Hilton,

The tail stall crap went away when the slots were put in the
stabilator back in 1968. No A or B models or RGs left the factory
without slots. The slots also removed the caution about slipping with
full flaps. The problem with the Cardinal is that it is a responsive
airplane in a ham-fist pilot world. Every time you hear of a Cardinal
being damaged due to "porpoising" or some such, it's because the pilot
was used to 172s or Cherokees which had no low speed control response
and badly overcontrolled the airplane.

A Cardinal has fully effective controls down through the stall. That
means you can handle incredible crosswinds. It also means, that if
you move the controls, it will respond, so apply pressure to the,
rather than moving them.

The cabin is huge, the biggest of all four place except maybe the Aero
Commander 112/114. It is also extremely comfortable for long flights.
I've made flights of over 5 hour durations in them and was not nearly
as tired as I've been in other airplanes.

On landing the nose comes up to block your forward view. Learn the
pitch attitude or you will land on the nose wheel. You absolutely
must get the nose up prior to touchdown or you can get yourself in a
jam and start bouncing between the mains and nosewheel.

The center of gravity is extraordinarily long, longer than any other
four place airplane. While it is easy to overload the
airplane...definitely work some weight problems to see what you can
carrry, the big cabin tempts one to overload it...but you won't have
to worry much about loading it too far forward or aft.

Hang onto the doors when opening them!!!! If you are pointed downwind
they will sail out of your hand and can be sprung. Cardinals with
unsprung doors are valuable.

The RG went through three landing gear design iterations. The
original gear requires aggressive maintenance. Make sure you
understand how it works and how to pump it down and what the failure
modes are when you check out. It is a forerunner of the 172RG you are
used to, but by the time the 172RG came out they had the bugs worked
out.

Use the first "notch" of flaps for takeoff, trim it as indicated, and
it will reward you with some of the most lovely takeoffs imaginable,
it just flies off. In a crosswind, use the ailerons and it tracks
perfectly. On landing always use full flaps, especially in
crosswinds, get the nose up, use your croswind technique and you can
put it on one main gear and hold it there an amazingly long time
before the dowwind gear comes down and then the nose comes down. The
only airplane that will handle crosswinds as well is the Diamond
DA-40.

Make sure you get a good checkout because it does not fly like other
Cessna singles, it's more responsive and you may find yourself
thinking ill of the others when you find what the Cardinal can do.

Most Cardinals seem to leak in rain. I always carried an extra, out
of date, sectional, to put on my left leg as that's where the ones I
flew leaked. When parked, the rear window may leak and get the
baggage floor wet.

If possible, have your club install via retrofit, the inertia reel
shoulder harnesses for the front seat. They are much nicer than the
standard issued ones. Cessna also sells the kits for the rear seat
shoulder harnesses at cost, no markup. The hard points were put in at
the factory, installation takes about 15 minutes. It's cheap
insurance for your family and loved ones riding with you.

Hot starts on that engine can be a pain in the whatsis. Make sure
your instructor shows you how to do them.

It is an okay, not great, airplane for short fields. If you fly it
exactly at book speeds, with book flaps for takeoff and full for
landing, you can get out and in pretty short. Just make damn sure you
get the nose up on landing (I know, I said that earlier, I'm not
kidding).

It is one of the finest single engine airplanes ever built. It got a
bad rep from pilots making excuses for their own ineptitude. It will
cruise about 140 knots all day long, with delightful handling,
excellent visibility and passenger comfort. The early ones had an
on-off fuel selector that drove people nuts because they thought the
tanks didn't feed evenly. Sometimes they did feed evenly but the fuel
gauges were so bad, they said otherwise, and pilots believed them. If
they feed unevenly, they'll eventually balance. It's a minor glitch
that can generally be ignored unless you are certain one tank isn't
feeding at all (which is extremely rare).

On a short field takeoff, don't be in a hurry to raise the gear,
there's no drag reduction for a long time. On any takeoff, don't be
in a hurry to raise the gear as it drops about 18 inches in the
process of rertracting...but you knew that from the 172 RG.

The Cardinal RG is a much classier airplane than the 127 RG. If this
one has been maintained well, I think you'll like it a lot.

All the best,
Rick

"Hilton" wrote in message ...
Hi,

Our club just put a 177RG (1971) on line. I have a bunch of 172RG time (and
Arrow and Duchess too). Apart from the wing further back, stabilator, slots
on the tail, and VGs, anything I should know about flying a Cardinal? I've
heard stories about tail-stalls on landing and porposing, but are those just
horror stories and/or have they been solved with the slots and VGs?

Thanks!

Hilton