Crenshaw wrote:
Apologies in advance for the thread drift, but do tell how on earth you were able to stuff any sort of mountain bike or skis in your 150? I fly a 150 and have a hard time with the barest of bare bones camping gear. Sometimes I leave my water bottle behind for local flights.

Well, not all at the same time!

Pull the right seat and control yoke out, pull the rear bulkhead. Carry only enough fuel for the mission. Use the long runway. Admittedly I had a warped upbringing, flying floats on the BC coast - if you could get it on step you flew the load, if you couldn't get it on step you'd pump the floats and try again.

A1Skinner wrote:Hey Karmutzen. The Citabria POH for my '76 never addressed door off flying, but it was placarded to stay below 100mph and no aerobatics with door off or window open.

Hmm, didn't realize there were a variety of placards available, maybe I'm missing some - mine says the left window can open up to 130 mph (it has that little folding restraint to allow a swing out of 4" at the bottom). And I see a placard available for the split (seaplane?) door that lets you swing the top half up at 90.

My window swung right up against the wing. I also had the one piece door, which comes off in about 5 seconds. I know of quite a few Citabrias that get flown with the door off, including a flight school. Its definitely allowed on the Citabria.

There is an STC to allow door off flying in the Citabria series aircraft (This is copied from an email sent to the Citabria yahoo group):

Would you like to fly your 7 or 8 series aircraft with the door off...legally? You can now purchase the STC to do so directly from the National Aeronca Association.
The STC allows flight with the door removed with the following restrictions:
VNE is reduced to 100mph.
No intentional spins with door removed.
No loose objects in the cabin.
Flight only in precipitation-free air.
No smoking.
Applies to the following aircraft: 7AC, 7ACA, 7BCM, 7CCM, 7DC, 7EC, 7ECA, 7FC, 7GC, 7GCA, 7GCAA, 7GCB, 7GCBC, 7HC, 7KCAB, S7DC, S7EC, 8GCBC, 8KCAB

Thanks Zim. I guess maybe I had the STC and didn't know it. Not sure where else the placard would have came from.

My Citabria had a placard on the left window that said not to open above 130 mph but didn't say anything about the door.