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Old 4th Dec 2022, 19:47
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ShyTorque

Avoid imitations
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
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I operated the 109S for fifteen years, including a good proportion of IFR. It’s a good aircraft for the corporate role, albeit with a relatively small cabin, but the autopilot is a bit basic and doesn’t cope well with turbulence. It’s a slippery beast and will easily go through Vne if you don’t keep a close eye on it in turbulence or when beginning a descent. The electronics are its Achilles heel, unreliable and very expensive to replace. These aircraft ideally need to be hangared to avoid false warning captions caused by water ingress (which is probably true for many other types), but my record was to see both engine chip lights, main gearbox chip light and tail gearbox chip light all on at once after an overnight stop outside in heavy rain.
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