Dear Ann Landers ...

Al,

You will have a mixed marriage. However, variety isn't necessarily
bad. You should step up to a 310 so that the high wing low wing crap
goes away (it only affects very low time, inexperienced pilots anyway)
and she should fly some older, high wing Pipers.

One very definite reality you will observe (depending on her flying
time) is that she has gotten used to the trailing edge of systems
technology in Piper design while you have flown more sophisticated
systems (for a given model year Piper was always about five years
behind Cessna and Beech in systems work), so you'll just have to work
gently with her to bring her into the more modern ages of flight, and
you'll get some laughs out of it. You will find that pops up when you
least expect it...Piper fuel systems require tank changing, which is
one reason they have a higher rate of fuel exhaustion accidents than
Cessnas, and from time to time the two of you will discuss systems and
what she is used to will be much different than what you are used to
and what she's used to will seem somewhat primitive to you. (Only
thing that comes to mind right now is in the Piper and Cessna twins on
the heater system, which proved to be a good laugh for my ex-wife and
me when I got into an Aztec with her after getting out of a 310. I
couldn't get the heater to start and she had no problem. I was used
to the 310 where you simply turn it on. She was used to the Piper
which requires that you first turn on the fuel supply to the heater, I
wasn't thinking primitive enough.)

What's a lot of fun with this is that I was married for 23 years to a
lovely woman who had gotten her private rating in Cherokees and I'd
mostly flown Cessnas and Grummans. After we got married she picked up
her commercial and instrument in Cessnas and multi-engine in a Piper
and then switched over to balloons. For a time we flew a Lance pretty
regularly, alternating legs. We used to laugh about the fact that she
could always grease the landings in that airplane while I pounded it
onto the ground.

All the best,
Rick

(John Ousterhout) wrote in message . com...
I'm a Pilot. I've met a woman that I'm very interested in. She has a
great personality and we have many common interests. I believe that
we could have a great future together. We seem compatible in every
way but one. I've been a Cessna pilot for many years. But she flies
a Piper low-wing. Is there any chance that our relationship will
work?