Flying the Moose!

[Mike Davis]

I'm sure Mike Kimball may have additional observations to add, but here are
a couple of my impressions after flying the factory Moose today. To start
out with, the weather today was almost perfect... the flight from Fairbanks
to Anchorage along the skirts of McKinley park was just spectacular. There
were a few clouds at 20,000 ft, and visibility reports of up to 100 miles!

My first thought when recalling the days events isn't directly about the
Moose, but rather about the beautiful Cherokee 180 I rented for the day to
fly down there. It performed flawlessly, and made for a beautiful flight...
but when departing Anchorage after our flight in the Moose I found myself
wanting to stop and check for all the squirrels during the take off run.
When Robin rolled out onto the runway for our demonstration flight and
pushed the throttle in, you were immediately firmly seated! That thing
accelerates right now!!!

I was a little surprised at how light and responsive the controls were. On
our flight we stayed at about 1000' MSL so there were a few bumps coming off
the lakes and fields below, but the Moose did a good job of smoothing things
out and was easy to fly with just your finger tips on the stick. When it
was Mike's turn to fly (the cabin is big enough that we traded from front to
back seats in the air!) he did some steep turns and even at 45 degrees it
seemed very easy to hold in the turn... I'm sure he can elaborate.

My wife spent 5 hours in the back seat of the Cherokee on our trip, and her
comment was... "oooh... it's so big!" (keep your comments to yourselves
please!). Spending part of the flight in the back seat myself I can
definately agree... there is plenty of leg room to stretch out in the back,
and more than enough shoulder room. The seats were definately more
comfortable than the "sit up straight" seats in the Cherokee!

They had the new "Alaska" tundra tires on it, and it sure looked like the
steps were longer than what came with the kit... and you need it! You
hardly have to bend over to look under the plane. The visibility was still
quite good... it was a little hard to see straight ahead while taxiing, but
it was good enough that real S turns weren't really necessary.

I still don't think I would want to use the "round" engine... but the sound
and performance were certainly "spectacular". The airspace being what it is
in Anchorage we didn't get to experience the climb performance the Moose has
to offer, but you could just feel in you bones during the take off roll and
rotation.

If you are having any problems staying motivated in your building... try and
find anyone in your area that has a Rebel, Elite, or SR/Moose that is
flying, and beg your way into a flight... you'll definately be fired up and
ready to get to work when your back on the ground.

What a great plane!

Mike
195SR




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