So whats it like to fly ?
Overal the aircraft is a very stable platform with well harmonised controls but may be a touch heavy in roll , this seems to exibit its self mainly at low speed but roll control remains efective even after the inboard section of the wing has stalled but abuse of this desirable atribute can lead to a rapid wing drop.
Those of you who have flown the draggy offerings from the USA will find the aircraft take a bit longer to slow to aproach speed and then needs a little more power than you might at first expect to maintain that speed.
In the climb it reqires quite a lot of rudder and if you are climbing to a cruise alititude that takes advantage of the aircrafts very clever wing then it getts a bit tiring on the foot ! , part of the very low drag of the airframe is due to the lack of cooling drag and at high weights in hot climates can lead to the oil temp to reach the red line and requires the climb to be stopped and the aircraft cruised at 75% power untill the oil temp drops.
Once at the best cruise altitude (between 6-8000ft) you will find that it will out perform most of the other aircraft in the 160-180 HP class the 160 is the most economic Robin but the 180 can lift more weight or fuel.
As said in posts above the aircraft can lift a good payload but this could well catch out the novice pilot as the take off performance differance between a lightly loaded aircraft and one at MTOW is very marked, this reflects the fact that the payload makes up a much higher percentage of MTOW than most light aircraft.
The aircraft will operate in and out of fields that most of the american aircraft won't look at but keep an eye on the performance data at high weights.
Last edited by A and C; 4th Apr 2005 at 21:40.