National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

Isn't that Birddog a 2 place 172.
Paul

Yes Paul, your exactly right! and when it taxi's on grass runway it makes noise like sardine can! Incidentally Paul, what is your opinion of Eiseman mags. Mine work fine and I'm told Fresno has parts for them. True? JP

JC,
There's nothing wrong with the Eiseman mags. Fresno does indeed have the parts for them at reasonable prices. The most expensive item is the coil at about $150. That's the only AD on the mags. Being an industrial mag, people found out the coils were interchangeable and started installing tractor coils.
Paul

I have eismanns and absoloutly love them. They are a real hot mag and makes starting really nice.

Paul Agaliotis wrote:Isn't that Birddog a 2 place 172.
Paul

More like a two place C-182 I would think. That O-470 up front sure help I am sure.

My Eisemans fire right off, work great so I see no reason to get rid of them. Thanks Paul for your opinion, and others. JP

The L-19 is really not like ANYTHING else. It is just GREAT! I flew one for a week in the 80's, a nice one! Wish I could have afforded one! Lots of glass, lots of power, big flaps, big 195 tail! Land ANYWHERE! TAKEOFF anywhere! JP

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... e-in-orbit

IIRC it costs $10,000 per lbs to lift cargo (flutes) to orbit and soon it is going to cost $63,000,000 to give an astronaut a round trip ride to the international space station.

Thanks JC.
You are correct, the Birddog isn't like anything else. The Birddog requires one to be a pilot to fly it. If you do not truly know what the rudder does, be sure and have a good hull insurance policy. While quite forgiving (and delightful) in the air, ground handling is always a challenge, and to the unskilled, this bad boy will bite ($$$$). This ain't your daddy's Cessna 150 / 172 or Champ.
In addition, Birddogs are a bit more mechanically complicated than most other light planes. Most of this "complication" revolves around the pressure carburetor system on Birddogs. With the PS5C carb, their is a requirement for a engine driven fuel pump, boost pump, and special fuel selector. While being a military aircraft, these systems are quite reliable and work well, but still could be a failure point.
The Birddog is on my short list of planes I most like to fly. The U-21 and Clipped Cub are on this list too.
Since the subject of this thread included the Birddog, I just had to put my 2 bits in.
I can tell you this: If you ever get L-19 piloting time, you will never forget how wonderful the Birddog is to fly. It is amazingly nible and maneuverable. It has real brute power, and the engine is well matched to the airframe. The controls are all ball bearing, and very light. The visability from the front seat is superb, even overhead.
JC, if you ever get in my neck of the woods, be sure to stop in, actually, the invite goes for any of you guys on this forum. You can fly in if you wish, as we have our own 2600' strip.

Mike

Now we are off, off topic.
To get back to the point, the reason our country is bankrupt, is simply that we all want services, and we want someone else to pay for them. Since Al Gore invented the internet, and we all now have too much information, the politicians have hit a brick wall. No more smoke and mirrors.
So we shift to scape goating. Blame the illegals, or the rich (my particular pet peave since I'm not), or the politicians (whose only sin is giving us what we asked for).
Fact is, we aren't actually bankrupt, we just have to adjust to the reality that not everyone can have everything they want. Good luck on that.
And as for the price of gas. A gallon of gas still costs less than a good all beef burger just as it did fifty years ago back in the good old days. So skip the burger, which would be good for most of us, and you will have plenty of gas to fly home again.
Cheers, these are the best of times.

Looks like the whining and crying has started.

Rod

Babbitt presses Congress, airlines to invest in NextGen

http://atwonline.com/international-avia ... xtgen-0427

US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt cautioned that he is "concerned" the level of agency funding called for in the reauthorization bill recently passed by the House of Representatives would be too low and, if enacted, could "degrade" safety and efficiency.

Why would we keep throwing money at an agency that can't get a project in on time, and on budget?
I'm sure not a tea party government is bad wacko, but in the next couple of years, some heads have gotta roll to restore some balance and get the country growing again.

I wrote to our resident representative once and mentioned that among other thing I didn't think they could organize a two horse parade. He wrote back and thanked me for my input. Lets use the example of an energy policy: everyone knows we need to increase our domestic production but the current adminstration is stuck on their green energy. Fine! I'm all for green energy but I can't run my truck on bio-mass or solar. Natural gas is a good substitute for some applications but please get going.

Part of the problem is we have a law professor for a president and a bunch of Havard type egg heads in charge of policy who have spent their life in acadamia and never ran a business. Believe me, as one who spent much of his life teaching in the community college system, I know something about how those in acadamia spent their time thinking instead of getting things done.

I think most people on this site are 'doers'. I'm trying to picture in my mind what it would look like or how it would progress if a government body tried to restore a Champ or a Chief .

MikeB

George Bush, Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell.

While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. 


The devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.

Putin asks to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes. 

When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so Putin writes him a check.

Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes. 

When she is finished the devil informs her that the cost is 6 million dollars, so she writes him a check.

Finally George Bush gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. 

When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is $5.00.

When Putin hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why Bush got to call the USA  so cheaply. 

The devil smiles and replies, "Since Obama took over, the country has gone to hell, so it's a local call."

Good one Joe
We may not agree on who is to blame, but there is no doubt about the mess we are in.
It has been a long wild ride down a slippery slope. Most of us have done all right getting here, but our kids are going to have to clean up a heck of a mess, putting a lot of us out to pasture on a tight budget.