PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Super Cub Or Husky?
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Old 20th Oct 2006, 05:49
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: what U.S. calls Žold EuropeŽ
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We operated two Huskies for about 5 year each as a towplane in our gliding club.
Many tow pilots formerly used to the Robin DR-400 stopped flying after their first flights on the Husky. Obviously it lands quite different. (what else would you expect for a tail dragger).
The pilots left really loved the Husky. Except for the exhaust muffler, the alternator regulator and a broken weld at the rudder the aircraft was absolutely trouble free with a close to 100% dispatch reliability. After replacing the original regulator and alternator by a different type, we never had trouble with this again.
Elevator trim is not very effective, the tow pilots always asked us to fly as low as possible behind the aircraft, as the trim was at the rear stop throughout the tow and still a remarkable ammount of stick force aft needed.

Although looking quite similar, the Husky has much better aerodynamics than the Cub. Slowing down after descent takes some time, untrained tow pilots had to abort some approaches because they were not able to slow down enough for setting flaps before they reached the airport.

Unfortunately the club replaced the Husky by a motorglider about the sime time I obtained my license to fly it, so I never had the chance to test for myself. Nevertheless I was passenger on several flights, and it really is a loud plane! Conventional (not noise cancelling) headsets? No way! Cabin heating just rosts the pilots feet while deep freezing the passenger and the upper half of the pilots body.
We bought it as a tow plane, and it perfectly did the job. For traveling you would buy something different anyway.
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