clumpinglitter (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} clumpinglitter) wrote,@ 2007-01-20 20:18:00 |
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rock star airplane
The airplane for our new club, North Star Flyers, is ready for checkouts now. C is going to check me out, and after that, I can check other people out. This should be a fun flight after my crappy day. This Sundowner has spiffy purple and sparkly silver stripes. It has two nav/comm radios, a backup altimeter, and an ADF. Airspeed is in knots. I like the throttle quadrant with the carb heat in the middle. It will be harder doing the checkout in the dark, but we may as well do it while we're both around. The panel light rheostat has been removed for repair, so C will hold a flashlight while I fly. There's also a red overhead light, so that will help.
It's hard to taxi a Sundowner, especially because you have to keep holding the goofy Beech spring-loaded ailerons to position them for wind. It's also hard to track in a straight line without any use of light brakes. We go off to the practice area, and I do steep turns, slow flight, and stalls. This airplane is very sensitive to mixture, so we keep it full rich for the steep turns -- even that small power increase is enough to make the engine stumble. It does cough a bit on recovery from the power-off stall. It's a little disconcerting, but not a big deal at all. This airplane stalls like the low-wing Pipers I'm used to -- nicely behaved, mushy, and docile.
We go back for landings -- I fly three patterns. Tower is very impressed with us -- the controller really likes the airplane's lights. Wait until he sees it in the daylight! It's cold, and the airplane climbs like it's hair is on fire -- I turn crosswind at pattern altitude, and we haven't even crossed the end of the runway yet. Fun! I'm officially checked out now as far as insurance is concerned, and I can start giving dual. Since I'm down to one student after Monday, it's time to go figure out how to find more. Thinking about it, I've never gotten any business through the skool -- it's all been referrals. But the referrals have mostly come from people affiliated with the skool. If anyone has suggestions for me, do share. In the meantime, I'm going to spend more time flying this airplane.
The airplane for our new club, North Star Flyers, is ready for checkouts now. C is going to check me out, and after that, I can check other people out. This should be a fun flight after my crappy day. This Sundowner has spiffy purple and sparkly silver stripes. It has two nav/comm radios, a backup altimeter, and an ADF. Airspeed is in knots. I like the throttle quadrant with the carb heat in the middle. It will be harder doing the checkout in the dark, but we may as well do it while we're both around. The panel light rheostat has been removed for repair, so C will hold a flashlight while I fly. There's also a red overhead light, so that will help.
It's hard to taxi a Sundowner, especially because you have to keep holding the goofy Beech spring-loaded ailerons to position them for wind. It's also hard to track in a straight line without any use of light brakes. We go off to the practice area, and I do steep turns, slow flight, and stalls. This airplane is very sensitive to mixture, so we keep it full rich for the steep turns -- even that small power increase is enough to make the engine stumble. It does cough a bit on recovery from the power-off stall. It's a little disconcerting, but not a big deal at all. This airplane stalls like the low-wing Pipers I'm used to -- nicely behaved, mushy, and docile.
We go back for landings -- I fly three patterns. Tower is very impressed with us -- the controller really likes the airplane's lights. Wait until he sees it in the daylight! It's cold, and the airplane climbs like it's hair is on fire -- I turn crosswind at pattern altitude, and we haven't even crossed the end of the runway yet. Fun! I'm officially checked out now as far as insurance is concerned, and I can start giving dual. Since I'm down to one student after Monday, it's time to go figure out how to find more. Thinking about it, I've never gotten any business through the skool -- it's all been referrals. But the referrals have mostly come from people affiliated with the skool. If anyone has suggestions for me, do share. In the meantime, I'm going to spend more time flying this airplane.
