Yeah it was a great show with some awesome restorations and great flying.
The C195 is a great machine. Big comfortable...burbles along at 21/1900 at 130kts down low and maybe 136kts up higher-say around 7000'-burning around 60lt/hr...not Bonanza efficient but then with her presence who cares.
The rudder looks a little lacking in area but it's at the end of a long arm so quite effective. The CofG is further aft than most taildraggers so it's a little more twitchy than 180/185s but not horrifically so. Having said that I would have preferred my first landing in 2+ years to have been in more benign conditions
If anything I was sitting a little close to the rudder peddles and over controlling-but got her stopped safely.
I logged about 5 hrs over the course of the trip and, as Lee mentioned, the conditions were never what you would call benign, but not awful either. Just windy enough to make you have to work at it. JTM has 'soft' leaf spring gear which is a little more forgiving than the harder variety. All in all, like nearly all taildraggers, and certainly all of the larger examples of the breed, she is a challenging, and gratifying, airplane to fly. I think with another 10 hrs or so in a reasonably short time frame I would be more consistent- but that isn't going to happen until Tim and Jen leave it in SEQ for a while later in the year. It was nice to be complimented on my last landing at YECH in front of a big crowd of pilots, 6 or 8 of whom were 195 pilots, plus the public and with a nervous passenger in the back-those circumstances usually have 'fck up' written all over them
Then I hopped into the Retard Vehicle and flew it to Dubbo - rounded out a little high and dropped her in from a foot or so-I blame Jaba
I then had the great pleasure of watching Jaba fly night/IFR back to YRED...and be mesmerized by the landing lights and drive her in
We all do that from time to time-I loosened a couple of oxy masks in a 767 that way several years back
The AAAA puts on a great 'do' and I look forward to attending more-especially when I get EZU back in the air in a year or so.
When I get a chance I will throw up some vid from the 195.