So it has been a while since I have flown last. With the Cirrus sold back in May, I have flown only one time and that was during my biannual flight review/DA40 checkout at Boeing Field. I was pretty excited about that flight since I had about 35 hours in a DA40 already and I really like the aircraft. Unfortunately, the flight school at Boeing Field that has the Diamonds treats flying like a self-licking ice cream cone or herpes in that it’s like the gift that keeps on giving (in a negative sort of way). First off their prices are pretty steep at $180/hr wet, but on top of that there is a $30 “fuel surcharge”, so you’re really looking at $210/hr. I rented a like new DA40 in Kansas City that was $155/hr. What irked me even more is that you have to do a checkride to rent the aircraft, a checkride to fly at night, and a checkride to fly IFR. It doesn’t matter how current you are or how much you fly, they just want to milk more money out of you and I just don’t agree with that. The planes are decent, but pretty well used and the whole organization made me feel kind of dirty the way they do business, so I continued to look elsewhere.
As I looked around I came across a really awesome flight school
with great aircraft, great prices, great atmosphere, and an ownership attitude
that is committed to helping people to fly.
They have a great fleet of aircraft (3x C162s, 1x C172 with steam
gauges, 1x C172 G1000, 1x PA28RT, 1x American Champ Taildragger/float plane,
and a nice Red Bird Simulator). Although
I have been trying to get scheduled in the C172 G1000 now for over two months,
its limited availability due to all the private pilots renting it (very
popular) it’s almost impossible to get.
I have had it scheduled twice, but had to cancel due to IFR weather and
you can’t do an aircraft checkout in IMC.
My IFR also lapse, so I have to get that current again before I can
actually fly in the IFR system again. I
did notice though that the Arrow isn’t flown very much and since I have over
150hrs in an Arrow, I thought that might be the ticket for me. Hourly price on the Arrow was only $145/hr
wet which was also a pretty good deal for a complex aircraft. Arrows are fairly fast and this one has
semi-updated avionics (new GTN750), and a descent useful load that would allow
me to fly the family around since this aircraft is available for overnight
travel.
So today I met up with my instructor Jack and we talked a
bit, did preflight and went out and did some air work. Jack is a pretty knowledgeable instructor and
pretty laid back, so we got along well.
After flying around a bit and showing me all the landmarks we came in
and did three touch and go’s and the checkride was complete. It was probably the easiest checkride I have
done to date, but then again I used to fly an Arrow a lot, so it came back
fairly quickly. One thing that will take
some time though is working on my instrument scan. Being that my last 614 hours have been behind
glass cockpits, I find I’m a bit lost going back to steam gauges again. This of course will come back with more time
in the plane, so I’m not too worried about it.
Although the plane is ok, I must admit, my Arrow seemed like
it was much newer than this one even though it was 13 years older. Mine had 2500 fewer hours on it and was
really like new inside and out. The new
GPS in this Arrow was pretty awesome and the paint looks great on the plane,
but he interior definitely needs some work and all of the systems seem to be
real stiff and tough to move. Rudder,
throttle, prop, mixture, yoke all felt real heavy and tough to move. Maybe I have just gotten used to how easy the
Cirrus flies and how responsive it is to inputs, but this thing felt like I was
flying a truck. This particular Arrow
being built in 1980 is a PA28RT, a T-Tail and that might have something to do
with it too. I had always heard that
they fly a bit different and I would seem to agree with that. I really noticed it when trying to land in
that I seemed like I kept running out of elevator when flaring and had a
difficult time getting the nose up. Jack
said that my landings were better than most and had no issues, but to me they
just felt crappy, so I will have to work on those a bit to get them
perfect. I guess flying the Arrow again
will take some getting used to, but regardless it was really great to be flying
again. I miss the freedom and challenge
of flying and I look forward to getting some more time in the Arrow to get
familiar with its quirks and then it will be time to do a Instrument
Proficiency Check (IPC) and get back my IFR privileges again. Life is good!
