In article ,
Robert M. Gary wrote:
I actually agree with you. I know quite a few 20,000 plus hour GA
pilots who can take experience in dozens of other airplanes and do
just fine in an airplane they've never flown.

I would be leary of letting anyone 'unknown' fly a plane I owned,
regardless of their time (even time in type). Whilst I have flown
aircraft without a checkout (three single seat aircraft, the Piper Pawnee
and a fairly unconventional glider, an HP-11, as well as a more
conventional glider - you can't have normal checkout in a single seater!)
a friend of mine was badly bitten by letting a pilot he hadn't flown
with before fly his Europa. This pilot had over 5,000 hours, but still
apparently didn't know that you're not supposed to land a Europa on its
nosewheel, and destroyed the nosegear, prop, engine mounts etc. The
Europa tri-gear is entirely conventional in its handling and landing
characteristics - from flying one myself, I'd say it's no harder than
landing a Grumman Tiger/Cheetah. The Europa's nosewheel is similar to
the Grumman's - a bent bit of wire with a castoring nosewheel intended
purely to keep the prop off the ground.

There are some high-time pilots around who have avoided crashing simply
because of a stout nosewheel.

It's because of things like this, if I fly with a pilot who I don't know
and/or haven't flown with a lot, I'm not going to assume ANY level of
competence until I've seen them fly a bit. This is why insurance
companies have checkout requirements - because without checkouts,
there's a large minority of pilots with reasonable time who'd be
collaping nosegear or groundlooping or other (mainly landing related)
mishaps.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"