Jay Honeck wrote:
BTW: I'm talking about mogas here. Dunno what avgas is doing, as I try to
avoid using that nasty stuff in my plane.


My FBO ran a special in their newsletter last month immediately before the gas
crunch hit: PA-28R rental at $101/hr for the entire month of September (down
from $120/hr). I have no idea what avgas is costing them but I took advantage
of the deal to get checked out this morning in their old Arrow B. Had a very
pleasant checkout with an ATP instructor who challenged me quite a bit.

The aircraft really had no foibles as far as I could see: the paint was
acceptable, the interior was in excellent repair, and it had a nice panel with a
Garmin 430, KX-155, autopilot and frankly I don't remember what else. It
cranked up instantly when I applied my old tried and true "injected engine start
procedure" (see recent thread on started the new C-172s).

The engine was strong and acceleration was brisk. Tracked right down the runway
and popped off in a lively fashion... positive rate...gear up... raised the
flaps, then reduced to climb power. She (the ATP) got on my ass a little
because I started to turn out of the pattern before I got to 400'. Old habits
are hard to break.

Anyway, we climbed into the hazy but smooth air and leveled off at 2500'
followed by two clearing turns followed by two steep turns; one in each
direction. We followed that up with slow flight (clean and dirty) and then
stalls (dirty and then clean). I swear I saw the edge of the atmosphere just as
the clean stall broke!

Although I can't say the same, that airplane just had no bad habits. It didn't
try to drop a wing or do anything other than fall straight forward as the stalls
broke.

Emergency landing simulation was uneventful. Pulling the prop back all the way
makes the airplane feel like it just "relaxed". Of course, like most Cherokees,
it doesn't glide worth a damn.

We went back to try some landings: normal, short field, and soft field. All
were greasers. (Of course!) I had problems with the short field landing... she
wanted me to cross the numbers at 50' and then touch down 1000' down the runway.
I crossed the numbers at 50' all right but I sure didn't make it 1000' beyond.
I'm used to touching down on the numbers or within 100 feet or so which scares
the hell out of some instructors but used to make my old chief pilot happy.
"Make every landing a short field landing and you don't have to do anything
different when you really have to make one." I suppose I could have floated
down the runway if I'd have added some power but that offends me.

Finally there was the soft field landing. The ATP reminded me that you are
supposed to keep the nose up as long as possible after touchdown. I showed her
there was no travel left in the yoke: We arrived at a full stall half an inch
off the runway and greased it on. What can I say?

I guess if I had to whine about anything it would fall into three areas: no
stall horn. I like stall horns. The pitch becomes more insistent the closer to
the stall you get... it really gives you another way to rachet up the drama
waiting for the stall to break. Anyway, this airplane had a stall light. That
would have been OK but it was mounted on the far left hand side of the panel.
If you want to catch my eye, you need to be FRONT and CENTER.

The fuel selector didn't have any particular detent that I felt when I changed
tanks. I mentioned this to the ATP along with the comment: "This might get
exciting in a moment". Fortunately, it didn't.

Finally, I'd forgotten how tight the cabin was from side to side. I had to
stuff my big hands into the space between the seats to adjust the trim or to
play with the autogear override. It was a bit tighter than I'd prefer.

All in all, a very pleasant morning with a fine flight instructor and a honest
old bird. And I'm glad I didn't have to pay a fuel premium.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE