Thanks for the well written reply Scott. I'm fairly thick skinned fella, so no worries.. it's more just a  humorus closing for me :-).  Yes there is no question I'm a low time Lancair pilot. I carry just under 2k in my book but zero in a Lnc anything..

I guess my basic feel for anything I fly is that I want to be comfortable in all area's of the green arc. I know we rarely ever get into the bottom of the arc and we can be proud to own something which does really travel.  We never plan to have emergency's or in-flight problems but in reality they do happen. Just as we'll plan and train for other emergency's we also need to train to fly the airframe to either end of the spectrum. We need to know what our max demonstrated speed is for max rate decents during pressurization failures, for the same reason. If we 'know the proceedure' but have never seen it even demonstrated.. let alone practiced it..  we are more than likely going to mess it up somehow [as Ted mentioned].  My point about Bob was simply that Bob did practice his routine and knew it the letter. He could nail it time and again because of this.. if we practice and know our airplane.. we to can nail it when the problem arises. 

Instrumentation is an excellent tool to utilize and assist in keeping the right side down and things going smoothly, however we also need to be able to fly the a/c by feel.. to a certain degree. If a person had an electical fire and had to do a forced approach w/ no electrics.. an electrical AOA isn't going to be there to help a guy out. 

We are so used to flying the 'store bought' GA airframes that we also fall into the trap, thinking that they behave in the same way, but do they? You mentioned a mushy feel to the controls. This is true for maybe 90% of airframes but it may not be for my airframe or the next guy's. You'd mentioned that since every single Lancair is different from the next, and that only makes it that much more nesc that we know 'our' airframe. The neighbours might stall at 65 'cause he built his super light.. while the neighbour on the other side might have a 75 stall speed.. One thing I've read [and I have no experiance so maybe this isn't the case.. clue me in.. if it isn't] in CAFE reports is the very little pitch 'feel' there is in a Lnc3xx. The stick forces were measured in the single digit #'s.. and less than 5 if I remember correctly. This would lead me to believe that the stick 'feel' in regards to on the edge of a stall.. would be a very difficult indicator..   but then I've never experianced it to comment to deeply. 

The bottom line is we need to know our a/c and how it behaves. We need to train for the unexpected and the unplanned.. If we know exactly how our airframe behaves right up to the early loss of lift at the beginning of the stall, that is all we can do.. but we need to know it cold..

It was previously mentioned that if this accident rate happened in the military, heads would roll, training would be implimented and the problem resolved. The problem would not be resolved by telling the pilots not to fly in this region of the 'normal category' envelope 'cause it 'could' kill you.. rather.. they train the pilots how the a/c behaves there.. how to handle it etc..  The more we know.. and train for it the better pilots we'll be.

Back in the day I used to fly our C150 back to the farm regularly. Often just to keep things interesting, I'd cruise climb from the city all the way all the way out. I'd get to 7-8k before I got to the farm, then I'd spin it down 2-3000 ft and after recovering, do a full forced approach to the farm strip [engine at idle].  It didn't make me an expert pilot but it certainly didn't hurt my proficiency either. Back then, every time I went flying I practiced some emergency or pushed myself to improve in some defined area. I think it helped and I still try to do that even when I have passengers on board.. Mind you.. I'm not pulling the mixture  or anything. It's still good practice to try and recite an emergency proceedure.. [smoke in the cabin] and then pull the check list and see how I did.. This stuff isn't hard.. but it makes us better pilots, safer pilots. It's our due diligence, our responsibility as PIC's.

Anyway, I think we all have our own approach to this issue, I hope plans are implimented,  some training is completed and results are produced. I'd like to be able to afford to insure my airframe someday in the future when it's finally ready to fly. :-) 

Best

Jarrett Johnson

 

Ps- I agree w/ you on simulators..  the run of the mill PC Simulator isn't going to help us w/ emergency procedures and aircraft performance in these emergency's. It's my opinion that they will be very mis-leading. X-planes is not a aerodynamic simulator btw, it still needs to use 'known' airfoil sections. Those who have relied on it to be such a simulator have paid the price. Personally, for instrumentation purposes, I prefer "On top". It seem's to be a nice well rounded simulator for these types of practice proceedures. That being said, it's no replacement for the real thing.. [actual or under the 'hood']. JJ