Derek McAllan Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 G'day all, Finally returned to Perth after nearly a month solid of flying around the country and going down big holes in the ground. As soon as I got online, I bought Ant's Tecnam Sierra, and thought I'd give it it's maiden flight while waiting for the monster REX Overdrive download to finish. I gave it the same maiden flight I give to every light aircraft in my hangar, a nice easy morning flight from Cunderdin Airfield (YCUN) to Beverley Airfield (YBEV) in Western Australia. Weather was real for today, and provided by REX2. All fired up and ready to go at Cunderdin. 5 minutes into playing around with this plane and I'm already extremely impressed. The cockpit is lovely, the exterior is wonderful and there are so many nice little touches that Anthony has thrown in. I love opening and closing the canopy from the exterior view and watching the pilot and passenger duck their heads out of the way. OK, time to get this show on the road. The flightplan for this morning is all ready to go on the GPS (oops, I've forgotten to reinstall the RXP package after my HD mishap! Default GPS it is for today) and the sun is up although it's looking a bit cloudy today. Call in my taxi intentions and away we go. All lined up and ready to go on Runway 32 after a short wait while a Cessna launched. Throttle up, flaps are down... let's go! And we're airborne! Oops, looks like my passenger spotted the cameraman. She looks remarkably relaxed and happy... obviously she's never flown with me before Making my left turn to 210, and I'm already very happy with the controls. Light and responsive, yet at the same time docile and comfortable. I can see this is going to be a very easy flight down to Beverley Looking back at Cunderdin Airfield, the sun is out now. Cloudbase looks to be about 4500' and the air looks clear all the way to my destination. Typical winter farmland in the wheatbelt. This is pretty much what the terrain will look like all the way down... it's a pretty flat part of the country. Oooh look... the Sierra has a halo. Well, it deserves one - it's a dream to fly. Trimmed up and it needs barely a nudge left or right to maintain course. Arriving at and descending to Beverley, the airfield is upper centre of the frame. Cloudbase is getting lower and it looks like it might rain soon. A quick circuit of the airfield and a lap of the town and it's time to land. Turning off base into final for Runway 16. Gone in with a little too much speed and overshot somewhat... the plane doesn't want to go back onto the ground. Nevertheless managed to grease it onto the runway with nary a bump. Parked up and tied down for the day out the front of the Beverley Soaring Society. Simple and effective eye candy with the tie downs, chocks and pitot cover in place. I love this plane, I can see myself spending many hours touring the Australian countryside in this wee ripper. I can't find anything to complain about for what the Sierra cost... at half the price of many of my other light aircraft, I think this is a much more professional product than many from the larger producers. The model is beautiful, it flies nicely and it has a truly wonderful VC. No crappy flat gauges or instruments, in fact the 3d gauges on show here are some of the most readable I've seen yet, and the custom housing for the default GPS is a refreshing change. Two thumbs up!! Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 Luvly series and story ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitzer Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 Great piccies. It really is a great plane, I think it has quickly become one of my favourites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithrin Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 Lovely stuff for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan2 Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 Lovely bunch of pics and a good yarn. Two thumbs up from me as well on this little beauty. Two Ant's aircraft built and we have two rippers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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