DrBenny
New Member
I'd studied the POH, the numbers, the procedures, and everything else I could before arriving today at FDK. After about an hour briefing focusing mostly on power settings and details on constant speed props, it was out to the airplane. Man, was it cold, and winds gusting to 20 kts., too!
We decided to stay in the pattern today so we could focus on landings and trimming for the various airspeeds. With a 15-20 kt wind down the runway coupled with our light weight and cold temps we were off in NO TIME. I am not lying about this next statement: on this and every time, we were climbing at AT LEAST 1700 f.p.m., and usually at 2,000 f.p.m! I was supposed to climb away at Vy at 80 kts, but I couldn't do it--the deck angle was just too high for me. Instead, I climbed away at 85-90 kts, and still saw that amazing climb rate for at least 500 feet.
Still, almost immediately, it was time to throttle back to 23" and two turns on the prop. Even after that, the climb rate was very, very good. Remember how in the beginning of your flight training the plane was ahead of you, and not the other way around? Well, I started off this way. Even after the four landings, I was, at best, "with" the plane at the same time. There's definitely no time to think things through--right after you're done with something, it is time to do something else.
Now, my biggest difficulty was base and final. It was here that I was having problems getting the right airspeeds and descent rate. My CFI for the day pointed out that there were two factors that complicated things: 1) There is an area approaching RWY30 where you get a bad sink at first, followed by lift, and 2) the gusty winds were messin' with me. The drill was to try (and I mean "try") to get the 'Lane as stabilized as possible as soon as possible on both of those legs--just like any other plane. On the last two landings, things were getting better. Here's one weird thing, though: when I finally had the bird stabilized at 75 kts on final, with 500 fpm descent rate, I felt like we were descending in a more level attitude than we would have been in the 172. Any comments on that?
OK, now for the landings. The first two proved that I am very good at recovering from ballooning. LOL! I was just so worried because everyone had told me that the nose is very heavy. I believe the problem was flaring too fast to level. So, instead of leveling out a few feet over the runway, from which attitude I could slowly flare up as I would sink, I instead balooned up. Complicating matters on RWY 30 is the fact that there is that damned drop-off! No sweat, I just add a bit of power and lower the nose. But this isn't a 172, and a "bit" of power turns out to be enough to keep climbing, even with the nose down. Finally, I was able to ease off on the power slowly, flare slowly, and touch down very nicely. I just wish I could've avoided all of the shenanigans at 5-15 feet!
The next circuit found me way to high and fast, so we practiced a go-around. TRIM THAT NOSE DOWN, BABY, AND DO IT FAST, I mentally yelled at myself. (My CFI was very relaxed.)
Like anything, more practice makes for better results, and the last two landings were more stable. I really tried very hard to have everything stabilized as soon as possible for every leg of the pattern. In general, this meant that I had to be a bit more proactive with getting where I wanted to be with power and trim, as early as possible. With the crazy bumps--funny hearing the stall horn when you're straight and level, at 100 kts, but that's turbulence--I had to accept some wavering. The last two landings were much more organized, with less fiddling with the throttle before/during the flare. (I would have liked it better if I could've just cut the throttle on final, but I needed power to hold 75 kts.)
Funny that all of my touchdowns, for all the landings, were very soft. It is just that some of the antics on those earlier landings must have looked pretty funny as I seemed to clown around in the flare.
I think that I would need two more lessons, at least, before I would want to be signed off, and maybe ten flights before I felt comfortable actually using the plane to go anywhere.
So, I have a two questions for you:
1) Should I continue with this checkout? Right now, my tentative answer would be "yes," if I want to fly the Skylane with any regularity, but "no" otherwise.
2) Again, for Skylane drivers, what are your throttle/prop settings for downwind, base, and final? I want to do some chair flying.
In any event, I had a great time!
We decided to stay in the pattern today so we could focus on landings and trimming for the various airspeeds. With a 15-20 kt wind down the runway coupled with our light weight and cold temps we were off in NO TIME. I am not lying about this next statement: on this and every time, we were climbing at AT LEAST 1700 f.p.m., and usually at 2,000 f.p.m! I was supposed to climb away at Vy at 80 kts, but I couldn't do it--the deck angle was just too high for me. Instead, I climbed away at 85-90 kts, and still saw that amazing climb rate for at least 500 feet.
Still, almost immediately, it was time to throttle back to 23" and two turns on the prop. Even after that, the climb rate was very, very good. Remember how in the beginning of your flight training the plane was ahead of you, and not the other way around? Well, I started off this way. Even after the four landings, I was, at best, "with" the plane at the same time. There's definitely no time to think things through--right after you're done with something, it is time to do something else.
Now, my biggest difficulty was base and final. It was here that I was having problems getting the right airspeeds and descent rate. My CFI for the day pointed out that there were two factors that complicated things: 1) There is an area approaching RWY30 where you get a bad sink at first, followed by lift, and 2) the gusty winds were messin' with me. The drill was to try (and I mean "try") to get the 'Lane as stabilized as possible as soon as possible on both of those legs--just like any other plane. On the last two landings, things were getting better. Here's one weird thing, though: when I finally had the bird stabilized at 75 kts on final, with 500 fpm descent rate, I felt like we were descending in a more level attitude than we would have been in the 172. Any comments on that?
OK, now for the landings. The first two proved that I am very good at recovering from ballooning. LOL! I was just so worried because everyone had told me that the nose is very heavy. I believe the problem was flaring too fast to level. So, instead of leveling out a few feet over the runway, from which attitude I could slowly flare up as I would sink, I instead balooned up. Complicating matters on RWY 30 is the fact that there is that damned drop-off! No sweat, I just add a bit of power and lower the nose. But this isn't a 172, and a "bit" of power turns out to be enough to keep climbing, even with the nose down. Finally, I was able to ease off on the power slowly, flare slowly, and touch down very nicely. I just wish I could've avoided all of the shenanigans at 5-15 feet!
The next circuit found me way to high and fast, so we practiced a go-around. TRIM THAT NOSE DOWN, BABY, AND DO IT FAST, I mentally yelled at myself. (My CFI was very relaxed.)
Like anything, more practice makes for better results, and the last two landings were more stable. I really tried very hard to have everything stabilized as soon as possible for every leg of the pattern. In general, this meant that I had to be a bit more proactive with getting where I wanted to be with power and trim, as early as possible. With the crazy bumps--funny hearing the stall horn when you're straight and level, at 100 kts, but that's turbulence--I had to accept some wavering. The last two landings were much more organized, with less fiddling with the throttle before/during the flare. (I would have liked it better if I could've just cut the throttle on final, but I needed power to hold 75 kts.)
Funny that all of my touchdowns, for all the landings, were very soft. It is just that some of the antics on those earlier landings must have looked pretty funny as I seemed to clown around in the flare.
I think that I would need two more lessons, at least, before I would want to be signed off, and maybe ten flights before I felt comfortable actually using the plane to go anywhere.
So, I have a two questions for you:
1) Should I continue with this checkout? Right now, my tentative answer would be "yes," if I want to fly the Skylane with any regularity, but "no" otherwise.
2) Again, for Skylane drivers, what are your throttle/prop settings for downwind, base, and final? I want to do some chair flying.
In any event, I had a great time!
