What was the worst commuter aircraft YOU have flown?

[booo]

What was the worst commuter aircraft YOU have flown?

Rules:
1) In scheduled service as the scheduled aircraft. Yeah, I flew a single passenger in a C150 to an outstation when the C402 broke; does not count.

2) I don't care what the pax thought of it, pax comfort, usability, appropriateness of the aircraft for the mission, who you flow it for or why, just did you enjoy (NOT) flying that equipment.

3)The "old" guys have the advantage here. Some of you younger pilots will debate the good/bad of the CRJ200 vs the CRJ900, the ERJ145 vs the ERJ190. Old guys will debate the C402, the CASA 212, Metroliner and versions there of, the Twin Otter, Shorts 330/360, Beech 1900 A/B/C/D, Beech 99, Jetstream 3200.

Just entertainment, go for it.

 

[booo]

Sorry, meant to throw out the first pitch.

Jet stream 3200. What a joke.

Plastic, simulated rough wood yoke.

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Mechanical nose steering,

Punkalouevers. No air vents, Gaspers, Wemacs, eyeballs..........Punkalouevers.

Direct View windows. Not the ones in front of you, the side ones.

Main baggage compartment accessible only from the air stair, you can board pax or people but not at the same time.

And God forbid 1) the ground crew forget to lock the baggage compartment, 2) the ground crew used the cockpit crews key and did not return it, 3) the cockpit key is missing and you are being line checked by the FAA, 4) the lock fails anyway and the door is swinging in the breeze.

Lift Dump. Meet, what, 13 parameters and the flaps go from like 35 degrees to 70 degrees. Great question for the oral. And a surprise to the crew when it happens.

Mechanical Anti Skid.

Water wagon.

Only air frame that will not support a PT6 engine. For some reason they will self destruct in less than 100 hours on this aircraft.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

Belly pod....Has a nice red light on the annunciater panel that says "POD FIRE" Cool ! What does the emergency checklist suggest ? NOTHING!!!!!

Main spar goes through main cabin aisle. So they put a ramp up/down on the floor. and then put a sign overhead that read "watch step" or something like that. It flashed on and off on the ground and went steady when airborne. So people boarding looked up to read the sign and tripped over the ramp.

There is more, just can't recall right now.

But what a beauty the J32 was!

HAH! But then I never flew the Shorts 330!




It's been 30 years since I last flew it. I hated every minute I did. Some of my complaints of it may be a little off , it's been awhile.


Oh. This just the short list!

 

[bizicmo]

The 737. The 1900 and dhc8 were more fun.

 

[RJLoser]

Sorry, meant to throw out the first pitch.

Jet stream 3200. What a joke.

Plastic, simulated rough wood yoke.

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Mechanical nose steering,

Punkalouevers. No air vents, Gaspers, Wemacs, eyeballs..........Punkalouevers.

Direct View windows. Not the ones in front of you, the side ones.

Main baggage compartment accessible only from the air stair, you can board pax or people but not at the same time.

And God forbid 1) the ground crew forget to lock the baggage compartment, 2) the ground crew used the cockpit crews key and did not return it, 3) the cockpit key is missing and you are being line checked by the FAA, 4) the lock fails anyway and the door is swinging in the breeze.

Lift Dump. Meet, what, 13 parameters and the flaps go from like 35 degrees to 70 degrees. Great question for the oral. And a surprise to the crew when it happens.

Mechanical Anti Skid.

Water wagon.

Only air frame that will not support a PT6 engine. For some reason they will self destruct in less than 100 hours on this aircraft.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

Belly pod....Has a nice red light on the annunciater panel that says "POD FIRE" Cool ! What does the emergency checklist suggest ? NOTHING!!!!!

Main spar goes through main cabin aisle. So they put a ramp up/down on the floor. and then put a sign overhead that read "watch step" or something like that. It flashed on and off on the ground and went steady when airborne. So people boarding looked up to read the sign and tripped over the ramp.

There is more, just can't recall right now.

But what a beauty the J32 was!

HAH! But then I never flew the Shorts 330!




It's been 30 years since I last flew it. I hated every minute I did. Some of my complaints of it may be a little off , it's been awhile.


Oh. This just the short list!

Good post. Brought back painful memories. But....Nothing on the NTS, strain gauge, forgetting to put the props on the locks?

 

[LittleDeuce]

Sorry, meant to throw out the first pitch.

Jet stream 3200. What a joke.

Plastic, simulated rough wood yoke.

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Mechanical nose steering,

Punkalouevers. No air vents, Gaspers, Wemacs, eyeballs..........Punkalouevers.

Direct View windows. Not the ones in front of you, the side ones.

Main baggage compartment accessible only from the air stair, you can board pax or people but not at the same time.

And God forbid 1) the ground crew forget to lock the baggage compartment, 2) the ground crew used the cockpit crews key and did not return it, 3) the cockpit key is missing and you are being line checked by the FAA, 4) the lock fails anyway and the door is swinging in the breeze.

Lift Dump. Meet, what, 13 parameters and the flaps go from like 35 degrees to 70 degrees. Great question for the oral. And a surprise to the crew when it happens.

Mechanical Anti Skid.

Water wagon.

Only air frame that will not support a PT6 engine. For some reason they will self destruct in less than 100 hours on this aircraft.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

Belly pod....Has a nice red light on the annunciater panel that says "POD FIRE" Cool ! What does the emergency checklist suggest ? NOTHING!!!!!

Main spar goes through main cabin aisle. So they put a ramp up/down on the floor. and then put a sign overhead that read "watch step" or something like that. It flashed on and off on the ground and went steady when airborne. So people boarding looked up to read the sign and tripped over the ramp.

There is more, just can't recall right now.

But what a beauty the J32 was!

HAH! But then I never flew the Shorts 330!




It's been 30 years since I last flew it. I hated every minute I did. Some of my complaints of it may be a little off , it's been awhile.


Oh. This just the short list!

I agree. The Jetstream 3200 while I was at Pan Am/Trans World Express. The best were the deHaviland products. The Dash 7, DASH 8, and the Twin Otter!

 

[LittleDeuce]

Worst Airplane

Sorry, meant to throw out the first pitch.

Jet stream 3200. What a joke.

Plastic, simulated rough wood yoke.

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Mechanical nose steering,

Punkalouevers. No air vents, Gaspers, Wemacs, eyeballs..........Punkalouevers.

Direct View windows. Not the ones in front of you, the side ones.

Main baggage compartment accessible only from the air stair, you can board pax or people but not at the same time.

And God forbid 1) the ground crew forget to lock the baggage compartment, 2) the ground crew used the cockpit crews key and did not return it, 3) the cockpit key is missing and you are being line checked by the FAA, 4) the lock fails anyway and the door is swinging in the breeze.

Lift Dump. Meet, what, 13 parameters and the flaps go from like 35 degrees to 70 degrees. Great question for the oral. And a surprise to the crew when it happens.

Mechanical Anti Skid.

Water wagon.

Only air frame that will not support a PT6 engine. For some reason they will self destruct in less than 100 hours on this aircraft.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

Belly pod....Has a nice red light on the annunciater panel that says "POD FIRE" Cool ! What does the emergency checklist suggest ? NOTHING!!!!!

Main spar goes through main cabin aisle. So they put a ramp up/down on the floor. and then put a sign overhead that read "watch step" or something like that. It flashed on and off on the ground and went steady when airborne. So people boarding looked up to read the sign and tripped over the ramp.

There is more, just can't recall right now.

But what a beauty the J32 was!

HAH! But then I never flew the Shorts 330!




It's been 30 years since I last flew it. I hated every minute I did. Some of my complaints of it may be a little off , it's been awhile.


Oh. This just the short list!

I agree. The Jetstream 3200 while I was at Pan Am/Trans World Express. The best were the deHaviland products. The Dash 7, DASH 8, and the Twin Otter!

 

[pilotyip]

The "Sky Pig" CA-212 is on a very short list of airplanes I could care less if I ever flew again.

 

[FurloughedAgain]

Dornier 328 turboprop. Needed Hulk Hogan's finger strength to get the props into reverse.

Over engineered piece of high speed German garbage.

Props had to be out of feather to flush the lav. (On the ground you flush by pouring a cup of coffee down there)

Plastic instrument panel was held on by Velcro and would frequently fall off.

Proximity sensors for everything.

Not enough rudder = VMC demo if you got 1 knot slow on V1 cut.

Nope. Didn't like it one bit, and this from a guy who previously flew the Jetstream 3100!

 

[Flyin2low]

Another vote for the J3100 which we had. No Yaw Damper installed, no ramp in the aisle, just the spar, curtain separating the cabin and cockpit. Impossible to take your hands off the yoke during flight. Like putting a board on a bowling ball and trying to balance on it. A captain stalled it at 30' and it survived with no damage. Oh yeah, remember when the horizontal stab iced up and the stab stalled during the flare? Talk about nose planting it. At least you could turn the TTLs off to get more power. It would flip over during a V1 cut unless you pushed the rudder hard enough to take out all of the slack in the cable and some more to bend the rudder trim tab. Good riddance.

 

[PBRstreetgang]

Sorry, meant to throw out the first pitch.

Jet stream 3200. What a joke.

Plastic, simulated rough wood yoke.

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Mechanical nose steering,

Punkalouevers. No air vents, Gaspers, Wemacs, eyeballs..........Punkalouevers.

Direct View windows. Not the ones in front of you, the side ones.

Main baggage compartment accessible only from the air stair, you can board pax or people but not at the same time.

And God forbid 1) the ground crew forget to lock the baggage compartment, 2) the ground crew used the cockpit crews key and did not return it, 3) the cockpit key is missing and you are being line checked by the FAA, 4) the lock fails anyway and the door is swinging in the breeze.

Lift Dump. Meet, what, 13 parameters and the flaps go from like 35 degrees to 70 degrees. Great question for the oral. And a surprise to the crew when it happens.

Mechanical Anti Skid.

Water wagon.

Only air frame that will not support a PT6 engine. For some reason they will self destruct in less than 100 hours on this aircraft.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

Belly pod....Has a nice red light on the annunciater panel that says "POD FIRE" Cool ! What does the emergency checklist suggest ? NOTHING!!!!!

Main spar goes through main cabin aisle. So they put a ramp up/down on the floor. and then put a sign overhead that read "watch step" or something like that. It flashed on and off on the ground and went steady when airborne. So people boarding looked up to read the sign and tripped over the ramp.

There is more, just can't recall right now.

But what a beauty the J32 was!

HAH! But then I never flew the Shorts 330!




It's been 30 years since I last flew it. I hated every minute I did. Some of my complaints of it may be a little off , it's been awhile.


Oh. This just the short list!

Nailed it, I got the meat sweats just reading this. Funny, the Ole Dungbeetle fared better in my mind, but this was the reality!

 

[JustaNumber]

A thread where pilots get to b!tch about stuff? Why didn't I think of it?

The Brasilia really was a good airplane, as long as it wasn't trying to kill you with an unrecoverable prop overspeed. It gets a few points deducted for that one. Oh, and who designed the hopelessly overcomplex flap systems?

 

[Flyin2low]

A thread where pilots get to b!tch about stuff? Why didn't I think of it?

The Brasilia really was a good airplane, as long as it wasn't trying to kill you with an unrecoverable prop overspeed. It gets a few points deducted for that one. Oh, and who designed the hopelessly overcomplex flap systems?

Yeah a flap reset after each T/O. Should've been on the check list. The Aux generators were a ball of fun too.

 

[acaTerry]

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

What yaw damper? We didn't have one.

And don't forget the crummy hydraulics...spinning the props became a preflight thing too because that was how you got the flaps to come up after all hyds lost pressure IN 2 HOURS.
To quote one of the instructors "you lose an engine, you gonna ********************in' die! Don't care what Handley Page or the FAA say...you gonna DIE! I have me more types than you kids got brain cells and this is the only piece of ******************** that's harder to fly than the damn sim!".
I always kinda laughed at pilots who talked smack about the J41. After the 32, I found the 41 to be one sweet machine. I came to love the thing in fact, I liked it even better than the CRJ.

Good to hear from a J Ball brother!

 

[dojetdriver]

Man, all this love for the jetstream;

Just sit right back and you'll hear our tale
Of a typical Jetstream trip
We stuff 19 paying passengers
Aboard our tiny ship

No drinks, no stu, no cockpit door
Not a single luxury
Like Orville and Wilbur Wright
As primitive as can be
As primitive as can be

My armrest's broke, my back is shot
I have a second job
The engines are not making torque
I wish I flew the Saab

We wrote one up, the boss is mad
It's me he wants to fire
I should have stayed in dental school
The majors will not hire
The majors will not hire

The freon's out, the flows are bad
No yaw damper installed
The passengers are turning green
The new guy is appalled

 

[pilotyip]

Man, all this love for the jetstream;

Just sit right back and you'll hear our tale
Of a typical Jetstream trip
We stuff 19 paying passengers
Aboard our tiny ship

No drinks, no stu, no cockpit door
Not a single luxury
Like Orville and Wilbur Wright
As primitive as can be
As primitive as can be

My armrest's broke, my back is shot
I have a second job
The engines are not making torque
I wish I flew the Saab

We wrote one up, the boss is mad
It's me he wants to fire
I should have stayed in dental school
The majors will not hire
The majors will not hire

The freon's out, the flows are bad
No yaw damper installed
The passengers are turning green
The new guy is appalled

This is a classic

 

[PBRstreetgang]

What yaw damper? We didn't have one.

And don't forget the crummy hydraulics...spinning the props became a preflight thing too because that was how you got the flaps to come up after all hyds lost pressure IN 2 HOURS.
To quote one of the instructors "you lose an engine, you gonna ********************in' die! Don't care what Handley Page or the FAA say...you gonna DIE! I have me more types than you kids got brain cells and this is the only piece of ******************** that's harder to fly than the damn sim!".
I always kinda laughed at pilots who talked smack about the J41. After the 32, I found the 41 to be one sweet machine. I came to love the thing in fact, I liked it even better than the CRJ.

Good to hear from a J Ball brother!

FRANK was Right!

 

[trip]

Sorry, meant to throw out the first pitch.

Jet stream 3200. What a joke.

Plastic, simulated rough wood yoke.

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Mechanical nose steering,

Punkalouevers. No air vents, Gaspers, Wemacs, eyeballs..........Punkalouevers.

Direct View windows. Not the ones in front of you, the side ones.

Main baggage compartment accessible only from the air stair, you can board pax or people but not at the same time.

And God forbid 1) the ground crew forget to lock the baggage compartment, 2) the ground crew used the cockpit crews key and did not return it, 3) the cockpit key is missing and you are being line checked by the FAA, 4) the lock fails anyway and the door is swinging in the breeze.

Lift Dump. Meet, what, 13 parameters and the flaps go from like 35 degrees to 70 degrees. Great question for the oral. And a surprise to the crew when it happens.

Mechanical Anti Skid.

Water wagon.

Only air frame that will not support a PT6 engine. For some reason they will self destruct in less than 100 hours on this aircraft.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

Belly pod....Has a nice red light on the annunciater panel that says "POD FIRE" Cool ! What does the emergency checklist suggest ? NOTHING!!!!!

Main spar goes through main cabin aisle. So they put a ramp up/down on the floor. and then put a sign overhead that read "watch step" or something like that. It flashed on and off on the ground and went steady when airborne. So people boarding looked up to read the sign and tripped over the ramp.

There is more, just can't recall right now.

But what a beauty the J32 was!

HAH! But then I never flew the Shorts 330!




It's been 30 years since I last flew it. I hated every minute I did. Some of my complaints of it may be a little off , it's been awhile.


Oh. This just the short list!

How did you remember all this? The only thing I recall was flaps up-flows on.
Oh yeah and looking down in flight to see someone's hairy sandal clad foot from row 1 sticking under the cockpit door/curtain!

Another vote for the J31 dung beetle.

 

[Dornier 335]

Sorry, meant to throw out the first pitch.

Jet stream 3200. What a joke.

Plastic, simulated rough wood yoke.

Unbalanced control; overly sensitive pitch, lumberjack roll and so short coupled that if the yaw damper was differed it was nauseating, if working, well, still nauseating.

Mechanical nose steering,

Punkalouevers. No air vents, Gaspers, Wemacs, eyeballs..........Punkalouevers.

Direct View windows. Not the ones in front of you, the side ones.

Main baggage compartment accessible only from the air stair, you can board pax or people but not at the same time.

And God forbid 1) the ground crew forget to lock the baggage compartment, 2) the ground crew used the cockpit crews key and did not return it, 3) the cockpit key is missing and you are being line checked by the FAA, 4) the lock fails anyway and the door is swinging in the breeze.

Lift Dump. Meet, what, 13 parameters and the flaps go from like 35 degrees to 70 degrees. Great question for the oral. And a surprise to the crew when it happens.

Mechanical Anti Skid.

Water wagon.

Only air frame that will not support a PT6 engine. For some reason they will self destruct in less than 100 hours on this aircraft.

Garrett engines.........get off the flight and spin them engines to prevent shaft bow.

Belly pod....Has a nice red light on the annunciater panel that says "POD FIRE" Cool ! What does the emergency checklist suggest ? NOTHING!!!!!

Main spar goes through main cabin aisle. So they put a ramp up/down on the floor. and then put a sign overhead that read "watch step" or something like that. It flashed on and off on the ground and went steady when airborne. So people boarding looked up to read the sign and tripped over the ramp.

There is more, just can't recall right now.

But what a beauty the J32 was!

HAH! But then I never flew the Shorts 330!




It's been 30 years since I last flew it. I hated every minute I did. Some of my complaints of it may be a little off , it's been awhile.


Oh. This just the short list!

Didn't the J31 (or J32) have a problem with a light test switch that (when activated) killed both engines? I remember some ex-J32 drivers tell me stories about it @ Hulas Air...

Fact or Fiction?

 

[RJLoser]

Didn't the J31 (or J32) have a problem with a light test switch that (when activated) killed both engines? I remember some ex-J32 drivers tell me stories about it @ Hulas Air...

Fact or Fiction?

Fact. They discovered it in testing when you would test the CAP panel lights. They tested the lights and both engines shut down. When you test the CAP lights everything but the start (also shutdown) lights illuminate.

 

[Kaman]

1900C model with 65,000 cycles, NO auto briefer, NO Flight director on FOs side, old-style King Air seatbelt/shoulder harness(non-quick disconnect kind), worn out door snubber, CA paint job...lst goes on and on, but it flew pretty straight after tweaking the rudder and aileron trim...in EVERY flight regime...