Any one flown a Monnet sonneri

[curley wotts]

Evening all
just doing a spot of market research,so if anyone would like to share their experiences with me,good or bad,then please post them here,or E-MAIL me.thanks in advance.

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look for the blue,fly around the white

[This message has been edited by curley wotts (edited 01 April 2001).]

[JamesG]

A wott?

[Speedbird252]

I think I had a bottle in a Restaraunt last week.

[BEagle]

Is that a nasty, noisy little thing with a tiny prop, tail wheel and Vee-tail? Which has the distinction of having an even worse rate of climb than a max weight Jaguar on one engine in cold power?

[Sir George Caley]

Beagle You're thinking of the Moni with its KFM chainsaw engine. The Sonerai predates this by some years and like many other designs failed to live up to an early lack of promise. A friend of mine on a test flight watched the propellor set off on its own and then discovered the Sonerais glide characteristics - vertical!!! He walked away but the war was over for that particular machine. Here's the crunch - if it was a good design which flew well why are there so few around?

Sir George

The air is a navigable ocean which laps at everymans front door

[737]

Don't worry Curley we will support you, not sure about Dougie being the Chief Pilot though!

[DOC.400]

Isn't he a Frenchman that painted some rather nice water lillies once?
Is this getting off topic or what?

[Speedbird252]

Sir George, do you have any more information on this bird? It does sound at best a curious beast? It sounds vaguely similar to an aircraft I came across recently, but I would like to clarify.


Kind Regards.

[Negative 'G']

I used to see an all green one with a dark tinted canopy at various airfields around the country a couple of years ago,there was always a tent pitched at the side of it and I never once saw the pilot.It became quite spooky cos in the space of a year I must have seen it a dozen times and all I ever saw it do was either take off or just bask in the sun and I never once caught a glipse of the driver,unless it was a radio controlled one cos its the right size !

Does anybody know anything about this spooky little green aeroplane,i.e is it still alive,where does it live and whose is it ?

[wysiwyg]

BEagle - As a former owner of one of the 2 serviceable Monnett Moni's in the country, the description is a little harsh. Yes, the climb rate is poor (300-500 fpm) but I have had other PFA types which were worse. However, you can't argue with a cruise in excess of 100mph on 6 litres an hour and a top whack of 136mph on 22hp! And of course if the noise gets too bad you can always switch the motor off and soar at a glide ratio of 20:1

regards
wizzy

[c421]

On 15/10/88 I flew G-MONI..a little green thing with a V tail. It was then based at Newcastle, don't know what happened to it since though.

If memory serves me well there were two in the Country at the time.....G-MONI with a tail wheel, and another with tricycle gear.

My main memory of it is that you sat/lay in a semi prone position with a leg each side of the fuel tank.One spark and roasted chestnuts!

[Negative 'G']

Hmmmm The little green thing that i was on about was a sonneri,come on somebody else must have seen it .

[agent.mulder]

Yes I saw it, it was called 'Kermit' and I believe based somewhere in Beds. Used to see it a lot at the PFA Rally. I used to own a Sonnerai in the 80s, but I'm allright now! Its not for the faint hearted, as trying to land a slippery and unstable taildragger with an over the hedge speed of 80 MPH and no flaps is quite something. Its even hairier without the engine! ( best glide 100MPH in a turn). But I live to tell the tail of 70+ hours of 'interesting' flying. I sold it on for it to become someone else's headache!

[Negative 'G']

Yep,certainly sounds like the same A/C :)

[100LL]

it used to live at netherthorpe as well

[Negative 'G']

Hmmmmm I bet that made for interesting flying/viewing ! :)

[100LL]

As far as i can remember it didn't stay there for long, Hmm wonder why!!!!!