Jack Allison wrote in message ...
I'm wondering if there are any Cardinal drivers that frequent this
newsgroup.

Jack,
Jay emailed me about this post since he knew that we owned a
Cardinal. We bought our 177B FG almost two years ago. In spite of a
very expensive first year annual, we are quite happy with our choice.
Here is a quick summary of the good and bad

The good: great visibility, roominess, big doors, large baggage area
(for our other hobbies of scuba diving and photography), decent
power/speed/fuel consumption, good look & great type club for
information/tips. I flew mostly 150, 152 and had some time with 172.
I got 'checked' out in the Cardnal in the second flight. It is a bit
more slippery and required early reduction in power for landing.
However, it seems to be a more stable and appear to handle crosswinds
better (at least based on my perception).

The bad: Have to make sure to keep the big doors closed esp. on windy
days (I have to yell at Rick many times ;-)).

The ugly: One could consider our very expensive first year annual is
the ugly (found 3 cylinders after 100hrs of flying at first annual)
but this could have been prevented if we had the pre-buy inspection
done by an AP experienced with Cardinals. Unfortunately, this local
expert was all booked when we needed the inspection.

If you had not done so, I highly recommended you joining the
Cardinalflyers club. In the Virtual Digest and the Technical sections,
you will find a wealth of invaluable information, tips and tricks etc.
We are very much do-it-yoursef type of people and have had great fun
fixing up and improving our pet bird.

Hai Longworth
N30703