Worst airplane

[Ralph]

What is the worst airplane you've flown?

Mine was a Seneca I for my multi commerical checkride. Only one working nav/com, every other bit of electrical equipment was broke except for the transponder.

Cowl flaps would not close.

Left engine took twenty minutes to start (at least I knew the examiner wouldn't fail that engine in flight)

The plastic covering for the throttle/mixture/props was broken in half.

The outside looked like it may have caught on fire at one point.

 

[FL000]

My worst was also the "best."

Gotta love an Apache.

 

[Vortilon]

The flying potato....what a great, stupid airplane. It always just looked friendly and smelled of vinyl, wood, and avgas. I liked the apache a lot...any plane with a trim handle in the ceiling has got to be cool.

 

[Diesel]

that senica 1 wouldn't but up in groton ct would it?

 

[banned username 2]

What is the worst airplane you've flown?

Cessna T337, what a dog and noisy too.

 

[enigma]

Any Junkstream31.
End of argument.



enigma

 

[tarp]

If or when I crash one - that will be my worst airplane.

Until then - if has wings and I can glide it to the earth, then it's a good airplane!

My closest candidate was a 1964 ugly brown Centaurian on a ferry flight. A flying wreck that basically tried to pry its own accessory case right off the engine. Lacking working magnetos it had a tendency to not hold altitude - dead sticking a finicky old 210 onto a crop dusters field was all at once the worst of times and the best of times. I walked away and somebody else flew that dang airplane out of that field - I guess it was still an allright bird!

 

[troyzohner]

two individual planes stand out....one c 172 rental i flew not very well maintained flew from 47A-GWO-TUP-47A Cherokee co GA-Greenwood ms-tupelo ms- Cherokee co GA. after 20 mins i realized transponder wasnt working when ATL approach couldnt pick me up. The coms progressively got worse til the point i wasnt audible beyond about 5 nm, both navs read differently , neither correctly. Luckily the Loran worked and it was a nice clear day for pilotage.
the second was a PA28-150 rental during my day and night xc commercial dual requirements. I think the only things that worked were the Airspeed indicator and Altimeter. We were navigating by portable GPS. Its an eye opener when flying at night looking to the side at the scenery then looking at the instruments to see the attitude indicator tumbling due to INOP. nothing was placered. At least mechanically it was sound. Not my favourite plane for sure.

 

[bart]

Merlin III , strange dog that it was, at least it was fast...

 

[Tooslow]

Pa-34, P.O.S., I don't know why the owner bought it when could have bought a Baron or 310

 

[saabcaptain]

Ah come on... the Junkstream 31 had spirit!!! I mean it too... I loved flying that thing from a pilot perspective... terrible for 121, but a fun little thing to throw around. The Saab is so much nicer really but gets bland.

 

[2000flyer]

I did my ME rating in a Seneca I, but this one had a STOL kit on it and performed much better than a straight model. Honestly, my ATP checkride on a Citation was easier than my ME check. The examiner actually had me draw out the hydraulic (landing gear) and electrical system on a piece of paper. I was waiting for the proverbial "how many rivets" question. The entire oral was FOUR hours long!

We did have a straight Seneca I which, I'll agree, was a dog. But the STOL was a blast to fly. Later in life I flew the same airplane Part 135. We were forbidden to takeoff with more than 20° of flaps, or land with more than 30°. If I remember correctly, you could take off with 30°, but it would wheel barrel down the runway and lift off so far below Vmc, should an engine fail that low, you're toast.

2000Flyer

 

[skyking1976]

I have some Seneca I time also and I have to agree that landing with more than 1 notch of flaps was a challenge, especially with 2 people in the front. The worst airplane I have ever had the displeasure of riding in would have to be a Fokker F27. Holy cr@p! What a sh!tbox. Noisy, hot, and with that straight-legged main gear the landing were, more often than not, less than spectacular.

SK

 

[Be200pilot]

King Air A100. underpowered, noisy, unstable

 

[El Duderino]

I can hear the gears grinding where you make the turn. The horses still run, but my heart still screamed. This thing spooked the horses and it scared me.
Twas a C402C. Flying a truck full of Film from places in Texas like Austin, SA, and Houston. I won't embaress myself with the real reason I was scared, it had more to do with a lack of experience and needing a job. But this thing had about two inches less MAP on one side and about +50 deg egt on the same side. No radar, crappy coms, handheld GPS/G, and enough other things to increase the pucker factor enough to make it one of the most memorable flying times of my short flying life.
Those were the times. I know it will piss off a bunch of y'all to hear me say that now that I am in a Learjet. But when you finally get beyond the stage of flying these types and into a jet or a turboprop for a couple years you will understand. It might be hard to recognize now, but you will understand what I am talking about when everything goes right for a year at a time. It always confused me how the sh#tiest and most dangerous flying jobs went to us with 1200 hours. Flying low, in all kinds of fronts, freight, no radar, no SIC, mountains, no deice, at night, with 1200 hours. Absolutley scary to this day, but was a great time.
Great thread.
duder

 

[EagleRJ]

Katana DA20-A1

It was like a big model airplane. You could almost throw it over your shoulder and carry it to the runway. Uncomfortable seats, knees up against your chin, hot as heck under that big bubble canopy. One you were up in the air, visibility was good, and it was fun to fly- if you could hear yourself over the racket from the engine. It had a Rotax snowmobile engine, cranking out all of 82 horsepower. No fun laboring up to 2000', then try to avoid getting run over by Cherokees in the pattern. Couldn't carry much either- two people and a couple of hours of fuel and you're already over gross. Not much finesse at shutdown. When I turned the key off to shut it down, I thought the engine had seized! The prop kind of clatters and shakes, and comes to an abrupt stop.
Haven't flown the newer version with a Continental- I hear they're better.

 

[MYFpilot]

I never liked the old Cherokee 140's with the elevator trim on the ceiling. I never could figure which way to "roll up the window" to trim it out. The darn thing would Oscillate for miles before I finally got it right.

The OMF Symphony is also a certifiable genuine POS.

 

[T-Gates]

Here's a few....

Eagle 150 - Dragonfly looking thing......CRAP
Diamond Katana - Flew like a foam glider......CRAP
Alarus CH2000 - Cheap Cherokee Knockoff......CRAP

The funny thing was that all theese airplanes had state of the art avionics (GNS430, HSI, etc.) And only the CH2000 was IFR certified...

--03M

 

[SPiper]

Gotta be the scEroupe. Now, where the heck did they hide those pedals?!?

 

[rettofly]

I have some Seneca I time also and I have to agree that landing with more than 1 notch of flaps was a challenge, especially with 2 people in the front.

SK

I thought it was just me! Talked my examiner (DPE) on the MEI check ride into accepting partial flap landing a few years ago.