So, I did my flight yesterday, but all didn't quite go as planned.
First of all, I missed my trolley transfer to get down there, so I had to wait for the next one. By the time all was said and done, I didn't get to the airport until almost 4pm. I met CFI Steve, who got the binder and keys for the Grumman Lynx and took me out to it. We did the preflight and pulled it out of its spot. We climbed in, primed it, and hit the starter... the thing cranked, but didn't start. We kept trying, then waiting, then trying again, until the battery finally wore down. He jumped out and pulled off the cowling and one of the mechanics came out to take a look. They poked around and said that it looked like it was "flinging oil". This was strange as when I checked the oil, it was at an acceptable level. The mechanic offered to give us a jump, but I flat-out said, "If this thing is flinging oil, I'm not flying it." The CFI said he couldn't blame me.
So, we pushed the Grumman back into its parking space and tied it down, then we preflighted the 182 (since Steve wasn't a taildragger pilot we couldn't take the Champ) and pulled it out of its spot. It started up right away, so we taxied out to the runway, did our runup, and took off into the setting sun. We headed west until we got to the shoreline before turning north to follow the VFR corridor through the complex SAN class B airspace. We climbed to 4500' as we followed the shoreline and overflew the North Island NAS and KSAN. Just north of Montgomery Field we turned to the east and descended to 3500'. We passed south of the Miramar NAS (and I swear I faintly heard Kenny Loggins music in the background) and south of Gillespie Field, where according to my instructor there is a very good restaurant.
We turned to the south and passed just east of San Miguel mountain, where we picked up the ATIS again and called the tower for some touch & goes. We had a right base entry to runway 26R and I brought it in. My first landing was a little bit hard, but it wasn't bad considering that my CFI didn't coach me at all as to what power settings or airspeeds I was supposed to have on my approach. He raised the flaps and opened the cowl flaps for me, while I pushed in the carb heat, verified that mixture and prop were fully in, and pushed the throttle forward. The 230 horses in front of me roared to life, and I barrelled down the runway until I reached rotation speed. I then came around the pattern again and made a second full-flap landing, after asking Steve for a little more guidance this time, reminding him that I've never flown this type of plane before. He told me to just keep it above 75mph (yes, this plane was so old the ASI was in MPH instead of KTS) and not to flare as high as I did last time. This landing was better, but still a little hard. I kept a little power in until the flare, which seemed to help. Carb heat in, flaps up, throttle forward, off I go again. This time Steve asked if I wanted to do a no-flap landing. I said sure, why the hell not? So he told me to maintain 90mph all the way around. While on downwind, tower pointed out traffic on final to my runway and additional traffic on a right base to the parallel runway. I called both traffic in sight, and continued my pattern. I came in a bit high, slipped it down while maintaining 90mph, flared at the proper height as my airspeed bled off, the stall warning horn came on, and GREASER! My best landing yet!
Throttle in and off I went again. I told Steve that I wanted to do another no-flap landing and tower asked us to make an early crosswind. I turned crosswind and told tower that this would be a full stop. Steve then keyed the mic and asked for a short approach and long landing (this is a 7000' runway and the flight school is way at the departure end). We were approved, so we made our base abeam the numbers and made our final. I slipped it down again and made another greaser just past taxiway B (for those of you following along on the diagram) and rolled out to the end. My landings are so much better without flaps that I might just stop using them all together! (Okay, maybe not...
) We then taxied back to the flight school, shut her down, and pushed her back into her parking space.
So, I now have .9 hours of high performance time under my belt. I really like the 182, and I'm eager to get checked out in one when I get back home. I just need to find one at an acceptable rate. Since they had the trouble with the Grumman (which I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was just a fluke occurrence and not indicative of their level of maintenance) they knocked $5 off the hourly rate for the 182. Still, at a full price of $105/hr wet, you can't find a cheaper 182 anywhere, even if this one is older than dirt. The thing accelerated quickly and climbed like a bat out of hell. Overall, this seemed like a great operation and I'd recommend people come here to rent if they're in the area. You can't beat the rates anywhere. My CFI didn't do much in the way of coaching, but once again, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe he interpreted me as being competent enough to not need it until I asked him. Sean seemed to have a better experience with the CFI that he flew with in the Champ. I had a beautiful VFR tour, and a good introduction to the plane which I think will be the next step for me.
