Wreckmania II Key Largo

[DennisW]

Bob,

My wife owns the Cardinal. If I'm really nice, ... I get to fly it. Actually it is her plane and she loves it. The Cardinal is a very good airplane and comfortable to fly. Not trucky feeling like most Cessnas. It flys more like a Mooney, but the elevators are a bit heavier. The nice thing about the Cardinal over the Mooney is that it has a higher payload for about 5 - 10 knots less cruise. And, it is much more roomy. Same engine, too. I'll bet she never sells this plane unless she buys a new one. This time, it gets regular old steel jugs. Me? One day, I hope to build an RV-7 or -9 or something similar.

Everyone else,

As for humbling Walter, that's a big job. And, I don't think he's compulsive. I think he is a frustrated statistician or engineer or mathematician.

I just noticed, I just went over 300 posts.

 

[Bob]

Dennis,
I've flown a RG and they are a nice plane to fly. I have a friend up in Elizabethon TN. who owns a RG and I like everything about it except for those spindly main gear struts... If I buy again, maybe a Saratoga or a 210, something on that order. I won't fit in a Mooney, it has to be something larger than that. :tease: Hope to see you at Wreckmania.:tree: Bob

 

[Big O]

Other than Iv'e been up in two that I felt safer to jump out of.

I think thats half the key to get someone to skydive......

Get them up in a plane, that they think "there aint no way in hell this sucker is gonna land safely".....

Thats what I thought anyway, I fought to jump......!

Just my story.....

Dave

 

[Big O]

Poor attempt at humor shut down the replys on this subject!

Actually, I love flying, and Id love to get my P.L.

But the 2 small planes I've been in in life, I chose to jump out of.

Dave

 

[DennisW]

I don't think your attempt at humor shut down the thread. I thought it was a pretty good attempt myself. I, of course, would never jump out of a perfectly good airplane. If it still has wings, it is a perfectly good airplane.

However, this is the wreckmania thread, and I think I started the airplane stuff, explaining why I am pretty much broke right now. So getting off subject was my fault. I have yet to find a good forum for pilots and aircraft owners. There is Cardinal Flyers Online, but theirs is an e-mail forum. It's not like this one at all. Donna subscribes to it.

In any case, I guess we should get back to wreckmania business and if anyone wants, they can start another airplane, flying thread under Non-Diving Related Stuff.

 

[KC_Scubabunny]

Dennis,

I share fault. I asked what kind or aircraft Donna had because I thought it would be something that Dennis, Bob, Jeff and I could talk about at Wreckmania.

One last aircraft comment for you Dennis, you said that Donna's Cardinal had 800 flight hours on the engine when it needed the overhaul. That struck me as funny because my Air Force experience is that we do a complete rebuild on both engines every 400 hours during phase inspection whether they need it or not and we do engine service every 100 hours. That's your tax dollars at work! I am sure big turbine wheel engines probably wear differently but 800 hours still seemed like a lot to me.

Back to diving and Wreckmania!

Natasha - Tami will be logging on the board and meeting everyone probably this weekend. She works for the Department of Defense and they don't allow internet surfing during work hours so she has to wait until evenings and weekends to check out new websites. She has your email so she can ask you questions that I couldn't answer between now and then.

Heather

 

[Natasha]

Heather:
Tell Tami we're all looking forward to seeing her become a Wreckmaniac.
To the airplane wreckies:
We realize Wreckmania is over 190? or so days away.
Because of this, you are allowed to talk about whatever you like, on a Wreckmania thread. We know Wreckies can't just talk about Wreckmania for 190 more days!
So feel free to share your everyday lives with us. That's part of what Wreckmania is about.

Disclaimer:
This is not allowed on any other threads! Heheheheh

 

[Spectre]

I'm quietly sitting back and waiting until the airplane conversation turns towards airplane wrecks... to which I will then become interested again!

 

[DennisW]

I would love to dive an airplane wreck. That would be a real blast for me and Donna as well.

Heather,

Most piston engines for airplanes have a 2000 hour Time Before Overhaul (TBO) recommendation from the Engine manufacturer. Some have to be done early, some later than 2000 hours. I know of an old 6 cylinder Continental engine on a 1956 Cessna 172 that has well over 3000 hours and doesn't burn oil appreciably and has compression on all cylinders well above specifications. Unusual, but it does happen.

Your military jet engines are misused terribly and need overhauls at shorter periods than even commercial jet engines.

My Toyota Previa Mini-Van has almost 190,000 miles. If you assume an average of 45 miles an hour, that's over 4200 hours on the engine. Not too shabby.

 

[KC_Scubabunny]

DennisW once bubbled...
Your military jet engines are misused terribly and need overhauls at shorter periods than even commercial jet engines.

Dennis - You are correct. You should see the bozos that they let fly some of them! In the military the pilots only "borrow" the aircraft for missions but they are "owned" by the maintenance squadron so we tend to be a little protective of our babies. Very different from in the civilian aviation world.

Spectre - I have dove an aircraft wreck. An old broken up cargo plane in Roatan. If you ever stay at Fantasy Island Resort or CocoView on Roatan, there is an old shipwreck and cargo plane that are shore dives from both resorts. I have some pictures somewhere that I will try to find and post.

I have heard that there are some really nice WWII aircraft wreck sites off of Pearl Harbor. Obviously mostly Japanese fighters but also some US fighters that attempted to launch a counter attack. I was suppose to go to Hickam AFB out there in Oct 2001 but 9/11 caused the trip to be cancelled. That is on my short list of must dive sites but now that I am out of the Air Force, I guess I will have to pay for the travel myself!

Heather