Originally Posted by Mike Rapoport

I bought a Courier last year for that reason... nothing comes close except perhaps a Porter at 5x the price. Helios are few but they are fairly well supported by numerous individuals. I think that there are a couple hundred flying in the US. I doubt that the Courier will ever go back into
production. I would be very expensive to build with slats, fowler flaps, spoilers ect. It would probably cost more to build than any current production single. It basically employs all the tricks for slow flight.

One thing that you can't see from the numbers and is probably the most
important attribute of the Courier is controllability. Since the
stabilator is too small to stall the wing and you have positive roll control
with spoilers at any speed, you can fly the Courier right at the limit
without getting bitten. Naturally there are ways to screw things up, but
there are a lot fewer with a Courier than with competing airplanes.

I hope to revcieve my Murphy Moose this week and it will outperform just
about anything except the Courier for backcountry flying.

Keep in mind that there are numerous airplanes that can fly into just about
any strip in the US. The backcountry airstrips here in ID are almost all
suitable for airplanes like the C185, having the Courier just makes it
easier and that much more comfortable. Of course, it is pretty cool to be
able to stop *on* the numbers at paved airports too.

Mike
MU-2
H295 Helio Courier.