bellanca saturday

bobgoodman

New member
i had to make this picture really tiny to get it accepted by the software on this forum, but in real life it is a really pretty image. cruisemaster, viking, and cruisair below a fire tower in tennessee yesterday. the hardest part was landing them on the top of this mountain.

bobg
 
ps, they all do look alike, especially from above, but the flying qualities are vastly different. in my opinion, the cruisair is a bit sluggish on the ailerons, the viking feels heavy, especially in pitch, and the cruisemaster handles just like my rv8. my sample size is 3, so the margin of error is probably pretty large.

what do other people think? according to what other people have said here, my cruisemaster is pretty light. so i don't know about some others might fly. the guy who owns the viking also has an rv7, and he agrees with me. he says he would hate to fly the viking without electric trim (although i rarely use it when i fly it).

we had some real good pictures taken with a real camera, i'll try to figure out how to send them when i get them. they are large files. megs and megs.

bobg
 
Bob, this is a really cool picture! As the models evolved over thirty years this picture is a testimony to how very little the aerodynamic design changed. Although I am admittedly bias, the Cruisemaster series captures the perfect balance of power and handling qualities, IMO. If the comparison is evaluated at the gross weight of each model it is not surprising that the Viking seems much heavier in pitch as it would be carrying 600 extra pounds. At what field was this shot taken? I would love to have a high res copy of this photo... Rob
 
Amazing Photo! I too would love to have a copy of this one. I've read and heard how similar the 14-13, 14-19, and 17-30 were. But, this photo really brings that to light. Thank you for posting.
 
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