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Old 11th Jun 2007, 01:36
  #19 (permalink)  
Speed Twelve
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 300 miles south of EDI
Age: 55
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I'll echo much of what has been said here: Don't do it!

The 150/152 Aerobat is an easy-to-fly training spamcan that just happens to be strong enough to be cleared for 'aerobatics'. It's grossly underpowered, every manouevre is an exercise in energy-management. It doesn't do inverted; the donk stops as soon as 0g or less is applied. It has the control feel of a London bus, with little feedback and far too much slop in pitch and roll authority. The doors tend to burst open due to torsional flexing when you are halfway round a roll, and to cap it all I never found the harness to be particularly good at restraining pilot in seat.

Don't get me wrong, it's a piece of cake to do basic stuff in; you could train a chimp to loop, barrel roll or stall-turn it, so forgiving is the handling, but don't expect it to be in any way rewarding. I had nearly 2000 hrs instructing on the things before I saw the light and started flying Chipmunks and Slingsby M Fireflys. Now those are more fun, the Bulldog too.

Get yourself into one of the above, or better still a CAP 10 or Pitts.

Buying a Cessna to do aeros is like using a Nissan Micra as a trackday car: it'll go round, but what's the point?
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