In a previous article, EDR said:
In article , Paul Tomblin
wrote:
Maybe because I was flying the club's Lance for the first time, they
thought I was a pro? :-)

Well... when are you going to write up your first experience for us?

Oh sorry. I wrote a tiny bit in my blog, but not much.

This is a straight tail Lance with a Hershey Bar wing. I'm used to
Warriors, Archers and Dakotas, all with tapered wings.

The plane is big and heavy compared to what I'm used to. The first thing
other than the fact that my 250lb instructor and I (also 250lb) weren't
touching each other and blocking access to the trim wheel that I noticed
was it seemed very hard to keep the wheel on the stripe while taxing. The
next thing is that after 10 years of starting every radio call with
"Cherokee blah blah" it's hard to get used to saying "Lance blah blah".

You have to be smooth putting in power, because the engine is so big. It
gets off the runway pretty much like a Archer (not as spritely as a
Dakota), but needs a LOT of right rudder. As the runway slides by below
you, you pull the gear up and pull back 100 rpm. 100 rpm is a very tiny
nudge on the blue lever. It climbs out at a decent rate, but again
nothing like the Dakota.

Once I got to 3,000 feet I found I needed a LOT of forward trim, and it
still kept climbing every time turned my attention elsewhere.
Surprisingly, 150 knots seems WAY faster than the 120-130 I'm used to with
the Dakota.

Did some turns, some steep turns, a couple of stalls, some slow flight,
just trying to get a feel for plane. It does NOT like to go slow - it's a
big wallowy pig, even worse than the taperwings.

A couple of times I reduced power enough to trigger the backup gear
extension, so I had to put it in override when I wanted to go slow.

Went over the Batavia to the uncontrolled airport there to do some
landings. Didn't want to do a touch and go first, so we did a full stop
and a taxi-back. Slowed down to 90 knots by the time we turned base,
checked three green on downwind, base and final. Kept a pretty steady 90
knots all the way down final, reduced power for round out, but kept some
in to keep it from thumping down. Once we were in the flare, reduced
power all the way, and flared with the nose very high (you don't want to
let the nose wheel touch too early, as it's fragile). Did two t&gs, and
another full stop (I needed to pee) and then headed back to Rochester.
Shot the ILS 22 at 120 knots. Man, when you look up at 200 AGL and see
the ground whipping by at 120, it sure looks fast. After going visual,
didn't touch anything until round out, then smoothly brought the power
back and flared and landed.

Woo wee, that's a nice airplane. I can't wait to load up the family and
go somewhere in it.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
When you need a helpline for breakfast cereals, it's about time to think
about tearing down civilisation and giving the ants a go.
-- Chris King