I can ask, the family owns and operates a flying service in Canada.Does he have any nice ones that he is ready to part with?
Does he have any nice ones that he is ready to part with?
Yes. Don't like lipstick on my pigs for sure. Dont think I have seen PZL but if so...may have already eliminated it. A lot of the ones for sale are ready for overhauls. And while that wont eliminate it entirely....it would be nicer to have one ready to fly when we get it. It will already take a while to get the airworthiness stuff worked out, sounds like.
I am not familiar with the Baron wing mod. What does that entail and why undesirable?
Thanks for the info!!!
Beavers are a handful for a private operator. Big and heavy. You need equipment or a crew to handle it. My bro-in-law had one for a while. A nice one, too. Way too much plane for an empty nester private pilot. I always liken my 180 to a Suburban and my Cub to a 4 Runner. A Beaver is like a WW2 deuce and a half. Loud, drafty, smelly, and slow. Not a great choice for date night unless your date is with 6 other big guys.
I agree Beavers are good training planes on floats, but for different reasons. A Beaver is incredibly stable, massive, and predictable. It takes a lot of mismanagement to screw something up on TO or ldg. It auto corrects minor foibles and warns you before the big ones.
Consequently, you are forced into learning how a floatplane should perform without making the mistakes that would otherwise scare ragwing pilots. After the lesson the pilot is told this is how it’s suppose to look and feel. Now you get your little plane to do the same thing.
Beavers are very forgiving. I would be more afraid that a Beaver lesson would make the pilot overconfident in a small plane.
Those of you who are in a big FBO or private flight club should rent a beaver for the summer and get everyone checked out and then go explore the Bush as far as the fuel will carry you.
Taxiing a Beaver up to the dock in the wind and/or current is usually easy. The hard part is getting out and securing it to the dock before it floats away. Scrambling out of the pilot door is a practiced maneuver that has the potential of being quite embarrassing and occasionally wet. Especially when the dock/shore is on the right side.
Taxiing a Beaver up to the dock in the wind and/or current is usually easy. The hard part is getting out and securing it to the dock before it floats away. Scrambling out of the pilot door is a practiced maneuver that has the potential of being quite embarrassing and occasionally wet. Especially when the dock/shore is on the right side.
Depends on the floats and water rudders. The Aerocet floats have small water rudders that are completely inadequate to manage once the wind starts gettting above 25 knots. A bunch of the private operators have put on larger water rudders and as a result they have a lot more rudder authority. OAS won't do that unless there is an STC for the larger water rudders...which there isn't...so it can be pretty challenging for some operations.
View attachment 55326Here’s a day with the beaver. Work for 30 minutes to get the monster out of the hangar, then pull 20 blades through to get rid of hydraulic lock, add a gallon of oil, sump 5 tanks, assess the oil leaking from everywhere, add 10lbs to a tail wheel that looks like it came off a train, climb 2 flights of stairs, say a few choice words to cover the oil on your jeans, pump the wobble pump, reach down and pump the primer, say a few more choice words to cover the fuel all over your jeans, push the mixture forward, crack the throttle, hit the master, hold the starter for 3 blades and flip the mags. Now wait what seems like an eternity for the oil pressure to start coming up only to notice the oil temp gauge is busted, say a few more choice words, pull the mixture, shut off the mags, flip the master, climb down 2 flights of stairs, more oil on jeans and now on shirt, throw the empty oil gallon jug at hangar to release some pressure, spend 30 minutes getting monster back in hangar, get in car, go home and listen to how this one broke this one’s lego toy.
Back in my day, I whined about the size of the EDO 4580 rudders to OAS Maint. When I came back to pick up the plane after 100 hr, voila! New big rudders! No mention, and didn’t ask.
Times change.
MTV
Yes, that would be nice. But OAS seems to have fully transitioned to only super-duper-certificated airplanes and processes. They will not consider anything that is not fully documented via STC at minimum. No field approvals. Mostly it works fine, but for a larger water rudder, nobody else seems to think this is an issue worthy of raising. So they all have bigger water rudders. Small issue in the grand scheme except for a few days in a few places...