My guess is that speed more than complexity would be the main
hindrance in learning in a high performance/complex aircraft.

I just remember how frustrating/hard it was the first few flights to
try to keep up on all my checklists/Comm/Flying puttering along at 100
knots in a C172... In a HP aircraft, everything happens faster...
Approaches, Altitude Deviations, etc... I think a huge part of the
advantage of learning in a slower plane is simply it allows you to get
all of your habits in place under a more time/lower stress
situation... then once they've become second nature, its a lot less of
a pain to adapt them to a faster paced environment.


On Mar 23, 9:36 am, "Kingfish" wrote:
Total stream-of-consciousness post here...

Anbody learn to fly in a high performance complex aircraft? Bonanza,
Saratoga, 182RG and the like? I know it's possible, just wonder how
much longer it'd take for a student to master something with
significant power and prop & gear controls. (I did all my instructing
in 172s and PA28s)
I watched that goofy Segal movie Executive Decision the other day
where Kurt Russell was a student pilot flying a Bo, and later used his
stellar(?) flying skills to plant a 747 at a GA airport. It got me
thinking about ab initio folks learning in Cirruses (Cirri?)
Obviously with no prop or gear control it's a simpler aircraft to fly
but the performance is equal to or better than a A36.