Original Posted By: Ben Charvet
I was very fortunate to have gotten a good portion of my private pilot instructionand solo time in a Cessna 150 with the Texas Taildragger conversion as wellas the 150HP Lyc (Avcon?) conversion and Flint Aero long-range fuel tank setup.The airplane was a heck of a lot of fun to fly, very easy, and very capable.It would cruise with the airspeed indicator "in the yellow" and climb likethe dickens. Needless to say, it was converted and used extensively for pipelinepatrol and that kind of work in the oil patch of South Texas.What it was NOT was a challenging tailwheel aircraft. In the 3-point configurationyou had a great view over the nose, and although it did require more rudderattention than the stock nosewheel setup, it was quite comfortable to learntailwheel techniques in and wasn't twitchy. Probably a very good airplane toget your tailwheel instruction in, especially since the instructor sits rightup next to you and has full dual controls, but I wouldn't say it would transitionyou directly into the Piet without some dual in something with a higher power-offsink rate and a little bit less forward visibility in the 3-point attitude.But it sure was fun to fly the C150-150 taildragger.Oscar ZunigaSan Antonio, TXmailto: taildrags(at)hotmail.comwebsite at http://www.flysquirrel.net________________________________________________________________________________Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:49:13 -0500
Pietenpol-List: Texas Taildragger
Re: Pietenpol-List: Texas Taildragger
Original Posted By: "Javier Cruz"
All good points Oscar. As usual, a good post. You do a really good job of painting a picture with words.I would suggest that if anyone wants to get a feel for the higher sink rate of the Piet, then get some time in an ultralight, it's cheap and ultralights certainly have a high sink rate. As far as dealing with the forward visibility of the Piet, a little "S" taxi time will take care of that. I'm a fan of doing a LOT of ground handling (slow and fast taxi) before ever leaving the ground. It's really important to know how YOUR airplane handles before, not after, the 1st flight.GeneN502R ________________________________________________________________________________
All good points Oscar. As usual, a good post. You do a really good job of painting a picture with words.I would suggest that if anyone wants to get a feel for the higher sink rate of the Piet, then get some time in an ultralight, it's cheap and ultralights certainly have a high sink rate. As far as dealing with the forward visibility of the Piet, a little "S" taxi time will take care of that. I'm a fan of doing a LOT of ground handling (slow and fast taxi) before ever leaving the ground. It's really important to know how YOUR airplane handles before, not after, the 1st flight.GeneN502R ________________________________________________________________________________