Latest Developments!

Its been a while, too much going on to play with computers etc.

Getting checked out in a Cessna 414 has beeen fun Been a long time since I have played with a twin, and it is a challenge to be sure. Am re-learning a lot of good stuff. Seems that I have flown over 350 hr this year, am thinking of going for a Pilot Examiners Desigation.

The lowly Cessna Skyhawk (172) has a lot going. It seems that it still holds the record for the most produced aircraft in the world (second only to the Messerchmit ME-109) at nearly 43,000 produced. Only the Beechcraft Bonanza can claim a longer un-inerrupted production run. It seems that Cessna got it right the first time, and looking at it's developoment it really has not changed all that much, even the new ones have quite a few parts in common with the first one!

I recently flew a rather new "SP" version with the 180 HP engine an wiz-bang glass panel. Nice, but my old 160 HP version is only a couple knots slower, has about the same climb rate and sips a lot less 100 octain per hour. O.K. it does not have the groovy graphics on the panel, but that allows me time to look outside for traffic and watch the scenery, which is what flying is all about in the first place. I have trained a lot of students in the old girl, and it still keeps chuggin along, always faithfully starting even on the coldest of days, absorbing landings that sem more like runway molestation, and forgiving hamfisted flying. What more can one ask?