Any Cardinal owners that frequent this group?

Jack Allison wrote in message ...
I'm wondering if there are any Cardinal drivers that frequent this
newsgroup.

Jack,
Jay emailed me about this post since he knew that we owned a
Cardinal. We bought our 177B FG almost two years ago. In spite of a
very expensive first year annual, we are quite happy with our choice.
Here is a quick summary of the good and bad

The good: great visibility, roominess, big doors, large baggage area
(for our other hobbies of scuba diving and photography), decent
power/speed/fuel consumption, good look & great type club for
information/tips. I flew mostly 150, 152 and had some time with 172.
I got 'checked' out in the Cardnal in the second flight. It is a bit
more slippery and required early reduction in power for landing.
However, it seems to be a more stable and appear to handle crosswinds
better (at least based on my perception).

The bad: Have to make sure to keep the big doors closed esp. on windy
days (I have to yell at Rick many times ;-)).

The ugly: One could consider our very expensive first year annual is
the ugly (found 3 cylinders after 100hrs of flying at first annual)
but this could have been prevented if we had the pre-buy inspection
done by an AP experienced with Cardinals. Unfortunately, this local
expert was all booked when we needed the inspection.

If you had not done so, I highly recommended you joining the
Cardinalflyers club. In the Virtual Digest and the Technical sections,
you will find a wealth of invaluable information, tips and tricks etc.
We are very much do-it-yoursef type of people and have had great fun
fixing up and improving our pet bird.

Hai Longworth
N30703

Thanks Hai! Much appreciated. Thanks for the follow up clarification
as well. CFO, I'd definitely be joining before seriously pursuing a
Cardinal. I'm sure it's well worth the price of admission. I've
already joined the virtual digest and look forward to learning more.

Jay - thanks for forwarding my inquiry along to a Cardinal owner.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, soon-2-B-IA Student, airplane partnership student

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

In reading my previous posting, I realized that I might had given the
wrong impression that the cracked cylinders were specific to
Cardinals. According to our AP (the one who did the annual), it is
not uncommon for overhauled Lycoming cylinders to have cracks after the
second half-life. These were fine hairline cracks which were easily
missed if one did not know specifically where to look (we were right
there with the first AP inspecting everything during the pre-buy
inspection). There were absolutely no warnings, no clues. The
compressions were great at the pre-buy (high 70's), oil analysis and
oil filter inspections were good all through 100hrs (we changed oil
after every 25hrs). The plane ran well, strong without any hesitation
etc.