Testing your glide. Are people doing this?

That's good to know. On balance, do you see any difference between
owners and renters? Does the owner's extra familiarity with the plane
make any practical difference?

I don't know about anyone else, but I know that as an owner, spending
several hundred hours in the same aircraft, I become MUCH more proficient
with an airplane than I could when I rented a wide variety of aircraft.

An example: When we had our Warrior, I was able to hit my own wake
turbulence in a 360 degree standard rate turn, without reference to the
altimeter, not varying my altitude plus or minus 50 feet. My CFI was pretty
impressed, but it was just a matter of being intimately familiar with the
nuances of a particular bird, after literally spending *years* in the left
seat.

I sure couldn't do that in our Pathfinder when we first got it -- heck, I
doubt I could do it now, after a couple of hundred hours. It's just a
"feel" thing that aircraft owners develop, and renters can't -- UNLESS they
always rent the same plane. (Which I never was able to do.)

Time in type -- especially if it's the same aircraft -- is valuable.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"