At Sun and Fun in 2004:
I sold my 1976 AA5B Grumman Tiger that I had for ten years, and
I also sold what was left of
my 1969 7KCAB Citabria (after the hangar fire... a story in
itself...) and bought a beautiful 1993 Super Decathlon. It's a sweet
machine: aerobatic, 120
knots, easy to fly tail dragger.
I was the third owner of this SD. It's pretty much as it came from the
factory. The basic VFR panel with one digital com and a transponder.
That's about it. Don't need much else in these planes. The Decathlon is
very
basic, but it's still a dream to fly. I put 13 hours on it in one day
in a
speed run to Team Rocket in Taylor Texas and back. It performed
beautifully.
Most of the flying was done hands off. It's a very docile plane, and
very rugged. A great choice for the tail wheel beginner, or an
aerobatic vetran.
SD with dew at dawn, camping at Sun & Fun:
In the winter months, I fly it with the wheel pants off:
Here's a pic taken by Barb and John Watler on a little jaunt back home
from MTO:
The pic above was taken Feb 18, 2005 as my tach rolled up to 599.8
hours. The plane just doesn't look as nice without the wheel pants. I
had just replaced both main tires and since it was Winter, I decided to
leave them off until warmer weather was here.
Mat
