Love a man that loves his machine ...
Contraxdog,
You make me think ... I have never thought this way ... but two aircraft that comes to mind after 25 years (17 plus military - bushwar and all), only two really stands out like ... uhmm yes ..
The Alouette III - man o man ... 1200 hours command and what a pleasure .. never ever had sh*t with a Allouette, shot up to pieces ... flew through wires with the canopy without perspex and never ever had a problem. Once could not start (igniter coil failed). Org Kriel the Flight Engineer just spurted fuel from his mouth into the back and lit the flame and I pressed ignition and away she goes ... oh and the tailpipe was also wonderful to heat up the "boeliebeef"
The other (and closer to the topic), 800 odd hours on a Citation II SP. What a damn pleasure to be associated with a Citation (or Near Jet as the Learjet guys will call it !)
I once had a brake failure on old VLAMGAT's Wonderboom airport .. pure engineer fault but I landed her on a sixpince and stopped very suddenly therafter (thrust reversers) and turned off at the usual turn off.
I remember we had to choose between a King 300 and the Citation and it was purely the speed and range that was the overwhelming factor. 1000 nm ( I think) and one pax for Parliament sessions.
I miss her ... in the mean time a BK 117 is not on my favourite list .. a CASA 212 is .. but I hated the engines on the 300 series (Garret's)... 400 series came out with P & W's and surely must be a hughe benefit.
The Puma.. she was nice the Harvard ... ok Gunship ... go to bed ... go to bed now !
Bye for now,