Busy Week

The last few weeks have been pretty busy. Between work, school and family - there's been very little time to breathe, much less write.

Last weekend was my daughter's 8th birthday, which we celebrated nearly all day Saturday. Sunday, it was almost an entire day of ground briefs, sim time and Seneca time. Monday, I flew to Wickenburg and worked with the plan being to return Tuesday in the early afternoon. Mother nature decided that I should stay in Wickenburg longer. A cold front was pushing through Arizona and the winds were pretty wicked. At one time, Chandler was reporting winds of 260 @ 26 gusts to 35 knots. Max demonstrated crosswinds on the very nice 172SP G1000 I was flying are 15 knots and 260 is a direct crosswind for runway 17/35 at Stellar. Now I've accumulated a lot of hours in 172's and am confident in about any situation, but not that extreme.

The TAF for Sky Harbor said the winds would calm to 12 knots by 7pm, so I stayed in Wickenburg until about 6. This was my first night flight in a G1000 equipped plane and man is it sweet. I'm used to flying ancient crap with flickering, intermittent dash lighting. I have to say the combination of back lighting, LCD lights and the MFD really make for a pleasant night flying experience. Also, the Xenon HID landing lights are incredible. The landing light illuminates the runway from 1500' out. Nice. Since I was enjoying myself, I went to Chandler for a few stop and goes before returning to Stellar to keep my night currency. The winds were still stiff and a direct crosswind when I returned to Stellar, but it was manageable.

Wednesday, I finally got around to taking my FAA Commercial Pilot written exam. I have been so busy lately that complacency was taking over. FAA regs require 141/142 students to sit for the written exam within 14 days after completing ground school and I was right there. Although I didn't feel ready, it worked out fine. 90. As long as I get 90 or above on my FAA exams, I'm satisfied. I think 90 or above makes the oral portion of the practical exam a little quicker. If you squeak by, I hear that DE's spend a little more time on the oral exam.

After the test, I drove to Falcon for a check out in a 1976 182. I was excited about the horsepower, but the plane that I flew was a fright pig. When I say this, I say it not as a snob who flies aircraft with glass cockpits and other niceties. I say it as a guy who also flies ancient, rode hard and put away wet trainers on a very regular basis. The avionics were lousy. The seats wobbled. The comm radio antenna wasn't shielded properly or something. A country radio station bled through the entire flight on any channel on either comm radio. The GPS was...yeah right. The winds weren't too bad and a 182 really doesn't handle that much differently than a 172. Due to the increased engine weight, it does sink a little faster. When it came time to demonstrate some landings, it wouldn't happen. The first one was awful. A bounce and waaay off center line. The second was a little better, but not really acceptable. The instructor (who has over 300 hours in 182's) says, "let me take the next one". I enthusiastically say "YOUR CONTROLS". He bounced the thing three times and nearly took us off the runway as he pushed the throttle full forward. I said, "MY CONTROLS" and "this concludes my checkout in this 182". The full stop was on the wider runway and miraculously, very smooth.

Once we were safely on the ground, he said that he personally hated this particular plane. After parking, we checked the rudder trim, tires and a few other things and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. At that point, I chose never to fly this particular 182 ever again. No thanks.

This is getting long winded. More later.