Originally Posted by
Adlerdriver
I'm not faulting the Tower controller. If he felt that his workload allowed the extra attention required to handle this particular pilot, that's his call. I disagree with your claim he had no reason to question her abilities after seeing what transpired between the 04 go-around and finally getting on final to 35.
Thanks, excellent response and I agree.
In my experiences in aviation (except by a few vocal idiots on APC, most of whom are not professionals) almost everybody is extremely professional and "nice" to fellow pilots on the ground and especially in the air, as we should be. A few moments of his time would have been well-invested to help the lady in the controller's mind, and it would be harsh to forcibly tell her to exit bravo etc... I have certainly heard more clueless types on the air.
Perhaps he should have seen the incompetence, but if he wasn't watching the turns he might have assumed it was his own doing or she just was brining up a plate for 35 or something for a second and had to look down.
Ironically, a LESS competent tower controller may have had a better outcome as she would have been given a long pattern and not tried to help her as much. This guy was really my style, just trying to help her get down in creative ways and recognizing what a sharp GA pilot should be able to do.
Originally Posted by
Adlerdriver
I didn't mean my comment as a "dig". You've been pretty clear in your opinion on the AOA gauge in GA aircraft.
The SR20 seems to fall into the GA category (but maybe not). I really was just curious about what made this particular aircraft different enough that you might consider using one.
"Spring loaded to neutral"?
-What benefit does that offer (if any)?
-Are the controls still conventional, direct cable style?
-I guess in flight, it wouldn't be much different than a conventional GA aircraft since airloads would return controls to neutral in those too, correct?
If you hand me my 182 in flight without ASI or manifold I can probably tell you within 10 kts how fast I am going. Even without a stall horn, the aircraft really speaks to you when you are getting slow - the control feel, the sounds, etc. There is almost ALWAYS a large lift reserve (e.g. pull up, get more lift) in flight conditions. It is really easy to bleed off the excess energy with slip or flaps. With the Cirrus, none of those is true.
You need to nail speeds farther out, and not rely on lift reserve if you have a gust or need to arrest a high sink rate. I feel very comfortable making some loading maneuvers in the pattern in my plane, but with a cirrus you run the risk of this classic video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nm_hoHhbFo
Originally Posted by
bozobigtop
I have about 10 hours in Cirrus aircraft after flying jets, turboprops, and other GA aircraft. I can tell you some of these models are very unforgiving if you're a sloppy pilot or a pilot who flies once in a blue moon. This aircraft will make you fly it like a jet aircraft or else such as plan ahead with your traffic patterns and air work. It's very easy to strike the tail or prop on landing if you mismanage the airspeed/sink rate. My biggest problem with this aircraft besides not being comfortable are the marketing techniques used by Cirrus attempting to market this aircraft to anybody. If you can afford the baseprice of about $800,000 and you want to go faster than a C-172 or PA-28 then Cirrus want you as new recruit! I am tired of seeing the accident reports for this aircraft because the aircraft was more than what the pilot can handle.
I agree with you. Same here, around 10 hours IIRC in the cirrus (I'll go back and look.) The plane is not for the 40 hour per year pilot, or somebody that doesn't want to take the time to understand how a plane flies.
The SR20 is substantially less than $800,000. When I was shopping you could get it well equipped for less than half of that. You may be thinking of the SR22.