Thanks everyone!

On being bitten: My TW instructor's parting bit of advise was that the day I feel confident flying it is the day I should start being extra careful, or something to that effect. I'll do my best to not let my guard down.

That picture above is indeed it. I've been cleaning it, and hopefully it'll be ready for a polish in the next week or so. I'll post before and after pics after it's all done.

Justine,
It's great you have the opportunity to live the dream. Now to really utilize that toy..how about skis? for the other best flying time of the year. Steve

Congratulations, Justine! There's nothing quite like flying and owning your own taildragger. Now get registered on LadiesLoveTaildraggers.com. There's a fly-in in August in Ohio - hope to see you there.

Anne.

Congratulations Justine! I'm sure you'll have many happy flying hours in the Stinson in the years to come. Good on ya!!

Fly Safety!!

Congrats on the exciting chapter! I remember flying my Stinson home after purchase, the smile stuck for a while. It's proven to be a very forgiving first tailwheel to own. Once I began soloing it I was very conservative about the crosswinds I would fly it in. As my experience and confidence grew I gradually began accepting an increased crosswind component until I felt comfortable that I had established a sensible operational envelope.

Feed your Franklin a steady diet of mogas (assuming you have the STC and provided mogas is available to you) or at least add TCP to 100LL and it should prove to be a great engine - they sound great and are wonderfully smooth. Straight 100LL though will pretty quickly result in valve issues.

Hopefully you've got access to a plush grass strip, my Stinson is always happiest on turf and it helps make every landing look nice!

So Justine, are you going to bring that shiny new tailwheel endorsement and that beautiful Stinson down to the BCP Fly-In?

Congrats and good luck!