Originally Posted by
Bill Greenwood
My friend had a Helio Courier, and I am pretty sure that the wing leading edge slats were just spring loaded and opened when the air flow over them got slow. I don't think the pilot had any control on when or how much they opened , just like a ME 109.
The owner of the Helio thought it was a great plane, even though he kept in on an 6000 ft paved strip and never landed on a short runway or carried any big load. The plane was really noisy.'
Another friend had a Maule and they were always claiming which one was faster( really, neither one was very fast). Finally one day we went on a long cross country trip and there they were , side by side, and so slowly it seemed to take 10 minutes the Maule barely pulled ahead.