FastEddieB
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2013
- Messages
- 11,542
- Location
- Lenoir City, TN/Mineral Bluff, GA
- Display Name
Display name:
Fast Eddie B
Last Sunday reminded me of why we went through the ordeal of building a hangar home on an airstrip.
This past Sunday was a gorgeous day to fly in E TN. The owner of the airport invited me to go for a quick flight in his Maule. I kind of expected it to be coarse, noisy and truck-like, but it was anything but. Certainly heavier on the controls than most Light Sports, but well harmonized. The Lycoming O-360 was very smooth. Very nice plane overall.
Karen shot a video of the takeoff. Here's a screenshot:
As we were landing, we noticed an orange Light Sport parked in front of our house. Turned out a friend, Dennis Long, had been in the area and dropped by with an Aeroprakt A32:
Dennis is the US distributor for Aeroprakt. He took another friend, Alan, for a test flight and he came back thoroughly enamored.
I was quite impressed with the build quality. It's an aluminum-bodied Light Sport from Ukraine, with fabric control surfaces. ROTAX 912 (not -is), full-span flaperons and a chute. Reasonably light EW, enormous long-range tanks (30 gals?) and good cruise speed combined with a comparatively low price (about $130k I think, depending on options).
Like I said, impressive. I think it would be very high on my short list of Light Sports were I ever to consider something other than my Sky Arrow.
This past Sunday was a gorgeous day to fly in E TN. The owner of the airport invited me to go for a quick flight in his Maule. I kind of expected it to be coarse, noisy and truck-like, but it was anything but. Certainly heavier on the controls than most Light Sports, but well harmonized. The Lycoming O-360 was very smooth. Very nice plane overall.
Karen shot a video of the takeoff. Here's a screenshot:
As we were landing, we noticed an orange Light Sport parked in front of our house. Turned out a friend, Dennis Long, had been in the area and dropped by with an Aeroprakt A32:
Dennis is the US distributor for Aeroprakt. He took another friend, Alan, for a test flight and he came back thoroughly enamored.
I was quite impressed with the build quality. It's an aluminum-bodied Light Sport from Ukraine, with fabric control surfaces. ROTAX 912 (not -is), full-span flaperons and a chute. Reasonably light EW, enormous long-range tanks (30 gals?) and good cruise speed combined with a comparatively low price (about $130k I think, depending on options).
Like I said, impressive. I think it would be very high on my short list of Light Sports were I ever to consider something other than my Sky Arrow.
