CAF Southern California has a new bird!

A6M3 · 01-19-2006, 11:52 PM

It was restored in New Zealand. Came to the USA in the year 2000 when it was donated to the CAF. It has been at Midland, Texas until now. Carter Teeters has been flying it for the past few years and will continue to fly it.

Eric

evangilder · 01-20-2006, 12:29 AM

Hey Eric, do you know if anyone else is going to fly it as well?

A6M3 · 01-20-2006, 08:00 AM

I don't know if anyone else will fly it.

I think most pilots are afraid to fly the Polikarpov, or as I call it "the ground looper". From what I hear it is a difficult plane to handle on the ground, including takeoff and landing. Especially landing, if you don't land just right it can swerve off the runway, or clip a wingtip, etc.

Eric

evangilder · 01-20-2006, 08:10 AM

Yikes, I also heard that if you go into a turn too aggressively, it will spin pretty quick. I don't know about you, but I would think twice before flying that one. Maybe more than twice! It kind of makes me think of a cross between a Gee Bee racer and a Brewster Buffalo.

ollieholmes · 01-21-2006, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evangilder

Yikes, I also heard that if you go into a turn too aggressively, it will spin pretty quick. I don't know about you, but I would think twice before flying that one. Maybe more than twice! It kind of makes me think of a cross between a Gee Bee racer and a Brewster Buffalo.

i would think the forward vision is seriously limited. I would think it must be even worse than the Spitfire.

Sounds more like the Dh66 comet racer to me. Aparently they dont fly it as not one of the pilots at shuttleworth has kept his twin rating up to date

Id love to see that flying again. But to be fair it was only designed to be flown once and the shear fact she is still around is a miricle.