Further Flying in March
I like to try and give people who show an interest in flying a positive experience when I offer them the chance to take to the sky in a smaller aeroplane. I recently took a work colleague, Rebecca Stephenson, on an afternoon out in the Twinstar. This was a trip I promised last year that finally came together on a recent Sunday afternoon.
Rebecca drove me up to Blackpool and, as the weather was good, I decided we would pop over to Caernarfon. This is a good place to take first timers as it's not too far but is a beautiful setting, close to the Welsh mountains. You never know how a new passenger is going to react to the light aircraft I fly, but Rebecca took it in her stride. We routed out directly on course to Caernarfon and landed on runway 26 some thirty minutes later. Unfortunately the cafe at the airfield was closing so we had to make do with a drink and a couple of rashers of bacon. A quick walk down to the sea front and we were then off on the return trip to Blackpool. A visual approach downwind for runway 28 completed our afternoon's flying.
Rebecca checking her phone prior to departure for Blackpool
A return to single engine flying was required a few days later. To continue this type of flying for another two years I had to fly one hour with an instructor as well as meeting minimum flying hours experience in the last year of my single engine rating. I enlisted Alex Rhodes as my instructor and took the Cirrus SR20 up to complete the required hour. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon as we flew over Morecambe Bay at 5000 feet. The clouds partly covered the Lake District hills and the outside temperature was just below freezing. Returning to Blackpool via Fleetwood I landed on runway 28, made slightly more interesting by having the sun directly in my eyes on the approach.
After completing the Cirrus flight I thought that rather than fighting the rush hour traffic I'd take the Twinstar up for a half an hour and enjoy the lovely weather. All was well with the aircraft except there was a database problem from a recent update that resulted in no topography being available on the moving map. This was not a big problem and would not stop the flight. The autopilot had also been malfunctioning on recent flights and I'd had to pull the circuit breaker on the flight with Rebecca. However, the system went through its self test and appeared to be working ok so I thought I'd see if it had been fixed. I set a rate of climb of 800 feet per minute with capture altitude of 5000 feet. All seemed to be working fine except that when the aircraft reached 5000 feet it went on climbing! Clearly all was not well with the autopilot so I switched it off and flew manually.
Short video of Twinstar climbing on autopilot
After burning some holes in the sky I returned to Blackpool for another into sun landing, 35 minutes added to the logbook. My multi engine hours have now built up nicely, I have 75 in the Twinstar and just over 100 hours total. It's expensive but very satisfying flying. I now am thinking about what to do next. Should I continue with both single and twin engine or leave the singles for a year or so and concentrate on becoming a better twin engine flyer? This means less total flying but more satisfying. It's something I'm going to have to give some thought to.
I'll have more for you in April.
Rebecca drove me up to Blackpool and, as the weather was good, I decided we would pop over to Caernarfon. This is a good place to take first timers as it's not too far but is a beautiful setting, close to the Welsh mountains. You never know how a new passenger is going to react to the light aircraft I fly, but Rebecca took it in her stride. We routed out directly on course to Caernarfon and landed on runway 26 some thirty minutes later. Unfortunately the cafe at the airfield was closing so we had to make do with a drink and a couple of rashers of bacon. A quick walk down to the sea front and we were then off on the return trip to Blackpool. A visual approach downwind for runway 28 completed our afternoon's flying.
Rebecca checking her phone prior to departure for Blackpool
A return to single engine flying was required a few days later. To continue this type of flying for another two years I had to fly one hour with an instructor as well as meeting minimum flying hours experience in the last year of my single engine rating. I enlisted Alex Rhodes as my instructor and took the Cirrus SR20 up to complete the required hour. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon as we flew over Morecambe Bay at 5000 feet. The clouds partly covered the Lake District hills and the outside temperature was just below freezing. Returning to Blackpool via Fleetwood I landed on runway 28, made slightly more interesting by having the sun directly in my eyes on the approach.
After completing the Cirrus flight I thought that rather than fighting the rush hour traffic I'd take the Twinstar up for a half an hour and enjoy the lovely weather. All was well with the aircraft except there was a database problem from a recent update that resulted in no topography being available on the moving map. This was not a big problem and would not stop the flight. The autopilot had also been malfunctioning on recent flights and I'd had to pull the circuit breaker on the flight with Rebecca. However, the system went through its self test and appeared to be working ok so I thought I'd see if it had been fixed. I set a rate of climb of 800 feet per minute with capture altitude of 5000 feet. All seemed to be working fine except that when the aircraft reached 5000 feet it went on climbing! Clearly all was not well with the autopilot so I switched it off and flew manually.
Short video of Twinstar climbing on autopilot
After burning some holes in the sky I returned to Blackpool for another into sun landing, 35 minutes added to the logbook. My multi engine hours have now built up nicely, I have 75 in the Twinstar and just over 100 hours total. It's expensive but very satisfying flying. I now am thinking about what to do next. Should I continue with both single and twin engine or leave the singles for a year or so and concentrate on becoming a better twin engine flyer? This means less total flying but more satisfying. It's something I'm going to have to give some thought to.
I'll have more for you in April.
posted by David M at 11:31 AM
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