Mike Busch at OSH 2021

[David MacRay]

If you wanna fly in the hills with any kind of wind, you better have two afterburners
and a tolerance for a LOT of fuel burn.

I know when ever I took off from Revelstoke at gross takeoff weight, with my sister in-law right seat and my brother in the back of a Piper Warrior II, I sure appreciated the afterburners kicking in climbing out to 9,500 feet heading for CYBW.

[Colonel]

Piper Cherokees are not the best short field airplanes.

A guy at my old airport, took off from a short grass strip in the summer with a load
of people in his Cherokee (or whatever that model was called) and crashed.

Broke the back of a friend of mine who was a pax. Required surgery to fuse his
vertebrae. He was never the same.

That hershey bar wing creates frightening drag at high alpha, which occurs when
a pilot pulls the nose up to climb, and the speed bleeds off. There's a long history
of that. Karl Bergey, Fred Weick and John Thorp tried to design an airplane that
anyone could fly, regardless of their lack of skill (remember the Ercoupe?) but it
despite their best efforts to create an aircraft with all rounded corners like a Fisher-
Price Playpen, it still can bite badly.

And that's the lesson about aviation. Despite the best efforts of engineers to add
more and more safety systems (like MCAS) and more and more checklists and
procedures from the paper-pushers, physics tells us that as soon as you are 100
feet in the air with 100 mph, things can go bad.

IMHO a Piper Cherokee is an aircraft that is best flown from one 3000+ foot paved
runway at a certified airport (no challenging obstructions) to another 3000+ foot
paved runway at another certified airport, given the frequent awful skill level of
the pilots that operate them.

In that regard, it's similar to a Mooney, but not as fast. But a Mooney costs a lot
more. Surprise - it costs more, to go faster.

[Squaretail]

Karl Bergey, Fred Weick and John Thorp tried to design an airplane that
anyone could fly,

Well technically their priority was making an airplane anyone could own with the cherokee design, and they somewhat succeeded. Ease of flying was a secondary consideration. it only had to compete with the Cessna in that regard. So when you have two competing design priorities, well one of them is going to be at the expense of the other. As I recall, the cherokee was even less man hours and parts count than the cub to produce.

Ultimately the Cherokee isn't a bad airplane that fulfills 90% of 90% of most private pilot needs. If they're honest with themselves. You can still treat it like a farm truck if you're realistic about its load carrying capacities. I know more than a few that have purple gas in them.

[David MacRay]

I love the Warrior II now. Back then I only flew them because the 172s were all ways booked for flight training and it was easier to book the Pipers for multiple day trips. Now I miss them. Could be nostalgia.

Fortunately there are no tall things between Abbotsford and Calgary so I was able to kick the tires and light the fires, zip to my fuel stop, partially refill the tanks and do it again.

I could have used a third afterburner at Rapid City one August day though. She certainly climbed out flat that day. Of course we were going East so once we cleared the cyclone fence, I could relax again and it happily continued on, climbing like a rocket at many feet per minute.

These days I never fly Pipers anymore, my “flight chops” are not as sharp. I might not be able to fight the urge to pull the little half steering wheel trying to lift it over that fence.

Then again maybe I would be ok. A flight instructor who is a buddy of mine sometimes would seem concerned in 172s and ask me to climb at a sharper angle occasionally. In his defence one of the times, the runway was gravel and only 2726’ long. Not too big of a deal in his plane.

[Colonel]

Well technically their priority was making an airplane anyone could own with the cherokee design

You may recall that post WWII, they started putting steering wheels and upholstery
into airplanes, to make them look just like cars, which is kind of dishonest.

I don't think the Europeans ever bought into that steering wheel BS.

No carpet or upholstery, please. Give me a stick in my right hand, and throttle(s) in my left.

[Squaretail]

Give me a stick in my right hand, and throttle(s) in my left.

I know a guy who always flew his 150 from the right seat since he claimed he was unable to switch over to the other way around. You know what I think about pilots who can't adapt. Sometimes control wheels are glorious, and I dare say required, to steer the thing around the sky. I mean I ain't giving up some time in something neat because I have a hang up about a stick. Or where the throttle is at.

[Colonel]

I get your point, but sometimes you just have to wonder WTF:



Makes it harder to wash the vomit out with a hose.

I get it. Aviation to some is an exercise in pimpalicious exhibitionism, to go with their 160 foot yacht.

I just wanna put my right hand on a stick, my left hand on the throttle, and my feet on the rudder,
and be able to look directly up and behind and all around with no obstructions. Preferably with
not a single other goddamned person in the airplane, to complain about the G.



Reminds me of the Mooney guys I trained up to fly formation at OSH. It was bumpy when we
went flying. Like I could give a fuck. They all barfed. They thought they were "special" because
they had an instrument rating.

At least one of them is dead now. I met another a while ago, at lunch. PhD in physics from Queens,
had an odd story about crankshaft breakage at night in his Mooney. TCM wouldn't return his calls,
not sure if you remember the VAR vs airmelt fiasco.

[Squaretail]

, but sometimes you just have to wonder WTF:

Somehow I doubt the person who decorated the thing, actually flies it. The cockpit probably looks exceedingly... normal.