Biggest POS You've Ever Flown

C-172, any one of them from a certian flight school at KWHP. They are ALL crap. N58SR as well. No MEL, but it constantly flew with things breaking "en-route, on the trip home." Yeah, right. I would rather be un-employed. Dutch rolls are not fun. And no yaw damp equals sick passengers, even in smooth air.
 
My most memorable POS was a little Grumman trainer out of Fullerton back in '98. I still remember the tail number N34299. I heard it was still flying out at Chino. I remember at one point rotating while I was working on my solo time and the whole dash slid back.
 
Here's my experience with the Duchess

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Amazing that I still didn't pick that for biggest POS flown lol

That plane is far from a POS, in fact it was the queen of the fleet when I was flying it.
 
My most memorable POS was a little Grumman trainer out of Fullerton back in '98. I still remember the tail number N34299. I heard it was still flying out at Chino. I remember at one point rotating while I was working on my solo time and the whole dash slid back.

I owned an AA-1 for about a heartbeat back in the late 90s. If they used the same glue on the instruments that they used on the wing (yes, glued together, the wing), it's amazing that I'm still sucking down air. Fun plane, though. Essentially no wing for the horsepower...rotate at 100, climb at 100, cruise at 100, land at 100. Easy to remember.
 
Duchess at flight school. Doors popping open at every opportunity and the baggage had inch wide gaps top and bottom even when closed. Radio failures, engine failures, I don't think there was a flight when everything worked. Most of the students wouldn't fly it, but often that meant it was the only one flying.

It's probably still flying.
44T?
 
That plane is far from a POS, in fact it was the queen of the fleet when I was flying it.

Being queen of a crappy fleet isn't really saying much. It had issues besides the nose gear not dropping for us. Maybe they fixed it up after that.
 
I am still a broke flight student so all of this stuff sounds about par for the course for everything I have rented.
 
What I flew in the fleet, the C-2A(R) Greyhound. It was truly a thunder pig, a Grumman product. Tough as nails but the cockpit ergo's were poor, it took many mnx hours to keep it flying, it handled like a dog, lights, systems (AFCS, wx radar, prop sync, etc) either constantly failed or didn't work ever, etc.

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I deployed a few times with these birds as a maintainer, many nights where night check would meet the pilots in the morning as they were just finishing up a Low or High Power mx turn. I do miss being turn qualified on those things though, nothing like being an E-4 puke and able to take a T-56 up to 1500 shaft horse power on the line! And AFCS = Major failure of an automated system, even after the CNS ATM upgrades they would not change the system.
 
My most memorable POS was a little Grumman trainer out of Fullerton back in '98. I still remember the tail number N34299. I heard it was still flying out at Chino. I remember at one point rotating while I was working on my solo time and the whole dash slid back.
I never had a whole panel fall out on me, but one time on climbout in a 172 the old style air vent thing blew out and hit me in the nuts.
 
I deployed a few times with these birds as a maintainer, many nights where night check would meet the pilots in the morning as they were just finishing up a Low or High Power mx turn. I do miss being turn qualified on those things though, nothing like being an E-4 puke and able to take a T-56 up to 1500 shaft horse power on the line! And AFCS = Major failure of an automated system, even after the CNS ATM upgrades they would not change the system.

I gotta hand it to your maintainers, keeping the thunder pig flying. Nothing but respect for you guys/gals.
 
I gotta hand it to your maintainers, keeping the thunder pig flying. Nothing but respect for you guys/gals.

It was a challenge that is for sure, we used to say that our birds would tag each other out of airworthiness at certain points. Loading an airplane to full cargo just to find out during the launch sequence it was down, then quickly offloading, turning and loading the other bird for a go a 1/2 hour later. That got old after a while in the pleasant heat overseas..:)
 
Had plastic parts fall onto, and the air conditioning tube thing fall out on older 172s, figured it's just part of flying airplanes from the 70s. Biggest POS I ever flew was a 172 with a shaggedelic interior. Red fuzzy seat covers and red fuzz on parts of the panel which really shouldn't have been fuzz. The seats were so comfy I felt anything but alert, and the plane just wanted to go out of control all the time so I had to wrestle the yoke to stay straight and level. Worst was at night, instrument lighting went out on me right as I was starting the approach and a friend had to hold his phone against the panel so I could glance at the altimeter and ASI. Builds character I guess.
 
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Crappiest 310 I've ever flown. I asked the owner of the flight school how much he paid for it and he said $30k, I stopped flying it after that. Generators would go out all the time -- a clever pilot could reverse the polarity of the generator in flight and get it going again, not that I ever did that or anything.
 
I never had a whole panel fall out on me, but one time on climbout in a 172 the old style air vent thing blew out and hit me in the nuts.
I'm RIGHT with you. Had that before, too.

Mine is probably a C-172 that my flight school flew up from Addison, TX. The mechanic and student said "this bad boy is a peach, and flies like a dream!" No more than 2 hours later I took it out for a spin, and had one of 2 vacuum pumps crap out, the mag compass had fluid dripping out the back which eventually completely went to empty in about 20 minutes, and the low fuel lights on both sides wouldn't turn off, and the fuel gauges would flicker between full and empty... Peach, huh? I flew a different plane from Addison, TX where my student and I were doing the flight controls check and I pulled full aft on the yoke, rolled left and sand fell out and all over my pants and shoes... How nice.

EDIT: Oh, and 99% of the planes leak between the window and the frame on the door. In the winter it sucks big time. They also rain inside the plane...
 
Duchess at flight school. Doors popping open at every opportunity and the baggage had inch wide gaps top and bottom even when closed. Radio failures, engine failures, I don't think there was a flight when everything worked. Most of the students wouldn't fly it, but often that meant it was the only one flying.

It's probably still flying.


I was thinking the same thing......
 
At 9e it's the "Memphis belle". If you don't treat her nice she gets very angry. We also have 8888D, she's pretty "high maintenance" as well. Known as "crazy 8's" and the "old lady" they take things in a purely negative fashion. Not cool for a "last turn".

I'll take the blame for 8888. That was the first one I flew at 9E, and it had just been delivered. I remember it had a couple electrical bugs on it then... I guess they never worked themselves out, but that plane definitely has a special place in my heart being the first jet I ever landed. :)


There was a certain turbo-seminole that I got my multi-engine rating in. The left engine decided it was done about 3/4 the way through my checkride!
 
Man some of you have had it bad.

Anyways, trained in a PA28. Fuel leaks, broken door latches, but the most difficult and annoying was the nose strut. That thing was always way to extended or too low. The thing used to shimmy a ton, our instructor just told us to keep both feet on the rudders and pull back a bit. Well about a month later when it went in for 100Hr, they saw the pin that was in the nose wheel to turn it (not very mechanical wordage I know) was completely stripped and bent. My instructor was shocked saying that they are built to withstand everything. Well I guess not..
 
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