I don't have a website. There is some information he
http://www.stolaircraft.com/index.html#header There are not very many
Couriers around so there is not a great deal of info availible.

I don't yet have much experience in the Courier yet. I bought the airplane
last August and by the time I had the tailwheel endorsement and was
reasonably proficient, most of the season for backcountry flying had
passed. I have been to a few places so far this year including the McCall
Mountain Flying course but I still only have about 100hrs in the airplane.

The Courier is a pretty amazing airplane. It employs all the STOL
"tricks", low wing loading, slats, large fowler flaps, spoilers and long
travel landing gear. The Courier's performance is like an onion, there are
layers and layers of performance requiring more and more skill to peel back
the layers. I am pretty comfortable flying into 7-900' strips but not
350-500' ones. I have made many landings and not rolled past the numbers
but in the backcountry I am aiming to land about 1/4 down the runway to
allow for unexpected sink or misjudgement on my part. Most of the
backcountry strips in ID are comfortably long (900' or more) for a Courier.

The nice thing about the Courier is that you can land anywhere
*comfortably*. In a lot of other airplanes there is no margin for error on
some of these strips but with a Courier they are relatively easy. It is
also much faster in cruise and can carry more than the Husky/Super Cub or
Maule classes of airplanes.

After you move to MT, you might want to go the school in McCall. Central ID
has some of the most technically challenging airstrips in the US. They are
down in deep canyons often with blind approaches. Once you can fly in and
out of these places you will feel pretty confident just about anywhere else.
The school is also a lot of fun.

Mike
MU-2
ATP


"Fisherman" wrote in message
...

Mike,

Do you have a website? I sure would like to read some of your
experiences with the Courier. I've read all about them and seen a lot
of photos but only saw one in person once. Even so, it's one of my
favorite planes.

We're moving to Montana this year so I'll be taking some mountain
lessons. I'll bet even if I found a Courier for rent, it would cose a
jillion dollars per hour. I'm not rated for anything close to it
anyway. Some day!

I'd also like to hear about how your skills and confidence progress
with it.

Thanks


--
Fisherman