MJ yes. It would have become a great trainer if it had stayed in production and had the crappy doors and weak maingear sorted out. Flew very well though and had lots of great features. Wide cockpit, great viz, user friendly fuel system, etc. :)

There might even have been a PA38 Aerobat one day! Now that would have been something! ;)

MJ:ok:

Chuck, I can hear you banging your head!

FYI:

One reason to get a CHECKOUT (as we call them in the USA, instead of conversion) is because many places have an insurance policy which requires a checkout.

So much talk about money. Yes, money matters, but maybe spend more time making money and then fly more?


Anyone out there ever fly a Varga Kachina? Now that is a fun little plane.

Hi Glendale. Yes, a 'checkout' here, is what you do with an instructor on a familiar type when you are out of practice, or move to a new club. Usually just a few circuits. A 'conversion' is moving to a new type. A 'conversion' would count as a 'checkout' too, but not usually the other way around. Not much different to over there I imagine.

Kachina is a great little aeroplane. I was just a bit long legged for it though. :O

MJ:ok:

mach jump

I never flew the kachina from the front, only from the back seat. might be more room that way! took a girl for a ride with the canopy open...great fun.

so many different terms we have. what you call a checkout, we might call ''currency".

on to the wild blue.

Glendlegoon

Insurance stipulations are often added by the operator to suit their own interests!
I used to fly a Seneca Five for a private owner! The aircraft was managed for him including a pool of pilots available! This operator had high twin hours added to the insurance requirements for more reasons than just to bring down the premiums ! He used that as a reason to the non pilot owner to keep up the day rates and ward off lower hours pilots who offered to fly for the owner at much lower rates!
So don't think the big bad insurance companies unilaterally add all these restrictions the operators play a part too and often either for protectionism or to increase usage!' Not our fault mate that you have to do a 10 hr conversion! Bloody insurance!" :{
Nice little aircraft which was much much more fun than the PA28 was the Grumman Tiger

Pace

Of course you can jump from one SEP into another and just 'bash orf'.

I saw James Garner and Donald 'Splendid' Pleasence do it in 'The Great Escape' and that was a true story..wasn't it?

Mind you, I think they crashed...

Ah yes but what about the deadly free-castoring nose-wheel eh?

What, like on the Rallye? Now there is an aeroplane any monkey could fly! With or without a checkout :E

Nope - still dull and boring IMHO, try something like the Pup150 or metal Robin if you want a non boring equivelant.:ok:

All this talk about real aeroplanes, let's get into taildraggers if you really want to frighten a new pilot! ( tongue firmly in cheek)

Meldrew

Taildraggers ??? YES then you do need a conversion and more :ok:

Pace

Fond memories of lurching from side to side down the strip at Clacton on my first attempt in a Cub with the instructor laughing herself silly behind me. 'That's right, use all the strip..you've paid for it..'

Taildraggers are not the demons some make out. I did my PPL back in the late 70s on C150s, and immediately converted onto the lovely dH Chipmunk in abut 5 hours.

Now there's an aeroplane with exquisite handling. I've never flown better. Well worth putting up with the cold in winter (no heater), the short range (2.5 hours safe max), the rattles and draughts, the total lack of stowage space, and the oil you get smeared in.

If you fly one, it'll spoil you anything else.

Ah! de Havilland!

A point worth making for the uninitiated. If you learn to fly on a tail dragger, the conversion to a nose wheel aircraft should be fairly simple. ( half and hour for me) learn on a nose wheel aircraft and then the conversion may take a few hours as stated above.

I remember when I thought a 172 was a big airplane. Now I think its boring and I don't get bored. Much rather fly my son's nice 170B than a 172.

I also remember checking myself out in a taildragger. It was a Citabria, and before one needed an endorsement. Later that day I gave dual in it to a fellow instructor. The good old days...

Did work for a Piper dealer for awhile. Got to fly all the Cherokees, 180 horse Arrow and Comanches. They had a pretty active salesman who took me under his wing and let me fly a nice variety of airplanes that passed through. Fun job for a young CFI.

PA38? Whats wrong with the doors they are great.

And weak main gear, I have seen rubber on the underside of the wing after a student had planted it with another instructor.

Crappy trimmer system I will give you. But in that group of training heaps its the best of the lot.

Never seen rubber on the underside of a Cessna wing! :p

Oh yes! I forgot about the awful trim system. ;)




MJ:ok:

Mad Jock

Never had the pleasure :ugh: but heard that you could watch the tail twist in spins :E

As with Desert above I was lucky in being involved with a Bournemouth company and it was very much the case of can you take that! Never flown one was met with you will be fine :E

i can remember leaving Bournemouth straight into a 600 foot over cast in a Trinidad. this one had one of those fangled weeping wing things added.
Going IMC I was met with a strong chemical smell which got me thinking until I discovered there was a tiny switch near your knee to operate the fluid. I had knocked it on :ok:

But usually you can operate a generic check list and add or subtract bits to suit:ok: They are all pretty similar and it does not take long to feel the handling traits.

so manipulated insurance requirements to generate hours sold. Bit like government with Green taxes!!! Not our fault gov its the insurance :ugh: and in the green tax thing saving the planet.

but then there are some pretty crap pilots out there who I would not even send the hated next door neighbours dog up with.
the type who land on a wing and a prayer with everything crossed in the hope that it all turns out ok! More like passengers in the procedure rather than pilots who know what they are doing and ahead of the game.

Pace

What's wrong with it?
Poorly harmonised controls ( sensitive in pitch,but rubbish in roll), poor trimmer, t tail means a lot of trim changes that should be taught are not there (good in a tourer but I would say not in a trainer).
Stalls and spins well and good cockpit layout/visibility, but still rather have a Pup or a Robin.