Completed Challenger II - Trainer

After 5 years, the Challenger II is flying!!!

Hi, I am Tim Webber and I live in Spring, TX. I am working on my UFI and I am flying under the EAA waiver.

One of the first challenges with the Challenger was the relatively ruff turf runway. I fly at a "SkyDiving Operation" that is serviced with a Twin Otter. Randomly, they take up a dozen or so poor souls and pitch them out! Anyway, the Otter keeps the runway rutted! the stock 5" tires (4.00x5) were too small and gave a jaring taxi and a nasty take off roll and landing roll. I contacted JD Stewart in Nebraska and he suggested getting some old Cessna nose wheel tires (5.00 x5) and putting them on. He said they did not have to be new! My landlord had 4 REALLY OLD and bad tires. I put them on the stock 5" wheels and soaked them liberally with AmorAll and they have made a huge difference. I had to extend the front fork to accomodate the larger diameter, but that only took an hour.

The tire size difference really makes a difference.

Here is the Challenger with the new (used) tires installed. A hurricane / tropical storm is brewing in the Gulf (Faye (Sept 6, 2002)), so I did not drag it outside for pictures.

One of the major problems that I have encountered is I have gone to the airport alone each time I have flown the Challenger. I have NO pictures of the Challenger in flight.

Here is a picture that I snapped myself at 2000 feet. Camera was tied to me so I would not drop the silly thing. The autofocus always focuses on the windshield... I still have some figuring out to do on pictures from the air.

This is Waller Airport (Skydive Houston - 3XS7) from about 1600 AGL. Twas a hazy day.

Will try to get some more pictures as time and opportunity allow.

Tim - September 6, 2002

Tim (tim@webbersweb.com)

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