private pilot!

[CyranoAH]

Great pic Golfer!!!

Daniel

[LePaul]

Congrats!  Got mine in 1992 and its the best investment I ever made.

Enjoy, be careful, and by all means, have a great time.

[Golfer]

RV6 took the photo with the digicam he snuck on board his airplane (sneaky sneaky) and emailed it.

Anybody know how to make them come up as images in the post though?  or are they just too big?  here's another with him on my wing

[Ripsnort]

Ziggy! How'd you pay for it? Congrats!

[CyranoAH]

Just place a [ IMG ] tag with the url in the middle of ["IMG"] and ["/IMG"] (take the " out)

Daniel

[Zigrat]

hey rip thanks. i took out a loan, since i am a student i get them interest free thanks taxpayers

[cpxxx]

Scootter, Like the photo of the Reims Rocket. A rare enough bird these days. Time was, most of European Cessnas were made in France. The military here use the Reims Rockets and even has hardpoints for actual rockets to use in the FAC role. They really abuse those aircraft, it's a tough old bird. One flew through powerlines and survived.

Liked Golfer's pics of the SF260. The military here use them too as basic trainers, well actually they are also the most capable warplane in their inventory as the Corps lacks any offensive or defensive capability whatsoever. The last actual fighter they had were Spitfires back in the fifties.

They sound great though. I live near the base see them regularly. I'd love to fly an SF260.

Some pics here:

http://www.irishairpics.com/

[Golfer]

It was a real joy to fly the Marchetti.  Expecting all the things that go along with a high performance aerobatic airplane with razor wings i.e. snap rolls at high G turns, spins difficult to recover from at high AOA low E flight attitudes, it was an extremly docile airplane!  I was completely taken back by its ability to tell you whats going on, pull too hard you buffet, ease back and your right back into a 3-4G environment as it corners.  Even came the time while chasing the slippery sneaky RV6 around in a yo-yo and vertical scissors where i actually departed (lost control) and instead of twisting me from 5000 feet into a deadly spin, it simply dropped the nose and not so much as twitched.   Very forgiving aircraft.  We had our pitot-static system get a plugged somehow on the return trip, and the airspeed indicator was pegged at 50 and wasnt moving.  so we did a seat of the pants ILS approach to about 300 foot ceilings and the airplane didnt let us down.  
Very simple, very predicitible, very easy to fly.  End results of the accelerometer for both of us was 5.5G's, -1.25G's.  We put the airplanes through their paces and had what i am sure is the most aggresive fight the IPs have had in quite a while complete with reversals, snap rolls out of the gunsite, vertical scissors, and agressive yoyos.

And another comment about the WX conditions, that picture is actually from our flight and you can see the marginal at best VFR, well back at the airport it was IMC with 300-400 ceilings with the tops at about 3200 (i think thats what i called it on our pirep).  Anyways, we fought 30NM north of the base (i'll call it a base hehe) at the HWANG intersection where riiiiiight at the end of that 30nm it became "ok" vfr.  Anyhow...flying the SF-260 was the most fun ive had in an airplane, and i get to add it to the list of cool planes ive flown, and not just rode in...
Extra 200
Pitts S2C
Christen Eagle
Stearman
SF-260
Citation I/SP (yep)

[Zigrat]

i want to do ACUSA so bad. how much did it run you? how do you think it compares to combat in aces high?

[Golfer]

click here and find out.  they recently raised their prices another $100 i believe so plan on spending nearly $1000 for your first trip.  if you choose to do the fighter lead in program, that will set you back 1750 or so, thats two flights instead of one, so you'll engage in a minimum of 12 dogfights throughout the day for around 3 hours of flying or more.

Compare it to aces high?  you can't.  Put 5 G's on your body while wearing a 6lb flight helmet...see where i am going?  you're tacking an extra 30lbs to your head in a turn and maintain visual contact AT ALL TIMES with the other airplane.  no glancing at instruments.  Its flown by feel and listen to the plane, it'll tell you what you're doing wrong or right.  If you're in a buffet, ease back and you corner well.  I can't really begin to describe what became my favorite move to do on the merge.  Merge wings level and roll the airplane about 135-140 degrees left and pull through a low yoyo.  puts a lot of G's on the airplane and gives plenty of airspeed to take things into the vertical.  My problem was if i began to "Saddle up" i'd get over excited and try to squeeze in the turn a little sharper and get into a buffet and the next thing i knew RV6 was flying circles around me.  And he "Flew the airplane to perfection" said the IP i was flying with callsign "Bluto".  In all the time hes flown ACUSA he told me, he'd never seen anyone fly the airplane as well as RV6 had that day.  I wont go into any experience disadvantages, because i smiled the whole time even when my cockpit filled with smoke when i heard "guns guns guns" in my headset.  Only problem i had was the WX that day, and had to call off my flight out to the airport and hit the highway at 1am to make it in time for our 9oclock briefing.  UGH!

Fly the airplane, and make fewer mistakes than the other guy and be patient for them to make a mistake before you.  If you're neck and neck through the whole fight, you wont ever have them behind you.  Its only until one guy makes a mistake that something happens.  Two identical airplanes, Identical Altitudes, Identical Airspeeds...its up to the pilots to fly.  And as i said before its the most fun ive had in an airplane!

Enjoy

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Zigrat
hey rip thanks. i took out a loan, since i am a student i get them interest free thanks taxpayers

Good on ya! Glad to hear you're not depending on your parents at your age!