ChrisK
En-Route
Finally the weather cleared up, my instructor was available, and the plane wasn't broken. Here are some of my observations from the 0.9h flight.
Preflight and initial taxi. My instructor did some of the preflight of the 182RG for me as we were running out of sunlight. I hope that the next time I get to complete the entire preflight myself, but I was happy to get some time flying, which is probably most important for now. One of the things I noticed right away is that, compared to the 152 and 172, there is virtually no resistance in the rudder pedals on the ground on this plane. I haven't ever taxied a 182 before, so I'm not sure if this is normal.
Runup. Not too much different than the planes I was used to. Testing the aux fuel pump and running the prop back and forth were the only serious differences. Incidentally, I didn't see anything about using the aux fuel pump on climbout, but my instructor said I should do this. Going to double check the POH and possibly modify my checklist.
Takeoff. I was expecting needing a whole lot of right rudder, so this didn't surprise me. As the airspeed indicator began to come alive, the whole damn plane started shaking like a mofo. As I'm used to flying aircraft with bad shimmy dampers, I immediately pulled back a little bit to relieve pressure on the nose wheel, but this shaking seemed quite excessive.
I love how the plane just leaps off of the ground. She REALLY wants to fly, and the climb performance is AMAZING. With the three bladed prop the sucker just went straight up at climb, especially once the gear came in.
Initial maneuvers. To start, my instructor had me do some simple 30 degree banks to heading. Nothing dramatic here, but like the 172, have to put in some nose down trim. Only more. A lot more. Gear comes in, aircraft goes up until that trim is in. I got used to trimming a lot =) This was my first aircraft with an HSI, so having a heading bug like option was fun for me. Didn't use the 430 or even VORs so I didn't do much with it for now.
Cruise performance. Like, it just flies at 145 knots+. Without me doing anything. Zoom zoom. We were at our first stop in under 10 minutes.
Landings. Yeah, well, first thing I noticed is a momentary distraction as you're approaching the airport and you've passed the airport. I really have no problem getting it slowed down. Gear out, first notch of flaps, nose up a bit with power back and you're at 90 knots pretty quickly. CFI said we'll work on the flow a bit more. It is also obvious that nose up trim after the power comes back is critical. I tended to set up for an overly low approach because I wasn't putting enough trim in / pulling back enough and would descend a bit more than I should. I didn't really NAIL any of my landings and my instructor was yanking back the yoke on a couple, but I think I'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
Go arounds / touch and gos. I want to mention this in particular. One of the interesting things about go arounds in this aircraft is that whole gear up / trim thing just gives you something to think about while going around; particularly, the tendency of the aircraft to go into a nose high attitude as the gear comes up (due to the fact that I just set the trim for landing). After the 2nd or 3rd touch and go I got used to spinning the trim back down immediately
Overall observations. This is a FUN airplane to fly. I'm taking a 172 on a trip this weekend, and I feel like I'm going to be BORED in the darn thing That instant power, the feel of the plane once the gear comes in, the overall lower noise even at 145 knots, I just loved every minute of it. You folks told me that once I flew this aircraft I'd never want to be in a 172 again, and I think you're right. I'm totally geeked about it. Too bad I can't rent it yet, and too bad it is almost double the price of the 172.
I'll post back once we do more fun things (pump the gear down, anyone?) CFI said originally it would probably take 5 hours to go through everything. I still hope to do it in less, but I dunno - 5 hours flying this fun plane doesn't seem like much of a chore.
Edit - forgot to mention that as a result of my squawk on the nose wheel, the plane is down for 4 days to fix "steering". My instructor speculated that some sort of ring was broken on the strut (even though he inspected it prior to my arrival), though I'm wondering if it has something to do with all the play I felt in the rudder. I'll ask the mechanic this weekend.
Preflight and initial taxi. My instructor did some of the preflight of the 182RG for me as we were running out of sunlight. I hope that the next time I get to complete the entire preflight myself, but I was happy to get some time flying, which is probably most important for now. One of the things I noticed right away is that, compared to the 152 and 172, there is virtually no resistance in the rudder pedals on the ground on this plane. I haven't ever taxied a 182 before, so I'm not sure if this is normal.
Runup. Not too much different than the planes I was used to. Testing the aux fuel pump and running the prop back and forth were the only serious differences. Incidentally, I didn't see anything about using the aux fuel pump on climbout, but my instructor said I should do this. Going to double check the POH and possibly modify my checklist.
Takeoff. I was expecting needing a whole lot of right rudder, so this didn't surprise me. As the airspeed indicator began to come alive, the whole damn plane started shaking like a mofo. As I'm used to flying aircraft with bad shimmy dampers, I immediately pulled back a little bit to relieve pressure on the nose wheel, but this shaking seemed quite excessive.
I love how the plane just leaps off of the ground. She REALLY wants to fly, and the climb performance is AMAZING. With the three bladed prop the sucker just went straight up at climb, especially once the gear came in.
Initial maneuvers. To start, my instructor had me do some simple 30 degree banks to heading. Nothing dramatic here, but like the 172, have to put in some nose down trim. Only more. A lot more. Gear comes in, aircraft goes up until that trim is in. I got used to trimming a lot =) This was my first aircraft with an HSI, so having a heading bug like option was fun for me. Didn't use the 430 or even VORs so I didn't do much with it for now.
Cruise performance. Like, it just flies at 145 knots+. Without me doing anything. Zoom zoom. We were at our first stop in under 10 minutes.
Landings. Yeah, well, first thing I noticed is a momentary distraction as you're approaching the airport and you've passed the airport. I really have no problem getting it slowed down. Gear out, first notch of flaps, nose up a bit with power back and you're at 90 knots pretty quickly. CFI said we'll work on the flow a bit more. It is also obvious that nose up trim after the power comes back is critical. I tended to set up for an overly low approach because I wasn't putting enough trim in / pulling back enough and would descend a bit more than I should. I didn't really NAIL any of my landings and my instructor was yanking back the yoke on a couple, but I think I'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
Go arounds / touch and gos. I want to mention this in particular. One of the interesting things about go arounds in this aircraft is that whole gear up / trim thing just gives you something to think about while going around; particularly, the tendency of the aircraft to go into a nose high attitude as the gear comes up (due to the fact that I just set the trim for landing). After the 2nd or 3rd touch and go I got used to spinning the trim back down immediately
Overall observations. This is a FUN airplane to fly. I'm taking a 172 on a trip this weekend, and I feel like I'm going to be BORED in the darn thing That instant power, the feel of the plane once the gear comes in, the overall lower noise even at 145 knots, I just loved every minute of it. You folks told me that once I flew this aircraft I'd never want to be in a 172 again, and I think you're right. I'm totally geeked about it. Too bad I can't rent it yet, and too bad it is almost double the price of the 172.
I'll post back once we do more fun things (pump the gear down, anyone?) CFI said originally it would probably take 5 hours to go through everything. I still hope to do it in less, but I dunno - 5 hours flying this fun plane doesn't seem like much of a chore.
Edit - forgot to mention that as a result of my squawk on the nose wheel, the plane is down for 4 days to fix "steering". My instructor speculated that some sort of ring was broken on the strut (even though he inspected it prior to my arrival), though I'm wondering if it has something to do with all the play I felt in the rudder. I'll ask the mechanic this weekend.