Short field take-off distance: 445m
Short field landing distance: 471m
Climb rate: 720 fpm
Glide performance 8:1
When new?
I walked away from this type as the fleet at my first school were tired hangar queens that struggled to deliver a climb rate of 500fpm, generally looked like !!!!! and had a fatal flaw as a training platform.
They were clearly aircraft engineered to do a job at a cost (fair enough), but were past their sell by date and provided a poor learning environment.
My main beef with the aircraft was that the trimming system was vague and difficult for a student to use. I only flew fleet of 4 and this is a small % of the whole fleet, but IMHO, it was enough for me to consider these particular aircraft not fit for the purpose intended. Somethng for Capt Smithy to be aware of.
If you read Whirlybird's comments about landing the PA28 (which I completely disagree with BTW, I took them in and out of short fields from well under 100 hrs, without any problems), then the importance of learning how to trim out an aircraft to deliver the intended performance is an absolutely crucial skill and needs to become second nature.
A light PA28 (especially a tapered wing version) needs accurate speed control to deliver book performance and trimming has a vital role in this respect. Also, the amount of "pull" on the yoke required during the flare can be quite large and inaccurate trimming (on the fast side) will only increase the effect.
Last edited by Final 3 Greens; 7th December 2006 at 03:24.