Short 40 min vfr flight today. Nothingburger, right? Turns out my experience bucket isn't full yet.
First, I've come to the conclusion that I'm never talking to indy approach willingly again. They have to be the laziest controllers in the NAS. If you're not going to IND, you're getting sent 15mi away. I would've arrived 10m earlier and been able to stay at my higher, cooler, smoother altitude had i just squawked 1200 and gone over the top of their airspace. Meanwhile, I was never within 10 miles of another plane. Only two planes came off remotely in my direction, and I would've been a couple thousand feet over them on my original course/ altitude.
Second, I fiddled with my seat during the flight. Thought I had it locked. During the flare I discovered it wasn't when it flopped back taking me and the yoke with it. In the second it took me to collect myself, I had gained 15' and airspeed was dropping like a (rock, brick, Lance...). I crammed in some power and she still dropped in pretty hard, but not so much that the kids noticed anything. That might say more about my average landings though
. Probably should've gone around but I was on the ground before I thought of it. Won't be doing that again, either.
Thirdly, I found a new fuel pump arrangement i hadn't seen. Below the gallon counter was another box that turned off the pump mechanically after a pre-selected number of gallons. The switches below each number program that number. When it reaches zero, it moves a lever that must be manually reset to get fuel to flow again. I thought it was the counter, so I had reset to zero when I started lol. I hadn't seen the actual counter because it's kind of up inside the top of the box. Took me a few minutes to figure that one out.
Wow.. that plastic looks like **** from this angle.
First, I've come to the conclusion that I'm never talking to indy approach willingly again. They have to be the laziest controllers in the NAS. If you're not going to IND, you're getting sent 15mi away. I would've arrived 10m earlier and been able to stay at my higher, cooler, smoother altitude had i just squawked 1200 and gone over the top of their airspace. Meanwhile, I was never within 10 miles of another plane. Only two planes came off remotely in my direction, and I would've been a couple thousand feet over them on my original course/ altitude.
Second, I fiddled with my seat during the flight. Thought I had it locked. During the flare I discovered it wasn't when it flopped back taking me and the yoke with it. In the second it took me to collect myself, I had gained 15' and airspeed was dropping like a (rock, brick, Lance...). I crammed in some power and she still dropped in pretty hard, but not so much that the kids noticed anything. That might say more about my average landings though
. Probably should've gone around but I was on the ground before I thought of it. Won't be doing that again, either.Thirdly, I found a new fuel pump arrangement i hadn't seen. Below the gallon counter was another box that turned off the pump mechanically after a pre-selected number of gallons. The switches below each number program that number. When it reaches zero, it moves a lever that must be manually reset to get fuel to flow again. I thought it was the counter, so I had reset to zero when I started lol. I hadn't seen the actual counter because it's kind of up inside the top of the box. Took me a few minutes to figure that one out.
Wow.. that plastic looks like **** from this angle.
Last edited:
Cirrus trip to UMP. No complaints 
