http://www.bendbulletin.com/news/1442192-151/many-lancair-crashes-are-due-to-lack-of pilot training
Nobody’s perfect , even Mister Bean … 
Aviathor, are you serious? I hope you realise that every take-off may result in an “arrival” like those pictured, and even worse, and even much worse? If you can’t cope with the idea of mishaps, better stay out of aviation – in fact, better not leave your bed tomorrow morning.
PS apologies to all if I missed something, I feel like again I am only stating the obvious… yet could not leave it unsaid.
PS looking at the N351E image, the similarity to the Aveko VL3 is striking – and that is a plane I will stay away from, till I’m a much better pilot.
I suspect Aviathor was pulling everybody’s leg
With a Vs of 57kt that is certificable as a SEP, so if there are issues they will be elsewhere.
The Lancairs are regarded in the USA as hard runway machines.
I suspect Aviathor was pulling everybody’s leg
I do hope you are right – I was never good at reading between the lines…
More seriously, though: achimha seems to know about Lancairs being flown IFR and that’s a hot subject – more pointers would be welcome!
It does seem you can fly them IFR, in the country of registration, in some cases (not the UK, for sure).
But IFR within your own frontiers is pretty useless, frankly.
And if you could fly IFR internationally, the whole certified market would collapse as far as private ownership is concerned, because the non-cert makers would make special models which basically do the job of the heavier and more comfortable IFR tourers like the SR22, the TB20, etc.
Don’t worry Jan….I’ve met Aviathor….and despite being a Noggie he has a sense of humour!
There are several people flying Lancairs IFR in Europe. One guy in Switzerland even has (had?) a blog about it his trips. It’s in violation of the regulations but in reality nobody seems to care. One could argue that by filing a flight plan with the right ICAO type (Lancair has 4-5 of them) and getting a “cleared to”, one has permission to operate it IFR…
I’d love to have an Evolution Turboprop but spending that kind of money and always fearing grounding and punishment is not a great prospect. In addition to that, those machines are definitely dangerous, not your typical fat wing Cessna with structures holding 3 times the loads you’ll ever encounter.
by filing a flight plan with the right ICAO type (…) and getting a “cleared to”, one has permission to operate it IFR
With my restricted insight into legalese, that seems a strong argument. The more so that, if one ever did get into legal trouble, it would not take an especially bright lawyer to continue the proceedings into eternity.
Interesting reading – thanks for all your comments so far (humourous pics and remarks included )
Yes, Mooney Driver’s comment
You should however take it very seriously and do a good type introduction and then fly it with a large safety marigin until you get to know it well. Lancairs are fast, but as high performance planes also will demand a certain degree of experience and skill to fly.
ties in with what I’ve read elsewhere, as does Achima’s remark
those machines are definitely dangerous, not your typical fat wing Cessna with structures holding 3 times the loads you’ll ever encounter.
But would you really be quite so categorical as to call them dangerous?
Lancairs of various types are common in my flying area, and a couple of 320s are in my hangar area. I’d offer the following: Lancairs are not all the same – there have been a lot of different models since Lance Neubauer built on his KR experience to build the first Lancair. The 320 is a ‘hot’ hands-on plane, not a solid, stable IFR cruiser. I would personally want zero truly experimental systems on the engine, because an engine failure on a Lancair 320 puts you in a very bad situation. It’s not a plane in which you can glide gently down into a small field. Structural strength is not the safety issue that would concern me.
Just my POV.
