Amazing opportunity to be a Bonanza (part) owner. Update the Bonanza share has been sold.

I can't believe I am doing this, but I am putting my share in my beloved Bonanza up for sale.

I have had some much fun in and utility from this airplane - I got my commercial rating in it, did an instrument proficiency check in it, I flew to Oshkosh in 2010, my late father (ex Indian AF pilot) flew it with me to an aerobatic contest, I flew my wife & mother-in-law to my sister-in-law's graduation in Santa Barbara, I got "famoso" on Spanish TV with it and flew tons of friends around the Puget Sound area in this airplane including to the San Juans for kayaking, to Arlington for a fly-in, to Portland to attend a conference.

A perfect storm of circumstances, however is compelling me to cut back a little on my aviation expenses and time. First the happy news - my first born son arrived on January 19th. This was planned for and I would have been able to keep flying N5931S. But the most devastating personal loss was unexpected and sudden. My beloved father - my hero, friend, philosopher and guide passed away on December 6th. I now have responsibilities beyond just my nuclear family - and something had to give.

I may be begging someone in the partnership in a few years to sell his/her share to me.

Some basic facts - the partnership has six people in it. Most of them are long timers. The partnership, Renton Flyers Inc has been around for over 20 years and has had multiple aircraft with pretty much the same people with some additions/deletions. There is a CFI, a Commercial pilot, 4 IFR rated pilots and one doing his IFR in N5931S.

The partnership has endured through a lot - included a Musketeer, a Bonanza write-off and the acquisition of a new one. I joke that I found the perfect partners - old hands (some from the Big Airplane Company, Boeing) who love maintaining the aircraft but only fly it occasionally. In the last two and a half years I have flown 5931S for about 110 hours and the aircraft flew about 180 hours. Of course I was flying my Eagle and getting my seaplane rating during that time too, otherwise the time might have been higher. (The scheduling for all this was done on the web). Having six partners is manageable and reduces the fixed costs a lot!

Attached are a few photographs of the aircraft, just for gratuitous enjoyment.

Some fact and figures are below

ENGINE: Cont IO-520BA 285HP PROP: McCauley 3 Blade

IFR AVIONICS: Two KY-197 Coms, KNS-80 Nav/DME, KN-53 Nav, KMA-20,

KT-76 Transp. Mode C, KR-85 ADF, PS1000 Panel Mount Intercom, Garmin 295 GPS

EQUIPMENT: Dual Yoke, Beech Wing Leveler, JPI EDM 700 Engine Analyzer, Large Baggage Door, Vertical Compass Card, Heated Pitot, Speedslope Windshield, Strobe Lights, Post Lights, Shoulder Harness, Walker Air Oil Separator, Avionics Master, Digital Outside Air Temp.

The aircraft is in annual inspection as we speak. The last few annual inspections - owner(s) assisted have run us about $500. We try to do every 3rd/4th inspection with a Bonanza specialist (such as Avstar in Puyallup) so that there is a thorough inspection of everything.

In the last 5 years - the left wing rear spar has been replaced (there is an interesting mechanic story behind that one), new magnetos have been put in and three new cylinders have been put in. So, we take good care of our baby.

The engine is pretty high time, past it's TBO by over 500 hours. (I will put in the exact figure once I parse the engine log book). But I am a believer in Mike Busch's theory that TBO is a number that has unnecessary costs and risks associated with it. On condition inspection or "reliability centered maintenance" is the way to go. Mike Busch explains it in this article on Avweb. For those of you who are EAA members, check out Mike Busch's article "Is TBO a myth" from the February 2010 Sport Aviation magazine.

We monitor everything very closely - we analyze the log data from the JPI, we have not one but two different oil analyses done so that we can see if anything is heading south. John Deakin has some very interesting views on how one can tell an engine is doing.

My point here is not to convert you to the "run the engine till it dies" school but to suggest that when I bought into the partnership I did not worry to much about the high time engine based on rational thinking. The engine runs book figures and matches the book figures for TAS, fuel flow etc to the T. We verified this when I was doing my Bonanza transition with George Luck (ex-USAF test pilot and retired Chief Test Pilot of Boeing Kansas) according to the BPPP syllabus. I have the hand drawn figures on graph paper from that flight.

So lets talk about money - the fixed fee is $150/month. That covers hangar, insurance and any routine maintenance (including annuals and consumables). The wet cost for per hour flying varies according to the cost of fuel and has been between $95 - $110/hr in the two and a half years I have been flying it.

The hangar is on the South East side of Renton, right by Ace Aviation and access is through a security gate.

This would make an ideal airplane for a Private Pilot who wants to do X-country flying with family, get comfortable flying a high performance complex single which is an iconic airplane and get an IFR rating in their own plane.

I am asking $11,000 for my share. You can contact me at anandeep AT gmail.com or call me 425 891 8519.

If I come into an inheritance anytime soon, I can't promise I'll let you have it though. Alas, that is a remote possibility because I come from solidly middle class stock!

Long X Country - my longest so far

Just did the single longest trip as PIC that I have in an airplane. It was glorious and trouble free (as far as N5931S goes).

The trip was to Santa Barbara on the CA coast (I landed at Santa Ynez airport in the CA wine country).

Going there I took the coastal route from RNT to EUG (Eugene), EUG to SAC (Sacramento) via Arcata on the coast and SAC to IZA (Santa Ynez) via Paso Robles. Coming back I took IZA to RDD (Redding), RDD to HIO (Portland-Hillsboro) and then HIO - KLS (Kelso Longview), KLS to RNT. Each way took about 6.5 on the tach.

All the legs except the final one yesterday were IFR. I was up at 10000 most of the time, though I did go as low as 8000 and as high as 12000. I had to wait out a rain storm and extremely low cloud at Kelso before continuing to RNT on the one VFR leg.

We had some problems caused by human error. The line boy managed to get the chain pin tangled with the fuel cap and forced it shut - necessitating a 2 hr delay to get a mechanic to fix it. Then we had a problem with the hot start at SAC - and I called Kent for advice. It was on the right track but didn't completely work. So I pulled out my iphone and surfed the web for "Beech bonanza hot start problems". The one I used worked just fine and I used on all the hot starts - started first time every time. The procedure is below if you are interested.

The only glitch as far the airplane was concerned was that COM 1 was not transmitting. COM 2 was used throughout and COM 1 was used for listening.

The procedure is below (taken from the Hangar Flying Forum at the American Bonanza Society site)

Hot Start Procedure

1. pull the throttle and mixture knobs out

2. run the boost pump for 60 seconds (purges the fuel vapors out of the engine)

3. shut off the boost pump

4. throttle and mixture knobs full in

5. boost pump on till it just hits max flow (maybe 2 or 3 seconds)

6. boost pump off

7. throttle full out and then five 1/2 turns in

8. turn the key and crank the engine while slowly turning the throttle in until the engine starts.

Usually starts right up but not as quick as a cold start so don't release the key until you know the engine is going. Be prepared for high rpm with feet on brakes and twisting out the throttle to a reasonable 1000 RPM until ready to taxi.

Now on to the Apple Cup 25th anniversary aerobatic competition at Ephrata tommorow.

Advanced Spin Training with Rich Stowell

The need for training

The weekend of April 17-18 2010, I finally did it. Went ahead to get some advanced spin training, so that I could practice all the aerobatic maneuvers with confidence. Especially when you are learning to do new maneuvers, there’s always a chance that they end up in an “interesting” position. For instance an overly aggressive push and roll input to fix a hammerhead (stall turn for those used to Brit terminology) at the top of the vertical climb puts the controls in a classic accelerated flat inverted spin entry position. (Full power, low speed, full rudder, forward stick and opposite aileron). I had done inverted spins in the Christen Eagle but that was from power at idle, with known yaw direction and known recovery rudder. I was not a 100% sure that I would recognize an inverted spin and do the correct recovery when confronted with an unexpected spin.

The choice of school/instructor

I had a few choices in the US where I could do this training. I thought I could go to Debbie Rihn-Harvey’s school near Houston and do it in their Pitts S-2B. Since my sister lived there, this was an attractive option. I could visit with sis, stay for free and borrow her beater car to go to and fro from the airport (leaving more money for the flying!). Debbie had a great reputation and was a National Champion and their website advertised training of this kind. However, their Pitts had been in for repair and was not available for over 3 months.

The other option was Rich Stowell in Santa Paula, CA. Rochelle, a member of the group that co-owned the Christen Eagle, was a student of Rich’s and had done a lot of her flying with CP Aviation. Rich works out of CP Aviation which is the FBO at SZP (Santa Paula airport). Rochelle had been recommending working with Rich or Judy Phelps as instructors for this sort of thing. After not getting a satisfactory reply from calls to Harvey Aviation I decided that it worth the additional investment in a hotel room and car rental to just go there.

It helped that Rich was nationally known as a really good instructor. He specializes in upset, spin and aerobatic training and has been known to do it at least since 1988. (There is a “Flying Magazine” article on a CP Aviation wall featuring him from that date). He has written at least two books (Emergency Maneuver Training & Light Airplane Spin,Stall/Spin Awareness) about spinning and upset training. He has a bunch of videos about flying aerobatic maneuvers and gives an accessible yet scholarly treatment to the subject.

Rich has seminars that he instructs in all over the country but every time he has been up in the Pacific Northwest I haven’t been able to attend. So I got a weekend slot with him and headed to Santa Paula. I flew into LAX on a Friday, rented a car and was at the quaint Santa Paula Inn B &B in a couple of hours.

Arrival and preparation

SZP airport is real interesting. It is walking distance from downtown Santa Paula, and is a hub of activity. People can come and watch airplanes and the overall feel is much more relaxed than the fenced off areas that most airports have become. I think this is more secure than fences, since everyone seemed to know each other and care about "their" airport.

I showed up at 8:30 am for a 9 am appointment at CP Aviation. CP stands for "Clay Phelps", who is the owner/A&P/IA of the school. According to the historic photographs I perused, Clay's father Robert Phelps operated a flying school at Santa Paula for the US Army Air Force in WWII. Clay's wife Judy is an aerobatic instructor of note.

Rich arrived at 9 am, and looks exactly like his pictures. I was his only student for the day, which was nice since I got to hang out with him all day.

We went to the back room to brief the flying for the day. In an e-mail exchange with Rich, I had asked for training in spins especially recognizing and recovering from inadvertent spins while doing aerobatics. I told Rich that I wanted to do regular, accelerated, inverted, flat spins so that I had seen them all and could recognize them and do something other than freeze or flail on the controls when I got into one. Regular spins are entered with the power off and at low speeds, but in aerobatics one can enter them with full power and at higher speeds. This can cause a high rate of rotation and since they can be entered inadvertently rather than deliberately can cause a high rate of rotation inside the pilot's brain - leaving him dazed and confused!

Rich had asked me to plan for 3 flights on Saturday (9am-11am, 12 - 2pm, 2pm -4pm). I had a late flight back home on Sunday - so we had the whole day to do further flights if we needed to. I also had in mind some coaching for competition figures from Rich.

I had asked to fly CP Aviation's Pitts S-2B. The Eagle is very pitch sensitive with two persons on board, and is easily loaded beyond it's aft CG, especially with my weight in the rear seat. The Pitts S-2B is similar to the Eagle in flying qualities but has a larger engine with more horsepower. It has a six cylinder 260 hp Lycoming IO-540 versus the 200 hp Lycoming IO-360 of the Eagle. This allows it to carry more weight and gives it a wider CG envelope.

Rich asked me what I wanted to get accomplished and I told him I needed to get comfortable with being in unusual situations - which included spins of all kinds so I would not be so tentative in flying maneuvers that took me to the edge of control especially if they were botched. I told him I was doing hammerheads early because I did not want to fall into an inverted spin. I had done both upright and inverted spins - but these were deliberate spins that I had set up. Recovering from them did not give me confidence that I would recover from spins which could go flat, be inverted when I was expecting them to be upright and vice versa. I had reasoned that if I saw enough spins of different kinds I would be able to (a) recover correctly from them and (b) practice them solo in the Eagle to keep current.

Rich's briefing wasn't very long, or at least it didn't seem that long to me! His experience showed in that what I thought was a short briefing prepared me very well. He has a metal model that I have seen in many of his videos that illustrated aileron, elevator and rudder positions in various maneuvers. This was great training aid, since it allowed one to visualize what control positions corresponded to control inputs in entering and exiting maneuvers. It also showed how my mental model of what happens inverted was a little incorrect!

We agreed that we would do three flights that day (Saturday) and would keep the schedule open on the next day (Sunday) to see if we needed a couple of more flights.

The Pitts S2B

I then started preparing for the flight and Rich went ahead to prepare the Pitts S2B for me, including the parachute. I hopped into the rear seat. The Pitts has no floor, so getting in and out is harder than in the Eagle. One has to put one foot on the seat, slide the feet on the rails taking care not to land on the lexan floor and lower ones butt to the seat. In the meantime, the canopy has to be held so that it is not carried away by the wind! The Eagle canopy is solid, whereas the Pitts canopy is very delicate. In the Eagle the engine can be started with the canopy open. Rich said that so many people were losing S2B canopies (which can cost $6000 a pop) that insurance companies do not cover canopy loss on S2B anymore! Even the canopy lock is just a pair of plastic slots into which the canopy is pushed till it clicks, as opposed to the solid lock and pin of the Eagle!

Overall I was surprised by how rough and sparse the S2B cockpit was. I assumed that since the S2B is factory built and was certified under the aerobatic category, it would be more refined than the experimental category Christen Eagle. Wrong assumption! For instance, the prop control on the S2B is a metal lever that has to be teased back when it is at the right angle using the metal tab attached to the lever. Hard to get precise RPM control with that! The trim tab is a plastic lever that points to the floor!

The Christen Eagle seems much more of a factory built than the S2B and it was built around the same time as the factory built S2A. It is surprising that the S2B wasn't built using the Christen Eagle's cockpit arrangement since by the time it was in production Frank Christensen owned both the Christen and Pitts factories.

Jumping ahead, how was the Pitts S2B compared to the Eagle to fly? Pretty much the same performance wise with two people on board and the higher temperatures at Santa Paula as compared to the Eagle with just me on board and in the cooler temperatures in Seattle. The feel of the Pitts was more "solid" and the Eagle seemed like a lighter aircraft overall. The control forces were smaller in the Eagle all round, though in the heat of the moment they didn't seem that much more in the S2B! Budd Davisson's article on the Eagle has a comparison with the Pitts and I pretty much agree with everything I said. Though for overall comfort I would choose the Eagle any day.

Hurry up and wait!

Rich completed the briefing and strapped in in the front. However after start up I couldn't hear him on the intercom. We thought it might be my headset, but even after swapping headsets he couldn't hear me on the intercom. Having a fully functioning intercom so that I could hear Rich's instructions while I was in an inverted flat spin was kind of important! So we had to shut down and see what could be done about it. Rich called the owner - I took the opportunity to have lunch while waiting. Having planned the extra day immediately started looking like a very good idea. Rich wanted to make sure I could fly the Pitts but was also thinking that the Decathlon would be a back up if things didn't work out. My attitude was that things like this happen in aviation and are instrumental in building character!

The first sortie & SOP at SZP

After a couple of hours, Clay Phelps was able to wire the intercom so that it worked. He is an A &P and found that the problem was that the ground of the intercom plug was not connected. An external ground wire to the headset plug did the trick and we were ready to fly.

Santa Paula is a different kind of airport as I have alluded to before. One unique thing is that aircraft are identified by type and color rather than by call sign. So we were the "blue and yellow Pitts" rather than "Pitts Eight Zero Alpha Sierra". The traffic pattern is at 850 feet and has specific landmarks it is flown by. Close by on the east side is a pretty big mountain and all patterns are flown on the mountain side of the airport.

The aerobatic area is north of the airport between the cities of Santa Paula and Filmore, with the highway between the two conveniently bisecting the area into West and East practice areas.

Rich had me do the takeoff and get used to the Pitts handling, asking me to do a couple of Dutch rolls. Once in the aerobatic area we did some upright spins to the left and the right. Rich has a very calm, unhurried way of instructing. He used my name before asking me to do something - which did get my attention. Things were happening fast, but his instructions always seemed timely but unhurried!

We then went into aggravated spins - putting out spin aileron & forward stick before rudder during the spin. The two things that I took away from the spins was

1. Wiggle my toes (so that I was sensitive to the rudder)
2. The spin stops when I could point the aircraft's nose to a point and make it go towards it (no yaw)

We practiced PARE & Begg's recoveries. PARE is an abbreviation for "Power (off), Ailerons (neutral), Rudder (opposite yaw), Elevator (towards neutral)" and is something that Rich has popularized (and trademarked). Begg's recoveries are named for Gene Begg's whose book "Spins in the Pitts Special" specified how a Pitts recovers from any type of spin by letting go of the controls, power off and yaw (rudder) opposite to the spin yaw direction. The way one judges what opposite yaw is to "catch up with the world with your rudder" , subject to the world being viewed by sighting over the cowling between the wings of the Pitts (in an inverted spin if the world is not being viewed over the cowling the direction of turn will be judged incorrectly). The Beggs recovery works just as well for the Eagle.

Flat spins for the first time

Now it was time for flat spins. These were entered like a regular upright spin but as the first turn was completed the power was brought smoothly up at least half way. That caused the world to spin around way faster! I did the PARE recovery first. Normally with power off and opposite rudder the Eagle/Pitts is already coming out of a spin, and it takes about a quarter turn to recover. Doing competition spins you have to work hard so that the spin doesn't stop before the required points. Not so in a flat spin. In a flat spin it took about a full turn to recover. Rich's dictum of the aircraft being out of a spin only when going towards a point on the ground is invaluable here so that one doesn't remove anti-spin inputs prematurely.

The Beggs recovery was pretty much the same, though I was surprised by the" rising out of the seat" feeling which made me instinctively grab the stick as the airplane pitched down to recover itself from the spin after anti-spin yaw was applied. I also found out how hard it is to just let go of everything, and understand better now why people have grabbed on to the controls and never let go! Practicing this with Rich has definitely made it much more likely that I will use this recovery method with fouling it up. We did flats spins to the left and the right before moving on to the "piece de resistance" - post stall gyrations and hammerspins!

Hammerspins

One of the maneuvers that was in the IAC Sportsman class category competition that was not in Primary category competition was the hammerhead or stall turn. I was a little wary of this maneuver since it was a low speed maneuver in which the rudder was the primary control input. There was always the danger of falling into a spin or leaving it late and falling into a tailslide. This lack of confidence had me doing the yaw turn way too early and tentatively. I had mentioned this to Rich and serendipitously he had just finished filming a video about hammerspins for the new IAC "In the Loop" newsletter. In fact the mount for the video camera was still on Eight Zero Alpha Sierra.

The video Rich shot is below, and is well worth a look see.

Rich had me do the first maneuver to demonstrate that the airplane is actually trying to do the right thing, and that it doesn't just fall into a flat spin but gives ample warning even under extreme conditions. He had me set up the hammerhead and at the top give full left rudder, full right aileron and then full back stick. I had to hold these control inputs till the aircraft entered a recognizable left flat spin. He had warned me that there would be three warnings or post-stall gyrations before a flat spin would happen.

I did the entry just as is shown in the video, and the aircraft did 3 yee-ha maneuvers pitching over, pitching level, pitching over, pitching level, pitching over and entering a flat spin. I had the controls in the really unnatural pro-spin direction all the time. Then I recovered from the spin using PARE. It actually isn't as violent feeling as it looks and was a smooth maneuver.

We then did the maneuver and recovered from the flat spin using the Beggs recovery.

It was now time to head back for the landing. Since I had never landed a Pitts before, Rich wanted me to have enough spare capacity to land the airplane. The runway at SZP is only about 2500 ft long and it has houses close to the fence under the approach end of 22 where we were landing. The S2B stalls around 80 mph, whereas the Eagle stalls at 60 mph, so we maintained 100 mph all the way around, reducing to 90 mph over the fence. It lands much like the Eagle, and is equally blind!

Sortie two

After a brief debrief (heh heh) and some coffee we launched for our second sortie of the day. This time we concentrated on competition maneuvers - Rich had me do left and right competition spins so that I could internalize what controls to put in when and in what order. He also coached me on my hammerheads - making sure I understood what truly vertical was and the sequence of controls on the turn around at the top of the hammerhead. One other maneuver we practiced was getting into a the aggravated hammerspin and recovering way before it turned into a flat spin using the Beggs method. This increased my confidence in doing the hammerhead turn thousandfold. Another landing followed, and I was done for the day.

Day two: Introduction to the Decathlon, Inverted spins and inverted turns

When I arrived on day two I expected to fly the Pitts again. But found that there was a more serious problem with the intercom system. Scott, the owner of the Pitts on leaseback to CP Aviation, had the Pitts intercom out and showed me where there were burn marks on the circuit board. This was going to take more time that I had to fix.

Rich in the meantime had brought out CP Aviation's Bellanca 8KCAB Decathlon N5035N or "blue and white Decathlon" in SZP vernacular. 5035N has a 150 hp engine and fixed pitch prop. I was happy to fly the Decathlon just to see how I would do doing aerobatics in an aircraft without quite the power, feel and control authority of the Eagle/Pitts. I have flown Citabrias quite a bit, so the cockpit and controls were familiar. The visibility out the front was certainly a lot better than the Eagle/Pitts!

Rich started me out flying dutch rolls and aileron rolls so that I could get a feel for the aircraft. The Decathlon has a symmetric wing, so it doesn't need quite the nose up attitude that is needed when inverted in a Citabria. It was still quite a bit more than the Eagle/Pitts. Control forces were certainly heavier!

Then Rich had me go through being comfortable inverted in the Decathlon. He had me try some turns this way. The mantra being

1. push the rudder in the direction you want to go and
2. lift a wing by stick into the side you want to lift (the opposite of when one is upright).

We then did some 60 degree steep turns inverted. I had to put in lots more forward stick to turn (since elevator makes the airplane turn once banked, and one needed forward stick to get the turn going). In the Decathlon that much forward stick means that the stick disappears under the panel! That was kind of awkward. It was also weird to feel like one was on the outside of the turn being thrown out rather than on the inside of the turn being pulled in while upright.

It was then on to inverted spins entered from inverted flight (we seemed to spend more time inverted than upright in this sortie!) with brisk rudder application and forward stick for entry. In the Decathlon, the Beggs recovery does not work. In fact the stick can go hard forward and stay there! There is 10-15 lb force required to pull it back towards neutral for recovery. We did both left and right inverted spins and recoveries. Now it was time to land, and I had to be reminded that the sight picture would be lower than my Eagle or the Pitts because the Decathlon does not have quite the same sink rate as those types!

What did I get out of this?

On the whole this was a very educational and fun 3 sorties. I am very confident that if I fall into a spin of any kind I will be able to do the right things to recover. As far as I am concerned the most important teaching that I got from Rich was "forget about the drama going on outside the airplane, just do the process and you will be fine". I also realized that I should get recurrent training like because as someone on the Acro group said "Hitting a maneuver like the hammer perfectly every time doesn't really expand the repertoire, but poking the Pitts /Eagle with a sharp stick (under expert guidance) really teaches a lot!"

My first power solo - what I wrote right after it

I was a grad student in Pittsburgh, living on poverty stipends when I wrote this.

Thanks to Google Groups for retrieving this from the usenet group rec.aviation.student. The usenet groups were the Facebook of that era. There were all kinds of topics you could talk about and if you kept clear of the alt.* groups, they were pretty safe too.

I couldn't afford to fly regularly till 1999 after this. The picture above was taken right after my solo - I did see the Budweiser blimp while in the pattern.

Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student

From: a...@pitt.edu (Anandeep Pannu)

Date: 9 Aug 93 15:57:08 GMT

Local: Mon, Aug 9 1993 8:57 am

Subject: My first solo

Well I finally did it. Flew an airplane all by myself around the pattern.

This has been a long road. I started training almost an year back, on 20th September 1992 to be exact. Money was the major problem, along with the usual graduate student overload.

I had been a glider pilot back in India with about 100 launches. That, and the fact that I have been an aviation enthusiast all my life, helped a lot.

The glider habits did interfere a bit too (negative transfer and all that). I last flew a glider over 4 years ago though.

The first negative habit I had to get rid of was - using too much bank! With those long slim wings you better add a hefty bit of stick to get the turn going - not so with the Cessna! Also I had not realised thermaling involved so much banking! A related problem was overcompensating for adverse yaw with the rudder.

The second mental change was getting used to the nose high attitude of the Cessna 152 vis a vis gliders in level flight.

The third, potentialy serious, habit which I had to get rid of was pushing the nose down for speed forgetting about that little thing called the throttle.

Well, I realised I had got all the right attitudes on my solo!

(More about this later)

I soloed at Allegheny County Airport in Pittsburgh (AGC) . I had done all my training there at Phoenix Aviation. A lot of the touch and goes were done at Rosstraver Airport(G08 ,narrower and shorter than AGC) and some were done at Washington County Airport (AFI). AGC is a very busy airport with a lot of GA traffic. It is a controlled airport with IFR facilities.

I soloed in 21.4 hours. Jay Domenico, my instructor, had been ready to solo me the last two times I went out. But thunderstorm activity the first time and high winds (15 kts gusting to 20 kts) kept me from soloing. There was a gap of two weeks before I could get back (I was at Oshkosh among other things). The practice in those conditions was very useful so I guess I

should'nt complain about the delayed solo.

Yesterday I bussed down to AGC. I dont have a car, cant afford one and fly too ! It takes me 2 hours to get from my home to the airport, with a 2 mile walk at the end of the road. But it was all worth it !

The weather was brilliant. Sunshine, no haze and clouds high in the sky. I reached a little late on account of the bus being delayed by the Pittsburgh Regatta. The Budweiser and the Gulf Oil blimps were being refueled before heading back over the city. Jay was waiting for me. We walked over to the aircraft, a yellow Cessna 152 N6575Q, known as "Tweety Bird" in the club.

After the preflight we took off for some touch and goes. I made about 5 landings and they were all okay. On the last touch and go, Jay asked me if I felt ready to solo. I said "Yes". We made a circuit and landed. Parked the aircraft and had it refueled. Jay went over a few things like radio failure, what to do if I bounce, aborting takeoff etc.

Well, off I went, the intrepid aviator ! Preflighted thoroughly. Strapped in and did the checks. Started the engine and switched on the radios. Switched to 120.55 (ATIS) and got a shock ! Seemed like there were people talking on this frequency! Switched to COM2 to see if the first radio had lost its frequency control. Same chatter on there too. Soon the ATIS message came

through and I set altimeter etc. Called ground with Bravo. They told me to taxi to runaway 28, the main runaway. Taxied out, suprisingly my taxiing seemed better than I had ever done before. A Cessna 172 and a Piper Apache ahead of me. The 172 turned off on A2. I want the full length, thank you!

Went to the end of the runaway and started my pre takeoff checks. Jay had said that I should request ATC for "a hold and wait" rather than an immediate takeoff. I called ATC, identified myself and said "Student pilot" after it all. The tower just said "taxi into position and hold".

No hint of any special treatment. Soon I got "cleared for takeoff" and started my takeoff.

The wind was calm and I held the centerline quite well. Rotation and climbout was routine. God, this thing is climbing. I was 500 ft AGL just at the end of the runaway. Turned left still climbing. Remembered to look around too.

On the downwind, reduce power at 2000 ft. Just as I established myself on downwind, ATC came up with "Seven Five Quebec are you staying in pattern?".

Of course I was staying in pattern. Had I forgotten to say "Closed traffic" ?

So I said "Yes, student pilot on first solo, 75 Quebec".

ATC came back with a "I asked you whether you are staying in pattern".

I was a bit flustered, but I replied "75 Quebec will be staying in pattern". ATC said "75 Quebec

number 3 to twin engine Cessna on 2 mile final". I remembered my radio procedures and said "looking for traffic, 75 Quebec". I could see a BAe 800 landing but could'nt see the Cessna. Pre-landing checklist. Oops whats this - I had climbed a 100ft during all this. I started looking

for the twin. Just as I saw it ATC came back with "Seven five Quebec do you have traffic". I replied "have traffic in sight, Seven Five Quebec". Reduce power, 10 degrees of flaps. Maintain height. Twin passes left wing start the turn. Dash it I am high. Power out, 20 degrees of flaps.

ATC comes in with "Seven Five Quebec cleared for touch and go". About time I was going to ask. Speed 70 kts. Align with runaway, 65 kts. Last flaps. Will I make it. Yes. Just before the fence I checked speed. This was an entirely unconscious action. My GOD I am at 47 kts (needle

halfway between 45 and 50 kts). Power to increase airspeed (not like my glider days - I did not push the nose down). Over the fence, cant make a normal flare, I am too slow. So level off keep the nosewheel of the ground. main undercarriage touches heavily. Bounce !

Full power, faint peep from Stall warning horn. Keep it level, dont pull back. Aircraft does'nt descend. Why is'nt it climbing ? Flaps! 20 degrees. Airspeed 60 knots. 10 degrees of flaps. Positive rate of climb, okay no flaps.

Everything in green. Turn on crosswind leg. Funny, I handled that okay, even though I never had this happen to me during training. Will that count as a touch and go ? On downwind leg. Pre-landing checklist. You stupid fool, carb heat is still on! Very, very stupid.When did you practice your last go around ? Two months ago. Not good.

Okay, you are number 2 to Cessna 152 doing touch and goes. Have him in sight. Downwind extended just a little. Correct configuration. Cleared for touch and go. Dammit, you are high again. Slip is required. Set up a slip. Right height now. Aircraft heading down centerline. Correct speed. Flare, flare , flare. Hisssssssss. Smooth landing. Carb heat off. Flaps up. Full power.

Cessna still in front even though I have reached 500 ft. Keep climbing straight ahead. Keep him in sight. Passes left wing, no other traffic in sight. Turn crosswind. Follow Cessna on downwind. Cleared for touch and go. Only slightly extend downwind. Perfect approach. Landing good, but not as smooth as the last one. Also remembered to tell ATC that this was a full stop. Get off runaway at the intersection. After landing checks. Taxi all the way to the back. Jay comes out of the clubhouse, directs me to turn it completely around.

Shutdown. WOW ! The eagle has landed !

Anandeep Pannu ( soloed 9 August 1993 )

--

Graduate Student

Intelligent Systems

University of Pittsburgh

IFR training - getting the polish on

This weekend I flew two IFR sorties. On Friday I flew to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, then to PAE for a unconventional circling approach and back to Renton. On Saturday I flew to Port Angeles and back. Both times I was flying the Cessna 172S's. I flew 97PD with the altitude hold 2-axis autopilot on Friday and 435SP with the 1-axis (heading hold only) autopilot on Saturday.

I have decided to use these aircraft for my instrument check ride. Even though they differ in the capabilities of their autopilots, the rest of the instrument panel and other controls are identical. Having that kind of consistency is important, so that lessons I learned one day transfer over to the next day.

We decided to go to Friday Harbor, the main airport in the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound. Friday Harbor is a popular destination for a lot of VFR flyers, being a great scenic spot within reach of the mainland. On a good VFR day the traffic congestion there has to be seen to be believed.

We did the RNAV (GPS) RWY 34 approach at Friday Harbor. I was doing ok with holding my height and track, but was missing the checks and the GPS manipulation cues. I had to be prompted by Howard to do the checks. Also I had some missteps in using the autopilot. I had to remember that it went into both roll (wings level) and vertical speed mode as soon as I put it on. So if I wanted it to hold wings level and an altitude I had to have it trimmed with zero vertical speed, or failing that immediately hit the ALT button to get it out of VS mode. Otherwise the autopilot keeps the airplane climbing/descending at whatever rate it had when the autopilot was first switched on.

Then Howard had me fly to Paine and do the VOR RWY 16R approach, with a circle to land. The circle to land is a little different because the VOR is between the two runways. At PAE there are two main runways - 16R/34L and 16L/34R. As can be seen from this airport diagram there is a significant difference between the two runways - 16R/34L is 11000 ft long and 16L/34R is 3000 ft long.

I tracked to the runway ok - and on reaching minimums (which for circling is 1100 ft) 1 mile out Howard let me go visual. The tower could give us any runway to land on at that point. The aircraft is only 500 ft above the ground at that point and one needs to be level flight. The tower gave us 34R and we had to set up really quickly and land.

In the other aircraft I have been flying (the retracts), BEFA and I have a policy of never doing touch-and-gos. I usually do "stop-and-gos" so that I have time to set the prop, flaps, cowl flaps, fuel, trim, carb heat and throttle (in a "U" flow in the 182RG) to go. With the 172S there are only the flaps and throttle to set to do a quick touch and go. I was reverting to old habits and trying to stop rather than do a touch and go. I was quickly cured of this by Howard emphasising that the runaway was short!

On Saturday I went to Port Angeles (KCLM). Before we left I had Howard walk me through the phases of an approach and what I had to get done where. The approach was broken down into the pre-initial approach fix, post-initial approach fix and then final approach fix. The pre-initial approach fix essentially got us ready for the approach with the avionics set, the comm radios set. On the post-initial approach fix the aircraft got its approach clearance and slowed down to its approach speed with the landing checklist done and on the final approach fix the emphasis was on getting the missed approach prepared for. Each segment had a descent and the height to descend needed to be accounted for.

We flew the RNAV (GPS) 8 approach into Port Angeles. The air was pretty turbulent with significant wind. I was able to maintain height and track pretty consistently. I learned the one needed to be trimmed to a certain pressure to keep the aircraft at an altitude, and in turbulence once the "center point" was found small pressures on the yoke kept the aircraft at the altitude. One could not expect to trim the aircraft at the altitude due to the updrafts and downdrafts, while at the same time the trim needed to be somewhere near what it should be so that an excessive force didn't need to be held.

Howard was happy with my performance and said that we needed to find time for my long cross country. For the first time he indicated that I might be able to take the checkride in June!

More Eagle landings

I hadn't flown the Eagle for a couple of weeks now. And the Eagle isn't the kind of aircraft you fly once in a while. Both from the fun aspect and the challenge aspect of flying it!

As I had recounted in my previous report - I had been behind the aircraft the last time. I was determined to focus on flying and relaxing this time. So I left work a little earlier than normal for the flight, so that I would arrive with a ten minutes or so to clear my mind of all the everyday detritus and to visualize how I was going to fly.

As I drove up on I-40 , I saw Rochelle flying the Eagle for an entry into the pattern for 33 landing. I could only see her for part of the downwind - but the Eagle looked great. For some reason it looked bigger than the Cessnas in the pattern. I think the paint scheme does something to make it stand out. I took this as a good omen!

Dave and Rochelle were in the hangar by the time I arrived. I told Dave I was not going to fly for 10 minutes but I would call the fuel truck. I walked down to the edge of the row of hangars and back, clearing my mind and focusing on the flight. By the time I walked back I was ready to go.

Just seeing the Eagle and its' cockpit gets me excited about flying it. I used the checklist the I had copied as a backup to my checks - making sure I didn't miss the g-meter and altimeter setting this time.

In the meantime Adam Tibbits had arrived. Adam is the newbie in the group, taking the baton from me. This fills up the last slot left in our group. Adam now works for Bombardier, but he used to be a Cirrus demo pilot and CFI before. He has way more hours than I do, including some in a Skybolt he used to be a partner in.

I managed to not miss any items in the checklist this time. I did have some trouble with the ratchet mechanism but was able to fix it without having Dave lean over or get back out of the seat. Since Rochelle had flown the aircraft right before, we used a hot start procedure. In this the mixture is left at idle cut-off, and as the engine is started, the throttle is pumped. As soon as it catches, the mixture is pushed in to full rich. I managed to do this ok.

We had a long taxi to runaway 33 at Renton, this gave me a chance to get the feel of the aircraft again. On takeoff I was able to keep it heading in the correct direction without the swing and was able to liftoff nicely. We took it out of the pattern to do some manuevers.

Dave showed me a real neat way of moving the Eagles nose in an continuous S-turn while flying, which gave us greater visibility and ability to see other aircraft around us. This turn is a slow sweeping of the nose from straight ahead to 30-40 degrees either side. This allowed one to move to an area that had been already cleared and clear an area to the other side to where the nose is moving.

We came back into the pattern pretty quickly and I handled the radios this time. I was flying much more positively and this showed in my flying. I entered the 45 for 33 at the white water tower at the correct height, and flew the pattern at a consistent speed. The landing was pretty good. I am also now in the habit of pulling the stick all the way back to keep the Eagle firmly planted. My rudder inputs are getting much finer than before and I was able to keep the Eagle pretty much on the centerline.

We did 4 more landings - and they were all decent except for one which I'll talk about below. I was aggressively keeping height but having some difficulty find the right amount of throttle and attitude to fly the downwind in. This effected the speed flown and the altitude a little bit.

On the second to last landing I landed a little fast and pulled back on the stick too rapidly. The aircraft went in a very nose high attitude and gained air beneath its wings. Dave was suprised by my action and took some time to react. But I had done the right thing by then, I gave it full throttle and took off again. Adam, who was watching, later said that it was beautiful to watch - it seemed to him the aircraft just briefly touched the ground lightly, rebounded and took off again.

I was able to overtake a Cessna that was out in front because of this go-around. There were a lot of spam cans around, and I had to slow down and weave to keep them in sight.

On the next and last landing I promised Dave I would do a good one. This one was good, I landed nicely had the stick back and slowed down to a full stop without Dave having to get on the controls at all.

Its always a blast flying the Eagle.

Flying the Beechcraft Bonanza

This weekend I flew in the Beechcraft Bonanza twice. On Friday I did a local area familiarization flight from Renton and on Saturday we went to the Tri-Cities area in Eastern Washington (to Pasco airport). It was Mother's Day weekend, and Amy's mother lives in Kennewick which is one of the Tri-Cities. Pasco airport is the largest airport near where she lives. There is an airport that is closer to her home but it was shorter, and for my first flights in a Bonanza I wanted a long runaway.

I had been preparing to fly the Bo by reading John Eckalbar's book "Flying the Beech Bonanza". I had also been given a manual for the V-35, V-35A and V-35B versions of the Bonanza and a checklist that Kent had prepared.

My first flight (as PIC, I have flown in the right seat of Bonanzas twice before - once about 3 years ago and then when I was considering the partnership) involved the usual pre-flight things. There isn't that much unusual about the pre-flight -except that the cowlings completely open using a screwdriver to turn the quarter turn locking screws. There is a lot more visible this way than in the Cessna's and Pipers I am used to. Another useful thing that Kent advised me of to lower the flaps after switching the battery master on. The Bonanza has two different switches, one is the battery master and the other is the alternator master. They are proper flip switches and not piano keys like in the Cessnas (some Cessnas have split piano keys that serve the same function as the two different switches in the Bonanza).

The start process was the same as most fuel injected engine. The throttle is fully open, mixture is rich and the auxiliary fuel pump switch is flipped on till fuel pressure peaks. Then its master and mags on and the engine is started.

This is when I encountered the vernier throttles. The Bonanzas power controls (throttle, prop & mixture) are operated by rotating them in a vernier action. There is a button on each control that can be depressed for quick action in the conventional way but that is used only a few times in a typical sortie. I used this button when I first started the engine and over-revved the engine. I had to hurriedly pull back on it to make sure we didn't head for the hangars!

The impression from the pilot's seat is one of solidness. The seating position felt very comfortable, and I didn't have to fidget with up/down rotating handles or seatback rotating handles like I have to in the Cessnas. The seat slides back and forth but otherwise the default position fit me like a glove. The rudder pedals feel solid and comfortable as well.

Taxiing was easy and the visibility on the ground was much better than I am used to than even the low wing Piper Arrow. There is lots of window area and the visibility is great. There is nosewheel steering available much like the Cessnas. This was missing in the T-34B that I flew in the Navy Flying Club in Atlanta and taxiing using differential braking was required for the T-34B. The T-34 is based on the Bonanza wing and gear but the lack of nosewheel steering is an interesting difference between the T-34B and the Bonanza.

The runup has all the usual items and I just had to get used to using the vernier on the throttle and mixture. The instrument panel is laid out more logically than the Cessnas in my opinion. One issue is that the circuit breakers and light switches were on the bottom of the panel and the big two pilot yoke hid them. Till I get used to it and know where the switches are, I will have to duck around and look for those breakers and switches.

Takeoff was normal, acceleration pretty brisk with the 285 hp IO-520. One thing I noticed was the tendency of the right wing to lift. I am not sure whether that is a result of the rudder-aileron interconnect and my corrections on line up with the rudder or it was just a cross wind that sprang up.

The Bonanza pilot's handbook calls for liftoff at 71 kts and has a speed which I had not seen in any other handbook. It is a "speed at 50 ft" which is 77kts and is equal to the Vx (best angle of climb) speed. Vy is 96 kts and cruise climb is 107 kts. Kent tends to use mph and I prefer to use knots. The airspeed indicator indicates knots on the inside scale and mph on the outside and the handbook lists speeds in both so it works for both of us.

The climbout looked to be shallow from the cockpit, but even at cruise climb we were climbing at 700 ft/min. The climb is made at 25 in of MP and 2500 rpm. Cruise is at 23 inches and 2300 rpm. The mixture is leaned till we see 15 gph of fuel flow, which reaches the EGT figure for cruise. This is how the partnership runs it engine and since the engine is running strong way past TBO, I am not going to mess with it!

We went out the practice area close to Lake Sammamish. The view out is fantastic. Even though there is less glass area than the Eagle, there isn't the upper wing to block the view. You don't realize what you are missing in a Cessna! Even the view downwards for the pilots (sitting ahead of the wing) is fabulous.

The aircraft handling is superb with light ailerons and elevator (though trim is definitely needed). There is very little rudder pressure needed, though one needs to hold some rudder in climb. I like the ball presentation on the turn and bank indicator. Overall the instruments come nicely to hand.

We tried standard rate turns to the left and right, steep turns for 360 degrees to the left and right. These presented no problems and the lightness of the control forces and the view made them easier to do than in a Cessna in my opinion. We then transitioned to slow flight.

In slow flight the aircraft got skittish at about 65 kts without flaps. Putting any flaps down at all increased the feeling of solidity and the stall occured at about 50 kts indicated. We didn't go into the break but into the stall warning. I don't remember any buffeting or any looseness in the controls with the flaps down, but that may be just me. We did turns in slow flight and the aircraft responded solidly without any signs of sloppy handling.

Once we were done, we set course back to Renton for a few landings. I still have to get used to the speed of the Bonanza which is about 10-15 kts faster than the 182RG. It was showing a 145 kt cruise at 23 square, which with the wind was giving us a 155 kt groundspeed.

I kept my usual 2000 ft on approach, but was having a hard time slowing down. We then dropped the gear and it slowed right down! But I will have to manage the energy much further out than in the draggy Cessnas and the square winged Piper Arrow.

The landings in the Bonanza are much easier than in the Eagle! It basically flys into ground effect and cushions out any flare errors. We did a couple of more landings. I got a little slow on the second one but instead of thumping in like the 182 it landed just fine. I have to still figure out the standard speeds to fly on downwind and when to let down the gear etc, but landings didn't present any problems.

The weekend was Mother's Day weekend and in the interest of flying off my insurance hours and making Amy happy - we decided to fly on Saturday from Renton to Pasco. Amy got a large fresh bouquet of flowers from the Redmond Farmer's market. Kent very kindly consented to fly with us. Our plan was to start from Renton at 1-2pm fly to Pasco (about 150 NM) in a total time of an hour and half, have late lunch/early dinner and then fly back.

The weather was a concern initially. Kent is rated IFR but there was icing forecast and the MEA is 9500 ft to cross the Cascades. The ceilings were 4500 or so. We planned to fly VFR across the Cascades and once over there was no concern as the eastern part of the state was severe clear. We took the safe VFR route over Stampede Pass rather than follow I-90 across Snoqualmie Pass. The valley leading to Stampede Pass is wide, allowing for a quick turnaround at any point. Also there are landing options along the valley. Snoqualmie on the other hand is pretty narrow and there aren't as many landing possibilities. Stampede Pass also has an automated weather station which allows us to get weather AT the pass.

We flew through the pass fine with plenty of visibility and ceilings and turned towards Ellensburg. I had to navigate to waypoint FEBUS which is on V-187 and avoids the Yakima firing range restricted area. The range was hot on the day. Then it was a turn south direct to Pasco. I did have some turbulence and had some Bonanza waggle which was easily damped out by putting pressure on the rudder pedals.

On the approach to Pasco, which was straight in, I again had to have a giant descent rate because I didn't descend and slow down early enough. This airplane is slippery!

But the landing went really well. We went on to Bergstorm Aircraft which is the FBO and flight school at Pasco (which is officially "Tri-cities" airport). Bergstorm rents out a Bonanza S35. We didn't need any fuel since we had only flown an hour and a half.

After a nice dinner we headed back to Renton. The reports were not encouraging, though Stampede Pass was showing a 1500 ft ceiling. The takeoff from Pasco was very nice, the scenery there is very different from the Puget Sound area with a lot more open space and not that many trees.

On the way back I practised using the wing leveler. It is a handy autopilot and will be very useful for holding wings level especially when looking at charts during IFR flight. It also does turns upto standard rate and I practised flying 5931S using just the wing leveler and pressure on the yoke bar (rather than the yoke itself). This way the wing leveller does its' thing without my hands interfering while I corrected any small altitude deviations for a well trimmed aircraft. I love the fact that the aircraft has aileron trim, one of the things I found really annoying was holding the yoke turned to one side or other especially in the Cessna 182RG to hold level flight. In the Bonanza, of course, you can change tanks so that there is approximately equal fuel in each tank, which you couldn't do in the Cessna.

We learned a good lesson about not making assumptions about weather and what it can do. Kent had said that in his experience if the pass is clear then valley beyond almost always has better weather. When we tuned into the ASOS at Stampede it was indicating 7000 ft ceilings with 10 mile visibility. But as we crested the pass, an ominous wall of clouds could be seen which obviously had reduced visibility and extended all the way to the valley floor. We made the right decision to turn around and land at Ellensburg. Again I was way high and fast and had to set up a high descent rate to get into the downwind but the landing was good.

We took a rental car (which is a story in itself) and drove home. That is a first for me! But I don't think this will be the last time this happens.