ShawnM Posted January 17, 2020 Report Share Posted January 17, 2020 44 minutes ago, atrosa said: I see your name is lightning pilot, did you fly a lightning previously? If so, how does it compare to the SportCruiser? C'mon Tony, that's a silly question, the short answer is "it doesn't", the Lightning can't hold a candle to the SportCruiser. Have you yourself taken a demo flight in either airplane yet Tony? You've been "stalking" both for a while now. I'd love to hear what you think as to how the Lightning measures up to the SportCruiser. Good luck in your search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WmInce Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 14 hours ago, ShawnM said: . . . . my mechanic gives Ginger a sponge bath AND waxes her when he’s finished. Does anybody else have a mechanic this good? So . . . what is your hourly rate for doing that?😃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Pilot Posted January 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 Designrs and ShawnM thanks for the preventative maintenance tips. To answer atrosa’s question no I did not previously fly a Lightning. I just love the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrosa Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 Here is where I'm at now. I have 2 friends telling me to get my 3rd class medical. One of my friends is a 20k hour corp pilot. Flies a sovereign jet. The other is a 60ish hour student who hit pause on training and now is back in the air. He will be a PPL in a month or two. The commercial guy has an AME that is great to work with so I'm good to go with the 3rd class. Now I've been looking at pipers too. But holy crap are the rebuilds expensive especially on the 540s. Things i love about the SC... 48 inch cabin. It looks very modern and well built. No built in PIO and half the insurance premiums. Cheap annuals. (Relative to other plane nothing is cheap in aviation) Things i love about the lightning... The lines the speed. Things i love about a piper... Back seats. Being in CT we have plenty of Wx until April so i have some time to analyze my choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmi Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 Get your 3rd class medical - to me that is a no-brainer. You can fly anything with it - SC , Lightning - whatever ... Personally, I was kind of looking at the new Lightning as my next plane ( either that or Sling 4 TSI - but I don't need 4 seats). With the Titan engine it will cruise faster but the main thing for me is 17XX lbs gross which is what I am having problems with on my Sting S4 - not enough gross. I am 6 feet 210 LBS , my wife is almost 6 feet and while she is pretty thin , at 6 feet she is still heavier than most women + BRS and we are maxed out with fuel. With 17XXX lbs , I can add a BRS installation to the Lightning ( Nick mentioned that they do offer it if you want it ) , load it with fuel and still have enough for decent size baggage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronin5573 Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 8 minutes ago, Warmi said: Get your 3rd class medical - to me that is a no-brainer. You can fly anything with it - SC , Lightning - whatever ... Personally, I was kind of looking at the new Lightning as my next plane ( either that or Sling 4 TSI - but I don't need 4 seats). With the Titan engine it will cruise faster but the main thing for me is 17XX lbs gross which is what I am having problems with on my Sting S4 - not enough gross. I am 6 feet 210 LBS , my wife is almost 6 feet and while she is pretty thin , at 6 feet she is still heavier than most women + BRS and we are maxed out with fuel. With 17XXX lbs , I can add a BRS installation to the Lightning ( Nick mentioned that they do offer it if you want it ) , load it with fuel and still have enough for decent size baggage. Why buy a lightning when you could get what it was designed from the Lancair. …. if you can fit into it. I'm 6'5 and cant get my knees under the panel but it a screamer at 200 + knots at 8-10 gallons per hour https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?category_level1=Single+Engine+Piston&make=LANCAIR&model=320&listing_id=2375076&s-type=aircraft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmi Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 34 minutes ago, ronin5573 said: Why buy a lightning when you could get what it was designed from the Lancair. …. if you can fit into it. I'm 6'5 and cant get my knees under the panel but it a screamer at 200 + knots at 8-10 gallons per hour https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?category_level1=Single+Engine+Piston&make=LANCAIR&model=320&listing_id=2375076&s-type=aircraft Lightning is much more docile plane than the Lancair - I think of it as “Lancair for dummies” , which is for me 🙂 - I don’t need all that ultra speed that comes with Lancair and don’t want to fly a plane with 80 knots landing speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronin5573 Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 Lancair’s have never been referred to as docile. It shows in the high accident rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmi Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 Yep, that’s why I don’t want one 😀 Btw. Arion Lightning planes have nothing in common with Lancair planes except maybe it looks kind of similar ( but so does SportCruiser to some degree ) Arion Lightning legacy includes this plane - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocomp_VM-1_Esqual Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyAgain Posted February 10, 2020 Report Share Posted February 10, 2020 Really cool. My bucket list includes at some point getting to Page AZ for a week or so and checking out the desert SW. Probably not this year but maybe next. There are two mountain passes to get out of CO in that direction and the conditions would have to be ideal. Or it's a long trek into eastern NM and a southerly detour, which just means more flying time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PilotPete Posted May 16, 2022 Report Share Posted May 16, 2022 😃 thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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