Lesson 1 Date: November 30th, 2007 Hours: 1.0 Total Hours To Date: 1.0 Summary: T182T intro & landings I was supposed to do the 182 RG first, but it went out for 100 hour inspection. I switched to the T182T. Doesn't help towards complex without the RG, but probably an easier transition from the Skyhawk. We did a good time of ground beforehand, took me through differences of preflight, and then headed on out. Another instructor rode backseat to get some 182 time. Nothing too different for me. I have experience with the glass from the Skyhawk. I have experience with adjustable prop form the Super Decathlon. 95% of the inside looks like a Skyhawk. Some things new to me were turbo inlet temps, cowl flaps, and oxygen unit. No issues with take off, rotated at 60 kts. Little different couldn't go full throttle, had to keep at 32 lbs. Not much more right rudder required as I expected, but the plane and controls are HEAVY! I made the comment that felt like I was flying a Boeing, so I couldn't imagine how heavy a real Boeing must feel. Off to practice area for slow flight, power off stall, power on stall, and steep turns. Headed into Alliance and did 4-5 landings both no flap and flaps. Really no issues at all, I knew the sight picture was higher and plane would drop harder so I actually erred at flaring 5-10 ft. too high, but all my landings were good because at Alliance I had runway to work with and would just let it settle down slowly controlling the throttle. The touchdowns were all really smooth, but I'm sure 300-1000 ft. down the numbers. Back to Northwest for a good flap landing. In many ways easier to approach with the Skylane than Skyhawk because it sinks without gaining speed. The Skyhawk just wants to fly and fly, harder to get it down without building speed. Really a ton of fun. Man that 230 HP engine sounds great compared to 180 HP Skyhawk! It has a little rumble to it. Plans are one more T182T flight to simulate XC and get some altitude and then the RG.
Lesson 2 Date: December 7th, 2007 Hours: 1.1 Total Hours To Date: 2.1 Summary: T182T XC & emergency procs Heck with that I got my High Performance endorsement today. I'm more excited I broke 2 personal records flying to 11,000 ft. and hitting 183 kts. TAS and 200 kts. GS. We spent 30 minutes ground reviewing the manual, then up and out climbing to 11k by Bridgeport from 52F and we were even limited by the Class B. So 6k gain from basically 287 to Bridgeport. Impressive fun plane to fly. Turned back to East and started descent immediately. Back at Northwest no flap landing first and then we simulated engine out before numbers. We were about 100 ft. short, so went around and got it right pulled in at the pumps. So nothing too exciting. The Skylane will be great for XC's, but not as much fun as the Super D. Tomorrow flying the RG to finish off the complex. The owner of the Turbo Glass Skylane isn't happy with so few rentals, so for a limited time the wet rental is $161! Wow, can't beat that for a new Skylane with Turbo, glass, and oxygen. Don't expect to carry even 3 adults with full tanks though. Wish I had my 150 hr. requirement to fly it solo.
Lesson 3 Date: December 8th, 2007 Hours: 1.1 Total Hours To Date: 3.2 Summary: 182 RG More than getting ready for the RG, I had to familiarize myself with the older panel. Not much of a transition from 172 SP to a 182T, but the 182 RG was busier with instruments and located differently. Take off straight forward, instructed to raise landing gear once there was a positive climb and runway was no longer makeable. Amazing how the RG feels more sporty than the 182T. Can't explain it except maybe less weight and control feel. The plane is just less sluggish in maneuvering. We went through stalls and steep turns. The plane really cooks down low with the gear up. We were doing about 165 TAS at 1000 AGL and conservative 22 lbs. and 2200 RPM. The ground below was moving by FAST! No issues with various landing configurations. Standard setup was 75 kts. approach with 20 degrees. We also did no flap and two 40 degree landings dropping from high steep. That was all fun. Getting towards the end came around on downwind, started checklist, moved landing gear handle down, and went to flaps and adjusting throttle. I came back to the landing gear lights as I had each time before as it takes a good 5 seconds for landing gear to go down. Well, guess what, no gear light and lever is in the down position! So, I mention to instructor landing gear isn't down as I verified looking out. I say I'll keep it in pattern, but obviously not going down. I side stepped the runway and didn't go below 500 AGL. I knew the procedure, but double checked the checklist. Make sure landing gear in down position, pull pump lever out, and then pump 20 times. Did this through crosswind and part of downwind. Landing gear locked and green light came on. All good, its then that instructor put fuse back in for landing gear, he got me good, I had no idea he had pulled that. Overall I think I flew really good, his main critique was I didn't notice gear weren't down quick enough. I need to be better, but my excuse was the warning horn goes off all the time anyway (below certain alt and power) and my standard procedure was put landing gear down, take care of other stuff in those 5 seconds, and then come back to gear for confirmation. Didn't sign me off for complex, but that doesn't bother me, I can't solo it until 150 hours anyway. I plan to fly a Skylane at least once a month to stay up on it until I can solo.
I find it very interesting you found the higher hp Cessnas control heavy. Yesterday I got my BFR in a 210 and I was also amazed at how heavy the controls were - much heavier than most I have flown except a C-47. It really does trim out nicely though once you hoss it around to where you want it to go. I imagine I wouldn't whine so much if I had more hours in it. Cessna did really well in that all of their planes are a natural transition one to the other. As a funny aside, the instructor said he could tell I was a tail wheel pilot as he said all of us transitioning back to nosedraggers have no problem bringing the nose up in the flare, probably higher than we need. I thought it was amusing that I felt so automatic in going to a 3 point attitude. Congrats on the training! Off to pick up my third two seat trainer in 10 days!
