#20 - AC11 - Rockwell Commander 112

My friend Ken is one of those people who need to fly.  He is darn near a UFO (United Flying Octogenarian) so I think it is a little surprising that he did not discover this about himself until a few months after he sold his seventh Mooney.  Mooniacs, as aficionados of the narrow cockpitted speedsters with the reversed tails are called, are a special breed of pilot.  They love speed, and more importantly they love efficient speed.  None of this throwing a giant engine at the problem.  They want an honest 180 mph on 180 horsepower, and many of them get that and more.  Mooney’s have a reputation for being a challenge to fly well, though I have no experience in the type I am sure I could fly one as badly as the next fellow.  They are slick, so they don’t like to slow down, and they are fast, so you have to work hard to stay ahead of them, and they have retractable gear, which adds one more way you can botch a landing.  Someone who has spent 40 years pushing Mooney’s through the skies is a pilot through and through. 

So it was a bit sad to be talking airplanes with Ken when he was palpably missing getting up in the air.  He has a spot on the Icon light sport list, but the production date of that sexy amphib keeps moving back. He had no plans to re-enter the Mooney market having shed a mid six figure plane with no pressing financial need for another. That is how I found myself in the right seat of my 172 watch Ken work out his flying bug with a few landings at Skagit.  Ken is a really good pilot and my airplane is about as simple as a rock, so I was perfectly happy to add him to the short list of folks who have a key to the plane and an invitation to fly it when they need to (or really want to).  To me, loaning out an airplane is not a shocking thing.  My insurance covers just about any pilot with a pulse, and I like machinery to get used.  I have no sentimental attachment to the plane, I just really like seeing the hour meter move, and I am very aware that the more a plane flies the better off the engine is.   

The Commander - the horizontal stabilizer is midway between conventional and T-tail.

All this is preamble to explain how I got a chance to fly a Rockwell Commander 112 today. Ken really could not stay out of airplanes for as long as it was taking Icon to make a plane, so when a great deal appeared on the 112 he jumped.  I asked him how he liked it and he replied “it has the flight characteristics of an inverted bathtub and the glide characteristics of a large rock“. He seemed surprised when I replied that it sounded great and I would love to get a ride.  Surprised, but not shocked, since he understands the obsession.  In any case, Ken Generously offered to take me up and we arranged to meet at my home base and fly to lunch. While this is no Mooney, I really hope Ken gets to liking it, because it is a pretty neat airplane.  

The plane is very clean and has amazing avionics.  I don't know how much he paid, but I bet I could Ebay the panel for a large chunk of it, what with the Garmin intercom, radios, transponder and multifunction display.  Anyway, I got 1.2 hours and two landings.  When I got home I saw Bob J. and he asked me how it was. I realized I was not qualified to say how it was.  All I can give is a totally unqualified evaluation of the plane, but aside from a rank beginner in the market for an oddball plane, who would care? And that is how this 100 airframes project began. 

The Commander is roomy and the view is quite good.  The entry is easy and there are two doors.  For a low wing this is unusual.  Start up and taxi revealed no real oddities, but on take off Ken insisted on holding the brakes until manifold pressure hit 25.  I can't believe this is POH standard, but he said it was good for the turbo charger.  In any case, despite getting a real head of steam up before brake release the plane lumbers down the runway.  It took off cleanly with almost no right rudder and commenced an easy climb.  With three aboard and full fuel we made 800 FPM at a placid deck angle.  I was flying right seat as PIC which meant I could barely see the turn coordinator. My butt is quite uneducated, but I never felt badly coordinated.  We topped out at 120 knots and 12 GPH.  

Descent is a simple matter of dropping the nose, we lost 1000 feet and gained about 20 knots. This is not a speedy airplane.  As we hit the Arlington pattern I dropped the gear and we started down at 500 fpm.  Adding the flaps put us at 800 fpm with a slight nose down attitude, but no real feeling of diving for earth. The landing was a revelation.  I have never landed trailing link gear before and that stuff will make you look GOOD.  Really good.  On short final I did discover that the slightly oddball proportions of the plane, with its not quite T tail and seemingly undersized rudder, do result in a rudder that is not very effective.  I try to wag the tail a bit going in to make sure that both the plane and I are clear about who is responsible for the runway center line.  In this plane my wag made me look at my feet to make sure I could reach the pedals.  A more vigorous shake led to a lazy back and forth from the hind end.  Not very reassuring for crosswinds.  Nevertheless the landing was a treat because of the gear.  The return to Friday Harbor saw me get 5 knots fast on the approach and though I thought I would touch down in the first 500 feet, I was past the first turn off before the trailing link again made me look perfectly competent.  I am going to look into this gear for my 172.  I just installed a vernier mixture knob, how hard could new gear be?

#16 - C82R - Cessna Skylane RG

#15 - C180 - Cessna Skywagon

#9 - AA5 - Grumman Tiger

I flew the Grumman American Yankee when I was getting my ticket.  In the years that followed I was a serious student of plausible first planes for a fellow like me.  I am completely agnostic in the great wars over wing placement, except that I firmly believe they should be there.  High, low, mid, canard, it is all the same to me.  I can easily see myself in a pusher prop plane or a tail dragger, all that really matters is that it fly.  But, that little Yankee got to me a bit.  It was such a sweet flyer that a major contender for first airplane because its four seater big brother.  There were essentially three models that mirror the three/four engines put in the Skyhawk and the Warrior. The Traveler had a little 150 horsepower engine, but with its clean lines and narrow fuselage it managed 20 more knots than the Cessna on a little less fuel.  The Cheetah was a slicked up version and got yet more speed out of the same engine, and the Tiger put 180 horses up front and managed about 140 knots at less than 10 gallons per hour.  I was completely enamored with the sliding canopy and even joined the type club for a year to read more about people who had taken the plunge.  All things being equal I suppose the Cheetah is the plane I would have tried to afford and I even called Barron Thomas once when there was one that looked like too good a deal to pass up.  But I had never flown one until I stumbled upon another pilot who worked in the same building.

This is what the Tiger looks like, but I can't find any photos of the one I flew

Dana had been flying for 20 years and had owned the Tiger with a partner for about 8 years or so.  His description of the partnership is one of only two that I have heard in detail and it did not make me want to shell out real money for a part of a plane.  For one thing, when you have partners you keep track of every hour and charge the partnership for them.  I actively do not want to know what the flying is costing me.  Since I am well over 200 hours a year it must be cheaper than renting, but I sure do not want to really know the per hour cost.  Dana and I had talked planes quite a bit and I started passing along the copies of the NTSB reporter than my brother passed along to me.  It was pretty clear that Dana and I are very different sorts of pilots, with him being he smart cautious one.  We tried several times to set a time to go out flying, but with one thing and another it was about 8 months before we hit a day that seemed perfect for a lunch trip up to Santa Barbara.  We would depart from Orange County (KSNA) and meet my brother at 1500 feet over Santa Monica (KSNA).  He would also be in a plane. 

As I expected from the Yankee experience just walking up to the Tiger is great fun. It is a very cool looking airplane with flowing lines and neat little holes for cooling flow in the front of the cowling. Entry is exactly like the Yankee, step up onto the trailing edge of the wing then slide open the canopy and step in.  The ergonomics are such that it is easiest to step on the seat then the floor of the cockpit, so the smart pilot flips up the seat cushion with her toe before stepping on the seat then knocks it back down again as the other foot is brought in to the cockpit.  I flew right seat, but all that time in the right seat of the Diamond, and any other airplane I fly with my brother, means that I am about as comfortable operating on the co-pilot’s side as I am in the left seat.  The panel is pretty standard, with the main oddity being he placement of the fuel gauges, which are on the side panels because they directly read from the tubular tank in each wing.  The tubular tanks are an issue if the plane gets in a spin because the fuel can be pulled away from the wing root and the fuel line will unport leaving you in a plane that is rapidly rotating, falling fast and has no engine.  Since this is more excitement than even utility pilots are accustomed to, spins are prohibited.

Starting is about the usual for a carbureted 180 hp Lycoming.  Prime a few times with the mixture full rich and the throttle cracked.  Mags on both and push the starter button.  The engine usually catches on a few blades unless the weather is just brutally cold.  An excellent feature of the Tiger (and Yankee) is that the canopy can be open during taxi and even during flight.  This really mitigates the greenhouse effect of the bubble canopy on a sunny southern California day.  We taxied to the run up area and I reacquainted myself with the concept of a castering nose wheel.  It is a feature I actually like in a plane and would put it on a list of things I would like my theoretical perfect plane to have.  The ability to turn a tricycle gear airplane in a radius normally only seen by conventional gear planes is a real plus.   I like doing a 360 after the run up to see whether I can spot folks in the pattern.  Tail wheels or castering nosewheels make this a fun proposition rather than an exercise in staying inside the run up area. 

Lining up for takeoff I recalled that the Yankee needed more right rudder than the Warrior, but when I poured to coals to the Tiger I found it climbed straight and fast with pretty minimal rudder input.  Not ten feet off the ground it is already clear that this is not a Cessna/Piper straight ahead workhorse.  This plane can fly and if you are not right on top of the control yoke and rudders you quickly find yourself correcting for errors you are not sure you made.  The plane has such a direct connection between me hand and pitch, roll and yaw, that you will go exactly where you aim…but the corollary is that if your mind wanders the airplane will as well.  The C172 is so stable that I can often fly 50 miles without putting in more than a token bump of effort on the yoke.  In the Tiger you could get it trimmed then shift your feet or put a little unconscious pressure on the yoke and before you know it you are sliding off in some direction only vaguely related to the one you were hoping to fly.  I find that when I am ahead of the airplane and have a clear idea of my destination that I can keep my head out of the cockpit and fly long straight distances.  But when I get behind, like when I am told to watch for wake turbulence from a departing 737, the airplane darts around like a fractious horse. 

The airspace of LA and its environs is wonderfully complex. I say that as someone who trained in there and whose second flight was through the ‘miniroute’ over Los Angeles International Airport.  This required following a VOR before I was entirely sure what the navigation radio was listening for. I think I had a vague idea that it was turning in various talk radio shows and guessing where you were by the suite of available programming and the strength of the various signals.  Lots of preachers over by John Wayne/Orange County.   More NPR as you head north.  In any case, the airspace gave me an excuse to maneuver the airplane quite a bit on the way up to find my brother.  As I had hoped, the pushrod actuators on the controls and the laminar flow wing made for an agile and steady airplane.  Just to get the feel for what landing would be like I did one power off stall at 2500 feet.  The look on Dana’s face and his pointing out that he does not do stalls in the plane without an instructor, convinced me to go a bit easier in my testing.  We got overhead Santa Monica and I cranked in 45 degrees of bank, added a little trim (which is electric, by the way) and started a series of small circles over the airport.  Dana seemed to be impressed with my airmanship, but I believe he would have preferred to hear of my exploits while we sat in his office making flying noises.  Eventually the DA40 rose up towards us and we raced for the Santa Monica Mountains.  The Diamond is fast but the Grumman had no problem keeping up.  It may even be that the Tiger was a little faster.  You will never get my brother to say, he rarely thinks about his air speed as long as the plane is not in danger of stalling.

We zipped up to Santa Barbara and the flight was too short by several hours.  It is just a great plane to fly.  More fun than should be possible in a vehicle worth less than $60,000. I was really happy when Dana offered to let me take the landing.  I have no idea whether he was being generous, he was confident in my abilities, or so airsick from my piloting that he just desperately wanted to get on the ground. I set up for left traffic and went a little long on downwind because I had heard a long stabilized approach helps you to land these planes. If you read much about the Grummans a recurring theme is that they like to fly, conversely they are not so keen on stopping flying.  If you have a little extra airspeed, say for good luck, or because it is Tuesday, or because there are a godawful lot of bushes on that side of the runway, you will find that scrubbing off that speed is difficult.  Raising the nose just makes the plane balloon, neglecting to scrub off the speed leads to a departure into the weeds at the end of the runway.  In any case, I had been boning up on the POH and had the spot landing speed in my head.  I called the 1000 foot markers and landed 50 feet from the numbers end of them.  It was a good landing and Dana looked relieved.  We had a pleasant lunch and then headed back to John Wayne.  The plane is beaut and with the sliding canopy would be pretty easy to exit in the case of ending up in the water.  This one is on my list of step ups from the 172, but it is hard to imagine the circumstances where it is enough of a step up since I own the 172.  

#7 - DA40 - Diamondstar

One type has to be the ‘best’, and at 1/5^th of the way to my goal that airplane is Diamond Aircraft’s DA40 – the Diamondstar.  It is also very nearly the most expensive airplane I have flown, and the most recent design.  Oh, and I have over 100 hours in it, so I am partial in part through familiarity.  This is the plane that my brother, an equally obsessed aviator, bought a month or so after he got his ticket.  The DA40 is a four place single made of fiberglass. Like the DV20 two seater it has an extremely wasp-waisted look and a t-tail.  The tip up canopy and low wing give the plane visibility like the Grumman Yankee, but the entry is far more civilized, with no stepping on the seats.  Best of all, the back seat passengers, who I am sure matter, have their very own door.  I have never been back there, but it looks quite comfortable.  The plane is powered by the fuel injected, 180hp Lycoming IO360, spinning a constant speed two bladed (or three bladed) propeller.  The plane is not considered a trainer, though with the G1000 avionics it is about the same price as a brand new Cessna 172.  Maybe at over $300k the Cessna is not a trainer anymore either. 

My brother's Diamondstar with a huge swarm of bees hoping to build a nest.  He flies too often for that to work out for them.

This plane is fast – if you run the engine hard it will do 135 knots all day long.  My brother and I flew it across country in three days, and he now makes that trip every summer.  The avionics are state of the art, with a huge primary flight display in front of the pilot and an equally large multi function display in front of the right seat.  The version I have flown has the KAP140 autopilot, rightly considered a distant second best to the Garmin model.  Nevertheless it will fly a coupled approach and with the WAAS upgrade the plane is a very capable light IFR machine.  It is really best to stay well away from ice in this slick beast as there are not even options for dealing with inadvertent encounters…unless you think ascending, descending or cursing are effective options.  The cockpit is quite roomy and, in sunny southern California, an excellent place to grow tomatoes in the winter.  If you can afford this airplane get a few collapsible sun shades to stick to the bubble, it will obscure some of the view, but you will not feel quite so Rudyard Kipling in India. 

Flying the DA40 is a total blast.  First of all, it has a joystick…yep, no car-like wheel sitting up front, it is fighter pilot all the way.  This critter is a blown up DV20 and so it shares the motorglider heritage.  This is most easily seen in the very bright lines that DA40 owners paint on the floor of their hangers…the wings are so long that a foot of air between wing and hanger door is the norm.  These long wings mean the plane LOVES to fly.  If you get fast on final you are going to be touching down well past the Thai restaurant; and you may be thinking about taking another crack at it as you realize 2000 feet of runway are sitting behind you and the wheels are still a few inches above tarmac.  Takeoffs, even with 4 full seats and a lot of fuel are fun, with plenty of climb and a deck angle that still leaves you good visibility.  The font office is nothing short of intimidating if all you have flown are steam gauges.  The G1000 is all glass and though I find it intuitive to use I have watched other folks really lose track of the plane as they tried to figure out how to jump to a new leg on a flight plan, find the local flight service station frequency, or calculate the true airspeed.  There are not that many buttons and knobs, but one in particular can be turned, pushed and tilted in any direction.  That makes for a steep learning curve and a very fast loss of familiarization.  I feel like a year off of steam gauges would not render me useless, but a similar time away from the G1000 and I would probably be better off just flying with my iPad and ignoring all the buttons. 

I have had a number of really memorable flights in this airplane and I can’t say that it has even a single bad flight characteristic.  I wish the seats leaned back, the trim wheel could be a little larger, and the glare shield could use a better anti-vibration system, but if you can afford this airplane you should get it. It will run lean of peak at 7 gph and 128 knots and seems to cost no more to annual than a newer 172.  It is also an intuitive airplane to fly, or at least it was for me.  That actually almost got us in real trouble when my brother bought the plane. I drove to Long Beach to meet Robert, the salesman and fly the as yet unpurchased airplane to Santa Monica to pick up my brother.  His business and half his life was in Las Vegas at the time and so for tax reasons he would take formal delivery of the plane at North Las Vegas airport.  I flew left seat up from Long Beach and between some experience in the DC20, a lot of reading about the G1000, and plain dumb luck I flew the plane pretty well.  Robert was particularly impressed with the landing, which saw the wheels touch smoothly down on the 1000 foot markers, exactly where I had intended.  Robert had flown with my brother when selling the airplane and recognized that Colin is one of those rare natural aviators who seems to instinctively understand how the plane will behave.  When we stopped at the restaurant to pick up Colin Robert and I got out and he walked around to get in the back.  I asked whether he wanted to fly right seat and he said that it seemed to him that we were perfectly qualified to take the plane to Vegas. 

Perhaps qualified, but were we insured?  I did not ask, I do not turn down flight time ever, and certainly not in a plane as nice as this one.  So, with Robert, the flight instructor and owner’s representative seated well away from the controls we headed to Vegas.  It was a perfect flight. Colin and I fly well together, handing off control with clarity and ease, and picking up the non-flying duties seamlessly.  We were in rare form, especially given that neither one of us had 100 hours or more than eight in type.  We made not a single bobble or minor error on that flight, we made every radio call, had a clear understanding of engine parameters and kept well ahead of the plane the whole way.  Colin took the landing, and as I always do, I followed through.  It may be a bit rude, but I almost always follow along as I land in a small plane, I like to feel how other people land and I suppose I am looking out for that short final stroke.  Well, it was not too hot and there was not much turbulence, Colin had the plane stable and right on speed as we hit short final.  The nose wheel was centered perfectly and he was controlling for the slight right to left crosswind.  It was quite mysterious to me then, when he greased the landing that he then started to slowly drift left.  It was as though he was forgetting who was in charge of the plane.  I called out that he should put in right rudder…more right rudder…then I felt for the right rudder myself.  It was against the firewall and we were still doing about 20 mph and slowly turning more to the left. We departed the runway and to slow down Colin whacked one of those little runway lights.  Just as he was deciding when to further slow us by whacking one of those great big runway signs the plane came to a stop.  Colin immediately goosed the engine a bit in an attempt to get back on the runway, but it was clear something was amiss so he shut down. 

Robert was a little bummed. When we exited the airplane it became clear that the left main tire was flat…and the wheel pant was somewhat smashed from Colin’s excellent aim at the runway light.  Robert, a little bit downcast, explained that you simply cannot hit the brakes while the flaps are deployed.  It will flat spot and burst a tire in a heartbeat because with flaps in there is little weight on the wheels.  Since I was running flaps and Colin was running brakes the thought was that we had gotten out of synch.  I supposed it was possible, but it sure didn’t feel right.  The plane never tracked straight, not from the moment we landed.  Colin is not a fellow who leans on the brakes, he flies and lands very smoothly, letting the plane slow down on its own and using the brakes once the plane is going quite slow.  But, maybe he had a spasm, or a twitch.  In any case, we now had a flat tire and smashed wheel pant on an airplane that Colin did not yet own.  The check in his pocket was not actually signed.  Hmmm.  Well, we called the FBO and the came and towed us off the runway.  We headed off to get food and talk about the value of a somewhat dinged up brand new plane. 

Robert and Colin worked it all out over lunch and the check changed hands.  The FBO put on a new tire and removed both wheel pants.  We headed back to the airport to discover something interesting.  The AP who had worked on the plane had a souvenir for Colin.  An inch long piece of stiff steel wire that was found in the inner tube of the tire.  Apparently the brush used to clean the wheel must have shed the wire during the original assembly in Canada.  The wire sat there and worked its way from the wheel surface through the inner tube and while we were flying to Vegas all the air was leaking out of the tire through that little hole.  Suddenly Robert was not so downcast, Colin was not kicking himself and I was a lot less mystified.  All in all Colin did a hell of job missing big, off runway obstacles, and we all agreed that a flat tire on landing is a difficult row to hoe even if you know it is flat.  As a grand surprise it is a tall order indeed. 

The very best thing about the DA40 is that it has been around for 10 years or so now and there is a reasonable used market.  They were made without the G1000 at first and a steam gauge model can be a real bargain.  If you are thinking of a later model used 172 or Warrior, or even the retract versions of these, take a flight in the Diamondstar.  It is pushing down the used price of metal airplanes and it should be.  It is a better airframe, which is not too unexpected since it was designed nearly fifty years after Clyde Cessna put his stamp on the Skyhawk plans.  

#4 - DR400 - Porsche Robin

There is no way that a recently minted pilot with my level of enthusiasm should be allowed out of the country until the initial private pilot ticket is well and truly scuffed up.  It is just plain irresponsible. But, a couple weeks after the check ride I had to go get some data in Germany.  Before I even left I was looking for smaller airports in the Stuttgart area.  I began shamelessly emailing flying clubs asking if I might take a ride in one of their planes. I emailed several glider clubs and one motorflugzeug club. I had only one response, and it was from a very nice fellow who said that he would take me up on Saturday if I had time. I quickly returned to that club’s website and found they were flying a Bölkow and a Robin HR200. I had never heard of the Bölkow, but I knew the Robin to be a fabric and wood airplane of French design. From the photographs I assumed that the flying club was sponsored by Porsche, since the bright red Robin had a prominent Porsche stenciled on the bow.

At the appointed hour I waited outside the institute and Andreas arrived to take me to the airport. On the way he explained that Porsche was just getting out of the airplane engine business after making a hundred or so 911 engines airworthy. The plane we were flying was one of the few Porsche powered airplanes left and after this week it would get a conventional Lycoming power plant because Porsche wanted their hardware back. 

The distinctive bent up wingtips of the Robin DR400

When we arrived at Nabern the Robin was sitting in the sun seemingly covered in children. On closer inspection it was just two rapidly moving youngsters belonging to another club member, Gerd. Before I could go flying the Robin would be used to tow a glider up into the thermals off Teck. This area is one of the world famous glider spots, with yearly appearances in the aviation rags as a competition spot. A key piece of equipment was missing – the tow-line for dragging the spindly winged glider aloft. We all (Gerd, Andreas and I) hopped into the airplane for a short trip to Hahnweide where the line might have been stowed. It was a goose chase that not only gave me a great view of Teck but also introduced me to the concept of glider avoidance. They were hanging around the steep slopes of the Swabian Alps like a kettle of vultures. We dodged them on the way there and back and then Andreas and I headed to the Schloss Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein is familiar to anyone who has seen the opening of a Disney movie since Walt copied the castle for his cartoons. It is a wonderfully ornate structure of white stone and blue roofs constructed by mad king Ludwig of Bavaria in the 1850’s. Though the castle was never finished the outside is perfect and the setting, in the steep crags of the foothills of the Alps, is unbelievable.

We flew right to the castle, a journey of some 50 minutes at 220 km/hr. The whole way Andreas and I plotted our position and talked about flying. I had the opportunity to fly the plane a bit on our way back. With the tailwind we were cranking along at 240 km/hr and the plane handled really nicely. I did not try any steep turns, but when we circled the castle Andreas had her right up on her right wing so I could get a look. It was a 60 degree bank and we lost no altitude. Closeness of the cliffs that surround the castle were a real incentive to keep the bank in.

We flew back to Nabern, a grass strip at the edge of the Swabian Alps and Andreas made a very nice landing. At some point during the pizza dinner we enjoyed at the airport Andreas mentioned that he had been taking English lessons with his wife every Monday for 8 years. The lessons surely worked because we had no difficulty in understanding each other. He went on to say that the only reason he emailed me back about flying was that his teacher insisted it was good homework. I was the first native English speaker with whom he had conversed.

Andreas wrote me that the Porsche engine is out of the plane and the Lycoming plan is dead. They will sell the DR400 and buy a new plane. It was a real treat to take the Porsche on its last flight and I hope the club gets a new plane soon because I am coming back to Germany in the spring.

#6 - C172 - Cessna's Skyhawk

I first flew the 172 early in my flight training.  I was slow student and I was interested in whether my speed of progression had to do with my inherent lack of ability or a shortcoming of my primary instructor.  This led me to try several other instructors and the airplanes they came with. Perhaps it was this early exposure to a variety of airplanes that has made me agnostic in the high wing/low wing debate, the metal vs. composite discourse and the pleasant ripostes exchanged over the importance of a glass panel.  I am an enthusiastic member of the group that views any conveyance that can be made to become airborne, even if only briefly, is just a fantastic device, worthy of praise, admiration and constant use.  I don’t remember much about that first Skyhawk, but it was a 180 hp carbureted version and my impression was that it was more powerful than my usual trainer.  I know it sounds crazy, but I had not embraced the importance of horsepower at that point.  I was so impressed at getting into the air that I would not have been able to tell an O-300 from a TSIO-550.  That the 180 hp 172 was meatier than the 150hp P28A was a matter of feel rather than fact.  Anyway, that plane is not the one I would write about when describing the Skyhawk because I own one and have since 2009.

My usual ride next to its refueling bird.  The Ohio National Guard were at the edge of their ambit when I  parked next to them at Boeing Field.

I will not wax poetic about the bird just because I happen to have put a few hundred hours on it.  I have no romanticized notion that it is the very best plane, or even the best plane for my mission.  It is a good plane, moreover it has been an exceedingly inexpensive plane, and that my friends is an unusual characteristic worthy of thought.  My bird is a 1968 172G with the original O-300 engine that has been field overhauled once.  At 1800 hours the TBO is laughably short, and mine is now at 2150 and still looking good.  I love my airplane, warts and all, mostly because it fulfills exactly the role that I had envisioned when I was pining for a plane.  It is always there, ready to take me away.  My headset is sitting where I left it.  My sunglasses are on the glare shield.  The spare batteries for the intercom are in the seat back pocket, or, if they are not it is all my fault.  The tires are pumped because I pumped them.  The oil is at 6 quarts because that is where I left it.  This sounds a bit silly, but I rented for the first 380 hours and it was always a bummer to have to get set up…to learn a new set of squawks and a new set of instruments...often a new checkout to rent from a new place.   I did 15 check rides in the first 4 years. 

I can’t afford a plane, not on any reasonable grounds.  Sure, it gets 14 miles per gallon and the straight line distance in these parts is usually about half the road miles.  So really, it gets about the same mileage as my spouse’s VW Jetta.  There are annual costs of about 1 AU ( Aeronautical Unit - $1000…very handy when speaking with other pilots in from of non-pilot parties interested in the monetary outflows associated with airplanes, especially as they relate to expensive sewing machines they might covet.)  Oil needs changing, bits needs replacing, and there is the ever rising cost of Avgas relative to Mogas.  So, even though I live on an island in one of the best places to fly in the whole world, I can’t really justify the airplane as a necessary expense.  It is on the basis of recreation, obsession, and stress relief that I figure its worth relative to my professorial salary.  On those grounds it is a complete steal. 

It helps that I got a great deal on the plane and that I have a pretty hard nosed attitude about buying things for it.  The engine is over time and that is fine with me.  I hear and read about people repowering the plane at TBO.  Replacing this particular sort of mechanical system on a time or use basis is a poor use of resources.  There is very good data to support the concept that piston engines should be replaced and refurbished on condition.  And furthermore, it is worth investing time and money to determine the very least invasive solution to the particular failure you are seeing.   There are data to support this, it is not voodoo or faith but a firm belief in data that keeps me flying my family in a plane with an engine that’s older than my sister and a contemporary of my bother and I.  I use oil analysis every 25-30 hours and an engine monitor to warn me of impending issues.  When those problems show up I will attempt to deal with them in a calm and rational manner.  This will be aided and abetted by an anemic checking account and a spouse who finds comfort in a quilting fabric stash sufficient to clothe the entire population of our island in the event of some catastrophe that leaves them in sudden need of knickers with mod patterns.  Could I argue that a new ELT or even a good intercom system is a safety of flight issue?  Sure, but it would be disingenuous and the fact that either improvement would cast more than 10% of the purchase price of the plane acts as a restraint. 

So, who cares about flying the 172…it is reviewed everywhere, and besides, it is a boring plane with relatively crap performance.  Hold on, oh purveyor of myths, buyer of old wives tales…there are things to love about this plane.  There must be.  It is the most produced general aviation airplane because it is just flat great at what it does, not because Clyde Cessna managed to sneak a trade restraining bill past congress.  This airplane beat out every other manufacturer and the race was not even close.  My airfield is blessed with more really smart, experienced aviators than any have ever hung out at.  One of these characters was recently asserting that there were two perfect airplanes for the islands. One was not the 172.  The other was an older (O-300 powered) Skyhawk that had been given a full IO-360 180 hp upgrade.  The combination of the light airframe (relative to the later heavier 172s) and the powerful motor makes for a plane that can’t be overloaded and will nip along at 120 knots on 8.5 gallons of fuel.  Folks who were listening did not shout him down.  The plane is a solid, stable and sensible platform for VFR and light IFR flight. 

After a year and a bit I had flown 200 hours in my plane.  I was updating my logbook when I realized that I had not gone more than 100 miles from home, or above 5000 feet in that time.  I immediately jumped in the plane and went to 10,500 and flew around Mount Baker.  I still have not been more than 100 miles from home.   For this short hop commuting type of flying the 172 is a great choice.  I average 1.8 full seats an hour.  That means there is no way I could be happy with a two seater and I probably don’t really need a six seater.  I have even had five in the plane when one was a lap child. 

In case you have been living in Vero Beach, the Skyhawk is a high-wing airplane.  That has some advantages: good view below, less ground effect float when landing, a built in sun and rain shade when entering, exiting, or standing around the plane and a ‘both’ selector on the fuel tanks.  It also has disadvantages:  you can’t see where you are going when you turn, you have to climb a ladder to fuel the plane, and you will acquire a nasty gash from walking into a control surface at some point.  The seating is close, maybe not as close as a Mooney, but the 172 just does not have much shoulder room.  My smarter half likes to ride in the back because there is not enough room to knit while sitting next to me up front.  This is not terrible as my daughter is getting into the whole radio call thing. 

The plane taxis without any excitement and, at least in the case of my 145 hp powerplant, it begins a stately ground roll when the coals are put to it.  At 65-70 mphyou can rotate, or, if you are not shy of runway and enjoy the sensation, you can let the plane fly away by itself when it hits 75 mph.  The deck angle for a maximum performance (Vx) climb is too steep for passengers, visibility and engine cooling, and even Vy will leave my cylinders hotter than I like.  I settle in at a 350-400 fpm climb at 100mph and count on the slowness of the airplane to get me to a respectable altitude before I have to leave the comfort of having land below me.  I have flown a lot of airplanes where checklists are really important.  In this plane the emergency checklist is vital, but the flying checklists are so short I have them taped to the panel.  For descent you two things could kill you…you must put on carb heat (the O-300 has a bad reputation for ice) and you must enrichen the mixture.  Everything else is optional or not applicable.  The prop is fixed pitch, the gear is welded down, the turbocharger has been attached to a different airplane, and with the fuel knob on ‘both’ there are no fuel issues to contend with.  This is an easy plane to fly from the point of view of remembering things and it is just as easy when it comes to aerodynamic manners.

The 172 has had a couple of wings and I have flown them. I have also flown every one of the possible power plants with the exception of the military 195hp version.  Even the amphib 172 with the 220 hp Franklin engine is pretty much the same as the 145hp 172.  This is a very stable beast.  It has no bad habits - adverse yaw is minimal, it stalls benignly and lands easily.  In short this is a great airplane.  It does not go super fast or carry a foursome more than an hour or two, and I would be looking for new planes if I had to fly hard IFR, but for the short haul, family flier it is just as good as a plane can get.  I take four big guys to the movies and we have gas to get there and back.  With my wife we can hit Costco and fit a months worth of paper products. With my daughter I can go camping and just throw every dang thing she takes a fancy to into the back seat and luggage area.   Why yes, that is a plastic kitchen, complete with microwave and sink.  Why not bring that camping?  A good 172, that you can put 200 hours on without spending more than 1 AU in upkeep and repairs, should run you less than $25,000.  There is just no excuse not to own, the calculus for owning relative to buying has shifted down to about 65 hours a year if you are a frugal beggar like me.  Go…buy a plane.  Heck, for that price buy two. 

#1 - P28A - The Piper 140, Cherokee, Warrior, and Archer

I do not think I am capable of fully explaining just how poorly I understood the causes and effects of my actions in this (or any) airplane when I started flight training.  I clearly remember grokking the radio call on my second flight. The function of the big black lever that made it loud in the cabin did not sink in until about hour twenty.  There is no point in explaining what I thought of the Warrior I first flew, it was a 160 horsepower model without the 'Hershey bar' wing.  What I can still remember, really like it was yesterday, was my first flight in a Cherokee 140.

I spent a year in Washington DC working for the feds at a granting agency.  It was a great job that really took advantage of my knowledge of the field and I would have been pretty happy with the year regardless of the flying.  As it turned out, the flying was just phenomenal.  I did not have a plane, but I had something even better...a friend with a plane.  Jim D. was my first flying friend and we bonded pretty much right away over stories of mistaking one lever for another, being unable to find the airport, and in general managing to embrace the mysteries of flying without experiencing that severe level of competence that I fear will take away some of the joy of breaking from the ground.  After flying in our offices for a few days Jim and I decided to get night current together.  I am still not completely sure about the FAA view of this...but a pilot must have 3 landings at night in the last 90 days to carry passengers.  Now, if two pilots are not night current can they go up and get current together?  Is one a passenger?  If so, there is trouble and I want you to remember that all that I write is fiction.  I am in fact a spectacular pilot with preternatural skills and I have never taken a wrench to my plane or violated one of the myriad Federal Aviation Rules (FARs) designed to keep me (and you) safe.

The plane lived on the grass, off the runway of the oldest continuously operated airport in the United States, College Park (CGS).  We took the Metro to the airport, and it was most excellent to be zipping through the underground with our pilot bags and headsets, knowing we were about to embark on a much cooler mode of transport.  Since the 9-11 attacks the completely misguided powers that be decided we would all be safer if small planes were heavily regulated in the DC area.  They insist on a screening process before you can fly in the FRZ (flight restricted zone).  This was a bit of a bummer for the small airports in the FRZ since it meant there was suddenly very little traffic.  I dealt with the paperwork the day I got to DC and as we headed for the plane I was equipped with my recently issued secret code word that would get me an FRZ squawk code.

The Cherokee 140 is a really cute little plane.  It has tricycle gear, which means the nose wheel is up front. There is a single door into the four seat cabin and for mysterious reasons this is on the co-pilot's side.  Jim and I trooped up the wing root to deposit our gear and don headlamps.  We did the preflight in the dark but warm evening as shadows at the edges of the airport began to mill around.  We climbed in, Jim in the left seat and me in the right. Jim would give me a run down of the plane as we headed to Fredrick (FRD) to do our night landings.  The plane did not feel substantively different than the three P28As I had flown in training, but this was emphatically not a rental plane.  It had all the hallmarks of an owned and well loved family plane.  Kids headsets in the rear, notes stuck to the panel and seats and seat belts set up for the usual occupants.  I would play merry hell with this order over the next 12 months.

I called Potomac Approach and spoke of secret codes, destinations, souls aboard and our sincere desire to obey all the laws of our union.  I was issued the call sign 'blue strike leader' and told to squawk 4309.  Or something along those lines.  We hopped in and Jim started up the smallest of the Cherokees.  We taxied across the grass and in the bouncing taxi light the moving shadows became a bunch of deer browsing at the edge of the runway.  In negotiating the uneven terrain I was particularly happy to have a steerable nose wheel. When we made the radio call to head to the run up area the FBO sent out a golf cart with a light to scare them back into the woods.  This service made landing after midnight (when they were no longer lounging around the airport) a very problematic affair.  As we lined up Jim explained his somewhat unorthodox technique for getting airborne.  He runs it up with the brakes on, lets go and starts the roll.  At 60mph he yanks sharply on the Johnson bar to put in 15 degrees of flaps.  This boots the airplane into the air like a Garo Yepremian touchback bound kickoff.  Not a bad idea in a somewhat underpowered airplane, in the dark, with trees at the end of a runway...on a warm night.  All in all I was glad of every bit of altitude as we climbed past the northwest end numbers.

As airplanes go the 140 is a pretty basic beast.  It gets you off the ground, carries four really small people, easily cruises well beyond your bladder and is dead easy to fly.  The dead easy part is because it has a very stable design that dearly wants to fly straight.  It will turn, and there is not a bit of heaviness to the controls, but it is not a very nimble type.  The most unusual thing relative to other planes I have flown is that the elevator trim is on the ceiling.  That's right, a crank is sitting smack in the middle of the cabin roof.  It is craftily labeled with arrows to tell you which way to turn to get the nose to go up.  This is a good thing, because I am here to tell you that my brain has no clear idea what should result when the crank is turned.  It is a testament to the incredible flexibility of my brian that even after a year of flying the 140 it was a 50/50 proposition when I reached up to crank without looking up to read.  Once the trim is dialed in the plane flies straight and true with virtually no control inputs.

The 140 racing down the runway.

The night landings were just a blast.  Jim did the first one and then we alternated.  Because my brother has a plane and hates to fly right seat I have a lot of time flying from the co-pilot's station.  The 140 offers a clear sight picture on landing and it was a simple matter to get a nice stabilized approach going.  This particular Cherokee does have the 'Hershey bar' wing which has a tendency to float if you are a little fast.  The wing has so much lift that coming in just 5 MPH over the spot landing speed will have the plane cruising along in ground effect a few feet off the ground instead of settling well.  Or, if you are an enthusiastic flarer the plane will pop up a dozen feet before settling rather firmly.  The landing gear is tough though, and the plane can take the drop.

All in all this trainer is an absolute joy to fly.  I put 48 hours on it in a year and flew through snow showers, rain and wind, to destinations up and down the east coast.  The plane had no trouble fitting my spouse and daughter and enough fuel to hit New York City.  It did give me a scare twice.  Once on a very hot day I had full fuel and just my own fat self, but I rotated early and mushed for 500 feet or more.  I corrected by lowering the nose but managed to scare the pee out of myself by barely missing the trees and construction cranes at the end of the runway.  On another departure, with three little kids aboard, I took off to find the airspeed indicator was dead. So was the altimeter.  And the vertical speed indicator. Quick...what was wrong?  The usual...a bunch of vile bugs had built a home in the pitot static system.  I did not realize that I would be nervous landing without airspeed.  Short runway, trees to miss on approach and a plane full of kids meant I had enough sweat for a hot day.  It ended well and was easily fixed with a piece of copper wire.

So...high marks for getting off the ground.  It is a basic plane, but at $18-25K it is plane that will serve you well and very cheaply.