Airbus A380

DHC-1 Chipmunk for me. What a dream.

I agree on Chipmunk, first and best piston plane I flew. For gliders, the Slingsby Swallow was the most maneuverable glider and could get into a thermal core better than any other glider I flew. Worst glider was Olympia 401 (one off prototype).

For me, the Piper Apache and King Air 350

1. Cessna Caravan (Supervan) with Honeywell engine
2. Airbus A300-600 (didn’t get to fly the 310)
3. 747-400

Boeing 757, particularly when light !
Chipmunk, Spitfire, piston !

Single PA28-181
Twin: Cessna 310Q

oh alright……..A350 followed by 777

Nicest handling was the premise. We are obviously not talking about doing aeros in A330's, but it flies beautifully. It is not nimble, but I wouldn't say sluggish at all - we never need it to do snap rolls or anything like that !
I would call it majestic.

But the FBW system in an Airbus won't even let you do aeros! When I was doing my B777 course, part of the first simulator session involved doing aerobatics (to highlight the difference in FBW philosophies)!

Hunter F6 by far and away the best. Every pilot that I know walks away from a flight in a Hunter with a smile on their face.

Had the misfortune to fly both a KingAir and a Grob Tutor. IMHO both were equally appalling!

Shrike, any of Beechcraft with the Bonanza type wing so Bonanza, Baron, Queenair, Kingair and I loved the Dash 8 200. It was a bit like flying a big Shrike. Loved every minute in all of them.

The designation for the new version was the RJX. And you're right, it would have absolutely been a world beater. They'd had enough time to refine the design and most importantly put way better engines on it than the old 502's


For my 2 cents... I've loved flying everything really, even the old Cessna 207 gave a certain sense of satisfaction every time you came back from the bungholes alive :} But I guess my absolute favorites would have to be the Cessna 210, Cessna 402 (flew the A, B & C models and preferred the C over the other 2) the B200 King Air and the BAe 146.

SSnR
I agree, the Chippie is a lovely aeroplane - IMHO much nicer to fly with the Gypsy Major than modified with a Lycoming flat six (can’t remember the model number and can’t be bothered to look it up).

Duke Elegant, now there is a blast from the pprune past.

Tales of An Old Aviator …. The Big Chill

pithblot

Never seen a Chipmunk with a flat-six - most of the converted ones have O-360s. If anyone's interested, in next month's FlyPast magazine I compare flying the only airworthy prototype with the only airworthy Mk.23.

G-IDDY had a 6 cylinder Lycoming engine.

Never saw it. What was it like to fly?

I think military aircraft have a distinct advantage as most are designed to be thrown about.
The civil aircraft with a military heritage can be very nice. The HS125 and Falcons are all a delight to fly. The Falcon 2000 gets my vote!

The 747-400 had just the right level of automation while being an actual delight to hand fly. I have no idea how they got it just right.
Conversely the worst thing I've ever flown was the B737NG which is an absolute pig.

I had fun in Grumman Tigers - quite nimble

I'd happily fly circuits, nosewheel up, retract flaps, nosewheel still up, increase power, take off for another circuit.

For night circuits with absolute nill wind, pull back power to 1500 on base and flaps, trim, turn final, and, not touch a thing until flare.

With the canopy open 20cm on a warm Summer Perth night all the way it was like a dreamy haze of perfection.

Grummans were forgiving (in at least they had a reasonably size elevator) - if you were a bit out of trim it wouldn't break your arm figuring out the landing.