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Old November 14th 05, 03:38 PM
Ron Natalie
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Default Tomahawk/ Skipper

W P Dixon wrote:
These planes look like clones of each other. I like the looks but does
anyone have experience in both to compare the two?

They're not real clones, just the product of the marketing design
ideas of the seventies when they were developed. Wanted to
distinguish themselves from the 150/152 which really looked no
different than the rest of the post-war Cessna line.

T-tails of the seventies were the swept tails of the sixties.
Biggest problem with the the skipper, was the price. Hard
to compete against cheaper stuff in the training market
especially as the late 70's were also are last great "Fuel
Price is going to kill aviation" era. The skipper is pretty
much typical Beech.

There were more Tomahawks built (about 2500 compared to 300 for
the skipper). Tomahawks have had their series of problems
over the years between a whole slew of AD's for manufacturing
quality issues and a few issues with the spin recovery.

They both fly well...tomahawk performance is slightly better.
The skipper was pretty much a orphan child in our FBO...most
opted to train in the 172's even for a few bucks more an hour.
Both of these birds are getting a bit long in the tooth these
days.