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The 180 has much better carrying capacity than the 140. Less time weighing luggage and getting the ladies to fess-up their real weight.

:lol:

True, unlike the 140 it was a real 4 passenger aircraft with full tanks and at least some luggage. Mine was quite an early version, early 60's. It looked like a 140, with the same clamshell type engine cowling. The only giveaways were the external baggage door and the larger propeller. It was nicely equipped though, dual navcoms, one with G/S, ADF, King Txpdr and audio panel, interphone, EGT and Cylinder head temps, Updated flight instruments and gyro's, toe brakes, rudder trim, strobe, lots of good stuff. One thing I didn't like about it was the smaller stabilizer which made it difficult to hold the nose off on landing because of the extra weight up front. You needed either rear passengers or land with no flap which kind of defeated the purpose. Later versions had a larger stab.

Had a lot of fun with that thing and miss it. I sold it to a Canadian DC-10 captain and his family learned to fly with it. According to Transport Canada, the registered owner is now a company in Victoria. I learned to fly on a Fleet 80 and if I was looking to buy another aircraft, I'd be trying to find a decent example somewhere.

Edited by Wilber
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True, unlike the 140 it was a real 4 passenger aircraft with full tanks and at least some luggage. Mine was quite an early version, early 60's. It looked like a 140, with the same clamshell type engine cowling. The only giveaways were the external baggage door and the larger propeller. It was nicely equipped though, dual navcoms, one with G/S, ADF, King Txpdr and audio panel, interphone, EGT and Cylinder head temps, Updated flight instruments and gyro's, toe brakes, rudder trim, strobe, lots of good stuff. One thing I didn't like about it was the smaller stabilizer which made it difficult to hold the nose off on landing because of the extra weight up front. You needed either rear passengers or land with no flap which kind of defeated the purpose. Later versions had a larger stab.

Had a lot of fun with that thing and miss it. I sold it to a Canadian DC-10 captain and his family learned to fly with it. According to Transport Canada, the registered owner is now a company in Victoria. I learned to fly on a Fleet 80 and if I was looking to buy another aircraft, I'd be trying to find a decent example somewhere.

Ours was a 1969 Cherokee 180 with a similar set-up inside. Ours also used LORAN-C which was about as nice as one could get for navigation before GPS. But, for just getting around BC, the ADF was plenty fine.

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Speaking of twin amphibians...here's one of the greats...probably #2 behind the Catalina/Canso...the Grumman Goose.

An amazing shot of one 'crashing' into the beach...

...I'd be crying if that was mine.

Plus a nice blurb on the Goose from Antilles Seaplanes Aviation which is apparently putting it back into production. Betcha they're pricey!

Edited by DogOnPorch
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I read through all of the post's on this topic and was quite surprised that nobody mentioned one of the finest military aircraft of all time,the F-4 Phantom.First flown in 1958 and hundreds still active in non-US service today according to Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II

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Despite what these aircraft were designed to do,there were numerous WW2 fighter aircraft that had such gorgeous lines.One of my favs is the FW-190,especially the long nose D version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FW190-D9.jpg

Which was the fastest piston engine fighter of WW2?I have seen different claims to that title,including the P-51H,and last week watching Wings of the Luftwaffe,they claimed it was the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil(Arrow).Rather an unusal inline push-pull propeller arrangement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_335 :)

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Despite what these aircraft were designed to do,there were numerous WW2 fighter aircraft that had such gorgeous lines.One of my favs is the FW-190,especially the long nose D version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FW190-D9.jpg

Which was the fastest piston engine fighter of WW2?I have seen different claims to that title,including the P-51H,and last week watching Wings of the Luftwaffe,they claimed it was the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil(Arrow).Rather an unusal inline push-pull propeller arrangement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_335 :)

the dornier would have changed the course of the war if it had been released one year earlier and produced in large enough numbers. What an amazing aircraft.

Edited by lictor616
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I read through all of the post's on this topic and was quite surprised that nobody mentioned one of the finest military aircraft of all time,the F-4 Phantom.First flown in 1958 and hundreds still active in non-US service today according to Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II

We yaked about it somewhere...perhaps the Viet-Nam thread. Indeed a great aircraft...one of the first true multi-role jets.

US Navy F-4s doing carrier ops in the SEA theater.

The Do-335 was perhaps the fastest prop plane of WW2, but only 3 were made. The He-219 Owl was a more successful combat machine.

Here's a captured one getting sent to France for shipment to the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FLEnG07pXE

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Flying the Lancaster...cockpit view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIEg27PNL5U

I am always amazed just how agile those great lumbering beasts were. Took my late Grandfather to the Abbotsford Airshow a few years back just to see the only flying Canadian Lanc, a Spitfire and a Hurricane. I will never forget the sound of six Merlin engines screaming as the three old warhorses beat up the runway during a fly-by. And this year I had the honour of arranging the ground transportation of a Mosquito from Vancouver to Victoria so that it could be restored to flying condition. Hopefully in a couple of years time I will again get to hear the sweet music of the Merlins.

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I am always amazed just how agile those great lumbering beasts were. Took my late Grandfather to the Abbotsford Airshow a few years back just to see the only flying Canadian Lanc, a Spitfire and a Hurricane. I will never forget the sound of six Merlin engines screaming as the three old warhorses beat up the runway during a fly-by. And this year I had the honour of arranging the ground transportation of a Mosquito from Vancouver to Victoria so that it could be restored to flying condition. Hopefully in a couple of years time I will again get to hear the sweet music of the Merlins.

That's really cool re: the Mosquito. My dad and his brothers were all in bombers during WW2. Dad never made it out of training before the war ended (Lancasters), but one flew with both the British/Canadians and the Americans as an engineer....Halifaxes and B-17s.

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Great plane....it could ride "on top" of it's own shock wave, generating compression lift.

The specifications of the plane are so ridiculous, it's like something from out of a comic-book. It's incredible that they actually made it happen, at a time when engineering was done with pencils, paper, and slide-rules. Just imagine it.

Plus it just looks so bitchin' ! :lol:

Picture the Valkyrie sharing a runway with other planes... it would be like a '68 Dodge Charger in a parking lot full of Toyota Yarises. Or a Lamborghini Murcielago in a showroom full of Hyundai Accents. Or a Suzuki Hayabusa parked amongst a bunch of old-people mall-scooters. Or, something along those lines.

RC Model:

OMG, that's so adorable! :wub:

-k

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