Flying the Sportsman

Today I finally got to get some flight time in the Glasair Sportsman 2+2.  I have made two previous trips up to Arlington, WA to the factory to fly one, but the weather has never worked out.  Today however it was a beautiful sunny day and I made it up there to go fly.  My thanks goes out to Nick for working me into his schedule on short notice to fly the Sportsman and to take it to lunch.  The demo aircraft I flew was a fiberglass Sportsman with the IO-390 Lycoming engine and the two-blade Hartzell propeller.

After looking over the plane and talking a bit we taxied the plane out and did a run-up before departing.  The plane taxied with great ease and the castering nose wheel made it feel much like the Cirrus, so adapting to it wasn’t a big deal.  We did our run-up and departed Arlington Municipal (KAWO) climbing to 4500’ direct to Roche Harbor (WA09).  Airspeeds are all a bit different than the Cirrus in that we rotated at 60kts with Vx being 75 and Vy being 85.  Right off the bat I was really impressed with the responsiveness and the push back into the seat that the IO-390 provided.  At 210hp, it has a lot of snap and we were off the ground very quickly.  Climbing to altitude went very quickly since the plane has plenty of ability with full fuel an only two of us on board.  Without trying we were easily 1000-1500’ fpm climb.  Once at altitude, I fiddled around with the Advanced Flight 5000 PFD/MFD.  The plane was really easy to fly and getting it trimmed out was much easier than any Cirrus I have ever flown.  It too has electric trim the trim hat on the stick like the Cirrus, but the motor was significantly more smooth and not hyper sensitive like in the Cirrus.  The plane trims nice and easy and stays put.  Flying the plane takes nothing more than you finger and thumb and feels a lot like a Diamond DA40, very smooth.

We descended down into Roche Harbor and my first awkwardness of the flight took place.   I am pretty used to flying a Cirrus which has a much higher pattern speed, so when I entered the pattern, Nick was trying to get me to slow down.  It was just a totally different sight picture for me.  As we turned final, I felt way high and was still fast at 75 knots IAS and Nick told me to put the throttle to idle and point the nose down.   I am more used to a gradual approach to land, but in this case we were pointed down pretty steep and I was faster than needed to be (should be 65kts or lower).  We got over the fence, I flared and she set down with a little plop.  Nick said it was a good landing, however I felt it was a bit of a bump.  As it turned out this is normal and how it was designed so that when you are flying in the back country the plane plants to get you on the ground.  It wasn’t hard, just different than I’m used to.   If you keep a little power on, it will land nice and smoothly with little effort.  We taxied to park and headed to lunch.

This was my first time to Roche Harbor and man it is really cool!  This would be the perfect place to take a wife or significant other for a weekend getaway.  Landing at this private airport costs $10, but the walk to town is only about a block to the harbor.  You can also rent mopeds or little three wheeled vehicles too.  We walked down to a great little café on the harbor and had a great burger.  Unfortunately I forgot the name of the place and can’t find it on the Internet, but the food was really good.

After lunch we walked back up to the plane and departed for Arlington.  On the way back we climbed to 5500’ and I did some air work.  Turns, slow flight with turns, and power off stalls.  The plane was really docile and controllable.  Stalls were a non-event with an easy break, but no buffet.  After some air work we leveled off at 5500’ with very little wind we had the plane trimmed out to 24” of manifold pressure at 2500 RPMs and leaned to 11.6 GPH.   The plane was showing 133kts indicated, 149kts true and 154kts ground.  That’s pretty darn good for this configuration and would easily out run most certified aircraft on the market.

I fiddled some more with the Advanced glass which worked pretty well.  The symbology is a little different than what I’m used to, but it’s fairly intuitive.  This aircraft also had synthetic vision, which also worked really well and was pretty accurate.  The autopilot was the one thing that didn’t work so well, but it may have been that I couldn’t figure that one out and Nick was pretty new to the team as well and didn’t know it all that well yet either.  The MFD/PFD combo has a lot of utility, but the numerous buttons and knobs take some getting used to.  I think the system would be pretty decent with some time, but my choice would be the new Garmin G3x Touch with the Garmin autopilot and the GMC 305 control panel.  This new system gives you everything the G1000 does and more for a fraction of the cost.  

We got back to Arlington and did a couple of touch and goes and then called it a day.  My overall impressions of the aircraft are really good.  It’s an amazing airplane with serious utility and flexibility.   I have been a little apprehensive about the overall internal size, but it’s actually really wide and much bigger inside than you would think.  They say its four inches wider than a Cessna 182.  The bubble windows probably help too, but even with the two of us in it, we weren’t bumping arms or anything.  The seats are comfortable and the visibility is great out the front and down the sides.  The high wing makes looking out above very limited, but in a turn there are two windows above your head that allow you to look out.  Overall I think this plane is a serious contender for my future hanger and I think doing a Two Week to Taxi (TWTT) program is the way to go and a great experience as well.  Time will tell what route we go, but like I said, I’m really impressed with this aircraft.  I only wish I could get more time in it to get a better feel for it and some more flight time.