https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2018/11/2...m_medium=email
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https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2018/11/2...m_medium=email
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I don’t suffer fools well either. At SnF and OSH I always ask what row are you on? The “oh I drove” or “brought the camper” or worse “I wouldn’t fly in here” . I usually ignore any further comments. :icon_rolleyes:
“You need to extend those wings by a few ribs.”
Good to see someone standing up for a short wing. I'm tired of having folks tell me my wings are too short to do anything with and that I should be saving money for a super cub or a 180 instead of buying pacer parts.
I love my Tri-Pacer. I sometimes dream of having a second airplane...usually a Pacer.
Occasionally, I dream of a cub or a 185 or a beaver...but I get over that quick and dream of a Pacer again.
But for now, just happy to have a flying airplane, and it is about the most fun airplane I have ever flown.
...well...except for the Stearman...but other than that!...
I’m glad Pacers are under rated, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford mine!
All of the above! My Pacer isn’t super pretty but it’s out flying when I have time! So tired of the “nah, I drove” crowd picking at it at events. I even had the local SWPC regional rep (some of you can figure out who based on where I live) telling me all the things wrong with mine while he hasn’t had a flying airplane in years and he’s a mechanic!!!
I tell people that the short wings are the Rodney Dangerfield of aviation because they get no respect, always from the folks that haven’t owned and/or flown one. Watch me after I park someplace, you’ll see me looking over my should as I walk away, even the first 172 off the line wouldn’t make me do that.
Jim
PS, I had a loan on my airplane, paid it off a couple months ago, so now I can cleanly state “she is ALL mine!”
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Ah, the lowly pacer. Let's just call it our best kept secret.
I have checked almost every box in mine. Still haven't looped her or spun her or mile high. Yet. Skis, floats, sorta big wheels, rivers, bays, volcano lakes, beaches, tundra, glaciers, glare ice and deep powder, popped a jug on floats, popped a low right tank on take off, moose, caribou, salmon, grayling, char, trout, pike, ducks, geese, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
Just put her skis back on yesterday. As most of you know I moved to Talkeetna over a year ago and late spring made my way slowly onto the mountain glaciers for the first time. It's not something to be taken lightly. I hadn't been on skis the winter before so I spent the first part of the season getting turned up and becoming more familure with the local territory. As winter progressed and we had more daylight I was able to work my way into the Denali range and figure my way through the various passes peeks and glaciers. The first glacier I chose to land is called Pika and the snow was vary deep and had only been landed by a turbine Otter the day before. I had one good set of tracks to guide me but really at 4,800 feet it took all I had to make my turn at the top, knowing I didn't dare stop, and head down the hill keeping my nose ski on one of the Otter tracks. I used it all.
I'm guessing if you count Don Lee there are fifteen pacer/Tripacers that fly regularly in the Village. I heard Leighan was going to paint her bird black, her nickname is The Ravin, I politely suggested to her mechanic that one black plane in the village might be enough. I'm thinking there are five female pilots flying commercially and a couple who don't, not that it matters.
Life is full of those who will be tire kicking until they kick the bucket never having savored more then a thimble full of the experience we have. Most of those naysayers are secretly just trying to find a way to connect with our experience because they have so little. I try to humor them. Life is too short to go through it falsely believing one is better then anyone else and not trying to lift up those willing to ask for a hand. My old minion Ben just passed his check ride today. Was a young cannery worker who walked up to the hanger in Naknek looking for something to do a few years ago.
So, kick ass or kick tires, the choice is yours.
Rocket
Pacers are super, and I hope to get mine back to Talkeetna soon.
When Dakota Cub got their slotted wing Super Pacer flying they called me and said something was wrong with it, it was squirrely. They brought it down and I flew it and had to laugh. I told them they had been flying those lazy Cubs too much and forgot what their feet were for. I use to operate my Pacer in and out of our local gravel bars. It takes a little more precision than a Cub but waay less money invested and mine had stock wings. Oh, and it was a beater as well. Love what Don Lee is doing to get our Short Wings more respect up in Talkeetna and beyond.
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I read that blog a few days ago.... And I realize I only have about 7 hrs in mine, but when I first saw it, it was really love at first sight. Oops... should had a better pre-buy! It's been a learning experience, to say the least, but I still don't regret it. (And maybe one of these days it'll actually get back in the air again....)
In doing research, before & after my purchase, it came to this noobie's attention that disparaging comments are almost always made by... people who have never flown a short-wing. 'Nuf said.