Nigel, where in BC are you?
I have a Piet with a one piece wing, which has no dihedral. The Piet is a
joy to fly IF you enjoy open cockpit flying. It is stable in the air and on
the ground. The Piet is not prone to ground looping. Just a good, all
around easy and gentle plane to taxi, fly and land. Mine has the A 65 with
a 76 X 38 prop and I'm very happy with the cruise and climb. From what I
see, the only folks that are not happy with the Piet are the ones that try
to make it into something it was never ment to be. The Piet is a slow,
draggy, windy and delightful airplane and the only change you can make to
it, is to take out the delightful. If you do build one, built it by the
plans and build it light. You won't be sorry.
Gene
N502R in rainy Tennessee
----- Original Message -----
From: "njones" <deville-66@hotmail.com>
To: <pietenpol-list@matronics.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 6:05 PM
Subject: General Pietenpol questions
>
> As a new forum member I have some questions regarding building this
> aircraft. To begin with I'm a rusty low time pilot with time in the usual
> Cessnas and Piper aircraft including some instrument time in a 180 Archer.
> No tail dragger time although I would certainly get this prior to flying
> any homebuilt project.
>
> I'm currently reviewing a number of project possibilities including the
> Fly Baby and the Piet, the advantage with the Piet being the 2 place
> configuration. ( Both similar build times ) How difficult is this aircraft
> to fly? and is it a hand-full on the ground?
>
> Years ago back in the 70's I built a large RC model of this aircraft that
> I entered in the Canadian Scale Nationals in Calgary. Frankly I was less
> than impressed with the flight characteristics. It was difficult to
> balance with the short nose moment, a bear to handle on the ground with
> that narrow gear, being prone to ground loops and dragging a wing tip,
> especially in a cross-wind. In the air it was particularly touchy in pitch
> and not pleasant to fly.
>
> I realize it is difficult to compare the flight characteristics of a model
> to full size ( Reynolds numbers etc. ) but they both have that narrow gear
> and almost no dihedral, in fact in head-on flight pics the aircraft
> appears to have zero dihedral.
>
> Any thought on these comments? I love the aircraft and would consider
> powering it with a C-85 or possibly a Corvair, the photos of the British
> G-BUCO are especially inspiring.
>
> Thx for the help,
>
> Nigel Jones, BC, Canada
>
> --------
> Nigel R. Jones
>
>
> Read this topic online here:
>
> http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=273353#273353
>
>
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