Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Swearingen
Aircraft Model: SA226-T
Aircraft Nickname: Merlin III
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine
First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown: 0
Date First Flown: 03/19/2002
Location First Flown: KMHV, Mohave, CA
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: National TPS, Rich Duprey
Aircraft Experience
As of: 05/09/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 4
Number of Times Flown: 4
Other Aircraft Models Associated:
Recollections: –This airplane was a staple at the National Test Pilot School (NTPS) for many years. It was successful there for at least two reasons: (1) it had some rudimentary instrumentation with stations for flight test engineers in the back to watch the data and, with apologies to my boss Gerry Baker–who worked as a project pilot at Swearingen–(2) it flies really lousy….a good attribute for a school trying to teach pilots how to evaluate handling qualities.
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