28 years, 9000 hours

Any of you guys out there ever "downgrade?" If so, how was it?

I know a couple of guys who have "downgraded" to LSAs after years of buzzing
around in Barons and Mooneys. They seem mighty happy.

Personally, I expect to "downgrade" to a CT (or similar) when the kids are
out of the house, and I no longer need a 1460 pound useful load. Four
gallons per hour sounds mighty fine, most days.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 2008-03-01, Jay Honeck wrote:
Personally, I expect to "downgrade" to a CT (or similar) when the kids are
out of the house, and I no longer need a 1460 pound useful load. Four
gallons per hour sounds mighty fine, most days.

Hm. Maybe I should stop at your place on my way home with the Zodiac...
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
http://www.hercules-390.org (Yes, that's me!)
Buy Hercules stuff at http://www.cafepress.com/hercules-390

Hm. Maybe I should stop at your place on my way home with the Zodiac...

I'd love to see it. I've flown a CT, but never even sat in a Zodiac...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in news:8Scyj.3765$TT4.3273
@attbi_s22:

Hm. Maybe I should stop at your place on my way home with the Zodiac...

I'd love to see it. I've flown a CT, but never even sat in a Zodiac...



I'm sure the zodiac will live..


Bertie

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
I'd love to see it. I've flown a CT, but never even sat in a Zodiac...

If I missed it, sorry for the repeat, but ... what did you think of the
CT after flying it? There's one in a hangar around the corner from mine.
I LOVE the look of it and hope to fly it one day when the guy has time.
He says it outperforms the Skycatcher (I think it's around the same
price ... over $100K). He said the new one has 13" more in the fuselage
and has a different-shaped baggage door that will allow you to get
bigger items in and out with ease. This guy is a distributor, so of
course he has nothing but praise for it, but I'm curious to know what
you thought of it. If you'd consider having one, I'm guessing you
must've liked it.

Shirl

On 2008-03-02, Shirl wrote:
If I missed it, sorry for the repeat, but ... what did you think of the
CT after flying it? There's one in a hangar around the corner from mine.
I LOVE the look of it and hope to fly it one day when the guy has time.
He says it outperforms the Skycatcher (I think it's around the same
price ... over $100K). He said the new one has 13" more in the fuselage
and has a different-shaped baggage door that will allow you to get
bigger items in and out with ease. This guy is a distributor, so of
course he has nothing but praise for it, but I'm curious to know what
you thought of it. If you'd consider having one, I'm guessing you
must've liked it.

A friend who's evaluated a LOT of the LSAs out there, and flown a nontrivial
number, tells me the CT has a very abrupt stall, and if you encounter that
on landing and drop the aircraft in from a few feet off the ground, the gear
has a nasty tendency to break off - at which point Bad Things happen.

I don't know that personally, and the CT wasn't on my list of candidate
aircraft anyway...

From what I've seen, though, *anything* outperforms the Skycatcher. The
aircraft is a hog, with only 425 pounds useful load - more than 100 less
than just about any other LSA. The main reason they have the number of
orders they do is that, apparently, every Cessna aircraft dealer was forced
to order 10 of them, and Cessna Pilot Centers were forced to order one. At
that rate, it's not hard to run up 400 orders.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (getting ready to order)

On Mar 2, 10:11*am, Jay Maynard
wrote:

A friend who's evaluated a LOT of the LSAs out there, and flown a nontrivial
number, tells me the CT has a very abrupt stall, and if you encounter that
on landing and drop the aircraft in from a few feet off the ground, the gear
has a nasty tendency to break off - at which point Bad Things happen.


I'm just a student pilot, but I am doing my training in a CT. I
haven't flown other airplanes, so I can't compare the CT stall, but as
a student pilot I haven't found the stall to be difficult to handle at
all. You get buffet so you can tell that you are about to enter the
stall. And I have certainly banged the airplane down pretty hard a
few times on my clumsy newbie landings. So far, nothing has fallen
off.

I do find the CT difficult to land, and I have heard that it is
tougher to land than some other LSAs. For me, I suspect a lot of it
is just my inexperience. But the airplane is relatively short-
coupled, and it has a very high-lift wing. I think those two features
combine to make it very twitchy in pitch on landing. It is really
easy to flare too much and float up on landing. And since it is so
light, it loses speed pretty quickly as you are floating up, so you
can stall it too high pretty easily. I think that may be where the
issue of dropping it on from too high comes from.

On the new CTLS they have lengthened the rear fuselage so it isn't
quite as short-coupled. That should make the airplane easier to
land. And they put beefier composite main gear on it as well.

From what I have read from other pilots flying the CT, once you get
used to the way the airplane responds on landing, it isn't a problem.
It's just a question of learning the right technique for this
airplane.

Phil

"Shirl" wrote in message ...
... what did you think of the CT after flying it? There's one in a hangar
around the corner from mine.

.....This guy is a distributor, so of course he has nothing but praise for
it, but I'm curious to know what you thought of it.

Just a quick data point on the LSA "distributor" issue; the LSA marketing
methods appear very different than the "old" service center concept. I think
of it more as a mini pyramid model, although I don't want to imply any kind
of scam activity.

Seems like with the market (buyers) as small as it is, and a new LSA
(supplier) coming online every month, the sales method is to offer every new
buyer a "dealer/distributorship". You buy the plane at your "dealer" cost (7
to 15% depending on which manufacturer). The deal can be even better if you
work directly with the importer. Then you run the plane as a business,
flying around in your area giving rides, expensing the whole process, and
hope you can dump the plane before the manufacturer puts out a new model.
Even that isn't so bad cause you could just turn it over to a flying club
with you holding the note.

The whole process is early enough that there's probably money to be made,
but I have too many irons in the fire to get directly involved myself. I
just hope this method works lights a fire back into recreational GA. Lord
knows we need it!

If I missed it, sorry for the repeat, but ... what did you think of the
CT after flying it?

I loved it. The automotive nature of the Rotax engine, the nice, wide
cabin, the fantastic visibility, the low fuel burn, the quick handling -- it
all felt "right".
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:E5Gyj.58692$yE1.44008@attbi_s21:

If I missed it, sorry for the repeat, but ... what did you think of
the CT after flying it?

I loved it. The automotive nature of the Rotax engine, the nice, wide
cabin, the fantastic visibility, the low fuel burn, the quick handling
-- it all felt "right".



Automaotive nature of a purpose designe aircraft engine?


Fjukkwit.


Bertie