On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 21:45:09 +1000, "s3" wrote:

As a test pilot (military trained) I ended up working with a civil
airworthiness authority and have test flown about 50 hombuilt types. There
are a large number of homebuilts out there with appalling handling
characteristics in terms of stability, control, and stall characteristics.
In many cases the homebuilt community considers that these characteristics
are the price you pay for "performance".
In fact, many have characteristics that the military would simple not
accepted in their aircraft unless the performance boost so far outweighed
the flight safety issues that national defence was deemed more important.
The characteristics would certainly not be acceptable for civil
certification.
I have flown, stalled and spun high performance jet aircraft which are pussy
cats compared to some homebuilts.

Interesting information. It verifies what I read long ago about the
first Lancair 200's. They were very fast, as befitting their minimal
cross section and tiny wings, and also, according to the initial
flight reports, stalled extremely suddenly with no forewarning.

I also recall reading that the stall speed seemed to vary a bit. This
could be due to the laminar flow being tripped suddenly while at slow
speed by a gust of wind or whatever.

The result was that some Lancair 200's scared their pilots so badly
that they did not fly them much.

Corky Scott