Hempel 50% Cub or Pilot Decathlon

[reyn3545]

	Quote: Originally Posted by gotsky
	This is a very strange statement.. Please expand on it and tells us what your point is?

I was just being sarcsastic... thre are a couple of sponsored pilots with cubs, but none with pictures of Decathlons. Sorry for any confusion.

[mrbigg]

check this SD vid out.

YouTube - Zarko with his new Trainer

[pepatrick]

I have heard very good things about Bill Hempel. His services has proven to fantastic, but for those of you that say TBM does not have good services are nuts. I have purchased almost all of my servos and quite a few engines from TBM. I purchased a set of cans from them to go in my Compy 3.0 Yak. The Yak took a long time to get here and after 6 months Bill let me return the cans. This and other transactions through TBM have been great over the years. I do like the Cub, but since it will be a while I will wait to see how the Decat does. I have talked with Tony at SD and really like him too, so I think either plane will be a lot of fun.

[sinergy]

Well, that just goes to show you have had good experience with TBM. There are those of us who have not had good expierence with and will not ever do business with them again. My last expierence cost me $1000 from a faulty wingtube and all they could do is offer a replacement tube. Gee Thanks! I didn't expect them to replace the plane by any means, but they could have done more than just shrug their shoulders and say sorry about your luck.

[reyn3545]

I gotta pay props to the TBM guys also.. they've always been very good to deal with, I've never had a missing part from a shipment, their pricing is competitive, and their customer service people have been very capable and repsonsive. I haven't had a situation like Sinergy describes, so I can't comment on how they would handle something like that, but as a distributor, I couldn't ask any more.

[pure micshef]

Ok here's a novel approach, cubs are good but everyones got one....go the decathalon, a super decathalon to be precist, the real one was a competition winner in it's class and a gorgous thing to fly. I have had both at 28% and they were both awsome but the Decathalon would fly rings around it because of it's wing section.....inverted! as you don't need to push as hard upside down becasue the wing is working for you!

Must be time for another masterpeice Bill. How about a 40/50% Decathalon?

[giantscalejim]

After owning one of the first batch of Cub's I can say that I will go with the Decathlon this time around. The initial Cub quality was not great and my plane made it 4 flights before a failure ended it's life. Bill and I disagree on the cause, he says I don't know how to fly, I say otherwise. If interested see last year's posts on the subject.

I'm told the Decathlon will come from the Pilot factory and based on the quality of their other ARF's, I see no reason that the quality of this plane would be nothing short of great.

I have the Decathlon on order and can offer comments on the quality compared to the Cub when it arrives. It would be interesting to hear from others who will have both planes.

Had a Hempel 50% Edge and felt that that the quality was better than that of the Cub. (and no Bill it did not crash. It is still flying). Maybe I really do know how to fly.

Can't wait to get the Decathlon.

[sinergy]

reyn: It's a tough choice... but to loose a plane on the 3rd flight of flying the Intermediate sequence you would think it should be able to handle a downline snap at idle. Like I said, I didn't expect a new plane, but they could have worked a deal on a replacement instead of giving me the

[reyn3545]

I hear you , man. and I certainly understand how frustrating it is when something like that happens so early into a plane's life. Snaps put a huge load on the wings, but they should be made to take all that and more. And you don't have the ability to rip the covering off and inspect the glue joints before you fly. On the other hand, TBM doesn't know if you're the one person who was actually flying a sequence, or one of the other 100 people who full-throttle walled the plane, then told TBM that it was a simple downline snap at idle.

Anyway, back to the Decath vs. Cub delima...

[smokin]

i sure hope that my vote for the cubby due to our happiness with ours and the great service we have received from BH in no way was taken to mean that i don't believe that TBM would service anyone poorly. i am just one that only likes to comment on actual experiences that I have had....not ones that i have heard of.

i am quite certain that TBM will do a fine job of rep'ing this airplane and those that get one will have something to be proud of..... i just like the cubby!

matt

[sinergy]

	Quote: Originally Posted by reyn3545
	I hear you , man. and I certainly understand how frustrating it is when something like that happens so early into a plane's life. Snaps put a huge load on the wings, but they should be made to take all that and more. And you don't have the ability to rip the covering off and inspect the glue joints before you fly. On the other hand, TBM doesn't know if you're the one person who was actually flying a sequence, or one of the other 100 people who full-throttle walled the plane, then told TBM that it was a simple downline snap at idle. Anyway, back to the Decath vs. Cub delima...

No it was the CF tube, wings were fine.. I just recovered the entire plane! I hear what you are saying, too bad I had 15 IMAC pilots watching in awe

Sorry, back to the Cub talk! I promise

[2walla]

I was toying with buying the Decathalon. The old 25% Pilot kit from years ago flew awesome and would fly circles around a flat bottomed wing cub. At the 40-50% size though the wing loading is so low on any of them that they should fly great! What I would like to see is 35% Swick Taylorcraft-- Size it so that DA100 afits in the cowl and build the rest to that size and keep the airframe light- somewhere in the 25lb range.. That would be awesome....