Ah, those Latin Americans really know how to live dangerously !
boscomantico wrote:
#01
Well, after flying for twenty years, finally, I have one of those beautiful Cessna 177 RGs at my disposal. Actually two of them, since the flying club I joined has two of these (both late model examples).
Seeing the pics, I first thought Alexander had sold his 177. But the “club” is more a commercial charter ops, isn’t it?
Anyway, the 177 sure is a nice aircraft.
We have discussed a few times here what constitues a club and what doesn’t. This one here is not an e.V., but the whole setup is more akin to a club than a business. Also, the whole atmosphere amongst the people is more like a club, And finally, I believe that nobody will ever earn any amount of money from this operation, so that makes it even more of a club… 
The landing gear system is not quite as bullet proof as the later single RG’s. Though the apparent operation is the same, the mechanisms are different. The landing gear itself never let me down, but the indication system did. The two I flew were very well maintained, and still gave problems. One of them was later gear up landed, as the pilot ran out of fuel in the circuit. He glided to the runway okay, but it was later determined that he ran the forced landing checklist so fast, that he went from “gear selected down” to “master off”, before the gear got all the way down. The only thing worse than landing gear up, is landing gear partly down. They wrote the plane off.
Lovely planes!
Went out with the Cardinal RG once again yesterday, just for some landings and general handling exercises. I have to say, she lands super-easily. Approach at 70-75 MPH, flare (not too high) and she will land very softly, and consistently. Almost seems easier to land it nicely than a 172. Maybe the retractable gear makes it touch down more softly?
With the cooler temps around now, she indicated 157MPH / 137KTS at 10 GPH.
I am eager to take it on a first real cross country.
I enjoy reading about these. I’d be tempted to buy one if the right one was available.
Interesting to learn about the 177RG. The angled windscreen and in general the lines are very aesthetically pleasing. Good performance figures as well. What’s the hourly rate you pay in your „club“?
You can check out the website, http://winx-flying-club.com/ (German only).
What sets this one apart from other clubs is that there is no attached flying school, hence availability for rentals, even over several days, is good.
Also, not being focussed on primary students, this club can “afford” to have somewhat more exotic aircraft on their fleet than the standard PPL stuff, which would be boring for many seasoned flyers. I get totally bored with DA20s, Aquilas, DA40s and C172s and this is pretty much all of the other typical clubs in the Frankfurt area have on offer.
Winx currently has got:
All aircraft, with the exception of the C177RG, are run on mogas.
The annual fee is 295 Euros. The C177RG is 195 Euros per hour (Hobbs). It’s not a creampuff, but with GNS430W and an STEC50, it has the important stuff.
I would recommend Winx for anyone living in the western parts of the Rhein-Main area. All aircraft are based at EDFZ. Previously, the plan was to have one of the aircraft based at EDFE (which was actually the reason I joined…), but this didn’t come to fruition, yet.
I guess that Wiesbaden has the Frankfurt catchment area, and Frankfurt is poorly served for GA, so it has plenty of money sloshing around, so they can run a club around nice planes. It’s similar to the London situation, except that Brits are a lot less keen to spend money on nice hardware
EDFZ is good for all people in Wiesbaden, Mainz and the westerly bits of Frankfurt.
What has to be considered though is that all aircraft, with the exception of the Morane, are N-registered (for the benefit of less bureaucratic and more flexible maintenance and mods), so, in order to use these aircraft to their full potential, one needs an FAA license (at least a 61.75).
