Got to fly an Enstrom 28f today!

[seneca2e]

Got a litlte over an hour in a 1995 Enstrom 28F today. This guy flies a pipleline patrol once a month and he was empty today so I went with him on his inspection thru our area. The first time I'd flown an Enstrom since I sold mine 28 years ago. Mine was a 1977 F280C with no correlator. This one had a correlator. But really other than that they seemed almost the same. Bounce on the ground and a vertical bounce in cruise and HEAVY on the controls. Almost seemed like you had to be a bodybuilder to fly the thing and that was my main complaint with it back then. It's a great aircraft and one of the safest. The main rotor blades are basicly on condition. BUT it is not as much fun to fly it because of the heavy controls-yes you have trim on the cyclic but not the collective. It really needs hydraulic boosted controls to make it fun to fly. The Brantly wins there hands down! But for room and carrying capacity of course the Enstrom is a much bigger machine. The highly accurate digital flow meter indicated 16.4 GPH while we were flying at about 29" on MP. There has never been a drive belt failure on an Enstrom but that centrifugal clutch on the Brantly sure is sweet. Just like an automatic transmission vrs a manual!

[Ron Spiker]

Nice! I fly both a 280C and the B2B (obviously), frequently switching between the two on the same day, and agree with the heavy controls on the Enstrom. But in cruise is sweet, and a nice cruise of 110+ mph. I like the extra room and power of the Enstrom. But yea, the Brantly controls are so light and smooth, I think its a much easier ship to learn to fly, especially compared with the Enstroms with no correlator.