ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

Since most are building and tail up taxying around I thought I might put in a flying story.  Weather was perfect here in Wichita on sunday so I went out to the hangar to get the Tcraft up and around. Seeing Paul working on his airbike I chatted a while with him and then prepped the Taylorcraft for flight.  Taking off thinking about practicing landings which really didn't happen I took off south flying along at 2100rpm's the plane cruising along at about 85 mph I decided to fly over to Udall a place where there are a bunch of frieinds with planes.  Seeing Frisbee's hangar open and him looking out to see who was flying by, I landed and chatted with him for a while... Now Frisbee has a tcraft that is a real fine plane and as we looked at it he said... you know there is no reason for it to be in the hangar today do you think we should fly it.  Now I never pass up a chance to fly with someone and a master of the Tcraft like Frisbee is a great thing.  Well to my surprise he put me in the left seat and we were soon in the air.  Now his is a clipped wing version with the large rudder and was a lot more responcive then mine and after flying over to Alley Field we started doing a bit of thermal chasing was a wonderful day of flying and he helped me with a few bad habits I had picked up and showed me a few ways to do what I was doing easier.  He has a great plane and is a pleasure to fly with for sure.  Here is a pic of his plane, this picture was taken from Brian Fitzgerald blog called skysurfing.  I have left a link to it in another article.

well the pic was to big but here it is smaller

Avenger, I watched your takeoff.  Nice ground roll,  tail came up and you lifted off very smoothly about 2/3 the runway  distance (800 feet?).  Your climbout was gentle  and steady, you really made me jealous.  I sure want to get airborne again.  You really tripped my trigger, I am going out to the hangar this afternoon and  will hope to finish up my recent activities.

I  hope your landing was equally good, I had to leave and when returning saw that your plane was resting in its usual spot.  It looked happy.

Paul Fiebich

I think the wind is supposed to be way up but if it isn't I will come out and watch your triumphant return to the air.  Flying Frisbee's Tcraft was a really fine experience and learning from what he knows was invaluable.

fine looking bird for sure

Thought I would put up a picture of my Craft

i fly a tcraft regularly also as our club has a 65 horse no electrical system version. get out chock the wheels and hand prop. they are such a nice and fun plane to fly. i only wish ours looked as nice as yours avenger

mine has an 85 horse cont in it... and everything is electric.  This plane has enough gauges and lights to fly instr at night and a full set of radio's and gps.   Now don't let the 100 ft paint job fool you. It isn't really as nice as it looks in this picture but it will be as soon as the painter gets done with it. Frisbee's  has the 75 horse conversion but it has no electrics so is done the same as yours to start.  His is also about 200 pounds lighter.