PZL Koliber II Pilot Report
Rick Koril
certificated sport aircraft under FAA FAR 23, I couldn't resist
arranging a demonstration ride in one of the Koliber II prototypes
that are based at my home field, Palwaukee (PWK in the Chicago
metro area). So I went ahead and called the Cadmus Corporation,
the North American distributer of the Polish manufactured PZL
Koliber II to schedule a demo flight last Saturday.
The first thing that struck me when I saw the plane was the tall
tail - over 9' with a wingspan of 32'. The canopy slides all the
way back, allowing easy entry and exit into the cabin. The next
thing I noticed, was that while there are 4 seats, there is no
baggage area. Of course with full fuel (42.5 gal useable), you
only have 414 pounds left for pilot, pax, and baggage - so I guess
you don't have to worry about needing much space.
The preflight is fairly standard. While the aircraft is manufactured
in Poland, many of the components are American. The engine is a
Lycoming O-320 rated at 150 hp. The radios are all Narco (King
radios are a purchase option). In performing the exterior inspection,
the only "strange" item was checking the fuel - rather than having
fuel caps that turn and lock into place like Cessna and Piper, there
is a removeable access panel, under which is a large rubber stopper
pushed into the filler hole. One other exterior difference in
comparison to Cessnas and Pipers are the leading edge slats, more
on those later.
Climbing into the cockpit, instruments and guages are all standard.
The airspeed indicator on this prototype reads in miles per hour on
the large outside ring, but I'm used to that from my 1969 Cessna 182.
A bigger deal was getting used to the idea of flying with a stick.
In over 800 hours of flying, I have about 2 hours of "stick" time
in a former business partner's Mudry CAP 10 back in 1986. Sliding
the canopy closed (watch your head, I'm 5'10" and had my head
smacked a couple times opening and closing the canopy) we were
ready to get started. Three shots of primer (called for on both
cold and hot starts), turn the key - and she immediately started up.
It wasn't until we called ground control for permission to taxi
that I realized I've heard this unusual aircraft around the airport
before:
Me: "Polish Trainer Sierra Pappa Whiskey Hotel Bravo at hangar 5
ready to taxi."
I remember straining my neck a couple weeks ago to try to get a
glimpse of this "Polish Trainer?" taxiing to the ramp. I also
remember chuckling to myself and thinking "what the heck is a
Polish Trainer anyway?".
Taxiing takes some getting used to. The nosewheel is a free
castering nosewheel; steering is accomplished thru differential
braking. My toes seemed to get quite a workout as my feet danced
around trying to taxi right on the centerline. I'm definately too
used to a steerable nosewheel.
The runup was completely standard - check the guages, carb heat,
mags, etc., and we were quickly ready for takeoff. The numbers claim
a 548' takeoff distance is required (1302' to clear a 50' barrier)
but it seemed to take quite a bit more than 548' to get to rotation
speed (about 70mph). Climbout at 90mph was indicating roughly a
700fpm climb rate.
Flying out to our practice area, I did some shallow turns and then
some slow flight. This plane felt very docile. One of the most
unique flight characteristics I couldn't wait to try is that power
off, this plane will not stall (at least not in the usual sense of
the word) - it simply mushes and descends. And sure enough, I pulled
the power all the way back, held the stick all the way back, came
in with full flaps, at 67 knots the leading edge slats aerodynamically
extended - and the plane is simply "mushing". Light rudder inputs
to maintain coordinated flight and we are just mushing around in
a 700 fpm descent - this was INCREDIBLE! Power-on stalls were
conventional - I was quite aggressive and got very clean breaks.
Finally back to PWK for a couple landings. 75 mph over the fence
and chop the power - the Koliber does not tend to float and has a
very short landing roll (483' according to the book). My 2 landings
were not too bad, and I'm sure that with some practice they'd get
a lot better.
As far as my own personal assessment of the Koliber II goes:
On the pro side:
economical (burns about 8gph at cruise)
fuel capacity and range are okay with 42.5 gal useable
dependable (Lycoming engine and Narco or King avionics)
safe (low stall speed, only "mushes" with power off)
superb visibility (glass canopy wraps way down low)
canopy can be fully opened in flight
4 seats (compared to only 2 in a Cessna 152)
$89,500 total purchase price
brand new (under warranty)
it is a lot of fun to fly - especially with the stick
On the con side:
payload is very little (414 lbs. with full fuel)
no baggage area (and you won't get 2 sets of golf clubs in back)
cruise speed is modest (we were indicating 110 mph at 2,500')
having a stick is so different compared to most of today's planes
$99,750 is needed for "real" IFR work
how much IFR flying would you do with a stick?
I definately found this to be really a fun aircraft to fly! Taking a
friend (or 2 lightweight friends) sightseeing and just flying around
low and slow seems to be the best way to enjoy this airplane. Open the
canopy on a hot summer day and feel the breezes! I would not think of
this as a very good IFR cross country platform, but rather the sport
airplane it's designed to be. Is it worth $89,500? You have to decide
that for yourself.
Rick Koril
PP-SEL, COMM, INST
Skylane N92048 & "Polish Trainer Sierra Pappa Whiskey Hotel Bravo"