Taylorcraft - King Air Comparison

[Gerald McKibben]

Today I pulled the T'craft over close to this King Air 200 based at my home airport of West Point, Mississippi for this picture.

I decided to do an analysis - totally unbiased of course, and completely scientific - of the two designs. So here goes.
I rated them on three main categories; performance, cost, and appearance. For performance there are three categories:

Speed: The King Air gets the nod here
Useful load: King Air
Takeoff distance: Taylorcraft

Next, I rated them on various cost comparisons as follows:
Purchase cost: Taylorcraft
Fuel burn: Taylorcraft
Ease of maintenance: Taylorcraft
Cost of annual inspection: Taylorcraft
Hangar rent: Taylorcraft
Insurance: Taylorcraft

Subjective factors:
Looks: Taylorcraft
Fun to fly: Taylorcraft

So there you have it; the Taylorcraft wins in 9 out of 11 categories! Who would have thought it!

[Gerald McKibben]

Re: Taylorcraft - King Air Comparison

Yesterday I took my Grandson James flying in the Taylorcraft. I showed how you can turn by sliding back the window and extending your arm. I also showed him that if you turn the wheel without rudder input the airplane will bank in the direction of the turn, but the nose will swing the opposite way. I think he was impressed.

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Taylorcraft - King Air Comparison

Great to hear again from a good tribe member; teach them right and they will remember always.... open one door at a time to turn ; slow up, trim , zero thrust; open both doors ; hmmmmmm!

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Taylorcraft - King Air Comparison

If you want to try the "Push open the doors in flight" trick check the hinges REALLY CAREFUL first! A prior owner had a door torn off the 41 in flight doing that. Wood doors with loose hinges and loads beyond the design max tend to make for expensive repairs. You will find out really fast why you need the door jettison system to bail out of a Taylorcraft. It takes a LOT OF PUSH to open a door over a few inches in flight!

Hank

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Taylorcraft - King Air Comparison

I said SLOW up .... zero thrust and trim for minimum trim speed. THAT is full nose up trim .

In cruise that is correct only a few inches are possible . Hi Hank it is great to see you folks keeping things going while I attend to family, illness ( not mine) , deaths, repairs and projects... does the nose go up or down?? stick or wheel free of course.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Taylorcraft - King Air Comparison

After figuring out what the vague log entries were telling me (that the pilot and passenger were playing the "flare by pushing the doors open" game) I have been afraid to ever try it! What the repair log said was that for unknown reasons the RH door was replaced as well as fabric tear repairs to the side of the fuselage and tail surfaces plus new tail wires on the starboard side. Must have been EXCITING!
I was looking at the doors when I repainted and the screws into the wood doors were all wallowed and had the holes had been repaired with tooth picks and glue. When I put in the new panel and interior trim pieces I also found the pilots top fuselage hinge tab cracked. Just the edge of the crack was peaking out from under the tape wrapping. When I took the tape off the hinge tab had been pulled back HARD, cracking the weld about 3/4 of the way around. I ended up pulling the interior out (again) and inspecting all the hinge tabs. That was the only cracked tab, but the wood door hinge mount holes were TERRIBLE! I ended up rebuilding both doors and using "T" nuts and machine screws instead of wood screws for the door hinges and the window mounts. The doors sound like a 1930s Buick when they close now. You would think they weigh 60# each from the way they close, but they are VERY light. Nice SOLID feel, much better than the sheet metal or tube doors.
As for what would happen when you opened the doors at the flare, I would think that the nose would rise slightly close to the stall. i don't think I will do a test to see if I am right. Repairing a door was hard, I don't want to BUILD one! I DO think that if you ever lost the rudder control cables you could just pop the doors and a couple of pounds of pressure on one door would make nice gentle turns, NOT SHOVING the door, just gentle pressure. I doubt I will test that one either. ;-)

Hank

I WOULD love to have a set of spoilers on the wings. I think they would work just like on a Schweitzer sailplane! We can slip nice, but spoilers would be direct lift control and would make Taylorcraft UNBEATABLE in spot landings!

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Taylorcraft - King Air Comparison

yes the nose will rise, yes it can make gentle turns, I had total rudder failure in a Cessna 140 it worked with it too ( I do have the spoilier boxes here for the F-19 ; we never got it approved but they sure do work. I did fly the D-52 with the spoliers, the L2M , and a few gliders, a Mooney too, spoilers are the answer at times. I passed my IA again . We have a wee bit of snow.