PING! Mike Rapoport

I can get my 65hp Champ down to 45 mph no wind, with power and the nose
high. I thought the Courier with all it's high lift devices and
horsepower per weight would do better.

George Patterson wrote:
jsmith wrote:

Thanks Mike.
Us/We "flatlanders" have a tendency not to think about such
considerations. :-))


Maule pilots do, flat land or not.

George Patterson
Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown.

The Courier can get down to 28mph in level flight at sea level at max
continous power. This minimium speed goes up with density altitude because
power goes down. The problem with using these extremely low speeds for
approach and landing is that there is no way to slow the descent except by
lowering the nose, so once you get close to the ground, you are a passenger.
My approaches at 50mph use about 12" of MP so I still have a meaningful
amound of power left if I need it. There is also the issue of taking off
again.

As I said earlier, the Couriers capibilities are like layers on an onion. I
am still in the first few layers. The JAARS pilots that demonstrate Helios
at OSH and elsewhere can do amazing things with the airplane but they have
thousands of hours flying Helios in and out of very challenging places.

Mike
MU-2
H295

"jsmith" wrote in message
...
I can get my 65hp Champ down to 45 mph no wind, with power and the nose
high. I thought the Courier with all it's high lift devices and horsepower
per weight would do better.

George Patterson wrote:
jsmith wrote:

Thanks Mike.
Us/We "flatlanders" have a tendency not to think about such
considerations. :-))


Maule pilots do, flat land or not.

George Patterson
Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown.

Is there a Vietnam Veterans Courier Pilots group?
That's a source of information you might tap into.
Does JAARS offer Courier pilot training courses?

jsmith wrote:
I can get my 65hp Champ down to 45 mph no wind, with power and the nose
high. I thought the Courier with all it's high lift devices and
horsepower per weight would do better.

George Patterson wrote:

jsmith wrote:

Thanks Mike.
Us/We "flatlanders" have a tendency not to think about such
considerations. :-))



Maule pilots do, flat land or not.

George Patterson
Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown.

"jsmith" wrote in message
...
Is there a Vietnam Veterans Courier Pilots group?
That's a source of information you might tap into.
Does JAARS offer Courier pilot training courses?


No and no. It isn't really a training issueanway. Anybody can see what
needs to be done (land slower) and how to do it, it is just a matter of
getting comfortable and proficient at the low speed end of the envelope. It
is the same as bush pilots in AK flying final at 1.1Vso plus or minus one
knot. It just takes a lot of time and practice to get to that level of
precision and you have to approach the limits slowly since a being a few
knots fast or slow could result in a crash.. The fact that there are a lot
of crashes in these types of operations demonstrates this.

Mike
MU-2

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

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

Do you have a contact number or URL for a website?

Mike Rapoport wrote:
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.

Try: http://mountaincanyonflying.com/index.html


"john smith" wrote in message
...
Do you have a contact number or URL for a website?

Mike Rapoport wrote:
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 Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
Try: http://mountaincanyonflying.com/index.html



http://www.flyidaho.org/old/scenes/idapts_c.html

We're going to Smiley Creek around Labor Day.


Mike Rapoport wrote:
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.

Just a comment on really short landings. I have a Husky and it lands
about as short as anything. Short landings tend to be rough. This is
because your forward speed is low compared to your vertical speed.
Also, a vertical bounce uses up energy. So don't be afraid to "bounce
it in". If you look at the videos of the short landing contests in
Alaska, those guys just plop on, hard, and usually bounce.

The Idaho strips are very challenging. The key in Idaho is don't fly in
the afternoon. Mornings and after 6 pm are much better. For charted
strips, Idaho actually has more challenging stuff than Alaska.

My Husky is for sale, btw. Contact me at
anothername(at)comcast(dot)net. Make the @ and . substitutions.

Doug