It was unusually good weather for this time of year (at least here in Iowa) and I was at the airport anyway taking care of some paper work that had to be done by Monday so I’ve decided that it’s perfect moment to officially open 2011 flying season. Not flying for almost two months I was very eager to get some air under my wheels. At the same time I was quite worried about my skills – I’m a fresh pilot and my skills are still only (as I think about myself) adequate so each time I take a longer break from flying it’s hard to get back.
But I needed not to worry. As I pushed Cherokee out of the hangar everything started to coming back. By the time I finished the preflight I felt no anxiety at all, just pure excitement. Like our cat when he sees me walking with fish on his plate. Anyway I did runup and took off. Flew in general direction of practice area just to remember myself how this thing works, then came back and did three landings. I know, I know. Nothing really exciting when you read it. But very exciting when you’re up there after two months of being grounded.
When, just mere 40 minutes later, I was closing hangar doors I made my new years resolution. This year I’m going to fly more often. Not necessarily more in total time, but often – those short 0.5h jumps in the air charge my batteries more than anything else.
0.6h : 3 to/ldg logged
72.5h : 338 to/ldg total
For those who don’t know me – I am afraid of flying. Commercial, private – doesn’t really matter. Human were not ment to hang in the air. We don’t have any protection for falling, after all. But, my second half seems to have flying running in the family, if not in genes. Because of that I had on more then one occasion to find out, that as much as I am afraid of flying, I do enjoy taking aerial photographs. Now, this is a huge leap I made, but I figured I want to know what is happening with the plane when I am in it. Have some control. And what is the better way to do it then … learning to fly yourself.
It was not as spontaneous decision as it might seem. I was flirting with the idea for about the year. I even spent some time reading Rod Machado’s “Private Pilot Handbook”, which my dear husband got me when I expressed interest the first time. But today I finally decided to get my feet “wet”, and see I really can go along with it.
My first impressions? I think I am still in the little bit of shock. From two things.
One – is how complicated it all seems to be – watching your speed, ascent/descent and level. I think I was focusing most my attention on three instruments, and did not look outside much. Beginning of bad habits?? Also, it was really frustrating how little movements of yoke were resulting in large changes in airplane position, especially left to right, and how wind effects what you think is level flight. But the turbulence were as scary as when I am a passenger. I suppose it is a good thing. After all, taking flight lessons means more time in the air, so I will probably get used to it, eventually.
Second, I was a bit overwhelmed by how much I had to fly myself on the introductory lesson. I thought it will be instructor flying most of the time, and just let me do something here and there.
Now, I filed for the training approval at TSA.
1.1h : 1 to/ldg logged
1.1h : 1.1 to/ldg total
It’s been very hard year on me. Due to various personal circumstances I was able to fly less than 5h during last 12 months. I was feeling like I have withdrawal syndrome in it’s full swing. Finally I decided that there is only one thing that can cure it – it’s time to go flying again.
But flying for the sake of flying is not what I want to do in current circumstances (and that’s why I haven’t flown at all for last half of the year) so I needed a cause. A reason to justify the flight. So I figured out it’s best to start one of many new ratings waiting for me. In the line of ratings and licenses out there I have two currently available: instrument rating and complex/high performance endorsement. Not being US Citizen I have to ask TSA for permission to start instrument training. That ruled out any spontaneous IFR ticket lessons.
So I set up appointment with Terry and went to the airport to try something completely new to me – complex airplane. Our club has ’67 Piper Arrow. Which has only 180HP engine so it does not qualify for high performance, but it has retractable gear and constant speed propeller so it perfectly suitable for getting complex endorsement. As I flew Cherokee a bat transition to Arrow should be reasonably easy. Both airplanes use exactly the same airframe, the only difference is in more complex systems on Arrow. Preflight is pretty much identical in both airplanes so that went easy. First thing that hit me was the checklists. Cherokee’s short abbreviated checklist fit on back of knee board we use to note times and fuel added. Arrow’s is several pages long and has many, many more positions on it. “Ups… it going to be tough” I thought…
And I was right. Even starting this fuel injected engine is completely different that Cherokee. Not really much harder, but you have to be much more careful not to flood it. It’s very sensitive in that matter. Run-up and pre takeoff parts are pretty similar, there is only one additional check needed to be done which is propeller cycling to exercise the governor. Fun starts the moment you take off.
Constant speed propeller was a concept I had some problems understanding early on. Coming from cars and and fixed propeller airplanes I had problem visualizing how it’s possible that operating the throttle do not change engine’s RPMs. But then I realized that engine’s RPM’s are a function of power produced vs. load imposed on it by the propeller. So as long at the governors is able to match engine’s power output with load the RPMs will stay constant. Easy. Right. Still flying behind it is nowhere near easy for the first timer like myself. All those new rules you have to remember. Adjust throttle first, never over square, never push propeller full forward when you have more than 22″ of manifold pressure up in the air. A lot of things to remember. A lot of things can go wrong.
And there is the gear. Arrow is equipped with electrically operated hydraulic retractable landing gear with some additional safety features. Piper’s engineers figured out that the ‘average Joe Pilot’ needs a lot of help to stay safe in retractable gear airplane so they have built the system that tries to prevent gear-up accidents. Both those on the ground (accidental gear up switch while airplane is sitting on the ground) and those in the air (gear-up landings). So the safety system senses throttle settings, engine power and airplane speed and tries to prevent gear-up operation when it thinks airplane is on the ground and at the same time tries to drop the gear down when it thinks you need it down. The result? Safety override switch is the one that gets used the most on this airplane. When you take off sop is to move the gear handle up and override the safety (because 95% of time you’ll be raising the gear below system’s preset safe speed). Also when you train any operation in slow flight regimes you have to override the system to keep the gear up. Same thing during emergency – when you loose the engine (and pitch for best glide speed) the airplane will lower the gear automatically giving you a lot of additional, unneeded drag. Not to mention that in 9 out of 10 off field landings are safer to be done gear-up.
So here we go. During the 1.1h flight we did some power on and off stalls, simulated engine failure, simulated approach and one actual approach. And all I can say is that I felt more like and airplane operator than a pilot. This flight had almost nothing to do with ‘flying’ the airplane. It was all ‘push this, watch that’ thing. I start to understand why older pilots tend to miss the roots of flying Cubs and Citabrias with almost no systems at all.
Anyway, as much as I was overwhelmed by this first flight in complex airplane I really liked the Arrow. Mostly for it’s stability compared to Cherokee, better panel layout. And speed. Arrow is good 20mph faster than Cherokee using the same airframe and engine. Which makes it good cross country machine.
I hope that by the time I fulfill my insurance requirement (which is 10h in any P28R) for PIC/Solo flight all that nuances of flying complex airplane will become second nature. And that I’ll never switch sides in the ever going competition between pilots that had gear up landing and those that will.
1.1h : 1 to/ldg logged
71.9h : 335 to/ldg total
Finally the time has come to refresh my acquaintance with 79J.
It was over three months since I flew last time. For all that time either weather or schedule did not cooperate but today the weather was almost perfect and I really needed something to take my mind completely off of everyday problems. So I went to the airport and did the preflight. When the time has come to pull the Cherokee out it turned out that grass is so soft that there is no way I can do it on my own. Fortunately I had another Cherokee with me that one equipped with nice 10500 pound winch up front. So I used one to pull out the other.
After that it was just a regular thing. I was pleasantly surprised that after all those months of siting on the ground all my landings were soft enough to qualify them as almost greasers 
Looks like when you really focus on what you do and keep watching the airspeed everything comes up nicely almost by itself.
I was running low on time so I did only two touch and goes. After third landing I taxied back to the parking spot and again using my other Cherokee pulled the Piper back in.
it was really good to be back in the air. Even though it was just 0.4h it made me to completely switch off my ‘regular’ brain and turn on my ‘flying’ one. I’m very fresh pilot and flying still demands 100% of my brain to do it safely. That king of ‘distraction’ from my regular routine works wonders. And the nicest thing – I’m current again!
0.4h/0.0h inst : 3 to/ldg logged
68.1h/3.1h inst : 330 to/ldg total
How many of us fly commercially and don’t even think about how safe it is? We think we know it, we are pilots after all. But is it really as safe as we think it’s there? Were those pilots pushed beyond their capabilities in the name of keeping the business profitable?
And how much they made? $16k a year…
