Currency in the Seneca
I have finally come to the conclusion that staying current on the Twinstar, Cirrus and Seneca is just too time consuming to continue. I find myself flying the said planes just to stay in practice and not for the pleasure of going somewhere. These latest flights continued that trend, although I have decided that I will no longer fly the Cirrus on a regular basis. It takes some effort to keep driving up to Blackpool and when I do, I would rather fly the multi-engine Seneca or Twinstar. So it’s bye-bye to the SR20 for now.
I was ready for another outing in the Seneca as I am finding it challenging and satisfying to fly. My last trip in it was to Waterford, in Southern Ireland (see earlier blog post) and the itch needed to be scratched again! Not wanting the hassle of driving up to Blackpool, I again decided to fly up there from Barton in our grouped Piper Arrow. I then planned on having an hour in the Seneca on my own, to just do some general handling.
I finish work at 12pm on Fridays and after a twenty minute drive, arrived at Barton to prepare G-HALC for the very short hop to Blackpool. I put 36 litres of fuel in the tanks to balance them and have enough for the two legs of my journey. Departing from runway 27 Left, I turned right on track to pass West of Wigan, initially not above 1250 feet, before climbing to 2000 feet and establishing contact with Warton Radar. They released me to the Blackpool Tower frequency and HALC’s wheels landed on runway 28 just 15 minutes after departing Barton.
After a sandwich at Flight Academy, I checked out the Seneca and was pleased to see that there were over 350 litres of fuel onboard, plenty for my short flight. I turned on all the navigation radios and GPS and listened to the ATIS broadcast to get details of the weather and pressure setting. By the time I was ready to taxi, things were getting busy. My taxi route to runway 28 was via taxiway Alpha to hold on the 13 numbers, then via the Charlie taxiway to the E2 hold, where I was fourth in line for take-off. With a 737 back tracking the runway for departure and several light planes in the circuit, it took quite a while before I was released to depart. This extended ground running resulted in a magneto drop on the right side on the right engine during the power checks. It soon cleared with application of higher power and leaning of the mixture.
Lined up on runway 28, I opened the throttles and the Seneca accelerated briskly to 77 kts and took to the air with a gentle back pressure on the yoke. The gear came up and I climbed at 100 kts up to 3000 feet, turning right past the tall tower. Once level, I set 25 inches manifold pressure and this gave me an indicated air-speed of 140 kts as the engines each consumed 10 US gallons of fuel per hour. For the next twenty minutes I flew turns around Morecambe Bay, just getting the feel of the handling again. It is good occasionally to just be alone with the plane, no distractions and no objective other than enjoyment. Descending towards Poulton to rejoin the Blackpool circuit, I positioned on a wide right base as I was number two to a company Cirrus. I was a little high on final, but as the turn off for me is well down the runway, there was no problem and the landing was fine.
After completing the technical log I relaxed in the warm sunshine and had a drink. Although the weather was fine, it was clearly worsening as I had noticed visibility falling and a few lower level clouds. Back into the left hand seat of HALC, a departure from runway 28 and once again it took only fifteen minutes to get back to Barton. This time I routed past Bolton Wanderers football ground at 1800 feet before positioning on a right base for runway 27 Left. I pushed HALC back into the hanger and that was that.
So at the moment I am current on the Piper Arrow PA28R-200 single engine; the Piper PA34-200T Seneca twin and the Diamond DA42 Twinstar. That’s a hat-trick!
I was ready for another outing in the Seneca as I am finding it challenging and satisfying to fly. My last trip in it was to Waterford, in Southern Ireland (see earlier blog post) and the itch needed to be scratched again! Not wanting the hassle of driving up to Blackpool, I again decided to fly up there from Barton in our grouped Piper Arrow. I then planned on having an hour in the Seneca on my own, to just do some general handling.
I finish work at 12pm on Fridays and after a twenty minute drive, arrived at Barton to prepare G-HALC for the very short hop to Blackpool. I put 36 litres of fuel in the tanks to balance them and have enough for the two legs of my journey. Departing from runway 27 Left, I turned right on track to pass West of Wigan, initially not above 1250 feet, before climbing to 2000 feet and establishing contact with Warton Radar. They released me to the Blackpool Tower frequency and HALC’s wheels landed on runway 28 just 15 minutes after departing Barton.
After a sandwich at Flight Academy, I checked out the Seneca and was pleased to see that there were over 350 litres of fuel onboard, plenty for my short flight. I turned on all the navigation radios and GPS and listened to the ATIS broadcast to get details of the weather and pressure setting. By the time I was ready to taxi, things were getting busy. My taxi route to runway 28 was via taxiway Alpha to hold on the 13 numbers, then via the Charlie taxiway to the E2 hold, where I was fourth in line for take-off. With a 737 back tracking the runway for departure and several light planes in the circuit, it took quite a while before I was released to depart. This extended ground running resulted in a magneto drop on the right side on the right engine during the power checks. It soon cleared with application of higher power and leaning of the mixture.
Lined up on runway 28, I opened the throttles and the Seneca accelerated briskly to 77 kts and took to the air with a gentle back pressure on the yoke. The gear came up and I climbed at 100 kts up to 3000 feet, turning right past the tall tower. Once level, I set 25 inches manifold pressure and this gave me an indicated air-speed of 140 kts as the engines each consumed 10 US gallons of fuel per hour. For the next twenty minutes I flew turns around Morecambe Bay, just getting the feel of the handling again. It is good occasionally to just be alone with the plane, no distractions and no objective other than enjoyment. Descending towards Poulton to rejoin the Blackpool circuit, I positioned on a wide right base as I was number two to a company Cirrus. I was a little high on final, but as the turn off for me is well down the runway, there was no problem and the landing was fine.
After completing the technical log I relaxed in the warm sunshine and had a drink. Although the weather was fine, it was clearly worsening as I had noticed visibility falling and a few lower level clouds. Back into the left hand seat of HALC, a departure from runway 28 and once again it took only fifteen minutes to get back to Barton. This time I routed past Bolton Wanderers football ground at 1800 feet before positioning on a right base for runway 27 Left. I pushed HALC back into the hanger and that was that.
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| Seneca after the sortie |
So at the moment I am current on the Piper Arrow PA28R-200 single engine; the Piper PA34-200T Seneca twin and the Diamond DA42 Twinstar. That’s a hat-trick!
posted by David M at 9:56 PM
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