Which regional jet/turboprop is hardest to fly?

[Black Water Dog]

Toughest to fly? The Tomahawk... no question. Anyone for a spin?

MM

Did my private and commercial in the Tomahawk. Great memories. Great spins ;-)

 

[LegacyDriver]

Traumahawk rolls nice, too.

 

[ALPO]

Stand on a peice of plywood on top of a basketball, while trying to do stuff.

fying a J31

 

[Clyde]

Which regional jet/turboprop is hardest to fly?

1)ERJ
2)CRJ
3)DOJET
4)AVRO/BAE
5)SAAB
6)DASH8
7)ATR
8)EMB120

9) Convair 640

 

[Flywrite]

All right... I'll chime in too.

J32.... No autopilot, no yaw damper, a flight director that didn't work, no electric trim, and the son of a gun would roll over the instant you took your hands off of it.

Dude, that's what the knob on the back of the pedestal is for!!

Seriously though...my turbine experience runs to 20 hours King Air, 300 hours DHC8, and 2,500 J31/32. The Jetstream is definitely the most challenging thing I've flown, but at the same time I dont think its the constant struggle to balance the forces of nature that some people make it out to be. It CAN be trimmed, and it won't go inverted the moment you look away.

The company I work for has a couple of J31s with autopilots and it makes a huge difference. We often fly 7-8 hour days, five days a week with a significant portion of that in the NE corridor. Having a 'Stream with an autopilot makes a world of difference in workload (as it always does). Like someone else mentioned after a long day of handflying I am ready for a cold beer, a warm bed, and not much else.

Landing the Jetstream and the Dash 8 both have more to do with the black arts than aerodynamics.