a small piece of hack saw blade, (maybe 2 inches long). It creates grooves for more surface area. Works really well.

[@charlesharris7947]

Dennis I wish you could see some of the clamps that I made from PVC pipe I don't know how to tell you about them other than it's a split the pipe there was something on aircraft magazine or wood magazine about it a while back but when I did it back down to 20 years ago I never heard of it me and I got it built together we built two of the mini maxes at the same time and he never got to fly his he had a heart attack but anyhow I'm going to try to get a hold of you again and get off of your

[@bennietipton2820]

thanks man

[@DTMinimax]

You got it!

[@brushitoff503]

Curiosity question, when now in July 2021, going back to the begining of this series, have you ever considered or thought about doing a Vlog "as most call it" on your earlier Minimax & what happened with it? I think the story would be awesome if it's something you would be willing to share & I love the history of how people got into flight and aviation in general as a passion from a personal perspective. Cheers for the mention in the latest video today which is probably June 6th 2021 for those in America right now.

[@DTMinimax]

Interesting idea Leo! I’ll have to process what that might look like.

[@chernoabdourahmanchaw7523]

I really love this series. Thank you so much. Can i use white pine wood to build the minimax?

[@DTMinimax]

White pine is on the list but it only has 85-90% the strength of spruce. This means you would have to increase the the size of the wood to equal the strength. Take a 3/4” piece...multiply .75 x 1.15 = .85. This is just an example of how I would go about up sizing. Grain slope and growth rings per inch have to be considered as well. Here is a good document on selecting wood for aircraft construction. www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk/engineering/TechnicalLeaflets/Building,%20Buying%20or%20Importing/TL%201.14%20Wood%20Information.pdf

[@chernoabdourahmanchaw7523]

@@DTMinimax Thank you very much

[@mikep60]

Can't wait to binge this. Serious question tho would carbon fiber work for wing ribs? Stupid expensive yes but would it be lighter than wood and strong enough?

[@DTMinimax]

This is a really interesting question. I could see a rib built of thin wall carbon tubing. Using composite gussets You would certainly get to skip the waterproofing! I wonder how far it can be taken, carbon spars, carbon D-Tube. Fun to think about what that would look like. Expensive for sure but in some parts of the world, carbon is easier to get than lumber

[@mikep60]

@@DTMinimax sure would make for a light aircraft. Reason I asked I want to build one of these or something similar and I have 3 20 ft rolls of carbon. Body shop went out of business and the owner gave it to me lol. Plus cost of lumber has gone insane. Really enjoying ur vids so far. U do fine work

[@charlesharris7947]

Dennis I think your name seems to be stuck in my mind I might have talked to you before when you built your other minimax your first one that was about the time I was building mine 199 8 in that range I'm going to do a search on KZbin and see if some of your old videos are still on there

[@c80pilot6]

Love your videos! Where did you source your wood? I am also in the Southern California area.

[@DTMinimax]

Jones Lumber Co in Lynwood They have awesome clear Doug Fir 2x6x12’ board is around $50

[@c80pilot6]

@@DTMinimax Thanks!

[@charlesharris7947]

Dennis did you not buy a kit you were talking about the availability of wood in California I was just curious did you not buy a kit when I built by IMAX all I bought was a set of plans and a few extra pieces and then I scratch build it I milled all the wood myself and built it from that I have a lot of poplar I have some Douglas fir and that type stuff but I built a I used an EAA word book and built a wood tester and that worked fine anyhow just curious I wish you'd let me know

[@DTMinimax]

I also built from plans Charles and milled all my own wood. I’m fortunate that I live really close to Aircraft Spruce which his where I got all my plywood.

[@foxman362]

Can you get dougles fir wood at home depot and lowes any hardware store to build experimantal plane?

[@DTMinimax]

I have some clear yellow pine that is acceptable that I found at HD. Douglas fir at the big box stores don’t have the necessary grains/inch Kiln dried is really important

[@normd5776]

Will Bob Holman be making a gusset kit available?

[@DennisTysonPleinAir]

Hey Norm, he does have the ability to cut them.

[@chris-nlfpv6980]

Makes sense now I didn't start at the beginning like I thought I did🙃

[@DTMinimax]

Yea...there’s a lot a videos so far. Thanks for checking it out!

[@andrewdavenport7749]

Holy shit you legit just saved my wings. Any chance I can contact you for help on my max build? I thought my build was perfect... damn that wood!

[@DTMinimax]

You can contact me, no problem. Are you on the Lonsome Buzzards site? You can PM me there.

[@DTMinimax]

Did you have some wood issues?

[@andrewdavenport7749]

Awesome, I'll get back on Lonesome Buzzards. My wood is fine, from Dave, I just forgot to put in the support brackets on the root, tip, and #5 ribs. I happened across your video while waiting for my epoxy B part to warm to finish the last ribs.

[@DTMinimax]

Oh yea...that would be tough to do after the fact. At least accurately.

[@wiseacredave]

While I'm waiting on the sticks to build my Minimax 1550V ribs, I've been studying the plans and instructions. There's no mention of having to prebend the top cap strip by soaking the wood, but others generally recommeneded doing that when building ribs. What's your experience with your ribs? Did you find it necessary to prebend the cap strip?

[@DTMinimax]

Definitely not necessary…you’ll be happy to know that I am editing a rib building video right now. I needed to add it to the series since I built my ribs before I started filming.

[@wiseacredave]

@@DTMinimax Excellent! I've been waiting for that video. I've watched all the others. What a great service to Minimax builders. Thanks Dennis.

[@DTMinimax]

@@wiseacredave You got it! I’m happy to do it!

[@DTMinimax]

@@wiseacredave It should be live in a couple hours.

[@wiseacredave]

@@DTMinimax Ah, a perfect activity for a beautiful Sunday afternoon--since I've nothing to fly yet :-)

[@joekane1872]

Hey Dennis, you mentioned in your first video that this was your third build - 2 are Team aircraft - what was the third? Thanks!

[@DTMinimax]

The other one was a Sonerai 2LS... I got about 75% complete and left it to a friend in Ohio to finish when I moved to CA a couple years ago. He’s doing great on it and just picked up his engine. Moving that project to California would have been too much so I started over with this project.

[@joekane1872]

Thanks for the quick reply! Those look like a lot of fun. Hopefully you'll get a ride when your friend gets it completed. As always -thanks for the extra effort to bring us all along on your journey.@@DTMinimax

[@rustynutz4493]

are there any actual dimentions of the ribs and spars ? I paid $215 to Leo Milholland's leagle eagle outfit and got chicken scratch and poor quality videos that are all out of sequense I only found this channel because Leo said he " borrowed" the wing from mini max.

[@DTMinimax]

Hey Rusty, The plans for the Minimax are very detailed and all dimensions are well laid out. I believe the digital files are only $48. www.teammini-max.com/online-store/printed-digital-plans/

[@charlesharris7947]

And I also would like to add I'm 86 years old and I forget the timeline on these videos you probably long since got that second mini Max that I'm watching you Bill now ready and I'm giving you tips that don't give me you know they don't make any sense anyway I'm sorry I'm still going to try to get

[@DTMinimax]

Hey Charles! Thanks so much for the comments! Yep I’ve finished all of the gluing and am getting the wings ready to cover. How long did you fly your Minimax? That’s sad about your friend who couldn’t fly his.