Ever flown an airplane you just don't like?

If there was a thread for "ever worked on an airplane you just don't like" I would put the the Ryan Navion as #1 on that list. Not sure which model I was working on as an apprentice about a year ago, but it shared the same engine as found in a Cessna P210. Someone landed her with gear up and boy was that a fun project to work on afterwards!
Mooney. Ugh.
 
Hey, I'm flying the Galaxy / G-200 these days. They doubled the size of the Astra fuselage without seeing the need to make the wings or the tail any bigger. Poor thing eats miles of runway, stumbles around in turbulence like the town drunk, needs pneumatic rudder boost for V1 cuts, second-segment climb performance is nil, the potable water lines crack and leak onto electronics in the back, they painted the boots silver so they'd look like a hot leading-edge wing, you need a hand on the tiller for your takeoff roll, the APU's loud enough to crack pavement, it likes to land like the ground owes it money...

It tries so hard to be a real airplane, though. And it's got a nice cabin for a midsize.

Do you how much the G280 compares is performance wise? *Looks* like they fixed a few of those issues.
 
The G280 is an entirely different animal. It's got a real wing, a real tail, and a real cockpit. Early operators reported it beat manufacturer reliability and efficiency estimates. By all accounts, it's a true Gulfstream, not a quirky rebranded IAI bodge job. Shame it doesn't seem to be what the market wants right now.
 
650s and 280s are the best thing that ever happened to corporate aviation. Just ask the Captain of a well maintained G-IV what he'd rather be flying.
 
The 550 does everything very very well, the 650 feels like a big fat pig, and I have flown much larger airplanes that felt much more responsive.
 
I loved flying the Lear 35, but hated it for charter. Small, old and very limited cargo space. It was horrible shoe horning a couple people and their bags. Of course whenever I was stuck on the 35, it was taking 6 people on a ski or golf trip and they brought their own skies and clubs.

The Citation sucked just as bad in the comfort department for more than 2 people. On top of that, it was slow, especially the II.
 
You would have loved the Diamond DA20. "Hey, what are you doing?" Im trying to pull out this wedgy cause by these weird seats. "Uh, dont do that in here"
I enjoyed the DA-20. We only had one at the school I was at (leftover from a poorly thought out marketing/leaseback plan) but I enjoyed it. Very direct, positive control feel due to the pushrod controls. Great visibility outside (except down of course). Would do yellow arc in level flight without too much issue, though the Continental made its presence known. The seats took some getting used to, as did baking in the sun since you couldn't have the canopy open with the engine running.

The one thing that got me was the ground handling. The castering nosewheel took some time coming from the Cessnas, but the DA-20 has long wings, a relatively narrow track and small narrow tires. Could be a handful on the ground.
 
Why? I mean, it is painfully slow for it's fuel burn, but it is pretty good at what it was intended for.
First gig, I was flying one for months before I got checked out in the 210s. The one we had was just a heap. Slow, heavy, just sucked.


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I mostly like the C206, but the firewall is wayyyyy too high if you've got the G600/G1000. I've never been in an airplane before where I feel like I need a seat cushion to see over the dash.
 
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