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.
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