The throaty roar of 135hp

Nice energy management turn down drainage.

yodacat wrote:Not sure what kind of mountain flying to which you are referring. Perhaps the the mid west and east coast mole and gopher mounds? Certainly not Idaho, the Sierras, or the Rockies.

Well, it's a darned nice 2 person plane plus some gear at pretty much any of the Idaho strips for sure. I've been to nearly all of them in a Pacer or a Tri Pacer without issues after common sense mountain flying planning while in high school. The gear is just shy of indestructible, fairly light, decent performance. Remember that most of the strips were created in an era where Tiger Moths, TravelAires, and Jennies ruled the air services back there. The Pacers are superstars by comparison. Less horsepower imposes severe limits on the conditions one can access the strips in, but other than that, whatever. The Pacer is probably only remarkable for its durability and low operating costs. Other than that, it's the same as any other aircraft with similar P/W ratios and wing loadings. That being said, there are strips in most corners of the Idaho wilderness with good access under cooler conditions and light loads for just about anything with wings.

"Remember that most of the strips were created in an era where Tiger Moths, TravelAires, and Jennies ruled the air services back there. The Pacers are superstars by comparison."

Exactly ! These strips were created & utilized for their first first fifty or so years with small engined planes with "get this".......stock sized tires !
Granted, you don't want to take off out of one of those strips loaded, at 2:00 p.m. on a warm summer day, but a guy wouldn't want to do that in a 180 either.

well i drive a maule M4 now but i owned two tripacers before.. the last one was my best... I installed VG's and had the prop twisted down to 53 inches which gave me redline rpm most anywhere i went... i flew it all over Idaho Arizona and nevada ... i could load it to the ceiling with camping gear and usually get off in under 500 feet...empty with just me at Johnson creek i routinely got off in under 400 ft and climbed at redline... usually getting over 700 fpm climb... i sold it years ago and bought 9810M with the io360... 56D is now owned by a lady air taxi pilot in Alaska and she converted it ti conventional gear... it was and still is a fantastic back country airplane....