To give some context to my review here's a little about me. I am a professional pilot, been flying 21 years now. Grew up in Oshkosh. Live in east Tennessee now. I have owned a 1957 H35 Bonanza and previously built an RV-8 tail (sold the project to buy the Bonanza) and a Kitfox Super Sport to the point of covering (sold the project, layoffs at work).


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Last week I purchased the Carbon Cub build DVD set from Joe Czachorowski at http://zackair.com/


There are 8 DVDs, all about 1 hour in length and are priced at $220 for the set. He doesn't have any type of PayPal set up so I just mailed him a check and he sent me tracking info when they shipped, 2 day Fedex is included in the price.

EDIT - He has a PayPal button on the site now.


The first 2 DVDs are on the construction of the wings up to the point of covering. The next 6 are all about the fuselage and tail feathers. He concentrates on gotchas and need-to-know and skips things that anyone can figure out or are clearly spec'd in the plans. Remember this is an overview of the build, not a step-by-step instructional video.


The good:
No one else has anything like this out there. If you want to see what goes into the building of this aircraft and get a great overview of the project and what's involved these DVDs are invaluable. Some of the little building and shop tips alone are worth the price. For me personally getting to see something like this prevents a lot of "analysis paralysis" later. Some tips for jumping ahead in certain parts of the plans are something you would only ever learn AFTER building. His tips could save some time a lot of headaches in your build. Considerable time is spent on the boot cowl, firewall and windshield install which is great because a lot of parts come together at once and his method of jumping ahead a bit in the plans to fit certain pieces BEFORE paint so they can just be assembled later is great advice.


The bad: (and I'm nit picking here)
He is working on the airplane alone and filming at the same time so the production value isn't that high. Steady shots and good lighting for 99.9% of the production but the sound can be difficult at times. He isn't mic'd so the sound is all from the camera mic and with fans or heaters or air tools running sometimes you may need to rewind to catch what is said. I put the movies on my iPad and brought it on the road for work and with the sound turned up on the iPad speaker I didn't have much trouble. Some shots can be hard to see because the camera is fixed so when he's drilling certain holes you won't see exactly where. The series ends short of cowl and wing installation because the project was sold out from under him, major bummer.


To be fair:
Again, these are not step-by-step videos. You will have your own set of plans and a kit in front of you so you will easily connect what he is doing with your own project if you don't understand exactly where he's at first time around. We don't see the wings get covered but we do the fuselage. Poly Fiber though has a super video series on covering so you don't need to see it here. Same thing for painting, lots of info out there, he concentrates on the project, not on things you get elsewhere.


The verdict:
Buy it. You may already have, or are considering the $135,000 starter kit. So what's another $220? For a first time builder you will learn SO much. For an experienced builder but first CC you will see what goes into the project and no doubt it will help with your build.