Greetings!

I’ve been a BT member for almost 10 years, but chose not to post for employment reasons.

I am now retired from Cessna/Textron Aviation where I designed a lot of structures, flight controls, mechanical systems, doors, etc., on CJ’s, CX, XL, Sovereign, Mustang, and others.

My wife and I have our own private airport (7KS9) near Wichita where we keep our 3 airplanes: C140, PA24-260C Turbo, and a unique biplane: Merkel Mark II.

(And yes, I have a brother who occasionally posts on BT as well….)

Phil Ciholas

You are famous already!

As Winnie the Pooh says,

“Oh, bother”

Seriously,
Welcome Phil

From a guy with only two airplanes.

Oh dear Lord, What Beautiful Airplanes

Welcome Phil!
Is that a shark nosed 260C? I can’t tell from the photo.


Robert T

If you have sibling rivalry I would like to point out that you have more planes and a better like ratio already! Good on you.

Welcome Phil,

You have a very nice stable of airplanes

Welcome Phil. Nice birds.

Phil, welcome, glad to know you!

Welcome Phil. Are you the smart brother?

I suspect he may be the wizard!

Welcome, Phil. You have helped me get a few letters of "no technical objection" over the years, in my efforts to obtain special flight permits for damaged aircraft. I figured you must be related to Mike as that is not a common name. Brother? Too bad you can't say he's a long lost cousin, twice removed

Welcome. We met at the Advanced Pilot’s Seminar many years ago. It’s good to see you here.

So many comments! Thank you all!

To cover some questions/comments:

All “C” model Comanches came with the “shark nose cowl.” Swept inlets aren’t really the best design, as there is a low pressure area to the outside edges which reduces the overall flow. Pitot style inlets (Wow cowl or similar) work much better, but I’ve never seen that available for the single Comanche. Because it affects cooling performance, it would be a bit of work to develop that, but every now and then I think it would be worth doing as a one-time field approval.

No sibling rivalry here. More complimentary than otherwise. For example, the Advanced Pilot Seminar was a birthday gift from Mike. And we really enjoy the “continuing jet service” aspect of the family airline when we get to do that! And, no, Chip, I am not the wizard….

When Textron Aviation decided to downsize product development engineering, I went to Team Legacy in customer service in a small part because Mike was starting to research getting a legacy Citation.

I later went to Team Structures where I did a few NTO’s for people like Del. I much preferred design work over customer support, but I have to say, helping customers was very rewarding. I think I had someone tell me “Thank you!” more times in a typical customer support day than I used to get in a decade of design engineering!

Welcome Phil. Glad to have another Ciholas active here at BT. No green font!