Decathlon

My plane is a Decathlon that I've owned and flown since 1992. Although limited in how far you can go in aerobatics, it's a fun plane regardless. You can fly comfortable cross country, and do a few loops and rolls along the way. As well, it's an affordable plane for me. Burns around 8.5 gal./hr. you can see from the panel that instrumentation is minimal, and thus less costly, but plenty sufficient for good 'ol VFR flying. Stressed for +6 and -5 G's and will fly a nice acro box. If you want to land on a friend's grass strip, that's OK too !
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

yeah they are alot of fun to fly. the one i flew had heel brakes. whoever came up with that a. didnt have lil feet.
b. should be drawn and quartered by a1 skyraiders.

 

Nice looking Decathlon!

The Citabria I fly has those God forsaken heel brakes, too. Only thing about the airplane I don't care for. OK, the inverted flight/negative G limitations suck, too.

 

I've never flown one with heel brakes. That wouldn't be so good. Mine has toe brakes. As for the inverted flight, the Citabria has a flat bottom wing and the Decathlon is symmetrical and much shorter - two different wings. A -5 is a pretty decent rating for negative G's.

 

I love Decathlons and Citabrias!

I've flown with heel brakes, although not on a Citabria. I don't mind them-- you don't want to use them unless you are at taxi speed anyway, so heel brakes kind of enforce that rule.

 

I grew up learning to fly a Cub and a Champ [ heel brakes ] back in the 60's. Heck, where we lived in rural Canada, we flew planes before we drove cars, and that was as a young teenager [ as in 14 or so ]. Anyway, heel brakes were the norm in many planes, and fortunately were phased out. The Bellanca/American Champion line of aircraft were a great design, which is why they are still made today. And may I add, made in America [ I'm a real pro-American Canadian and try to buy as much American product as possible - yes, the Ferrari was a slight deviation-sorry ! ].
Anyway, we then flew Tiger Moths, Chipmunks, and other British stuff [ remember, we are still part of British Commonwealth - no 1776 revolution ] and built Spitfires, Mosquitos, Lancasters, and Hurricanes during the war years here in Canada. Now there's a funky means of brakes in most of these mentioned planes ! You have to manage the throttle, the control stick, and have a 3rd hand to pull a lever on the left side for brakes ! I usually hold the stick with my knees and then I have two hands to do the rest. I fly a Stearman as well - good 'ol American plane - built like a tank. Love it.

 

Beautiful Decathlon. A favorite of mine also. My dad says the only problem with heel brakes is you can't fly barefoot. I agree.
Dave