A quick glace at the blog here shows that it’s been over five months since I last posted something. In this case, it’s actually a bit more than just pure laziness… it’s actually been that long since I’ve done any flying! Well, at least that was true up until this past weekend, when I finally got around to breaking my dry spell. This came in the form of getting myself checked out to fly something besides the teeny little DA-20.
Now, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. The DA-20 is a great little aircraft, but it’s a two-seater. A two-seater with a pretty small useful load. Oh, and I should mention that I’m a big dude, 6′4″ and 250 pounds. The end result is that me + DA-20 + full fuel leaves about 170 pounds for a passenger. Seeing as how I like to share the fun of flying, that’s quite a restriction. Additionally, after making a trip to the Florida Keys with a couple coworkers last April, I really wanted to make the next Keys trip a flying one.
All this culminated with a new horizon in renting for me: SkyBound Aviation. SkyBound sports a significantly larger fleet than Advanced, including a passel of C172s, a couple of Pipers, and a Decathlon for good measure. (yeah, I’m eyeballing that taildragger for sure) The Piper Archer II, of which SkyBound has two, is a pretty good cross-country aircraft; ~1100 pounds useful load, 48 gallons fuel capacity, cruise speed of 125 knots. Not the fastest thing on the planet, but a good step up for a n00b like myself. Some studying of the POH revealed that in terms of V-speeds, the Piper was quite similar to the Diamond. Systems were a little different though; after spoiling myself with electric trim and flaps on the DA-20, it was time to go all manual in the Piper. At least this plane has dual 430s, which are familiar territory after running the 530 in the DA-20.
So after a good bit of study and preparation, I arrived at PDK to do the deed. As if knocking the rust off and learning a new airplane weren’t enough, there were also some decent winds at work, and I never did get that great with crosswind landings. Still, my CFI for the day, Cindy, didn’t seem concerned as we drove to the ramp. Preflight was straightforward, nothing really new here. Entering the plane was definitely more of a chore than the Diamond; that canopy beats the single Piper door any day. But once I settled into the left seat, I experienced a wondrous thing: legroom. I was used to flying with my knees in the panel of the Diamond; here, I actually had to move the seat up to get full pedal travel.
Startup and taxi were uneventful as well, and before long, I was trundling onto 34 and coming in with the power. With an additional 55 horses on tap over the Diamond, I was expecting to have to work a little harder on the right rudder to keep the Archer straight, but I was wrong, It was easy- I assume the nosewheel steering contributed to this. She seemed a little more reluctant to get off the ground than the DA-20, but I suppose that’s not too surprising. We turned northeast towards Lake Lanier and I climbed up to 3000′.
Once I was clear of the airspace, it was time for some slow flight and a few stalls. Power back, flaps full, and I settled down to about 60 knots. Cindy gave me a few turns, during which I struggled a bit to keep things coordinated. Back on course, out comes the power, and it’s power-off stall time. This was uneventful- horn sounds, throttle in, nose down, piece of cake. The power-on stall, however, was a different story. I went full throttle and nosed up what seemed like a significant amount, where I paused and watched the airspeed bleed off. To my surprise, it settled down at about 80 knots. Cindy chimed in my ear, “Now remember, this plane is hard to stall… give it some more backpressure.” Finally, after the horizon had dropped out of sight, the horn came in and I put the nose down. I ended up picking up about 1200′ during that maneuver!
After a couple of steep turns and a quick rectangular pattern over a field, it was time to head back to PDK and face the ultimate test. Cindy reassured me that she was aware conditions were subpar, and I wouldn’t be judged too harshly given the conditions. At that time, the winds were something like 10 gusting 15, quartering to the runway, giving me about a 7-11 knot crosswind component, about as much as I’d dealt with previously. Entering the right base for 34, I ended up starting my descent too soon and getting pretty low, but a short level spell on final fixed that problem. A little rudder and aileron got me square with the runway, and I maintained speed surprisingly well all the way down. Power to idle over the numbers… wow, this thing sinks kind of fast, better get that flare going. I had barely started my flare when, to my surprise, there was a chirp as the main touched down. I braced myself for the bounce that inevitably followed this maneuver in the Diamond, but it didn’t happen, the Archer just stuck. Somehow, I’d made my first ever landing in this thing a squeaker. Wait, back to work, touch and go… flaps up, power in, airborne.
That landing was a pretty big confidence booster, maybe too much. The second time around the pattern, I stayed on slope much better and was feeling good again. But on short final, I caught a gust and had a squirrelly moment banking the airplane around, but got it collected. I followed that by flaring too high, getting lazy on the rudder, and thumping down with a bit of a side load. Ugh, and it started out so well… but this one was a full-stop and we were done. Cindy seemed mostly unperturbed by my second landing performance, and informed me I was now good to go in the Archer!
I suppose I did decently given the confluence of factors that day: I’d gone five months with no PIC time, was learning a new airplane, and had bumpy weather and gusty crosswinds to boot. One thing I really learned was how important familiarity with an airplane is. After nearly 60 hours in the Diamond, I knew that thing like my own car; this much stick pressure to pitch or bank, this much throttle adjustment to fix that glide slope, etc. While the fundamentals remain the same, it’s a different animal in the Piper; instead of instinctively making control inputs, it becomes a bit more trial-and-error. On the other hand, the Archer is far more forgiving on touchdown. That first premature touchdown would have sent the Diamond bounding back in the air.
At this point, I’m still not legal to carry passengers; I need one more landing to become current. But even if I’d gotten that third landing, I wouldn’t be stuffing my friends in the Archer with me just yet. I’m going to get in some more solo landing practice before then, preferably on a calm day so I can concentrate on figuring out what the plane wants. I’ve already got her booked for this coming Saturday… I foresee many touch-and-gos in my future.
Oh, and a final note; despite my last post about the value of video, I didn’t get any for this flight. I did pick up and ContoutHD bullet cam and a digital recorder for capturing comms last fall, but I elected to keep that complexity out of this flight. I think it was a good decision. They will be on board this Saturday, however, so stand by for some in-cockpit video.
