I believe the original Chocolat was destroyed in an accident, so Chocolat 11 was born. It's on its second owner from new, and has done 400 flying hours. There was a write up about this aircraft in the PFA/LAA magazine back in 2012 and I think the reviewer was quite taken with it.
Looking at the photo it appears to be in very good condition, and the price is very reasonable at £3,000. If I had anywhere to keep it I'd be seriously thinking of putting in an offer, but as it is my hangar is full of my own Minimax, and there's no room for any more aircraft. So someone else will have the pleasure of owning and flying this little beauty.
i figured a way to put 2 in a small space like that. wings off, they will both fit in a 24' trailer, or wings on, the wings from one overlap the other. Just a thought.
Thanks for that. The other thing of course is that I already have four microlights, two flexwings and two three axis aircraft. The two flexies are currently lurking at the back of the hangar, with their wings stowed away in wing bags. The rest of the hangar is mainly taken up with the Minimax, and my Spectrum has a 40ft wingspan, so won't fit in any hangar and has to live outside, but it's OK because it has a fibreglass wing, so is happy with just a tarp over the engine and pod, and the wings more often than not are out in the breeze. I've added a couple of photos of the Spectrum below to give you an idea of what it looks like.
Currently I don't fly either of the two flexwings. The steering pedals operate the exact opposite way to those in a three axis and I don't want to end up ground looping due to control confusion. So that leaves the two three axis aircraft. Both are interesting in their own way.
The Minimax allows me to fly in ordinary clothes, but is cramped due to being an 88, which has the narrow fuselage, so my shoulders rub against both sides. Also, I find that having a shoulder wing aircraft my forward view is restricted by the wings. Furthermore, the range of the 'max is quite limited in comparison with the Spectrum in that I can only carry 30 ltrs (even with the belly tank fitted).
The Spectrum has its faults as well though. I have to wear a full flying suit and crash helmet when flying it, and the seat is not as comfortable as I'd like, so I get back ache after an hour or so. The pod is not as large as it looks from the outside and the dashboard is also very small with very limited space for the instruments, and there's no room for the Garmin 495 I've got. Instead the largest GPS I can get onto the dash is my old Garmin Pilot 3. However, due to having a 35 ltr fuel tank and the ability to carry a 20 ltr jerry can on what used to be the back seat, I have quite a good range with this aircraft. I've also found that because of its enormous wingspan, flying on thermic days isn't the terrifying ordeal that it used to be in my flexwings.
So it's swings and roundabouts. I fly the 'max whenever I can as l like the comfort of the enclosed cabin and not having to dress like the michelin man, but I fly the Spectrum if I have to go anywhere further than around 50 miles or I'd have to hope that I can refuel at each stop.
The Himax that was for sale is now sold, so someone somewhere is now enjoying the delights of owning a pretty good looking Himax. I wish it could have been me, but I didn't have the £3,000 that I could pull out that quickly for buying an aircraft. Nor did I have the hangar space for it even if I had managed to find the money. Anyway, I wish the new owner well, and I hope to meet up with them one day, perhaps next year, assuming things get back to some form of normality that is, and we resume having fly-ins again?
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