wrote:

I was concerned about performance - given 260lbs. of me, an
instructor, 100hp and grass. I have ~80 hours, virtually all in
C-172's with 160 or 180HP. I needn't have worried. That thing felt
like a rocket. When I opened the throttle for take off it felt like it
zoomed down the strip. It was much quicker feeling than the 172 on
pavement. Rotate at 40kts, which came in about 500 feet, climb out at
60kts and away we went.

My first takeoff in a Sportstar had the uncanny
feeling of being on the back and having the reins
of a giant bird. V

The stick was no big deal, but the control sensitivity will take some
getting used to. I am way to ham fisted. I never really smoothed out
even though I switched to using two fingers and a thumb on the stick.
We climbed up to 2000' and flew south to do some turns and "Whatever
you want to do..." We did a power off stall. No tendency to drop the
wing and control was very positive through out. The break was not very
dramatic.

Now it was time to land. I started to turn and saw traffic crossing
the nose from right to left at our altitude, so I turned right to pass
behind. The visibility from the bubble canopy is tremendous for
someone used 172's. It took me a while to find the field visually.
There's lots of grass around Lakeland.

I set up a left base for 32 and the instructor walked me through the
power reductions (vernier throttle, other than pushing it in for
takeoff and stall recovery, it's all twist) and flap deployment. I
like manual flaps. I've liked them on all three planes I've flown with
them. It's a very positive feeling, I guess. Anyway, we used two
notches. According to the demo pilot, this things got 50 degrees which
we'd only use on a really short strip. He told me that he'd tell me
when to flare as I would try to high being used to 172's. He did and I
did and it was a very nice landing. We made the first turn off.

Overall impressions: This could be habit forming! It's like driving a
sports car after driving a delivery van. And it burns abour 3-4
gallons an hour (in the training environment) and 4-5 cruising @
105-110 kts. A new one is $107,000, which is more than I can swing
right now, but boy oh boy, if there was a place to rent these puppies
I'd be all over it. It could reduce the $100 hamburger back down to
$100!

Now go find a Flight Design CTSW to fly. I have about
35 hours of training in a Sportstar and I just took
delivery of my new CTSW. Different planes, both fun
to fly, but the CT is a much better crosscountry plane.