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Jennifer,

As a Champ owner (my 6th 7 series aircraft, 4th Champ)I am biased towards the Champ. The Chief is a great little aircraft, but the visibility and fun of a Champ can't be matched. I always had a Champ or Citabria on my flight line when I had my flight school.

If you get out to California in your travels, come to Santa Maria and we will do some training in my 90 hp Champ. As much as I love our 150TD, there is not a better trainer for stick and rudder skills, IMHO than a Champ.

Kim

Scott,

You bring up a very good question (at least to me)!

I'd love to get my tailwheel endorsement (and will need it before I finish/solo my TD conversion). Would you recommend learning in something other than the 150TD before soloing it?

Thanks!

Carl,

Don't have any data to support this, but it seems that I see a number of accidents involving the combination of a new tailwheel pilot checking out to fly tailwheel while also doing the first few flights of a tailwheel conversion airplane or homebuilt.

My suggestion would be to get a tailwheel checkout in something - a converted 150 if available or 140 or 120 or 170 so that you have established that gut feeling for how an airplane behaves on the ground when the c.g. is behind the main landing gear. Get that over with before your airplane is done.

Then, either have an experienced tailwheel pilot make the first few flights in your airplane - someone who can tell if the fact that it is weaving along on the ground in a moderate speed taxi is due to a tracking problem with the gear versus skill level of the pilot. Then you fly it with an instructor. There will be differences in behavior between what you got your checkout in, but those differences will be relatively minor because you have already made the big leap to tailwheel operations.

I found that even though I had well over a thousand hours of tailwheel time, that when I checked out to tow gliders in a tailwheel 180 hp Cessna 150, it was challenging. That particular airplane had very spongy gear that wasn't aligned quite right and it would rock in one direction and dart in another - really tried to fake you out on landing. I would not like to have taken my initial tailwheel training in that airplane, just converting to it and getting comfortable was challenging enough.

Best regards,
Rick

First flights will definately be by somebody familiar in type! What I'm asking is if there's any benefit to getting my endorsement in something other than a 150TD (not necessarily mine). I realize than any prior TD experience would be beneficial, but is the 150TD a good (enough) tailwheel TRAINER for me to learn in (as opposed to renting a plane)? After all, it will be basically an O-200 powered 140!

Got outmaneuvered for the computer this weekend by a bossy teenage daughter! But wow, what a lot of great posts to read! And thank you too for the encouragement! That is a big shot in the arm. And I thought Andrew and some of the EC Outcasts' idea of using the flight for a get together was a lovely one! (Andrew, I am torn between the desire to take left seat and learn as you suggested, and getting to take right and look out the window, for America is surely a grand and beautiful country to fly over, no matter which part you are in!!! But if it works out and however it works out, I insist on being allowed to pay for fuel!)

I can't stop thinking about that Chief. One of the things my husband and I were thinking of doing (because one of us, i.e. me is constantly homesick), was possibly taking out a loan against the house which is now paid off, and maybe getting a tiny wee cottage in the US somewhere, a "bolt hole" as my family teasingly calls it. What if one were to make flying lessons and the Chief the bolt hole instead? That might be less expensive tooo, and it would get me home more often. I'd have to find a place near where I have family and/or friends and could come and stay upon occasion, where I could keep it, and would need to be befriended by someone who could keep it turning over and flying at least once a week for me when I wasn't there to keep the poor old thing from pining away and rotting away in the hangar ...

Crikey...I AM off my bloody rocker! That is the sort of thing you write in fairytales, not suggest for real life! Yet truth can be stranger than fiction.... I know a chap here in Norway who said frankly and outright when asked why on earth he chose to own a horse in North Dakota rather than the country of his residence, replied "owning my horse in North Dakota is equivalent to me of owning a summer cabin, only it is in the place I always go in the summer and where I want to be." He had arranged with the ranch owners to allow them to use the horse when he wasn't there, and I guess they had matters set up in a way that worked well for both of them.

I wonder if something similar could be done with a homesick old biddy and an airplane (this is assuming I can pass a medical and learn to fly. I am extremely dense in the mathematics department!)

OK, I realise you probably all think I need to be committed at this point, so I shall shut up. But golly, I thought that Chief was a neat little plane. She or something very like her.....And you could go pasture hopping in something like that, couldn't you, assuming she was fit and sound, and one had accumulated sufficient hours and experience under one's belt?

Well, I already have the Lasher book and Bob Livingston's book about Flying the Aeronca. Been studying those. And just like a horse, any plane one got serious about would have to be thoroughly vetted too. An Ercoupe lady in CA once told me that one should budget at least one third, or possibly even half of the purchase price towards repairs that Murphy's Law would undoubtedly ensure needed to be done shortly after taking ownership. Is that true? And what are the pitfalls of maintenance of Chiefs and Champs? As opposed to a Cessna 150?

But as Jeff's video also proves, you can go an awful lot of fun places in a stock 150 too........

Hmmmmmm...........the hard part when you are standing on the precipice of opportunity is actually plucking up the courage and faith to go ahead and make the jump......one wants to jump intelligently and preparedly, not recklessly without planning and forethought...

I think I see the men in white coats.....or an award winning story in the making? (!!!!)

(A slightly deranged) Jennifer in Norway

Which ever seat your in...........You will learn, Jennifer. You'll certainly be able to do both. They're not mutually exclusive, and you seem to be a multitasker.

Hopefully, I'll be able to join in the fun when you're here.

Jennifer has got me to thinkin' (yeah, that's a stretch -- but seems I do a lot of it lately ...)

As I remain semi-retired from Cessna and if and when I ever get busy again doing something monetarily worthwhile, I've toyed with the idea now and then of boarding a student pilot in the cottage my wife and I have out back for a week or so to solo. We live on two acres out in the country here in central Kansas (great place for learning to fly) and the local airport (MPR) has a 150 available to rent for just $65 an hour, wet.

Barring any unusual weather, I believe I could get a typical student to solo within a week's time, between ground school sessions to prepare for the written exam. Then the student could go home to another instructor (which always is beneficial) to finish up.

This would be sort of a "learn to fly" vacation. Just wanting some input ... What would you consider to be a reasonable cost (including instruction, flight time, room and board)?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Steven,

For a long time a guy was doing that sort of thing at his home on the Benton, Kansas airport for people wanting to get their multi-engine rating. His fee for the training included a nice room in his rather large house. He had a heck of a lot of students and often two or three staying there at any one time. Did it for a long time, as I recall.

Best regards,
Rick

Jennifer, what you need is a decent partnership with an aircraft owner here in the states. Your partner could take care of the plane while you were in Norway then when you came for a visit, you'd have a plane at your disposal.

I like Steve's idea of a learn to fly vacation as well.

Jennifer:

I just took a leap a couple of weeks ago and got myself a Cessna 150. I have been thinking about it for years (I got my license in 1981) and finally just jumped. It is not the most perfect plane (it has been hailed on but you have to look closely to tell) but I love it so far. The engine is in excellent condition and jumps to life almost immediately.

I have always loved flying but always kept getting in and out of the hobby. I'd get current for a short time and then just stop flying for years. Then I'd get a desire to get a rating and work on it, only to stop flying once I was done. I think I will now be up in the air much more often. I am helping a friend build an RV-6A kit plane and we decided to get the C150 to keep flying during the years it is going to take to complete his project.

After we got the plane, I found out it's airworthiness certificate was issued on the day my wife was born - something tells me the loves of my life are here to take care of me.

I'm not sure what it would cost to get your plane to Norway, but where I live it costs $400/year to tie down the plane on the runway and a few hundred dollars to insure it, including hull coverage. A hangar is probably closer to $300/month. I'm not sure I'd like to live too far away from my plane, though. I'd want to be flying it all the time, at least several times a month!

I have a friend in Germany that flies with a flying club and the arrangement there is that the owner of the plane makes it available to the group. Everyone pitches in to maintain it and pays for the upkeep. The owner doesn't really recover the price of the plane, but the plane is maintained and kept up with little cost to him. Perhaps an arrangement like that would work in Norway.

If you ever come down to the Hill Country of Texas, look me up. I'd be happy to show you the place from the air.

Henry