Original Posted By: steve(at)byu.edu
Ken,Yes, Norm Ronaasen was involved with the Arrow test program. The fact that he was chosen for this indicatesthat he was indeed an exceptional pilot.He told me that he was scheduled to fly one of thosea/c (don't remember which one) and had done a seriesof taxi and higher speed ground handling test that fatefulmorning. There were a few minor problems to correct, so he went to lunch intending to fly it that afternoon. Hereturned to learn that the program had been cancelledand all the aircraft were grounded. He was extremely bit-ter about the whole thing---even about four years later when he told me the story during his visit with us. In hisopinion, the Arrow was a really good aircraft and he feltthat a major blunder had been made.I don't know whether he ever flew a Pietenpol and I wishhe could have flown mine. An evaluation by a professionaltest pilot would have been interesting. Has anyone out thereever heard of a report on the Pietenpol done by a profes-sional test pilot? By the way, Norm loved gliding and did notconfine his flying to "heavy iron".Such a report could be interesting. I had such a report on the Cassutt Formula 1 racer done by Paul Hartman who test flew one for a couple of fellows in Quebec back around 1970. It was well-organized and packed with useful information.Cheers,Graham________________________________________________________________________________