GA aircraft you'd rather not fly

As an adjunct to the airliner thread, what general aviation aircraft would you rather not fly?

While I have not flown either, two aircraft that folks who have tell me are not that nice are the Piper Tomahawk and the Aerocommander Darter.

 

Ercoupe. Awful things.

 

Piper tomahawk was awesome I did about 140 hours in them and they were reliable and very fun to fly. As far as those i wouldnt want to fly the list is long.

 

Traumahawk FTW.

 

Piper Tri Pacer....the flying brick.

Tomahawk was not a bad plane, just underpowered. Difference between flying with instructor and flying solo was big. 180 lbs missing from the right seat improved the takeoff and climbout.

 

Anything made by Cirrus...and I own one.

 

The 85HP Globe Swift.

 

Why is that??

 

Haven't been in one, but I would imagine the lack of rudder pedals can be a bit frustrating for those of us who learned how to use them. Also frustrating would be trying to get somewhere at 10kts groundspeed.

I can't think of what it is called, but there is some single seat, supposedly aerobatic kitplane that I swear is not as large as some R/C airplanes I've seen. The engine looks like it should have "COX" stamped somewhere on it. I saw one at a small local field and, despite my thrill seeking tendencies, you would not catch me dead in that thing!

 

Yes. But as a teen aged hangar rat, I soooo wanted one. I had forgotten that love affair until just now.

 

Cri Cri?

 

I dunno, I sort of liked flying the milkstool. It was no LearJet and its ugly as sin, but it had good manners in the pattern, pretty predictable in slow flight. YMMV, I guess

 

I have some Darter time. I don't remember it being that bad, even though the example I flew was a particularly bad one. What was your concern?

I can't think of any GA aircraft I would be uncomfortable flying, although I would probably choose to stay away from the very early turboprops (1970 and before).

 

What I have heard is that the controls are remarkably not harmonized and awkward.

 

That is hilarious!!

 

I don't think that would even get off the ground here in the summer.

 

There are countless homebuits that are accidents looking for a place to happen.

There aren't too many certified aircraft that I wouldn't fly, but you have to be careful and respect the operating limitations (and the idiosyncrasies) for each type.

One for sure that I won't fly is the AA-1 Yankee

Quoting from wiki....

Once the AA-1 entered a fully developed spin and exceeded three turns, it was usually not recoverable. The AA-1 had been spin-tested as part of its certification, but in 1973 the FAA issued Airworthiness Directive 73-13-07 ordering the aircraft placarded against spins....

I was early on the scene of a AA-1 crash and the father and son didn't survive. He was buzzing and pitched it up and it stalled and went in.

One of my friends and I were taxiing out earlier that day and he mentioned that "those Yankee's were death traps", and I asked him why... He was older and wiser than me and said they were fun to fly, but if you stalled them you probably weren't going to survive it, he didn't know how prescient he was at the time. Add to that the fact that they were underpowered and had a cruise prop and you have a recipe for disaster.

I have some time in the Cheetah and it's a nice handling airplane, but the cruise prop means that you can't pitch the nose up very much and have any kind of climb rate, and Tigers are a hoot, so I'm not damming the entire line, but the AA-1 scares me and I'm fearless.

 

I have quite a few hours in the Yankee and the AA1-a. I believe that they were different airplanes - in the sense that they had a different wing airfoil.

The original Yankee was supposedly a laminar wing while the AA1-a was more conventional.

I did not try to deliberately stall either one.

 

It didn't get off the ground very well in Florida where I flew one with a passenger. 85 degree day and humid. Hard work to make one circuit. The airplane wanted to land as much as I did but I wanted it to be on the airport.

 

Nope, it is a single engine deal, but it looks a little like a taildragger Cri Cri.

 

Well, yeah, it wasn't the best flying airplane, but that doesn't make it unsafe.

The least harmonized controls on an airplane I've flown have to be on the Merlin III, which has very heavy and slow roll response, yet is very sensitive in pitch. Yet I always enjoyed flying the Merlin and would happily fly one again.

 

Yeah, why? I am thinking of buying one.

 

As I have posted in other threads my experience has been nothing but negative here is a short story/list.

I Arrive in Duluth as scheduled to pick up my brand new custom ordered Cirrus, no one meets us at the airport as promised. Several phone calls and two hours later a Cirrus van picks us up to take us across the airport to the "factory". We sign in and are shown to the customer waiting area then are forgotten about for six hours. After being ignored for six hours despite several times asking for an update I call my Cirrus factory salesman and tell him to wire my money back immediately and I'm going home. 10 minutes after hanging up the phone the head of Cirrus customer service comes and introduces himself and says he is escorting me to my new airplane. For some background I had been told about how cool the delivery process was, all white rooms, special tours, blah blah you get the idea. My airplane was sitting in a white room alright...dirty and dripping wet. The wrong decals were in place and there were paint defects. Options I had bought and paid for were not installed. I was told all would be corrected before the "delivery flight" and training began the next day. During the delivery flight the MFD failed, the CMAX still was not installed and both doors popped open in flight. Over the course of the next couple days the CMX was installed and the doors adjusted numerous times...but kept popping. Ever have that feeling you should back out of a bad idea when you still can? Well, I didn't listen. Oh ya I was never given a tour, but I did get a free Subway sandwich.

I can go on and on but the bottom line is that I bought and paid for one Cirrus and have had 5 including loaners and warranty replacements. To this date I have NEVER flown a Cirrus aircraft where every system worked. I have almost a 1000 hours in Cirrus aircraft and everyone including their own demo aircraft have some glitch or broken system. Dead MFDs, PFDs, wandering auto-pilots, bad trim servos, bad trim cartridges, doors popping in flight, bad flap switches, radio issues, TCAS and auto-pilot issues etc and so on.

I have had the engine expire on short final (factory loaner), the throttle stick on short final, trim cartridge fail on take off roll, PFD fail in flight, multiple MFD failures, brake failure...on and on. And this is not just my aircraft, the corporate owned new turbo I fly is being warranty replaced after 2 years of electrical failures and 10, yes 10 alternators! No factory service center has been able to diagnose/correct the problem in two years! You can only imagine what the log books look like!

Factory parts are ridiculously expensive, every year I've owned a Cirrus I've had to replace the trim servo (out of voltage range) and they are $1800. Every time a Cirrus recommended service center works on the plane they tell me it needs to be re-rigged...I go through door adjustments, trim servos and rigging the way most folks go through oil!

Run don't walk... Go look at the Cessna 350/400

I can't wait to see how Klapmeier ruins the Kestral.

If you'd like to know more feel free to PM me.

 

I feel bad for your experience with such an expensive new airplane.

Apparently you are not the only one:
http://www.aviationlawmonitor.com/2010/08/articles/cirrus-aircraft/a-letter-to-cirrus-aircraft-please-fix-your-plane/

The comments after the letter are much stronger than the letter.

As a new pilot, I thought seriously about buying a Cirrus.
One of the big attractions was the CAPS parachute system.
Also, the modern avionics in the panel and the cruise speed.

I ended up buying a new Cessna 182 with a G1000 panel a few years ago.
It has worked out well, given my prior training in 172's, and my slowly evolving pilot skills.

 

The 182 is a great airplane, congrats!

The comments are dead on, the side stick is numb, and when it calls for being cross controlled you'll get tired fast (especially using left input with the side control).

IMHO China is a great home for Cirrus, the plane feels, acts and holds up like it was built there anyway! Being in the SE I used to stop by SATS air when it was in business, you should have seen how those aircraft looked/aged as they were used a couple years. Sad really sad...I trained in 172s that were 30 years old, I doubt we'll ever see a Cirrus last anywhere near that. On the plus side they are roomy, and reasonably quick; however, as the statistics show they can be a handful to land and the training doesn't match what is required. I do understand that after the latest round of pilots killing themselves landing the training was changed and the approach speed lowered. I never fly a Cirrus without making sure that I am ready, "A" game prepared...from experience you need it when the big fan in front stops turning.

The good news is when I climb into any other aircraft they seem like a cream puff!