Ever flown an airplane you just don't like?

Cessna L-19 Bird Dog. Very squirly, MX isn't as easy as a super cub. She's big, roomy, powerful and does get the job done. She also has 60 degree flaps.
 
Rocketman99 said:
Hands down the Q400. Biggest POS with wings I've ever gotten my hands on. Lots of neat toys but seemingly the low budget Chinese knock off versions and it was always, always, always (did I say always?) breaking. Not to mention quite possible the ugliest thing in the skies next to a shorts. The CRJ-200 is a close second, but at least it's been more reliable. Significantly more.

I don't generally like anything with a high wing, maybe another reason I hated the Q. Spent most of my early flying hours with Piper products and still prefer them. I must admit though that Cessna turbo 206 in all leather with all the toys was pretty pimp @drunkenbeagle
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I quite like the CRJ200... granted I'll like the 900 much better when I move up to it, but all of the 200s at my company are fairly new, our oldest being 2001 vintage. Comfortable, and I'm 6ft tall, easy to hand fly, although the flight director is slow to respond and the yaw damps are weak, annndddd tthhhe fmmmms kkkeeeyyys sstiiiiicckk a llottt... but as far as airplanes go I can think of a lot worse.
People say it climbs like crap, and it does, but if you hit VS at 10K msl and set it at +1.0 you can maintain that until almost FL200, then dial it back to 500fpm and you can maintain 290kias til level off.
 
I wouldn't say I didn't like the e-120 but I will say that every time I pushed up the power levers I had this small feeling of panic in my stomach.

It scared me a little.
 
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.
 
mikecweb said:
Because it wasn't a jet?
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no, because I upgraded into it having never previously flown it and ad to take it into uncontrolled fields in the rockies. The plane did have a certain thing about it that felt intimidating.
 
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trafficinsight said:
Master and commander of two knobs, four switches, little tiny yoke and one hundred and fifteen snorting stallions under the cowl...

I don't even use a checklist, the horror!
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Man, you're dangerous. I bet you retract flaps in the flare and have even found a way to run the thing oversquare. :eek2:
 
Roger Roger said:
I have decided that Cessnas, by and large, are not as maintenance friendly as Pipers.
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While I don't think 152s or 172s are really that bad, I still have nightmares about helping change the engine on a P210 (and as a lowly A&P trainee I didn't even help that much!).
 
inigo88 said:
While I don't think 152s or 172s are really that bad, I still have nightmares about helping change the engine on a P210 (and as a lowly A&P trainee I didn't even help that much!).
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To be fair, once you introduce stuff like turbochargers and retractable gear things necessarily begin to get a little tight under the hood. However, Cessna didn't do themselves any favors by using that ludicrous engine mount box rather than a good old fashioned steel tube engine mount. Even on the normally aspirated 206 stuff like the exhaust, intake, and the gascolator is unnecessarily hard to get to.
 
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!
 
skyw82 said:
I wouldn't say I didn't like the e-120 but I will say that every time I pushed up the power levers I had this small feeling of panic in my stomach.

It scared me a little.
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Is good Third World airplane.

And boy, is the thing noisy. And the packs suck in the summertime, but all the flying forehead jocks will rightfully remind us that we have an APU and a door, so it's not 'that' bad. :D
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Is good Third World airplane.

And boy, is the thing noisy. And the packs suck in the summertime, but all the flying forehead jocks will rightfully remind us that we have an APU and a door, so it's not 'that' bad. :D
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The bro is an easy airplane. Its very docile and very agile. It also has plenty of power. V1 cuts are real snoozers in it.
 
KLB said:
The bro is an easy airplane. Its very docile and very agile. It also has plenty of power. V1 cuts are real snoozers in it.
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I rather like it. The schedules down south can get pretty grind-tastic sometimes though, which is the source of my current stormy demeanor.

I'm lucky or inexperienced or both, I guess - after a year of flying the thing I haven't had a SERIOUS mechanical problem in flight.
 
SmoothLanderJ said:
C172 RG GUTLESS...I mean Cutlass. Hated flying it
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I did my CFI in that at American Flyers. All the complexity of the Cessna gear system but no benefits ( such as speed,increased useful load) like a 182RG.

I agree that Cessna's are boring, but I'd rather fly them than nearly any Piper. I prefer having two doors, thank you.
 
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