Originally Posted by
Step Turn
Without being argumentative, I'm interested to hear examples of idiosyncrasies or gaps between the flight manuals and the practical skills needed to handle the aircraft, for a given class of aircraft - perhaps there is something I should be learning.....
I can think of on example. A fellow I knew owned an old square tail C 172. He traded it straight across to a guy with a newer C 182 that wanted to downsize. They did a test flight on each others airplanes but the C 182 owner did the landing.
The deal gets done and the new owner jumps into the C 182 with his quite large son to fly the airplane home. On arrival the owner is unprepared for the much higher pitch forces in the flare with a forward limit C of G. As well he was used to the view out the low instrument panel the old C 172's have, not the very high dash on the C 182 which blocks out the view entirely if the aircraft is in the proper landing attitude.
The result was a heavy nose wheel first landing and a bent firewall. A damage scenario very common in C 182's.
The pilot was fully legal to fly the aircraft and the aircraft was legally loaded, although right on the forward C of G limit. I would suggest this is an example where, for this relatively low time pilot, while the flying characteristics of the C 182 are fully compliant with the certification requirements, they were sufficiently different from what he was used to in the C 172, that he was caught out.
When I did a checkout on the C 182 I made sure to emphasize this point as well as the extra care the engine demanded over your bullet proof 4 banger in a C 172/Pa 28
Obviously the more experience one has the easier it is to just jump in and go, however I would suggest it is always a good idea to get some familiarization with a new type regardless of how good you are.
However the rub is the instructor has to actually know something about the real world operation of that models. This is problem when the average flight school instructor will likely never have seen anything but the C 152/172 or Pa28. So a bit of digging may be required to find the right instructor to get the most out of a checkout.