pequeajim
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Posts: 708
Location: New Holland, PA
|
 Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:28 am Post subject: Lightning? |
 |
|
As most of you know, I went through several months of looking for the right aircraft. If I was going the route of a kit, I wanted builder's assist from the company or the rep. I wanted fast, good looking and economical to run. I wanted tri-gear and the ability to get in and out of most small airports. Finally, I wanted to spend less than $100k, significantly, if I could help it.
After eliminating about 10-12 aircraft, I can down to two choices, Lightning and SportCruiser.
Here's a forum message that I left for a friend who is also interested in the same two airplanes.
I flew in the demo Lightning from Green Landings today and I have two reactions; wow and dang it!
We flew for about 45 minutes, doing turns, climbs, descents, stalls, 90 degree rolls and some other fun stuff. The aircraft handles very nicely, rolls easily, and the Jabiru gets it off the ground quickly.
Some things that I noticed when comparing it to the SC:
Steep turns are very easy and I felt like I could easily roll it a controlled 360 degrees with not a lot of effort.
The SC is more stable when quickly pulling back from a steep turn or climb. The demo Lightning wanted to tail bob when recovering. This may be because it is more sensitive when carrying more weight, or some other reason that I do not understand right now.
The Jabiru is very LOUD, although this may be how Green Landings had it setup. The SC and Rotax is quieter. (I have since learned that the GL demo has straight pipes! Man Ryan, you like speed dude!)
The view is about the same.
Both are fun to fly, but I felt more adrenalin flowing in the Lightning.
The Lightning is a better looking aircraft. Just something about a nicely finished composite! I must admit that the SC is a nice looking aircraft too, just not as nice.
The demo Lightning cabin is small, tiny, cramped and, did I say small?
The SC is big and roomy. I hear the new lightning kits are a little roomier, but they would need to widen it about 3 inches to suit my taste. As it was, I had to tilt my head slightly to the side to
keep from touching the canopy. We were bumping elbows the whole time.
(I since sat in the Arion demo at Sun n Fun and it was a world of difference; so much so I bought one)
The canopy latch and lock is FAR superior in the SC. By comparison, the Lightning looks like a bit cheap, (no disrespect intended)… (still don't like the latch, but that's why we build them to suit)
The Lightning is VERY stable in the pattern, but so is the SC, but a bit bouncy.
I like the foot pedal arrangement in the SC a lot better; more like a 172, nice!
Getting in and out of the SC is MUCH easier, they really thought things out with that. I would be looking to modify some things with the Lightning to make it easier to get in and out.
The Lightning stalls smoothly with lots of notice and easy to recover. The SC is much gentler and I flew it in a stall for about 2 minutes. I can't see you doing that with the Lightning, as it is more like a standard aircraft when it stalls.
Both taxi about the same with the same kind of brake control.
All in all and nice flight. I was excited to fly it, but this pretty much convinced me that the SC is the direction that I would like to go ONLY because of the space limitations.
Again, I have since sat in the new demo and it really made a word of difference. Another thing to add is the long delays waiting for the SC. The Lightning is made in the states, so you are not subject to the changing value of the Euro. [quote][b]
| | - The Matronics Lightning-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Lightning-List |
|
|
|
Get Email Distribution Too!
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
