Today's Message Index:
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1. 12:07 PM - Re: New Guy (taildrags)
2. 12:36 PM - West Coast Piet Fly-in 2017 (taildrags)
3. 05:07 PM - Re: New Guy (Brent Wilson)
4. 07:52 PM - Re: New Guy (taildrags)
5. 08:49 PM - the Air Camper as a training aircraft (taildrags)
Message 1
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Brent; a couple of things. First, if you will include your location with your introductory
post, it will help us help you. If there are other builders or pilots
near you, it is not uncommon to get invitations to come out and look at other
projects or to get a ride. It will also help direct inquiries, because if
you're in Connecticut and someone in Nevada has a project that they might want
to sell, just the logistics of you getting over there to see the project and
then getting it back across the country would make it an unlikely match. Where
are you located?
Next, if you're patient, your chances of finding something will improve greatly.
In the Piet world, patience is a virtue and a byword. Consider the proverb
that "The Piet is slow, but the sky is patient" ;o) I was on this list for maybe
a year when all of a sudden my airplane came up for sale, complete and flying.
I've seen many nice projects come available in the years since then...
everything from bare fuselages all the way to ready-to-fly. The saddest ones
are when people are forced to sell due to changes in life situations, but in those
cases everyone benefits when a willing buyer connects with a needy seller.
If you have time to look around, wait around, and follow the posts here, your
chances of finding something will improve.
Lastly, I will echo the comment made by many, that if you pick up somebody else's
partially-completed project, a lot of things will be locked in and you'll just
have to take what you've got. As you pick up where the earlier builder left
off, you will undoubtedly find things that you might have done differently
or even think about tearing out and starting over. It's all about choices but
my suggestion is to just finish what you get and then go fly it. Along this
line, though, I'll bet there is not a single builder on this list who wouldn't
agree that building a SECOND one would go quicker than building (or finishing)
the first! You learn a lot from building an Air Camper.
--------
Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC "Scout"
A75 power, 72x36 Culver prop
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=466063#466063
Message 2
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Subject: | West Coast Piet Fly-in 2017 |
Has the date been set for this year's West Coast Piet event? If tradition holds,
it would be June 2-3-4... the first weekend in June. If the hosting arrangement
is the same, it would be held at Frazier Lake Airpark, 1C9. Yes-?
Looking at the 1C9 website, they have Saturday June 3 listed as an Antique Aircraft
Display Day on their event calendar.
--------
Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC "Scout"
A75 power, 72x36 Culver prop
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=466069#466069
Message 3
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Oscar,
Thanks for the advice.
I live in Lander, WY. We actually have a Pietenpol here at our airport, so I do
have some exposure and possibly even some guidance just don't want to assume
that. He is a good guy and I have talked to him a little bit about getting into
building. He built from scratch to the Pietenpol plans so a lot of knowledge
to be gleaned there.
I will try and be patient while looking for the right way to get started and these
guys are right I really don't want to miss out on much of the building so
I wouldn't want a 50% done project, just more looking for a deal to get started.
My parents live in Jacksonville, OR. So next time I get out there I would love
to meet you and talk Piets. Maybe I will have a project by then.
Thanks for the info and encouragement.
Brent
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=466094#466094
Message 4
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Brent; now you're talking! Please do let me know when you're back out here to
visit your parents and we can run over to my hangar and talk Piets. Do you have
a tailwheel endorsement or any time in taildraggers?
It might be possible to take a tour of the Rogue Valley from the air if the weather
cooperates when you're out this way.
--------
Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC "Scout"
A75 power, 72x36 Culver prop
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=466102#466102
Message 5
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Subject: | the Air Camper as a training aircraft |
Just reading a recent issue of AOPA Pilot with a great article about the C-130
Hercules by Barry Schiff. For those who are not AOPA members or who may not be
familiar with Schiff, he has been a contributor to the magazine for many years,
has logged over 28,000 hours in more than 355 types of aircraft, has earned
every FAA category and class rating except airship, and holds every possible
instructor's rating.
So what does Schiff say makes the best type of aircraft to learn to fly in? A
taildragger with minimal instrumentation. If this sounds like the Air Camper,
then you're in the right place ;o) Yes, there are a few drawbacks to taking
flight instruction in this airplane, such as the difficulty in communicating between
the two cockpits and the lack of complete dual controls and instrumentation
in most Piets. Still, a front-cockpit flight in a Piet is not a bad way
to get introduced to flying and if the love of flight and a connection to the
airplane is there, graduating to the rear cockpit is a worthy goal and anyone
with the love of flight will dream of the day that they can take the controls
in the rear cockpit where the instruments are, where the pilot sits. I know I
sure did.
I was 54 years old when I took my first flight and instruction in a Piet and I
was at the front cockpit controls. No instruments up there... just throttle,
stick, and rudder pedals. I learned to fly the airplane by sound and feel from
the front before I was allowed to graduate to the back, because my instructor
wanted me to understand the airplane, get to know how things looked out the
front, back, and sides in all flight regimes, and connect all of the necessary
elements and sensations of flight in the Air Camper without the distraction of
the gauges. He had the brakes, fuel shutoff, and carb heat control in the back
but I had to call out their usage when they were needed. Now I fly the airplane
almost without thinking and I can usually tell when something's not quite
right without checking the instruments. I especially enjoy pasture flying
by the seat of my pants, where it's just me and the airplane. Radio off, no place
to be any certain time, fuel in the tank, and just flying the airplane.
It's times like those when I feel like I can extract the most performance out
of both myself and the airplane. The shortest landings, best control coordination,
smoothest rollouts, most confidence, and overall best feeling about flying
without the airplane or the flight conditions getting ahead of me even a tiny
bit. You could say that at those times I feel like a 60-something Top Gun,
and it's a great feeling. I'm not saying you can't experience the same thing
in a DA-20 Katana with Garmin G500 glass panel, but it's a different experience
learning in one of those as opposed to learning with the smell of a grass airstrip
swirling around you in the cockpit. Different experiences, yes.
Now if there weren't so many roadblocks hindering us from taking would-be pilots
flying, and I'm not just talking about youngsters! I'm soon going to turn 66
and when I roll my Piet out of the hangar, even if it's just to exercise the
engine and warm up the oil, I feel alive and excited and like a pilot again.
If I'm going flying, then I really get alert and tuned up, wondering what I've
forgotten, mentally going through my plans for the flight, making sure I've
gotten the AWOS and ATIS and listening for NOTAMS with the radio echoing inside
the hangar as I conduct the preflight, checking everything twice.
The preflight jitters all melt away as I taxi out and once the mains leave the
runway and I'm in the air. This is why we fly Air Campers, and I'm with Barry
Schiff: this sure is a good way to learn how to appreciate flight. I can become
proficient with the Garmin G1000 system sitting at the simulator in the FBO
while the field is IFR and it's cold and raining outside, but I can't learn
how to fly sitting there. The days are starting to get a little warmer and I'm
thinking more and more about the smell of avgas and the hangar and a grass strip
in the sunshine. Can you tell? ;o)
--------
Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC "Scout"
A75 power, 72x36 Culver prop
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=466104#466104
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