This weekend while riveting my bottom skins on, I got to thinking.
This past month, I have flown the Aeronca Chief, 2 Cessna Floatplanes, an Archer and yesterday a very well appointed Arrow. Not bad for a mooch, huh?
I have to say that we make these planes WAY more complicated than they need to be. The essence of it all is the wing and the engine. They all work the same way and we get very little back with more power and more buttons to push. The return we get on performance for the dollar diminishes greatly in aircraft that have performance better than our RV's.
There was a new Mooney on display at the fly in I went to yesterday at Mansfield, MA and it was SUM GOOD! So was the sales chick selling them, but that is fodder for another thought entirely! Anywhoooo, this Mooney was almost a half a mil and I am not sure it would do much more than a good RV, aside from known ice and the more power (fuel) and a bit more speed thing.
I came to the conclusion that we are building the best cost:benefit relationship aircraft on the market today!
I plan on putting a big engine in, I know it isn't needed. It is just that I want one. Any way you slice it, it seems that you can't go wrong with an RV.
...except maybe if you have an old Chief with no electrical system!
You can put that on floats!
CJ
