What makes a good airplane?

[Colonel]

Aviation is many different things, to different people.

What I like in an airplane ... you sit in the middle - it's
ok if there are people ahead of behind you - so the
airplane feels like part of you, when you maneuver.

Gotta be able to see. That's why I love motorcycles,
and dislike the new Camaro so much. I can swivel
my head and see all around me on a motorcycle, and
that's what I want in an airplane, too. I hate a high
dash on an airplane. Might as well drive around in a
new Camaro. I really like a clear canopy, all around me,
with nothing obstructing my view.

If I seem obsessed with seeing what's going on around
me, it's because I am. Other people are happy having
mid-air collisions, but me, not so much.

Pro Tip: if something is stationary and getting bigger, you
need to do something, and contrary to what everyone else
teaches, rarely is turning the best choice. Change your altitude.

Secret: airplanes have to be at the same altitude to collide.
Personally, I like negative G. Don't fight the planet and try to
climb, just wings-level bunt and let that big planet below help
you out.

The seat has got to be solid. Doesn't need to be plush
but solid with a good angle. Doesn't matter how good an
airplane you have, if the seats suck, you're going to hate it.
Double 5 point harnesses are my choice. Gotta have shoulder
harnesses, but having just one isn't going to work out well
for you.

I like the stick in my right hand, and throttle(s) in my left.
The stick has to naturally fall into my right hand - often there
are quite interesting curves to the stick to make that possible -
and it's got to be a pretty meaty piece of hardware, capable of
withstanding at least a couple hundred pounds of push and pull
without plastic deformation.

A coolie hat on top is nice, for trim. The flight control response
is terribly important. Heavy ailerons and light pitch sucks. You
want a square stick - say 15 lbs in each direction. Fast roll rate
is nice, but it's got to be easily stoppable, too, with good centering.

Pro Tip: learn to trim, then learn to fly out of trim. I like a few
forward pounds for stability in the bumps. Also, I like a right
roll tendency, because I can push on the stick harder than I
can pull on it.

Power is nice. For piston, at least 10 lbs/hp. 5 lbs/hp is better.
For jet, you will like thrust that matches your takeoff weight. Power
is like money. More is better, and you will never have enough.

I like a high wing loading, so you don't have to worry about
the bumps. Nice smooth ride. You may need some fancy lift
and drag devices for your desired runway length.

Essential is a lack of induced drag at high alpha. This sounds
exotic and useless, but it's terribly important. It means that you
can pull G and not lose airspeed. The P-51 for example, is a
complete dog in this regard. Other aircraft with better wingtips
perform far better in this regard.

An ideal aircraft can sustain airspeed at it's maximum design G
in a level turn. Sounds simple, but ....

Ground handling characteristics are terribly important to other
people, but I don't give a shit. If it tries to kill me on every takeoff
and landing, that's cool. As long as it behaves when there's daylight
between the tires and the runway.

Fuel. Your burn rate on takeoff will be about 3 times what your
minimum cruise burn rate will be. It's nice to have huge tanks so
that you can get above the Wx, and stay there for six hours, and
land someplace sunny and warm. Trust me on this.

Note that I don't give a shit about the panel. I don't care about
avionics. All I need is my phone for nav. I can bullshit the rest.

[JW Scud]

I wonder if Cat Driver ever heard of someone rolling a Canso.

[Liquid_Charlie]

I had an old instructor tell me and it's very true, a stick is far better to control and aircraft than a wheel. A stick you control with a single movement where a wheel always requires 2. Very simple but not on many people's minds in this modern day.

[Colonel]

I am not a fan of putting steering wheels in airplanes. While
this was a popular trick after WWII by aircraft salesmen, trying
to convince people that airplanes were just like cars - complete
with cheesy interiors, for heaven's sake - there is a terrible price
to be paid, when people treat a control column like a steering wheel.



That person had all the paper that TC required. Unfortunately
it wasn't quite enough, was it?

[Eric Janson]

Spent my entire career flying with a wheel.

Then I moved onto the airbus.

After one year of sidestick flying I got back in a Simulator of an aircraft with a wheel. This felt extremely strange even though I'd spent almost 20 years flying with a wheel.

Admittedly there is some very fancy technology behind the sidestick but the basics are still there. Very small movements though - most people tend to overcontrol.

[Liquid_Charlie]

You just need to look at the evolution of heavy equipment - joysticks rule now -

The DC3T - Basler in their wisdom put all these pretty covers under the glare shield and unless you coughed up the bucks for their "small" control wheel your hand would actually get jammed in a good rt xwind in the left seat and visa versa in the right seat. It was pure stupidity. Most pilots do not have piano player hands, especially if you are driving an old dak.

[Colonel]

After one year of sidestick flying I got back in a Simulator of an aircraft with a wheel. This felt extremely strange even though I'd spent almost 20 years flying with a wheel.

Stick vs Column is like tighty whities vs boxer shorts. No one can
tell you what feels best for you, and everyone is different.

Personally, I like a stick in my right hand, and throttle(s) in my left.

Very small movements though - most people tend to overcontrol.

That means they need to crank up the stick force. I think you would
be very surprised with how much forward trim I like to fly with - I am
always pulling on the stick during any kind of normal ops. So, to vary
pitch, I only vary how much pull I have.

This gets rid of the tendency to oscillate through neutral, as you switch
between pulling and pushing. This is really helpful in the bumps.

I remember decades ago as an instructor in Cessnas, watching people
under the hood in the bumps work very hard to maintain altitude and
do a really dreadful job at it.

I would tell them to let go of the controls. Or, just freeze them. Instantly
the aircraft stops porpoising.

Canadian Commercial Pilots need to take 80 hours of bullshit ground school.
It's really too bad they can't spend just a few fucking minutes on

1) what is an oscillation?
2) why is it bad?
3) how do you dampen it?

In 25 years as an instructor, I have seen a lot of people wrestle very, very hard
with oscillations, mostly in yaw and pitch. Oddly, pilot have very little interest
in them. Never understood that.

People keep telling me I'm stupid compared to them, but I found it interesting
to apply a second order ordinary differential equation to aviation.



Child's play.