Mon, Jul 23, 2018
New Aircraft Replaces One Destroyed In Alaska Accident In
While flying his Chipper airplane through Alaska earlier this year, Jim Wiebe nearly came to an untimely end. And while he survived the accident relatively unscathed, the airplane was not so lucky.
After returning to Wichita, Wiebe almost immediately began work on an upgraded model of the Chipper, which he has dubbed the Chipper TOO.
Wiebe said he was determined to build another Chipper. Six weeks ago, he purchased a partially completed kit from a customer, and went to work. The partially-finished airplane will be on display this week at AirVenture.
Chipper TOO was brought to Oshkosh on a truck. 'It will be at AirVenture on Tuesday morning. We'll skip Monday as it will give us another day to get it truly ready to be seen," Wiebe wrote.
Among the changes to the airplane are:
- Chipper now has slats. They are removable for cross country flight and fixed for backcountry operations. They are an available addition for any Chipper builder.
- New instrumentation from Radiant Technology, Chipper's sister company.
- A brand new 130HP ULPower 350iS upfront, with a new firewall forward setup. Very simple and sharp.
- A brand new Sensenich carbon fiber propeller -- come see this alone and see this incredible prop with 3D carbon. Sensenich has become a big fan of Chipper, and we love their product.
- A world class paint scheme with special touches here and there.
"Chipper TOO has a new name as well. It is now called 'The Spirit of Wichita'," Wiebe wrote. "I think it is a shame that Wichita is slowly leaving single engine GA behind. The wealth of talent and suppliers in this city is incredible. I've learned from and leaned on that talent from time to time. Our slat design was processed by one of the top worldwide aero engineers, who still calls Wichita home and has helped design some of the finest past examples of Wichita aviation.
"Our first flight in my new 'The Spirit of Wichita' is scheduled for late August. That will be fun. In the meantime, we've already filled YouTube and our Facebook page with all kinds of performance videos."
(Source: Jim Wiebe. Image from Facebook)
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