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Even L/D maybe a bit over rated. Look at the American Traveler AA1A, I remember Grumman advertising a 144 MPH (Statute) top speed in TR-2 guise. And that puppy had an rather interesting glide ratio. It's all about lightness, power to weight and some attention to drag.
I took my CFII checkride in one of those. Lopresti enhanced an already efficient airframe by significantly reducing cooling and parasite drag and boosting the lift side by using gap seals to reduce lift losses. Result: a much improved L/D and a hotrod airplane that badly needed a speed brake to get it down without shock cooling the cylinders. The FAA inspector got real nervous every time I had to pull it all the way back to idle to get it down to flap and gear speeds. Going down the ILS with gear and flaps down required so little power that the CHTs dropped alarmingly.
The AA1 was a GeeBee racer miniaturized. Draggy, with a small, heavily loaded wing, it flew on the "high HP brick" principle, and suffered in the payload and handling departments. Scary sumbitch in a spin, to boot. Due to its wing loading, it's optimum glide happened at a rather high speed with commensurate sink rate. At a more sedate glide speed it sank like the brick it was.
As an instructor, I agree. As a pilot, bring it on!Maybe I'm not the person you want picking your airplane.
Our final exam in the rigging section in Airframes was for the class to assemble and rig a PT17. The 3 Stooges and Keystone Kops didn't have anything on us. Super wow! Wound up with a do-over on Saturday morning.
USN has been training pilots ab initio in acro mode since the 30s. N3N, SNJ, T28, T34, T34C, and on. As a civilian CFI at a flight school contracted to a local military college, I did ab initio training for USAF ROTC pilot candidates in C150s. I must admit I think the Navy approach produces better pilots, at least where tactical jets are concerned. A significant number of our cadets washed out of UPT when they got to the T38 phase.
It was disastrous because they didn't do it right. If you take a bunch of ab initio students and put them in a plane that requires too much "brain speed" due to complexity, high speed, and/or complicated procedures, and start them off in "two dimensional" flight, then you're going to encounter disasters when you "add" acro to the mix. USAF should have stuck with the T34, despite its glamour deficit.
The tweet was a twin with some quirky behaviors and complex procedures; just too brain speed demanding, and not a particularly good acrobatic performer from a training standpoint. USAF would have been better off with T28s or T34s and full on acro from the start. Admittedly, both would have had to be up-engined to perform at AF Academy density altitudes, but that would be feasible given the T28C and the many civilian T34s flying with IO520s of 285 and 300 HP.
All depends on how you define "better" climb. Dimes to dollars the biplane has a slightly higher max rate of climb that happens within a narrow speed range, while the monoplane has near peak climb rate over a wider speed range, and climbs at a significantly higher airspeed, covering more ground in the climb.
The Skipper is a Traumahawk with manners and more solid construction, for which it pays a weight penalty. In practical terms, almost every training flight takes off overweight, unless both pilots are midgets. Don't let the published stats fool you. They represent a "stripped" airplane that no one is actually going to instruct in. One FBO I worked for became a Beech Aero Center, and were pressured to ditch their C150s for Skippers. The economics just weren't there, and the 150s stayed. The 150 was a better airplane for primary instruction, but the Sundowner was a perfect "step up" plane for people who wanted to move up to bigger and faster. I used to advocate finishing the Private in the Sundowner for those with professional aspirations. It was easy to fly safely and challenging to fly really well.
I'd bet they were looking for a relatively short take-off coupled with a relatively steep angle of climb sufficient to get them over any trees at the end of 12-1500 foot grass strip.
