Originally Posted by
LOMCEVAK
If a well disciplined approach is taken to sortie preparation there are no problems. If very current on the types to be flown you may be able to jump straight into the seat. If not so current and/or low overall experience on type you have to sit down with the books and do some careful preparation. You do have to work at multi-typing if you are to do it safely. However, some individuals do find it difficult to maintain currency on more than a couple of types at a time and so pilots need to be aware of their own limitations.
What is often more insidious are subtle differences between individual airframes of a given type. I fly some types whereby some have an ASI in knots and some in mph; that can be a real challenge.
Well said.
More pedestrian than I think most people are considering here, but an example that illustrates this well is the C152 and C150 - ubiquitous single engine training aeroplanes often treated as interchangeable. Except that the older C150 has an ASI in mph (compared to knots), different flap mechanisation and indication, about 60% the climb rate and around 1/3rd the pitch control forces, particularly with full flap. Combine that with a student pilot with 20 hours flying it solo or a 100hr PPL flying 15 hours per year, and you have a recipe for disaster, UNLESS the very good practices described by LOMCEVAK are followed.
The inventors of "cockpit jumping" are arguably the ATA pilots from WW2, and you can if interested buy a set of their ferry pilots notes from the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington. Modern TPs practice what is basically a more sophisticated version of that but credit where it's due to the inventors of the basic principles.
G