New aircraft type to fly – My Warrior

I’ve just started flying in a new airplane. My private pilot training was done almost exclusively in the little Cessna 150’s, good airplanes that are small in size and power, but fun to fly around and great to learn in. I also flew one lesson in a Cessna 172, which is noticeably larger (four seats), more powerful, and more stable in the air.

A close equivalent to the 172 is the Piper Cherokee. Later models of the Cherokee include the Warrior, designated as the PA-28-151. It has a low-wing, four seats and a 150-horsepower engine. I was fortunate enough to find out about a Warrior based at Twin Oaks Airpark, my home airport. It’s been sitting in a hangar and not flying very much over the past few years, and while the interior is dated and tired, it is in pretty darned good shape and all the radios work, it has a current annual, and checked out okay. So, I test flew it myself and had it checked out by a mechanic, which is what you do if you plan to fly an unfamiliar aircraft a lot.

And then I bought it. For something akin to a steal of a price. Yes, you read that right: I own an airplane. It cost less (a whole lot less, in fact) than my truck. Airplanes can be much more affordable than people think. Most people I know are driving cars and SUVs that cost substantially more than this aircraft. I got a very reasonable price, thanks in part to the current economy and the deflation of airplane selling prices over the past few months. This airplane would have sold for almost twice as much a few years ago. In short, it looks to be a great time to but an airplane if you’re in the market and can afford one (there’s more than just the purchase cost involved in owning an airplane. Just spend a lot of time looking around, and don’t pay the asking price – It will almost certainly be too high. My purchase price was around 25% less than the asking price, if that tells you anything.

The plane’s tail number is N639MR (link goes to a web site I set up for it), and here’s what it looks like (click on each of the images to view larger):

 

Over the past few days I received some dual instruction in the airplane from my flight instructor at Fly-Oregon.com, Kelly. Being properly checked-out, I was able to fly about 1.5 hours solo yesterday for the first time. I did several take-off’s and landings at a couple airfields, and then flew to Portland-Hillsboro airport, where I met up with my friend and fellow pilot Dave. He got on board and we flew for a couple hours. We had a great time. Dave will also be flying the plane, as he’ll be building time while he works toward his professional pilot goals. I got to fly over my house for the first time and did two night landings.

Flying a low-wing plane, not to mention a larger and heavier airframe, presents some real differences compared to the little high-wing Cessna 150. Ground effect in the Warrior is much more pronounced thanks to the low wing, so a proper approach speed at landing is fairly critical in order to avoid floating in the air down the runway (especially if there’s any tail-wind). It’s very stable in wind and turbulent air, and flies wonderfully. And it climbs much faster and higher than my little training aircraft.

It is also a great cross-country flier, and makes respectable airspeed even though it’s not a super fast bird. Visibility outside is quite good – much better than in the C150. It’s comfortable, will get you where you want to go relatively quickly, and is quite fuel-efficient in cruise. I can likely burn less gas in the aircraft that I would driving over the ground on long trips (and get there much faster). I’m looking forward to visiting some fun places and using the plane as an alternative to airliners here and there!

Still flying and studying - Night flight, prep for check ride

I haven't posted an update in a while, but I have been flying and preparing for my check ride with the FAA examiner. I flew today for about 30 minutes, just to get a few laps around the pattern in since the weather was agreeable mid-day and I had about an hour to spare. I've been trying to grab a free airplane here and there on days like today, just to practice different take-off's and landings and to keep sharp. The weather has been a challenge much of the time the past couple months, so taking advantage of VFR windows is important.

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly a 180-horsepower Cessna 172 Skyhawk (N734KU) for the first time. On top of that, it was a night flight with my instructor, and a friend of mine who is also a pilot jumped in the back seat for the flight. On top of that, our flight was to Portland International Airport (PDX), another first for me. PDX is a Class-C airport with a bunch of big, long runways and big, fast airplanes flying in and out.

The 180HP Cessna 172 is a lot more airplane than the little Cessna 150's I've been flying to date. There's plenty of elbow and shoulder room and it's a rocket, relatively speaking. The sight picture looking out the windscreen is different than a C150, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It was nice to fly a bigger, solid airplane and see what's different. Any dreams I might have had of someday buying a 150 were pretty much crushed that night. Heh.

PDX was an interesting airport to fly into. Luckily it wasn't too busy, but there were a couple handfuls of airliners and corporate jets arriving and departing. The tower controller gave me instructions to set up for a left-hand approach to the runway that runs west-east next to the Columbia River, and Kelly (my instructor) handled some of the radio traffic for me, since I was flying a different airplane at night into a huge airport with lots of airplanes.

We got squeezed in for our landings between 737's and Airbuses, as well as a couple corporate jets. The controller let me do a few full stops and touch-and-goes, which was surprising. I kind of expected I'd have to leave after the first landing, but I guess it wasn't too busy there after all (could've fooled me though!). Each time I landed he's ask if I wanted another one, and after finishing a few we let him know we'd get out of his hair and head over to Hillsboro. At HIO I did some more landings and then headed back to Twin Oaks for one last landing. It was a great flight and a lot of fun, and it was fun to be at the controls with my friend Dave in the back seat. I can't wait until we can go flying together, both of us as pilots.

Since that evening over at PDX, I've flown a couple times with Kelly during the day. Our most recent flight was particularly stressful, as he intentionally tried to rattle me (with some success) for about an hour. Shifting his weight, getting a bit impatient, even opening and closing the door once in the pattern. And pulling the throttle on me or telling me it was "stuck at 1500RPM, so what do you do?" He was purposefully testing my ability to function under pressure and in a less-than-perfect environment (he told me so later). It was a good experience, at least in the end.

We've also spent some more time in the classroom with Kelly quizzing me in a way similar to how it will be with the FAA examiner. It's helping me understand that I need to better memorize some key information about things like airspace rules and definitions, as well as a variety of other topics. So, I'm spending a good portion of my time now prepping for that oral examination, which precedes the checkride.

The only flight training requirement I still need to complete is about half an hour more time "under the hood" doing simulated instrument flight. Kelly and I plan to do a mock checkride in the next few days, weather allowing, and Kelly says he wants to get me to my checkride so I can be done with this phase of my training.

And I say "this phase" quite purposely. I'm already thinking an instrument rating is probably a smart idea, for two reasons. First, it will make me a safer and more complete pilot. Second, I live in the Pacific Northwest. It rains here and we have clouds. We're kind of famous for our weather.

So, I'm almost there! Just a little more work and studying to do.

It's All Coming Together: Maneuver practice and passed the knowledge test

The past few days have been positive for me in "flying land." I took advantage of some great weather and approximately 8-knot winds aloft on Tuesday to fly for about an hour and practice all the maneuvers (except those requiring me to be under-the-hood, of course) required for my private pilot check ride. After flying in 25+ knot winds and attempting to do something close to accurate maneuvers the other day, flying them in 7 or so knots was relatively simple. I felt good about everything I flew: stalls and recoveries, slow flight, steep turns, slips, rectangular patterns, turns about a point and s-turns. I also practiced some engine-out checklist drills and did a go-around procedure from the final approach. All went fairly well.

On Thursday afternoon, after some work meetings, I drove over to the Troutdale airport, dropped $90 on the table, and took the computer-based FAA knowledge test, which I passed with a reasonably wide margin. I'm sure glad to get that out of the way, as I've been procrastinating on it for about a month. It's been hard to find the time needed to study for the exam, but I forced myself lately to make the time and knocked it out.

So, now I need to do at least 30 more minutes of night flight with my instructor, which I think we are going to do by flying from Twin Oaks to PDX and back (PDX is a Class-C airport, so that will be a good experience). After that I believe I will technically have more than the minimum number of hours of flight time in each of the required flight categories (like night, dual, solo, cross-country, etc). I think I'll need to do some more check-ride prep flying before being ready to fly with the FAA examiner, though. I want to be truly ready.

I'm getting close, it seems. I know I am feeling better with each flight about my progress and abilities. If all goes well, pretty soon I'll be able to fly with passengers. Wow, how's that for scary eh? :)

Some people have been asking me lately how much this training costs. It depends on the person, as everyone's development is a little different. For my own training, to date, I've listed the numbers below. Your expenditures could be more, or slightly less. I've flown solo quite a bit to practice, so my aircraft rental costs are higher than if I'd just flown the minimum hours - And I'm glad I've spent that valuable extra learning time. These figures are provided in the interest of educating anyone who might be interested in learning to fly (and if you're in Portland, you should call Twin Oaks and Kelly Wiprud to inquire about training, tell 'em I sent ya). There's a real financial commitment, to be sure, but it's not horrific by any stretch of the means. Find a good location and a good instructor, plus be sure to fly frequently, and you'll keep the costs down.

Greg's costs to-date:

• Instructor time (flying): 34.9 hours @$35/hr = $1221.50
• Additional Instructor time (ground): $400.00
• Aircraft rental time: 53.4 hours @$75/hr = $4005.00
• Books, plotter, E6B calculator and charts: $200.00
• FAA knowledge exam: $90.00

Total expenditure so far is approximately $5915.00, give or take. Considering I'm close to finishing (I hope, heh), I'd say I'm on par to hit the lower end of the scale as far as how much money and time it typically takes to get a private pilot certification. I have a few more hours of airplane and instructor time still to add on before I finish, plus the costs associated with the check ride and a few other various things.

I also had to purchase renter's insurance during my training in case I ruined an airplane while flying solo, plus I bought a few other things that were not mandatory, like a noise-canceling airplane headset and a few additional study materials online. But those items are all above and beyond the basic stuff that's required.

Solo prep flight and nighttime cross-country to Astoria

Today I flew solo for just over an hour and reviewed the skills Kelly and I worked on the previous day in preparation for finishing my training. All of these are skills I will need to be able to show I can do properly on my FAA check ride, which Kely says he wants to get scheduled soon. Seems like I just started, but I already have more than 45 hours of flight time in my logbook.

The winds were pretty strong aloft in two definite layers, which meant a strong turbulence layer at about 2000-2500 feet of bumpy, kind of crazy air in places. That plus the 30-knot east wind at 4,000 feet limited my ability to do some of the maneuvers I wanted to practice. I decided that trying to do power-off stalls was just not a good idea, even into the wind, so I focused my energy on a few landings and emergency procedures as well as steep turns and a couple power-on stalls. The gusty winds made all of the above challenging, but it was good experience.

I returned to the airport and met my instructor, as we were going to get set for a night cross-country flight to Astoria, on the coast. I'd flown there a couple days before on my solo daytime cross-country flight.

Flying at night is fun. I find it easy to focus, as there are really no distractions to speak of. You have to stay aware of what's happening inside and outside the aircraft, and what you can't see is probably the most potentially dangerous part of night flying. Altitude is your friend.

The winds aloft were still challenging and a couple places near Hillsboro had some quite turbulent layers, which we climbed through as we headed toward the coastal range, which we'd need to cross on out way to Astoria. I had planned the flight to be one that took us direct from the Newberg VOR (UBG), which is located a few miles south of Twin Oaks, to the Astoria VOR (AST), which is located at the Astoria airport. We took off and intercepted the VOR radial I had planned to fly along and headed northwest with the wind at our backs.

Almost immediately I could see a flashing red light on a tower that I had noted in my flight plan was along our route. It made it easy to fly toward the correct general heading. I could also see Astoria's lights off in the distance, which meant the visibility was pretty much unlimited. You could see Portland and well up in to Washington clearly, as well as south toward Salem and southwest toward Tillamook.

We climbed to our planned altitude of 5500 feet, which carried us well over the highest terrain in the area, and then started to descend into Astoria. The winds there picked up as we descended, and I entered a crab-angled path to the north, then crossed the airport mid-field before turning to the right to come back and enter the downwind leg for Runway 8. I raced downwind with the tailwind, then turned to base, and quickly to final. I landed the airplane on the runway with a bit of a bounce and a float, because I misjudged the flare in the dark. I retracted the flaps and applied power and took off, then told Kelly I wanted to do another one because, frankly, that landing pretty much sucked. We flew around the pattern and I did a somewhat better landing before taking back off and departing back toward Hillsboro.

The flight back was uneventful and I tracked the VORs while also using the my GPS. We eventually got back and found Twin Oaks, which is nearly impossible to see at night until you're a couple miles away. As I descended we crossed into the super bumpy turbulence again, and I made an bumpy turn to the downwind leg and kept fighting the bumps as I prepped the plane to land. Once I turned to base and descended a little more the wind calmed down quite a bit and I flew the plane to the runway, where I did the smoothest landing of the evening.

It was a fun flight. I had the video camera set up, but was so busy with winds and talking to Kelly that we forgot to turn it on. Oh well, maybe next time.

Four hours of solo flight and first night landings

After a couple weeks of fairly wet, foggy, misty and cruddy (for flying) weather, some east winds started to scream down the Columbia River Gorge yesterday, drying out the air and leaving us with clear skies and great visibility.

On Thursday morning I jumped in my truck and drove to Twin Oaks Airpark. I had scheduled a large block of time in one of the C-150's today, so I could do some assigned solo flying to a few airports in the area. All told, I flew 3.9 hours solo during the daylight hours, as well as .6 hours at night with my instructor, Kelly.

I can't really type details about four hours of flying, and it wouldn't interesting to read anyhow. But there are a few things that stand out in my mind.

First of all, the C-150 climbs a lot faster with one person in it. I'd noticed that when I did my first solo flight a few weeks ago, but today I was able to experience it flying short flights between airports.

Kelly has signed me off with approval to fly to several airports in the area on my own: Mulino, Aurora State, McMinnville, Sportsman, Hillsboro and Scappoose. I made it to landings at all of those airports today, except Hillsboro. I just ran out of time, so I'll go there the next time.

My landings are not as good as I want them to be. I seem to be flaring too early frequently on larger (wider) runways. I think it's because I'm used to landings at Twin Oaks on a narrower runway, so in my mind the same "sight picture" of the runway means a higher altitude on the larger one, so I tend to flare before I should. I need to really concentrate on looking all the way down the runway to judge my altitude before landing, rather than falling trap to the sight picture, which will always be different.

Anyhow, after some stronger wind landings at Aurora, I went to Mulino and did some more practice approaches, landings and departures. From there I flew to McMinnville, where I did a couple touch and go's before flying over Bald Peak to get back to Twin Oaks for fuel and lunch. The winds crossing the ridge at Bald Peak were quite surprising. I flew over a lower spot on the ridge right next to the peak, and the contour of the far side of the ridge causes that wind from the Gorge to funnel right through the gap. It was a headwind, but it was pretty intense and a bouncy ride, for sure. In other words, it was pretty fun. As soon as I passed over the top of the ridge the ride smoothed out and I turned to land and Twin Oaks.

After taking a 45 minute break for lunch and to top off the fuel, I took off again and called the Hillsboro tower to request a transition across their airspace to go to Scappoose, an airport over in Columbia county. While there I did a number of landings and take-off's, and also had a video camera set up in the back of the airplane looking out the front window. I'll probably post some of the video in the next few days.

By the time I returned to Twin Oaks (I flew around Hillsboro's airspace on the way back rather than transitioning though), I was ready for a longer break and some dinner. Flying's a lot of fun, but it can take a lot out of you.

I drove into town and went to Home Depot to find a flashlight with a red lens or LED for night flying, and then grabbed dinner and some gas for the truck. By the time I got back to Twin Oaks it was getting dark. Kelly and I met for a few minutes in the classroom to discuss night flight and some of the important things to know After that we headed out to the airplane and I did my first night takeoff. It was a little different, but doable. About the time we reached 900 feet altitude, a sudden layer of strong winds from the north started whipping us around. It was amazing how different the winds were a that altitude as compared to the winds on the ground. As I flew the pattern (in the dark) the winds continued to abuse the airplane. It was flyable, but on my first night flight it was a little weird.

My first landing I dropped onto the runway a little harder than I liked, and Kelly couldn't help but laugh a little. I'd approached high and a little fast. He explained that Twin Oaks is quite likely the most difficult airport in the state to fly into at night, and that everyone does that on their first landings, even him. Okay, so I felt a little better, but still... Heh.

Landing at Twin Oaks in the dark of night is a bit like flying through a black hole to land on a small rectangle marked by low intensity lights. On the approach there's a large area of pure darkness that feels like there's nothing there.

On my second landing I put it down a little easier, and the third landing was substantially better. WIth the intense winds throwing us around while flying in the pattern, we called it good for the evening and parked the plane.

Out plan for Friday is to finally complete a dual cross-country trip to Corvallis, Oregon that I've had planned out for a couple of weeks. The weather for Friday and Saturday looks like it will probably cooperate. Assuming we get the flight done on Friday, I'll be doing a solo cross country flight on Saturday. I'll need to pick my destinations and plan the flight. I have a few ideas, but the weather forecast will dictate a lot of what I can do.

First flight with Dave

Since my friend Dave just finished his private pilot certificate, the first order of business was - you guessed it - flying!

Monday evening we met at the Hillsboro airport and got his aircraft, a Cessna 150 rental from the flight school he's enrolled at. Then we departed to fly around the area. It was fun to be a passenger, and I was impressed and very comfortable with Dave's flying technique and his attention to detail.

We flew over Beaverton and Aloha a bit, then headed south to the Aurora airport. It was dark, and the airport was easy to find. Dave's done quite a bit of night flying, but this was the first time in many years I'd flown at night in a small plane. It was pretty fun, and made me remember flying as a teenager at night. Dave let me do some of the radio calls, and I practiced the process of reading the chart (map) and notifying other airport traffic (of which there was basically none, but it was good practice) when were were flying over and approaching, as well as the pattern "calls."

In many ways it's easier to find your way around at night, at least for the lit areas. We made a couple landings at Aurora, including a full stop and plane exit so we could walk around a little bit. Okay, I'll be honest - We did your classic "fire drill" like the kids do at red lights on the street: Jump put, run all the way around the vehicle and jump back in. In reality, though, we ran around the plane and then hung out on the ramp there for a few minutes. We swapped headsets so Dave could try mine out with the noise reduction turned on for the rest of the flight.

Then we got back off the ground and headed over to McMinnville. The runway lights for McMinnville are pretty darned cool (and really bright at their highest setting). There's lots of colored, bright flashy lights on the approach for Runway 20. Like many airports, you can turn the lights on and off and change brightness by keying the microphone a set number of times on the right frequency. It's fun if there are a few airports around, and at night it's one good way to figure out where things are visually. One thing's for sure - you can't miss it unless you're blind, and in that case I hope you're not at the controls.

Next we flew back to Hillsboro over the Newberg VOR at plenty of altitude (it's on a high ridge) and found our way back to Hillsboro. It was surprising to me how hard it was to find the Hillsboro airport at night visually. It's easy to lose in the huge amount of business, street and residential lights. But once there, it's a huge and well-lit runway to land on (at least compared to the small runway at Twin Oaks). The radio work there is a little different, too, since it's a tower-controlled airport.

We have a fun flight, and we're both looking forward to the next one.