When I first heard about Squibby, I had to do some research, since I was not familiar with Musketeers at all. There aren't many here in Australia. Interestingly, a few of the more experienced pilots I spoke to were very familiar with Musketeers, since in the past they've been used as trainer aircraft.

Squibby had a 150hp engine, which was 'not enough'. I've since upgraded it with high-compression pistons which will took it up to 160hp - it's made a huge difference to climb performance.

Squibby seems comfortable cruising around 90 kts, which is not fast. I'm not in any particular hurry, so this is OK by me.

While it is a four-seater aircraft, you would be struggling to get four adults in. They'd have to be petite, and you'd need nil baggage and very little fuel to get off the ground. If you want a bit of baggage, and reasonable fuel load, then you really only want three, or even two adults. Ideally I would like a six-seater, but that was simply beyond my budget.

Before I got the Musketeer, I did a fair bit of research about the Musketeer, and kept reading a lot about the tendency to porpoise on landing. It worried me quite a lot. The musketeer has rubber donuts which, after 40-odd years, are hard and compressed (although many owners are replacing theirs). So when you land, it feels like quite a solid clunk. This is different to, say, a Cessna 172 (with Oleo struts) which seems to have a bit more give. But I've found that as long as I touch down pretty gently, Squibby will stick. If there's a small bounce, it will stick the second time. If I get a nasty bounce (as happened early on a few times), then squeezing on some power will prevent the dreaded porpoising.

So, Squibby is pretty old, and pretty slow. But I love it, largely because I have the keys to it in my own pocket. And as I get more familiar with Squibby, that affection grows.

	The Mighty Musketeer
	From this distance, it's a nice looking aircraft. Up close, it needs a bit of work, but not visible from here.
	Coming towards you
	Beech have always made great aircraft. The Musketeer was their entry-level model. A larger history of the Musketeer family can be found here.