| Joanne and I decided to build a EarthStar Odyssey in March 2003. It took us longer than expected to complete our plane (almost done in 2006). There were long periods when we did not work on the plane primarily due to personal and family issues. |
| Up front, we want to say that there is nothing wrong with our FlightStar. We still like it and fly it all the time. |
| I've just always wanted an all aluminum airplane because I think they are so spiffy. Although technically, the Odyssey is not "all" aluminum (there's some PolyFiber covering on the Ailerons, Stabilator, Rudder and Flaps) it does have that beautiful, all aluminum, fully cantilevered wing. That's as close as I could get in the UltraLight type aircraft arena. |
| The designer of the Odyssey is Mark Beierle. Mark, like Tom Peghiny, has been involved with ultralights since the term was invented. For a description of Earthstar's other airplanes and a nice biography of Mark's aviation history, visit his website at EarthStar Aircraft. |
| The Odyssey is also much faster than the FlightStar. While I enjoy flying just for the sake of flying, Joanne wants to go places and see the world from the air. The Odyssey, with its 100 mph cruise speed (compared to the FlightStar's 70 mph) really opens up the envelope for longer distance flights. |
| The Odyssey takes about twice as long to build than a FlightStar and it is a more expensive kit to build. The one we're building is also more expensive because of our engine choice. We chose the HKS-700E engine for our new plane compared to the ubiqtuous Rotax 503 in the Flightstar. |
| The HKS-700E is a remarkable engine. It is distributed by Tom Peghiny, of FlightStar fame. It's a four-stroke engine, with a 1,000 hour TBO, that develops 62HP on auto gas, while consuming only two and one half gallons per hour. For more details on the HKS engine, check out the HKS Info Sheet on the FlightStar website. |
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Mark Beierle continues to patiently
assist us when we have questions. We'll be adding new photos to the website as we go along. So log in frequently and check in on our progress.
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