Flying

This may turn out to be the most important page of this site. My plan for this page is to provide my own impressions of the flying characteristics of the plane. Of course I’ll flight-check all the numbers and compare them to the POH numbers, but I’m far more interested in the subjective flight characteristics such as…

• Control harmony – Relative control forces, is roll lighter than pitch as it should be, and does rudder seem proportionate to each.
• Control forces – I already know from other sources, especially Steve Wood, that the SE-1 takes about half the control force (and deflection) as more conventional planes such as Cessnas, Cubs, etc., but just how light is it.
• Responsiveness – In addition to control force, how responsive is it?
• Pitch and roll stability – When a control is deflected does the plane return to the original path after phugoid cycle or two in both pitch and roll.
• General “feel” and other observations.

Then below that I thought I’d keep a chronological blog, not of every flight, but just occasional flights where I think I’ve learned something new or formed an impression of the plane.