Our Mission



Hi, we are Arthur and Gustavo, private pilots in the Bay Area. We love flying and in the summer of 2020 we started thinking about buying a new or used plane. We considered many options, but we wanted something with the following characteristics:
  • Good range - we want to make long trips
  • Turbo charged - because we want to fly high
  • Modern panel- because we love technology
  • IFR capable - because there are clouds
  • Seats 4 - because we have friends
  • Safe - because we have families
  • Affordable - because we have a budget
We looked at buying a second-hand SR22T, beautiful plane, but quite expensive to operate. We also considered the Bonanza G36 (turbo), but that would require an upgrade of the interior, and it is also quite expensive.

But after seeing Mike Ojo's YouTube channel we decided to check out the Sling TSI for ourselves at The Airplane Factory in Torrance California. We made a test flight with Jean to Katalina island and we loved it! The TSI a beautiful plane, with everything we want, and it flies great. So we decide to build one!

Sling TSI

We ordered our kit around end of August of 2020. We decided on the fully loaded Quick Build kit with Build Assist, including the Airframe Parachute. The kit shipped from South Africa mid November 2020 and we hope to start building in January, finishing in July 2021. 

Arthur van Hoff

Arthur van Hoff

I'm a software engineer at Apple. I started flying in 2018 and got my IFR license in 2020. I love building things, so this is an awesome project for me. When we are done I hope to make a trip to Europe and visit my family in the Netherlands.

Gustavo Faerman



I'm an engineering manager. I started flying many centuries ago in Argentina. Family, kids, getting a real job grounded me until I decided to go after my license here in the US. CPL/IR. Partnering with Arthur on this is a real dream!

 


 

 

 


Comments

  1. Peter BodiféeFebruary 24, 2021 at 9:54 PM

    Hi Arthur, are you planning to fly with Sling to Europe? That is going to be epic!
    Groetjes, Peter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gustavo FaermanApril 26, 2021 at 11:01 AM

      Actually we are. And we are considering flying all the way south to Argentina. Let's see how it goes!

      Delete
  2. florMarch 5, 2021 at 6:10 AM

    pero que aventura por favor!!!! felicitaciones! me parece ALUCINANTE

    ReplyDelete
  3. David F.December 22, 2021 at 10:42 AM

    Thanks for sharing your Sling journey. Would be great to get an idea of your total spend in the build, if you are willing to share.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Arthur van HoffDecember 22, 2021 at 10:51 AM

      The total was around around $337k, including Quick Build, Build Assist, IFR panel, parachute, and various extras. It was $40k more than planned, but we checked every box, added every feature, plus a custom paint job.

      Delete
  4. UnknownApril 22, 2022 at 12:12 PM

    Gustavo soy Francisco Eizayaga. Primo de Amalia. Me acabo de conectar por Juan Pablo Klein. Felicitaciones por tremenda máquina. Yo hice una versión del subdesarrollo en Escobar (un KR2S). Ya voló pero poco por ahora. Felicitaciones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gustavo FaermanApril 22, 2022 at 9:27 PM

      Hola Francisco! Gracias por tu comentario. Si, el TSI es en nuestra opinion, un gran pequeño avión! La semana pasada, Amalia y yo volamos a Sedona, Cañón del Colorado, Lake Powell y Las Vegas. Se comporto de mil maravillas. Gracias al motor turbo, los aeropuertos en altura no presentan un desafío extraordinario. Armarlo fue una gran aventura con mi gran amigo Arthur.

      Delete
  5. AnonymousMay 22, 2022 at 11:34 AM

    Saw the plane from the ground in SF. Looked very sharp! Great work and thanks for sharing your journey here online.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Customizations

Image
Before we started our build we selected  several custom options for our plane. Strangely enough, there is no list of all possible options. We just had to keep asking to find out (HINT: someone at TAF should make a list). Anyway here are a few options we selected as part of our order:  Split Rear Seat - This will allow for three passengers and luggage. We also plan to make the rear seat removable because we most often fly without any passengers and lots of luggage. Extra Long Seat Rails - My family is really tall, so we asked for extra long seat rails. This will allow them to move the seat back a few extra inches to accommodate for those long legs. Foot Pedals - The standard it comes with really cheap looking rudder bars. It turns out there is a option to get custom aluminum Sling branded pedals. They are on backorder. Besides the options from the factory, now that we are building we have learned about many small modifications that other builders are making. Here are some th...
Read more

Floor under Back Seat

Image
For some strange reason, there is no floor under the back seat. I guess Sling expects the back seat to cover any cold air leaks and stop stuff from falling into the space below. This seems really sub-optimal, dangerous, and needs to be addressed. Without a floor, the seat belt buckles can be pushed through the seat and fall into the space below which houses many important linkages that are needed to fly the plane, so that could be bad. Also there is a huge amount of cold air leaking into the cabin from underneath the seat. To fix this I decided to add aluminum floor panels under the rear seats, to close up the space. They are mounted with rivnuts, covered in carpet, and easily removed for inspection. The final result shown in the first picture.  It is an easy build; you need a rivnut tool, metal scissors , rubber mallet, and a few others. Measuring, fitting, and installing requires various advanced yoga poses, but it is doable. First I made a cardboard template for the two panels, ...
Read more

IPad panel mount

Image
A few weeks ago I got the new Apple iPad mini. The smaller form-factor is perfect for the Sling TSi. However, I don’t want it to be floating around on my knee, so I have been looking for a good way to mount it somewhere so that it is hands-free and does not obstruct the view or the instruments. I think I have found a good solution.  I  got a tablet mount on Amazon (link   here ) with a short adjustable arm and   attached the mounting point to the left of the panel (see below). The panel is made of aluminum, covered in leather. I used self tapping screws with plastic washers, but you could use rivnuts. Here it is with the arm attached.   I don’t like the tablet holder that came with it (too bulky), so instead I used another mounting point (Amazon link here ), and some Velcro to attach the arm to back of my iPad cover. That works great, it does not come off easily, it is height adjustable, and it does not take up much space. I also added a small metal tab to hold ...
Read more