RV12 to a CT Super Sport?

[GrassStripFlyBoy]

20 hours ago, jclisham said:

If the CT is $1000 more a year for insurance that would be a bummer

I get it when it comes to stroke'n the insurance check, but consider this.  Three years ago RV12's could be bought for 60k, now they seem to be around 100k.  Same is true for CT's.  I own and fly for entirety of enjoyment that it brings, not for the financial balance sheet.  CT's are still darn cheap with lots of bang for buck & fun factor, when you consider the whole picture.  Buying a new $1.2m Cirrus probably would have me questioning that.   

[jclisham]

Thanks Darrell - you're not wrong for sure.  There's a great chance I'll be able to make it to the Midwest LSA Expo in Mount Vernon, IL next Friday.  Opportunity to bum a ride just fell in my lap.  We won't be there long so a test flight likely wont happen but at least I'll be able to crawl around and see up close.  This free trip may end up being very expensive!

[GrassStripFlyBoy]

I'm planning to attend on Friday, providing the weather is doable, currently a bit of rain but a week out so we'll see.  If it works, happy to take you up.

[jclisham]

30 minutes ago, GrassStripFlyBoy said:

I'm planning to attend on Friday, providing the weather is doable, currently a bit of rain but a week out so we'll see.  If it works, happy to take you up.

That's awesome!  Yep - we're in same boat....if the weather holds.  We'll get in around 10am and will need to leave around 1:30.  Also going to check out Vashon Ranger and a Rotax powered Rans S21 Outbound that may be there. 

[FlyingMonkey]

On 9/1/2022 at 4:22 PM, Warmi said:

BRS , as far as parachutes go, is a good deal.

On my Sting GRS parachute is optional - I can placard it and fly forever without servicing it but then what is the point of having it ?

The downside is that GRS repack with a new rocket was about $7k ( I did it last year )  , not much choice here in US except their North Little Rock dealer and they have to send it back to EU  - at least BRS can be serviced locally in the US and is significantly cheaper.

What is the repack/rocket interval on the GRS?

Personally I love having the chute and I think it's well worth the expense.  It potentially turns a lot of "unsurvivable" events into "walk away and call your spouse and insurance company" events.

[Warmi]

3 hours ago, FlyingMonkey said:

What is the repack/rocket interval on the GRS?

Personally I love having the chute and I think it's well worth the expense.  It potentially turns a lot of "unsurvivable" events into "walk away and call your spouse and insurance company" events.

9 years so it is not that terrible …and  ultimately I wanted to have a chute so associated costs are part of the deal.

[Bill3558]

4 hours ago, FlyingMonkey said:

What is the repack/rocket interval on the GRS?

Personally I love having the chute and I think it's well worth the expense.  It potentially turns a lot of "unsurvivable" events into "walk away and call your spouse and insurance company" events.

Worked for me!  N121YT

[Anticept]

Personal rule: give me altitude or give me airspeed. It's a no-go if I can't have at least one, and altitude is more valueable.

Near miami, I was required by a controller to go below 500 feet over the water in an SR22T. You can bet I had lots of throttle during that time.

[FlyingMonkey]

On 9/3/2022 at 3:28 PM, Bill3558 said:

Worked for me!  N121YT

What happened?

[Tom Baker]

40 minutes ago, FlyingMonkey said:

What happened?

https://www.ctflier.com/topic/6623-my-preliminary-report/

 

[FlyingMonkey]

2 hours ago, Tom Baker said:

https://www.ctflier.com/topic/6623-my-preliminary-report/

 

Oh right, I remember that one related to the oil hoses.  For some reason I forgot there was a BRS deployment involved.

I'm glad it worked as designed and everybody walked away.

[PhilT]

Glad to read all this great conversation. Just the thing I was looking for as I'm quite new to flying and to the CTSW I now own. 

Was wondering about the differences in landing this as compared to the 172 trainer I was on for the past year.

Fun to fly so far. Very happy to have gotten into this plane.

[Towner]

8 minutes ago, PhilT said:

Glad to read all this great conversation. Just the thing I was looking for as I'm quite new to flying and to the CTSW I now own. 

Was wondering about the differences in landing this as compared to the 172 trainer I was on for the past year.

Fun to fly so far. Very happy to have gotten into this plane.

I bought my CT when I had about 1500 hours in various single engine planes. At first, it was a pain to land. I got it to the point I felt safe pretty quick, but took a looong time before I liked my landings. It’s a tough plane to land smoothly. Now, I love landing the plane!

I have had a handful of guys fly it with me. All navy pilots, with personal aircraft and were CFI’s. They all commented on it being tough to land when you’re not familiar. Some had CTLS time, but said the SW is tougher to land. 

If you read through various posts on here, a number of people had some difficulty learning to land an SW. It’s seems most love it now, just takes a little while.

[PhilT]

On 4/17/2023 at 10:02 AM, Towner said:

I bought my CT when I had about 1500 hours in various single engine planes. At first, it was a pain to land. I got it to the point I felt safe pretty quick, but took a looong time before I liked my landings. It’s a tough plane to land smoothly. Now, I love landing the plane!

I have had a handful of guys fly it with me. All navy pilots, with personal aircraft and were CFI’s. They all commented on it being tough to land when you’re not familiar. Some had CTLS time, but said the SW is tougher to land. 

If you read through various posts on here, a number of people had some difficulty learning to land an SW. It’s seems most love it now, just takes a little while.

Thanks a lot Towner. Very interesting comments. I didn't know much about the Flight Design A/C before getting into a partnership in one. 
I've had some great landings and then some not as great. Now to figure out what was working and do that consistently. 

[Towner]

16 hours ago, PhilT said:

Thanks a lot Towner. Very interesting comments. I didn't know much about the Flight Design A/C before getting into a partnership in one. 
I've had some great landings and then some not as great. Now to figure out what was working and do that consistently. 

Definitely not like a 172; full flaps and hold it off as long as you can!

Reading through stuff on the site, people are landing them differently. Some are 15 degrees of flaps while some are 30. A few are 40, but it seems most stick to 15 or 30. Some with a little power and some at idle. I’m generally a 30 and idle guy in calm wind. It seems most fly it on and don’t really do a full stall landing.

Couple things to keep in mind. Flaps can be finicky on these planes. Mine have had a few gremlins and suddenly stopped working. Because of this, I practice landings at all flap settings, from -6 to 40, just in case I don’t have a choice for landing.

I didn’t realize when I bought mine that there had been a couple of light tail strikes on the bottom fin. I found out when I pulled the fin and found 2 patches for reinforcement. Our local sheriff’s department had an LS. They had a handful of pilots flying their plane. According to the local A&P, there had been a few tail strikes on that one too. As I asked around, a few other CT pilots had also drug the tail. This may be part of the reason some are flying it on instead of holding it off for the full stall. 

I’m not gonna try to tell anyone how to land their plane, but I just thought I’d point out some of the things I’ve learned from this site and from talking to others. Half the fun is trying to figure out what works for you.

[Madhatter]

You can't do a full stall landing in a CT unless it's perfectly timed, the tail will stall which then stalls the wing.  Probably where the tail strikes occur. A lot of CT's have bent the gear legs this way.

[ct9000]

With full flap a tail strike is not likely, with little flap the landing angle is greater so a tail strike is more likely. I would suggest that it is very difficult to hit the tail with full flap.

Another comment on the CT / 172 is that a CT will go around or take off with full flap quiet safely. A go around with full flap in a 172 will quickly raise nose and possibly stall as soon as power is applied.

[Mike Koerner]

I think tail strikes come during takeoff - if you hold it on past flying speed and then pull back aggressively.

[ct9000]

Are people that dopey?

[Mike Koerner]

Well, when you put it that way, it's a hard question to answer. I was just playing around. It makes for a dramatically steep initial climb-out.

That said, wheelbarrowing down the runway greatly increases the chances for loss of control. So, I guess the answer is yes.

[ct9000]

[Tom Baker]

With the CTLS if doing soft field takeoffs, and the power is put in to quickly it will bang the tail. I agree that low flap landings, especially with some power can drag the tail.

[Anticept]

Big tip I show people before we go do soft and short field. I'll have them sit in there and go press the tail to the ground. Ill ask them to look at the horizon, look qt the artifical horizon, look at their wings, etc and really take in the sight picture where the tail would drag.

Remember that the artificial horizon can be changed to raise up or down in some aircraft, so don't put too much stock in it. Look outside.

Also if you have an airplane that does not have the skid blocks, put a few layers of teflon tape under the back of the tail.

[PhilT]

Lots of great points made here!

I've been practicing lately with 30° flaps and in light winds it lands really nicely.

I had tried the 'hold it off' technique from my 172 training and that scared me a bit. A little too high and it suddenly drops quickly.

Full 40° flaps seemed to float around stall too long and made things weird to me. A couple times when flying solo I found it difficult to keep it from wanting to landing on the left wheel first. Someone mentioned that it could be the left wing stalling just before touching down because I was using the 172 technique. 

I tried the 'sit in the cockpit and have someone push the tail down' idea and was a little surprised that that attitude looked all too familiar. Certainly made me realize I have to not be too crazy with pulling back on take off. (I don't have skid blocks!)

 

[Towner]

At first, at least for me, I had to be careful of gusty conditions, especially if I landed just a little fast. It doesn’t take much of a gust to lift the plane, or lift a wing with a good crosswind  gust. This was really just sloppy piloting after flying a Mooney forever that didn’t really react to the gusts, but it got my attention the first few times. Like anything else, it’s not much of an issue now. Of course, we won’t talk about my landing on Sunday. Thankfully, no witnesses!