Bill:

The scale is 1/5.42 and the wingspan is 80 inches. Bates recommends a G-45 but I have a G-62 lying around looking for a home. I also think it will need the added weight of the G-62 to help balance it. The gear are Century Jet. It has a 98 degree retract angle and Robart did not have anything that would work. The strut shaft is 5/8 so I am hoping that they will hold up. The cost with the plans, cowl, canopy, and laser cut semi kit was around $330. I also purchased about $75 worth of wood from Lone Star to finish off the semi kit. So it cost me just a little over half the cost of a Byron. I believe Precision sells a full kit for $335. I thought that was a little on the expensive side so I opted for the laser cut semi kit.

Jeff, Paul:

I have always loved the Typhoon. The first balsa model I built was a Guillow's Typhoon. I had a Brian Taylor Typhoon semi kit, plans, cowl, and canopy. When I started checking into getting retracts I found that they would cost almost as much as retracts for the Vailly Typhoon. So I figured why not build the Vailly Typhoon and sold the Brian Taylor stuff to a friend. I was looking into getting the Vailly Typhoon when a couple of Saturdays ago someone put a Vailly Tempest kit cut by Precision, canopy, cowl, plans, and accessories for sale on RCU for $450. I could not resist, so now I am the proud owner of a Vailly Tempest. After I received the kit, I started comparing the Tempest to the Typhoon and I think the Tempest will be a better flier. The wing has the largest area of any plane in this size range.

Jeff, I can email you my phone number if you want to talk.