Da plane, Da Plane, I flew Da plane!

Yesterday was the day! To paraphrase the opening of an old TV show,
"Da Plane, Da Plane, I flew Da Plane".

I hadn't flown since the end of last March so I had some questions,
but felt confident I could still fly. How well was different matter.

We were supposed to head out around 3:00 PM so I was there about 2:00
with gas for the tug and a battery charger just-in-case (again for the
tug:-))

The annual was finished up last week with Jim and Dave taking the Deb
out for a good test flight. It was also a chance for Jim to check out
Dave in the Deb and reports are that he did well. When you move up
into high performance, complex, retract the insurance doesn't let just
any one fly and they have some pretty strong requirements like 750
total time, instrument rated, 20 in make and model, and at least 200
retract time.

Maynord who is also a CFI, CFII, retired commercial pilot and who
knows what else turned up while I was trying to open up the hangar.
The airport operators have been fixing up the area but overdid it near
the doors which was causing them to bind a bit. That made opening the
doors a two man job.

At any rate, I preflighted the Deb in the hangar (it was cold and
windy outside). The tug (Cub Cadet) started right up, so I let it warm
up while doing the preflight. I loaded all my flight *stuff* into the
Deb and then pulled it out of the hangar. As I was already hooked up I
used the Tug to take it over to the gas pumps. It took about 44
gallons to fill so I know they gave it a good test flight. :-))

Other than having to remember where a few things were located, I had
no problems firing up and taxiing to the run up area at the end of 24.
I told Maynord I just wanted to go out and get reacquainted with the
old girl and find out if I had picked up any adverse reactions.

The run up, mag check at 2100, cycle prop at 1900 went just find other
than being cold it took a lot of force to move the prop control and
that is a brand new cable.

So, after a thorough run up, a check for traffic, and we were rolling
on 24 with a good cross wind about 60 degrees from the left and patchy
ice all over the place. 800 feet and we were up and climbing with the
low level winds giving a bit of wobble here and there. gear up once
landing straight ahead on the runway was out of the question. I took
the Deb up to 3,000 over the airport before departing to the North
toward the practice area and closed the cowl flaps. At about 4500,
trimmed for level flight I made a gentle turn to the right followed
by one to the left while we checked for traffic. It felt like we
were on rails. I love that feeling. So With another quick visual
check I rolled left with the bank coming right up to 60 degrees and
pulled back on the yoke. Once around and the altitude stayed within
about 20 feet so it was on the roll out I just continued the roll to
the left to 60 degrees and another pull. Around we went again.

Rolling out of the second steep turn our speed was down to 120 (which
it should be I made a 90 degree turn to 090 so the sun was at our
backs and eased the nose up. The speed bleed off rapidly to around
60 MPH indicated (CAS) before the stall warning went off. A bit more
nose up was greeted by a sharp bump. One bump that feels like some
one grabbed the tail and jerked. That's the only warning you get in
the Deb. The next bump will be the stall if you don't ease off on the
yoke back pressure and the stall came with an abrupt break and slight
drop of the left wing. (I was a little slow on the right rudder) and
we were back to flying with the application of a little power.

Another visual check of the area while the gear and flaps were coming
down and I was needlessly mentioning to Maynord the Deb was not nearly
as docile in the landing configuration. (he's one of the very few
competent instructors who knows the Bonanzas inside and out). Again
the hard bump telling us of the Deb's impending plans followed by a
sharp break and abrupt drop of the left wing that was stopped by
plenty of right rudder. At the stop of the roll we were already at
flying speed as I eased the nose up while applying power. Even with
the sharp break and wing drop we lost very little altitude.

Then it was some lazy eights. Civilian lazy eights that is even as
tempting as the military eights might be. These too went well and
then I just flew around for a while to have some fun. On the way back
I flew out to the west to show Maynord where I lived and discovered we
live less than 3 miles apart.

Then it was back to the airport to see if I still remembered how to
land. The airport advisory brought "winds out of the SW at 12 G 14"
which wasn't bad at all. OTOH the tetrahedron looked like they were
due South. I used the turn to down wind for 24 to bleed off enough
speed to get the gear down (max gear down speed = 140) quickly
followed by about 15 degrees of flaps as the Deb slowed below 120. As
I slowed to 110 which is the normal down wind speed and was preparing
to turn base, Maynord remarked: "You know, you are doing something I
seldom see other pilots do", which immediately had me thinking, "Now
where did I screw up? I thought I was doing so good". So I responded
with a noncommittal, "and that is?" along with a raised eyebrow. His
reply surprised me although it shouldn't have. "You are staying in
close which is good. I find most pilots fly a pattern two to three
times this size even in a 172."

Although the surface winds were a bit squirrely coming in over the
fairgrounds I managed a reasonable and gentle landing on the left
main, but with a bit of a bounce. So we taxied back for one more try.
this time I did a short field TO and was well in the air by the 800
foot mark and had to start the toll a good hundred feet from the end
of the runway due to the ice. This time I just made the base
descending U-turn from down wind to final and again set down just past
the numbers. No bounce this time, but a bit of a thump.

So I guess I've managed to remember how to fly the Deb and although
Maynord said the landings were good, I felt they were a bit sloppy.
Then again it had been 9 months and one week since my previous
landing.

Other her than having to stop and remember where some things were
located it felt quite natural and as if I'd never really been away.
Next time (after all this sloppy weather clears) we're going to be
doing a bunch of approaches and squeeze in a biennial review.

BTW, I threw the camera in to shoot some photos of the first flight
and never even thought to take it out of the case.

Roger (K8RI)
N833R, World's Oldest Debonair
www.rogerhalstead.com Personal page

I hadn't flown since the end of last March so I had some questions,
but felt confident I could still fly. How well was different matter.

Forgive me for asking, Roger -- why did you not fly for so long?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in news:ES4gj.23776$Ux2.20445
@attbi_s22:

I hadn't flown since the end of last March so I had some questions,
but felt confident I could still fly. How well was different matter.

Forgive me for asking, Roger -- why did you not fly for so long?

May e he didn';t have a couple of dozen illegal imigrants to do all his
work for them.

Bertie

Nice job, Rog... My compliments....

73
denny

On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:39:48 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

I hadn't flown since the end of last March so I had some questions,
but felt confident I could still fly. How well was different matter.

Forgive me for asking, Roger -- why did you not fly for so long?

Ah, just a bit of a problem with my left leg and arm, but they finally
told me it was all in my head. :-))


Roger

"Roger (K8RI)" wrote

Ah, just a bit of a problem with my left leg and arm, but they finally
told me it was all in my head. :-))

Just a bad stroke of luck, right ? g
--
Jim in NC

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 15:59:35 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Roger (K8RI)" wrote

Ah, just a bit of a problem with my left leg and arm, but they finally
told me it was all in my head. :-))

Just a bad stroke of luck, right ? g

Yup, I can tell I'm in a pilot's group and the puns are starting to
fly with a single stroke.:-))

Roger (K8RI)

Hey you old reprobate; congratulations on getting it done. I take it you
managed to climb the tower without breaking your neck as well :-))
This is great news Rog!!!!! I know how much work you have put into the
rehab and I'm tickled pink the result has been so good.
Dudley



Roger (K8RI) wrote:
Yesterday was the day! To paraphrase the opening of an old TV show,
"Da Plane, Da Plane, I flew Da Plane".

I hadn't flown since the end of last March so I had some questions,
but felt confident I could still fly. How well was different matter.

We were supposed to head out around 3:00 PM so I was there about 2:00
with gas for the tug and a battery charger just-in-case (again for the
tug:-))

The annual was finished up last week with Jim and Dave taking the Deb
out for a good test flight. It was also a chance for Jim to check out
Dave in the Deb and reports are that he did well. When you move up
into high performance, complex, retract the insurance doesn't let just
any one fly and they have some pretty strong requirements like 750
total time, instrument rated, 20 in make and model, and at least 200
retract time.

Maynord who is also a CFI, CFII, retired commercial pilot and who
knows what else turned up while I was trying to open up the hangar.
The airport operators have been fixing up the area but overdid it near
the doors which was causing them to bind a bit. That made opening the
doors a two man job.

At any rate, I preflighted the Deb in the hangar (it was cold and
windy outside). The tug (Cub Cadet) started right up, so I let it warm
up while doing the preflight. I loaded all my flight *stuff* into the
Deb and then pulled it out of the hangar. As I was already hooked up I
used the Tug to take it over to the gas pumps. It took about 44
gallons to fill so I know they gave it a good test flight. :-))

Other than having to remember where a few things were located, I had
no problems firing up and taxiing to the run up area at the end of 24.
I told Maynord I just wanted to go out and get reacquainted with the
old girl and find out if I had picked up any adverse reactions.

The run up, mag check at 2100, cycle prop at 1900 went just find other
than being cold it took a lot of force to move the prop control and
that is a brand new cable.

So, after a thorough run up, a check for traffic, and we were rolling
on 24 with a good cross wind about 60 degrees from the left and patchy
ice all over the place. 800 feet and we were up and climbing with the
low level winds giving a bit of wobble here and there. gear up once
landing straight ahead on the runway was out of the question. I took
the Deb up to 3,000 over the airport before departing to the North
toward the practice area and closed the cowl flaps. At about 4500,
trimmed for level flight I made a gentle turn to the right followed
by one to the left while we checked for traffic. It felt like we
were on rails. I love that feeling. So With another quick visual
check I rolled left with the bank coming right up to 60 degrees and
pulled back on the yoke. Once around and the altitude stayed within
about 20 feet so it was on the roll out I just continued the roll to
the left to 60 degrees and another pull. Around we went again.

Rolling out of the second steep turn our speed was down to 120 (which
it should be I made a 90 degree turn to 090 so the sun was at our
backs and eased the nose up. The speed bleed off rapidly to around
60 MPH indicated (CAS) before the stall warning went off. A bit more
nose up was greeted by a sharp bump. One bump that feels like some
one grabbed the tail and jerked. That's the only warning you get in
the Deb. The next bump will be the stall if you don't ease off on the
yoke back pressure and the stall came with an abrupt break and slight
drop of the left wing. (I was a little slow on the right rudder) and
we were back to flying with the application of a little power.

Another visual check of the area while the gear and flaps were coming
down and I was needlessly mentioning to Maynord the Deb was not nearly
as docile in the landing configuration. (he's one of the very few
competent instructors who knows the Bonanzas inside and out). Again
the hard bump telling us of the Deb's impending plans followed by a
sharp break and abrupt drop of the left wing that was stopped by
plenty of right rudder. At the stop of the roll we were already at
flying speed as I eased the nose up while applying power. Even with
the sharp break and wing drop we lost very little altitude.

Then it was some lazy eights. Civilian lazy eights that is even as
tempting as the military eights might be. These too went well and
then I just flew around for a while to have some fun. On the way back
I flew out to the west to show Maynord where I lived and discovered we
live less than 3 miles apart.

Then it was back to the airport to see if I still remembered how to
land. The airport advisory brought "winds out of the SW at 12 G 14"
which wasn't bad at all. OTOH the tetrahedron looked like they were
due South. I used the turn to down wind for 24 to bleed off enough
speed to get the gear down (max gear down speed = 140) quickly
followed by about 15 degrees of flaps as the Deb slowed below 120. As
I slowed to 110 which is the normal down wind speed and was preparing
to turn base, Maynord remarked: "You know, you are doing something I
seldom see other pilots do", which immediately had me thinking, "Now
where did I screw up? I thought I was doing so good". So I responded
with a noncommittal, "and that is?" along with a raised eyebrow. His
reply surprised me although it shouldn't have. "You are staying in
close which is good. I find most pilots fly a pattern two to three
times this size even in a 172."

Although the surface winds were a bit squirrely coming in over the
fairgrounds I managed a reasonable and gentle landing on the left
main, but with a bit of a bounce. So we taxied back for one more try.
this time I did a short field TO and was well in the air by the 800
foot mark and had to start the toll a good hundred feet from the end
of the runway due to the ice. This time I just made the base
descending U-turn from down wind to final and again set down just past
the numbers. No bounce this time, but a bit of a thump.

So I guess I've managed to remember how to fly the Deb and although
Maynord said the landings were good, I felt they were a bit sloppy.
Then again it had been 9 months and one week since my previous
landing.

Other her than having to stop and remember where some things were
located it felt quite natural and as if I'd never really been away.
Next time (after all this sloppy weather clears) we're going to be
doing a bunch of approaches and squeeze in a biennial review.

BTW, I threw the camera in to shoot some photos of the first flight
and never even thought to take it out of the case.

Roger (K8RI)
N833R, World's Oldest Debonair
www.rogerhalstead.com Personal page


--
Dudley Henriques

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 07:09:35 -0800 (PST), Denny
wrote:

Nice job, Rog... My compliments....
Thanks Denny. You know the work I had to do to get this far.
AS you also know there are no guarantees and life didn't come with a
warranty, but I'm looking forward to eventually getting out there by
myself.

Roger (K8RI)

73
denny

Forgive me for asking, Roger -- why did you not fly for so long?

Ah, just a bit of a problem with my left leg and arm, but they finally
told me it was all in my head. :-))

Speaking as someone who comes from a family where literally EVERYONE has had
a stroke before they died (going back as far as I can check), I understand
what you must have gone through to get that medical back.

Glad you've made a comeback!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"