AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 30

BRIEFING
JUST FOR FUN /
Bad rap
Some airplanes get none of the love
BY IAN J. TWOMBLY
MOST A I RCR A F T AR E WELL- LOVED for one reason or
another. The Stearman can be underpowered and a bit
of a dog, but it's one of the most beautiful airplanes ever
made. The Cessna 150 is slow and cramped, but it makes
great pilots. Every aircraft has its redeeming qualities.
Well, almost every aircraft.
A few unlucky aircraft are nearly universally panned,
cursed at, hated, overlooked, and unloved. They have a
bad rap-maybe because they became orphans right after
leaving the nest, or because their performance is so poor or
operating costs so outrageous that you can't help but look
elsewhere for your ride.
Is it fair? Maybe not, and apologies to the owners of
this lamentable bunch, but here are four notorious baddies:
PIPER TOMAHAWK
Nickname: Traumahawk
Rap sheet: Stalls and spins, and not in a good way
Current status: Better, but redemption is elusive
When Piper launched the Tomahawk in the mid-1970s,
it seemed like the perfect answer to Cessna's dominance
of the training market. The airplane had fantastic visibility,
a comfortable cabin, and creative features. It was in
many ways the ideal successor to the Cherokee 140 it was
meant to replace at the company's affiliated flight centers.
But then people started dying.
It turns out the airplane, which had been beefed up
in the tail, was lightened elsewhere, including in the
wing. That resulted in unusual stall characteristics, and
an alarming ease to spin. An NTSB analysis found the
airplane sustained up to five times as many loss of control
accidents as the Cessna 150/152. Stall strips fixed
the problem, but the damage was done. Schools didn't
want it anymore.
Randy Richmond runs the Tomahawk admiration
Facebook group (yes, there is one), and he says the airplane
is exactly what Piper hoped it would be. He finds
it to be a great trainer. " It's a very cleverly designed airplane,
including seats that go up as you go forward. Why
don't they all? And it demonstrates aerodynamic principles
so well, and has such great visibility, that arguably it is
the best trainer ever made. The Piper hype about it being
'the culmination of everything we've learned about flight
training' is really, in this case, true, " he says. Perhaps it's
time to expunge the bad record.
30
AOPA PILOT / April 2023
Looks can be deceiving. The little Piper doesn't seem like it could induce
trauma, but its proclivity to easily spin made the name stick.
CESSNA 175
Nickname: Skylark
Rap sheet: A geared engine on a 172. 'Nuff said.
Current status: At least they're cheap
Cessna has always been the master at filling market
gaps, and the 175, introduced in 1958, was intended to
slot between the 172 and 182. In terms of performance
and price, Cessna nailed it. But that performance came
courtesy of a Continental GO-300 engine, which had the
unfortunate habit of eating itself. Skylark lovers claim that
happens only when the engine is operated incorrectly, but
who wants to spend so much energy managing a weird
powerplant on one of aviation's most basic airframes?
Even Continental doesn't believe in the engine's longevity.
The time between overhauls is only 1,200 hours.
If that's not bad enough, some versions had 52-gallon
tanks, of which only 42 was available in all phases of
BOTTOM: MIKE FIZER

AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023

Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - Intro
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 8
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 9
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - 18
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2023 - Cover4
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