Whats the worst flying plane you ever had your hands on??
Not exactly the result of a bad design, but someone brought an old sport Mustang (emphasis on "sport") that had obviously been flown a lot. He bought it and needed someone to test it out, trim it, etc.
Well, I did my usual pre-flight checks, but I missed a loose rudder linkage. Did ok for a couple of minutes, did a touch and go, then... pop, plane starts turning left, HARD. I feed ailerons, but the plane is still drifting over the pits towards the state highway. In these few seconds, I figured it was a rudder problem, so I gave left aileron and elevator to snap it into a dive. As I pulled out, I fed FULL right rudder on the stick and it still drifted left. Luckily, I was able to control it enough to land while holding full right rudder and maneuvering my right stick in the right half area.
Make sure to check those linkages!
- George