PP check complete for the boy today. DE’s are booked 1-3 months out
. Now we move on. I’m pretty sure today was harder on dad than the kid.
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What shall it be, a first solo story or a check ride story........ok solo story it is.
Doing the learning to fly thing, I am flying one of these. The plane that had the entire wish list of instructors across the country......any guesses, yup:
Tramahawk.
It has two doors so the instructor opens the door says give me two touch and goes then full stop and park it......my ever so thoughtful response was....ahh......now. Yup he closes the door and walks away. Ok, this will go well or I will be on the news tonight....I came close to being on the news that night.
Two touch and goes no issue. Now in for the landing, but first unless you have been in one of these or an older Piper product you need to understand how the flaps work. They are not electric like in brand C, they are manual. You operate them with this thing that reminds you of an E-brake lever in an older car. You lift up (from very old memory) three clicks, from like 5 deg to full in three clicks or something. There is a little bit of weight to them as you manually pull the lever up....not a lot but enough to know you are lifting something, the clicks are quite loud. Again this is all off of late 80's memories......on base one click, no problem, final one more click.....no problem, power is pulled way back and we are gliding in for a landing. Short final, low and very slow I pull the last click, I know I hear it click and I let go......THUNK the lever falls all the way to the floor, now I am low very slow and no flaps, this could be messy, plane sticks its nose to mother earth. My hand starts moving without me moving it, guess a guardian angel was riding with me, I don't remember moving my hand, it moved and put in a tick of throttle, then it held that flap lever. I landed with one hand on the flap lever and the other on the "wheel". I taxi clear and stop and fiddle with the flaps, they will not stay up. Just like an E-brake there is a little button on the end, it is working they just refuse to lock in. Better let them know about that one. I taxi to my spot and shut down.
I tie it up and the instructor comes out and says what were you doing with the flaps......they are broken they will not stay locked up.....naaa.....well hell sure enough they will not stay in place for him.
I tell him the story and all he said was....see I told you that you are ready.
I really liked the piper over the 150. The Cessna was so much more tight inside, and I am not a big guy, you squeeze into the thing....does have electric flaps however. I really did not find the piper that bad, just fly it like you have a brain in your head.
About a year later some idiot Dr Killed Golf, the piper. He decided he knew what he is doing and wanted to do an unimproved field landing, that was against school policy. He landed rolled through a barbed wire fence and took a wing to a tree, but it did not come off hollywood style. Fucking stupid Dr, that was a good airplane, and faster then all the others.
Checklist discipline....
where are we?
