Have the good fortune of ending up with a low time IFR?? A1
What are the (get you) of this aircraft? Have heard of the F&G and Border Patrol hitting the groung when low and slow??
Does any one make a belly tank?
Thanks in advance GT

Husky's are great planes. I have heard nothing particularly bad about the A-1's other than they feel very heavy in roll. The border patroll has probably been hitting the ground in them because they dont know what they are doing and are flying them like a cessna.

To quote a friend of mine, the only thing he doesn't like about his A-1B is the payments. Everything else about it is a dream plane for the right application. Oh, and you can plan on hitting your head on the spades a bunch of times before it sinks in that there's sharp-edged, hard head-knockers hanging off the wings of the older models.

huskys are good, they are great once you put VGs and a MT prop on them. I know a guy who instructs floats with them he considers them a little dangerous without VGs. watch them on final they are not a cub but not problem as long as you know it.

Thank you for the replies, this one has the vg's, I don't ? the abilities of the pilots that have bent them?, as I have done a little of that myself!!Just not a Husky
As to the spades the very first husky I walked up to put me to my knees
As a maule and rv6 driver all I really liked a cessna for was using it as a truck? no better 3/4 and 1 ton than a 185 or a 206 Seriously, I am looking for any knowledge on this bird, will be going to WY. to pick it up in the next 2 weeks, will be coming back to NE WA. is there any Husky GURU's along the way that I might stop and visit with??
Is there anyone going towards WY. from Spokane area in the near future??
May the air be smooth and the rocks be small!
GT

My brother-in law put it best, he says if he was forced to fly a 172 he'd quit flying, and if someone gave him a Husky, he'd trade it for a 172.

GT,

Have you tried asking on the Husky board? http://www.taildragger.info/phpbb/ Plenty o' mutts over there.

CAVU

MTV is the Husky guru writing on this board.

My observations having flown the A-1 and the A-1B is that the A-1 does not have as finely tuned flight characteristics as the later model. It's a good airplane but you will be using the trim wheel far more often then you would with the B. Also, slowing it up isn't as easy as the A-1B and I tended to fly the A-1 more nose high to maintain a slow approach than with the B.

The A-1 doesn't have nearly as high a gross weight as the B and you may want to consider converting it to A-1A standard to get another 80 pounds useful.

But I think you'll enjoy flying it. (I sure do, they're much too heavy compared to a Cub when ground handling but then they ride in turbulence better as a trade off, are faster, comfortable and still fun to fly) Check for hoses that rub on the wrong things in the engine bay, bent gear struts from to much sideload, and then watch your head...

Brad

M6RV6 wrote:Seriously, I am looking for any knowledge on this bird, will be going to WY. to pick it up in the next 2 weeks, will be coming back to NE WA. is there any Husky GURU's along the way that I might stop and visit with??
GT

Drop into Afton WY and visit with the factory (and the test pilot). Go to Idaho Falls - Bob Hoff at Aeromark is a Husky dealer, very experienced on Huskys. If you call Bob Hoff beforehand, he might be able to get you some time with Bob Jones, the best Husky instructor around.

Tried the MT on my dog. Apart from being a good speed brake on final I didn't think much of it. Put the metal prop back on.

I tend to come down final in the 90 to 100 knot range, then start slowly feeding in a slip, to be full slip thru 75 (mindful of Vturb speeds) then gently to full flap when I hit white line speed, then straightening out by 45 odd. This procedure happens fairly quickly and saves wasting time droning around a circuit.

Aussiedog wrote:I tend to come down final in the 90 to 100 knot range.

Dat seem a tad bit fast to me boss

Why is it fast Renegade ? it works for me

My main home strip is about 250 metres long (I think there is about 3 feet to a metre) After near 20 years of ops from it that is the way I do it.

"there are three rules for being a good bushpilot, slow flight!, slow flight!!, slow flight!!!"

I guess if you're in a hurry to get on the ground and you know you can get rid of the airspeed on short, why not?

Aussiedog wrote:Why is it fast Renegade ? it works for me

My main home strip is about 250 metres long (I think there is about 3 feet to a metre) After near 20 years of ops from it that is the way I do it.

Whatever blows your skirt up.

Sounds like you have more time in a husky than I do so im not going to agrue. The way I keep from spending too much time in the air is by doing a tight pattern. I pull the power while abeam the numbers on downwind and usually run out of airspeed about 100 yards before the end of the strip so that I can add power and bring it in really slow if i want. If im not trying to come in particularly slow I do full military style power off short approaches and still land in less than 500 ft.

Gotta love this bird.

Renegade, I dont have that much time up in a Husky, but I have been flying TDs for over 20 years.

I'm not out to aurgue just suggesting an alternative. Probably could of worded my post better.

Much of my low level flying is around the tops of windy hills. Plodding around at slow speed in turbulent windy conditions is a good way to prang.

That makes sense, keep the speed up untill absolutely necessary. As long as your flying and having a good time, thats all that maters.

Hi there, I am looking into adding a Garmin SL 40 as a second com in my Husky A-1B. It would have to fit under the panel as there is no room for it in the panel-mounted Garmin stack of 430/audio panel/transponder. I would like to know if anyone has particular issues/success with this unit/arrangement.
Thanks, Roger.

I've seen under-panel mounting of radios, it seems to work just fine as long as you don't whack it with your knees or your stick hand, and you can read the display OK.
If the audio panel wasn't in that stack, there'd be room for that SL40, eh? Not to criticize, but I always wondered what was the point of an audio panel when there's only one radio. Even with 2 coms, I like the way Cessna used to do it in the 60's- a toggle to select which one you're gonna transmit on, and (if required) another toggle to select speaker-or-headphones for each radio. If there's no speaker, all you need is the mike toggle- just turn down the volume of the radio you don't want to listen to. My thought is that simpler is better. I've just seen too many incidents of accidental radio silence when the wrong combination of buttons are pushed on an audio panel. If there's a full IFR stack as in days of old, I can see the why of an audio panel.

Eric