Both would be an expensive "proposition" Tracy. Doubt even one aircraft would be in the budget then....

If your not traveling xcountry with it then Scout looks like fun. Fun fun choices to be had....

Stu I haven't figured out your post. Like reading a Bra nn I gan novel.

Decathlon, especially if it's the super. I only say this because we owned one, but the aerobatics are fun and the thing would land pretty much anywhere it seemed. A friend has a Husky on amphibs (which I'm considering to be Scout-like). The Husky on floats is a blast. On wheels, I wouldn't want it - the Super Decathlon's more fun.

I remember it being payload-limited. Ours had a wooden spar and a 25hr prop inspection AD. The word was that the wooden spars may have some nails pulled if it was snap rolled a lot. This was almost 20 years ago.

Don't be afraid of a wood spar, unless you're talking about a plane with a 1970's fabric job, and pencil whipped annuals where you cannot adequately assess the spar's condition. Any fool recovering wooden wings should be flogged if they do not perform a very thorough inspection for not only the obvious wood rot (unlikely), but much more important, glue joint failures and compression failures, etc (which I have seen). It takes a fair amount of abuse to damage a properly built wood wing, probably more abuse than any metal wing could tolerate... the fabric: not so much.

If a wood spar is in good shape, and the plane is hangared, then I wouldn't think twice about it.

my vote - obviously the Scout!

I too have owned both a Decathlon, and a Citabria with flaps (not exactly a Scout, but a longer wing, assymetrical airfoil like the Scout has, IIRC).

I completely agree with JGG....unless aerobatics is one of your primary missions....I’d take the Scout.


stan

The Super Decathlon is a GREAT all around machine. It just does everything well: Land short, check. Climb 1200fpm with 2 fat guys aboard, check. Loop from level flight, check. Climb faster inverted than a 7ECA will upright, check. Cruise at 140mph, check. A skilled pilot can land it in a 30kt. direct crosswind. Easy to maintain, check. Also, it may the very best aerobatic trainer because, unlike Pitts'es and Extras, one really needs to learn a slow roll (you'll never learn it properly in hotter airplanes).

How about a 7GCBC with 230HP and constant speed prop

Scout, in its natural environment.

Tom,
Great pics! Do I recognize Sulphur Creek? ID74
Jumping into Sulphur was sooo much fun in June with Paul Cainkar right seat telling me to turn base at the granite knob sticking off the mountain like a nose. Haha
Great bfast and people! I was so busy going in I didn't make a video. Takeoff I did.

Yep. That's Sulphur Creek.

and how long to take the scout from Rick's photo and fly it to the location of Tom's photo ? (the answer can be rounded to the nearest whole day for convenience)

Will a Super Decathlon really cruise at 140 mph? C'mon....

Will a Super Decathlon really cruise at 140 mph? C'mon....

I used to love flying Decathlons. They don't have flaps but put in full rudder and they slip great. Easy to land in big crosswinds or pretty short fields. A lot of them were used for aerobatic training and they can break the wing ribs, also the motor mounts will let the engine move around & cut holes in the cowl.