Common since Button - remember this in my first post that
started all this . I see some pilots now have written many things on this subject.
Some with there 2 cents and others with several pages of there own likes and
dislikes on this subject of flying this high performance plane.
I have my thoughts on this without rattling on.
1. The 4 p has gotten heavier - does anyone remember a
suggested 2950 lbs as the gross weight from Lancair pre turbine days
2. Does anyone remember how a wing was tested with regards to
it’s load bearing capabilities [remember the lead shot bags and the fail point]
The fail point was the hole where the ¾” bolt went
through the spar for there wasn’t another wing spar to keep it from
twisting
Then a calculation determined the gross weight with some G
load factor built in.
3. Jim France aoa is a must have instrument - give yourself
a good margin between the pattern speeds and the stall [remember that extra weight
increases the stall ] Pilot lesson 101
4. Coming from a pie pan plane to this plane needs some
training and some need more than others and this doesn’t have to do with
how many hours you have logged.
5. Again to stress the point that this plane doesn’t
fly in bad weather / ice , moderate to sever turbulence
As far as stalling this plane I used to teach
pilots for some years back in the 70’s and taught stalls and spin
recovery to all my students and noted that there are some really good pilots
and many that need help either from there lack of inadequate basic training and
skills to loosing there touch from a lack of proficiency training.
I did a stall with Don Getz on my first flight as a demo
ride to actually see the planes ability to handle this without any difficulty. The
plane shuttered and a defined nose dropped off and recovery with power –very
clean and defined [didn’t do departure stalls though] just clean and
dirty stalls straight ahead with partial power before I bought the kit. The
plane had no tendency to drop a wing with the ball centered very clean and predictable.
That was 409L in the early 90’s
I believe we need a simulator to teach this planes
performance to all that fly it.
Lack of real time radar at altitudes is a problem .We need
to make sure the weather is good to go before we jump into the altitudes. This
plane approaches the weather 2 to 3 times the speed of what most single engine pie
pan plans fly and for some that came from metal to composites this is hard to
stay ahead of the plane and only training and practice will help.
Last word on this is remembered the guy/gal that signed off
on your pilot ticket might have said this is a ticket to keep on learning and some
pilots have forgotten this. Like Jeff said always try to expand your learning
skills by expanding your ticket to a commercial , atp or cfi/ cfii heaven forbid
with multi , seaplane and even glider and try some flight safety/ simuflight jet
cert if you have the time and money . I really want to see all you lancair
pilots around for a long time. With these difficult times with higher expenses
for most things training should be on the front burner. Bill