RE: New Piedmont Focus 90/110
Colin,
Steve and Dave are sending off for a quote this week, so a final price has not been established. I know it will be competitively priced, however, as have been all of the Focii.
I honestly don't think that you can get much lighter than this, you'll have to see how the airplane is constructed. Neither Steve nor Dave are avid electric flyers, so I doubt that an electric only version would come about, mainly because it wouldn't be hard to modify the airplane what little you would need to. The fuse structure is very open in the front, and there are ample places to put batteries. The way that the firewall will be is such that they leave power options completely up to the builder, it is not going to be any more difficult to build this airplane with a two or four stroke, or electric.
Dave forgot his camera yesterday, otherwise we would have taken some more pictures of the airplane. We are scheduled for another boot camp session for me, and he'll have the airplane out, so between him grilling me to a crisp with the new sequence, we'll do some more testing on it and I imagine get some more detailed pictures, especially of the inside.
I konw it's hard for one to believe such a glowing report of an airplane, but this thing truly is off the hook. I was very taken aback by its flying characteristics. Having been flying European widebodies for a while now, it didn't feel much different really. This is amazing because it is a wooden box with rounded edges, as Dave put it, and it really makes you a believer in function over form. There is nothing fancy about this airplane in the least, but it can go toe to toe with anything in that class and I would say surpass them. I am not being compensated by Piedmont to say anything, nor am I under any obligation to do so. Dave is my coach and friend and has taken me under his wing and taught me a lot. I don't have any inordinate amount of involvement with this airplane, or with Piedmont itself, so I do truly believe that what I've said has been an accurate reflection of the airplane and its qualities. Granted neither of us has enough stick time on the airplane to have discovered all of the nuances of the design, but as of right now, it's a hell of an airplane, and it can only get better with time.