That's funny Bob, just love to tinker. The landing gear will be replaced too along with the wing tube. The TBM carbon tube is a drop in fit and shaves 50 grams, (1.8 ozs). 2 ozs here and 2 ozs there, I think this thing can be built at under 11 pounds fairly easily. The canopy is really heavy at 10 ozs. Making a mold from dental stone and casting one in glass will be straight forward.
I am working on a new method for laminating the wood/carbon props that is simpler and more straight forward than anything else I've done.
Ed, don't work on the second prop yet. The husks are the trickiest part to fashion and the new technique doesn't use them.
Those are some serious weight savings.
And man, is that a heavy canopy! The Focus canopy wasn't extremely heavy right out of the box (unlike the Focus sport canopy that weighs a ton), but still I shaved off about 1.5 oz by cutting out the deck, making the attachment ears smaller and using nylon bolts. Comes in now at 4.58 oz.
I've still got those 2 virgin Xoar e-props, and the way you keep refining and distilling the carbonification process pretty soon even I will be able to do it.
