Recent content by captbilly

Could you explain what coffin corner you are referring to? Classic coffin corner behavior usually refers to either a stall/mach tuck high speed corner of the flight envelope, or a low speed/ insufficient power to recover corner of the envelope. Obviously the BD-5 had no stall/ mach issues (the...

The only combat aircraft (not technically a fighter) that has been built in the past 50 years, that didn't have a 2 seat trainer version was the A-10 (not technically a fighter). That aircraft had a performance envelope similar to a t-37 (relatively slow, low performance, easy to fly) so a...

Just some extra info on high altitude flying. I got my high altitude training in the USAF. USAF regs limit an unpressurized aircraft to FL250 (25,000) and I have spent a fair bit of time in t-37s at altitudes that high. Though it is possible to get the bends at 25,000 feet, it is generally...

It is just a matter of time before every airplane crashes, unless it is taken out of service first. I guess what I was hoping to find was whether there was some actual design flaw that made the lancair4 particularly prone to mechanical failures, or is the problem simply one of pilots without...

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that an ex military pilot was immortal, only that the accident statistics for ex military jet pilots in civilian military jets was much lower than for pilots with no military jet flying experience. Also, in today's USAF only pilots destined for combat aircraft...

Thanks for the reply. Of course a P40 doesn't have an ejection seat either, and the zero and 90knots seat in a t-38 did not have enough umph to get you out safely once you started your 180 turn to final (sink rate was too high), but an ejection seat is handy under the right conditions. By the...

I am an ex USAF pilot with substantial general aviation experience as well. I have owned several GA aircraft and now own a glass air ft. I am thinking about getting a LAncair IVp but have some concerns about safety. I suspect that I would not find the plane particularly challenging to fly...

It's all in the training and skill and discipline of the pilot When I bought my Glassair I had just left the USAF, where I went through pilot training and B-52 ACE, flying T-38s. The factory pilot explained to me that the Glassair handled like a fighter, but after the T-38 the Glassair seemed...