jpower
Cleared for Takeoff
Well, I've been back from school for winter break and went up with an instructor just to get current again on Monday, mainly for me. I couldn't get on the schedule until this weekend, though. I ended up canceling my flight on Friday due to winds at my destination, which was a drag, and then later that night my reservations on Saturday and Sunday were canceled because they found some gremlin in the engine during the 100 hr.
Anyway, the instructor who called me told me (as I thought) that there weren't any other Tecnam Eaglets available, but that he was happy to check me out in something else. We have two Sky Arrows, a Remos, a CT, and a Tecnam Sierra. I jumped at the opportunity, and I got checked out in the Sky Arrow on Saturday and the Remos on Sunday. What fun! Here are my impressions:
Sky Arrow
Oh man, this plane is fun. I've seen people flying them and I've seen them sitting out on the ramp now for a couple of years but I never got checked out in them. Let me start with the bad, though. First, it's slow. You can't hit 100 knots unless you're descending. Second, you have to climb on a ladder and stick your hand...and wrist...and forearm...and elbow down into the engine to check the oil during preflight. Ok, so maybe you don't have to put your elbow down there. But it's bad. This after opening up a flap with your thumb and while fighting to keep that flap open with your other hand while trying not to fall off a ladder. Third, it flies like a truck compared to the Eaglets I'm used to flying. Fourth, it's downright freezing in the winter.
So what's good about this machine? The visibility out that canopy is awesome, at least for the guy in front. The tandem seating makes you feel like you're in an F-16 because you're sitting on the centerline. The visibility out the canopy is amazing. Um, what else. It looks really cool. The visibility out the canopy is amazing. Oh, and it's less expensive too!
. It's really the perfect airplane for burning holes in the sky alone or with a friend, or for going to grab a $100 dollar burger at the airport next door.
More practically speaking, I was a little concerned about getting used to flying with my right hand (the stick is on the right side of the cockpit, the throttle on the left, which leaves you with no choice unless you want to look and feel like a contortionist). In practice, after we were done with our airwork, which consisted of normal turns, some dutch rolls, stalls, etc., I was totally accustomed to it. My first landing was gross. Flared too high and came in slightly sideways (I'm not used to being in the center!) and kinda pranged it on there with something of a side load. Nothing horrific, but not to my standards. Second time around the side load was gone, but I still dropped it in there. The Eaglet sits much higher off the ground than the Sky Arrow, so this all makes sense. Third time around, my instructor breaks my engine abeam the numbers (it's funny how instructors and examiners have this knack of breaking things, isn't it?) and I realize the Sky Arrow is not one to glide very well. They claim 12:1 glide ratio in the book, but I'm not so sure... Anyway, that led to a greaser of a landing. Next one was acceptable, last was a greaser.
My instructor jumped out (all 250 lbs of him), I threw a recently acquired GoPro in suctioned to the side of the canopy, and went around once myself. Without that extra 250 pounds in there on a cold day really makes you jump into the air. I sustained well over 1000 ft/min up to pattern altitude. Here's the video!
Remos GX
So this one was a little more interesting. We preflighted, got in, started up, and taxied over to the runup area, where my instructor said that he was going to show me one of the plane's idiosyncrasies. He asked me to pull the left hand throttle all the way to idle. I did...the engine idled. Then he pulled the center throttle (the one I personally use) all the way to idle, and to my surprise, the RPS started dropping really fast, well below idle, until the engine actually shut down. Apparently there's nothing they can do about it--it's structural. A very good thing to note with an instructor. I would have been pretty freaked out if that happened to me alone or with a passenger along with me.
On our initial climbout, the first thing I noticed was that I couldn't see anything. The panel on the Remos is a lot bigger, and the windows don't wrap around as far as they do on the Eaglets. The Sky Arrow cheats in this category, so I won't bother to compare. It's just not fair.
We tooled around for a little bit to get away from the airport, and then he showed me something really interesting about the Remos. When you decelerate through about 65 knots, you get a buffeting that feels virtually identical to a pre-stall buffet even though you're just entering the white arc. My instructor said that it's a flow separation issue. Anyone else who's flown a Remos notice this?
We did the same checkout maneuvers we did in the Sky Arrow and then headed back. On our way back to Bay Bridge to shoot landings, though, I saw traffic off our right nose. My instructor kept his eye on it, and we realized it was really really low and going up and down the creeks at around 200 ft above the water. He wanted to go down and investigate because of the NIMBYs who can be pretty vicious at this airport, so we did. It got very interesting very fast, but I'm going to leave that for another thread, because it deserves it. I'll get to that tomorrow...maybe.
So anyway, we shot four landings at Bay Bridge. First two were kinda ploppy (that's a word now, promise). That Remos really gets rid of energy fast, and it was hard to get used to from the Eaglets, which will glide glide glide and float float float. We aborted the third approach on the base to final turn because of our aforementioned newfound friend who will be discussed in his own thread tomorrow, but when I finally did land it was acceptable. The fourth was fine, and he got out. Dad got in, and we went for a little sunset cruise. Our newfound friend was back again, but this time out of the way so I took off and we went down the bay and back up. I would have a video of that...but my camera was set to photo mode instead of video mode, so we have one still photo out the windscreen. Oh well!
On the whole, it was a fantastic experience. I got to go back up, do some stick and rudder airwork that needed to be reviewed anyway, learn new planes, new speeds, new procedures. And now when all the Eaglets are down or booked, I can fly a Sky Arrow or the Remos! What fun
Oh, and stay tuned for more on this...friend of ours.
Anyway, the instructor who called me told me (as I thought) that there weren't any other Tecnam Eaglets available, but that he was happy to check me out in something else. We have two Sky Arrows, a Remos, a CT, and a Tecnam Sierra. I jumped at the opportunity, and I got checked out in the Sky Arrow on Saturday and the Remos on Sunday. What fun! Here are my impressions:
Sky Arrow
Oh man, this plane is fun. I've seen people flying them and I've seen them sitting out on the ramp now for a couple of years but I never got checked out in them. Let me start with the bad, though. First, it's slow. You can't hit 100 knots unless you're descending. Second, you have to climb on a ladder and stick your hand...and wrist...and forearm...and elbow down into the engine to check the oil during preflight. Ok, so maybe you don't have to put your elbow down there. But it's bad. This after opening up a flap with your thumb and while fighting to keep that flap open with your other hand while trying not to fall off a ladder. Third, it flies like a truck compared to the Eaglets I'm used to flying. Fourth, it's downright freezing in the winter.
So what's good about this machine? The visibility out that canopy is awesome, at least for the guy in front. The tandem seating makes you feel like you're in an F-16 because you're sitting on the centerline. The visibility out the canopy is amazing. Um, what else. It looks really cool. The visibility out the canopy is amazing. Oh, and it's less expensive too!
. It's really the perfect airplane for burning holes in the sky alone or with a friend, or for going to grab a $100 dollar burger at the airport next door.More practically speaking, I was a little concerned about getting used to flying with my right hand (the stick is on the right side of the cockpit, the throttle on the left, which leaves you with no choice unless you want to look and feel like a contortionist). In practice, after we were done with our airwork, which consisted of normal turns, some dutch rolls, stalls, etc., I was totally accustomed to it. My first landing was gross. Flared too high and came in slightly sideways (I'm not used to being in the center!) and kinda pranged it on there with something of a side load. Nothing horrific, but not to my standards. Second time around the side load was gone, but I still dropped it in there. The Eaglet sits much higher off the ground than the Sky Arrow, so this all makes sense. Third time around, my instructor breaks my engine abeam the numbers (it's funny how instructors and examiners have this knack of breaking things, isn't it?) and I realize the Sky Arrow is not one to glide very well. They claim 12:1 glide ratio in the book, but I'm not so sure... Anyway, that led to a greaser of a landing. Next one was acceptable, last was a greaser.
My instructor jumped out (all 250 lbs of him), I threw a recently acquired GoPro in suctioned to the side of the canopy, and went around once myself. Without that extra 250 pounds in there on a cold day really makes you jump into the air. I sustained well over 1000 ft/min up to pattern altitude. Here's the video!
Remos GX
So this one was a little more interesting. We preflighted, got in, started up, and taxied over to the runup area, where my instructor said that he was going to show me one of the plane's idiosyncrasies. He asked me to pull the left hand throttle all the way to idle. I did...the engine idled. Then he pulled the center throttle (the one I personally use) all the way to idle, and to my surprise, the RPS started dropping really fast, well below idle, until the engine actually shut down. Apparently there's nothing they can do about it--it's structural. A very good thing to note with an instructor. I would have been pretty freaked out if that happened to me alone or with a passenger along with me.
On our initial climbout, the first thing I noticed was that I couldn't see anything. The panel on the Remos is a lot bigger, and the windows don't wrap around as far as they do on the Eaglets. The Sky Arrow cheats in this category, so I won't bother to compare. It's just not fair.
We tooled around for a little bit to get away from the airport, and then he showed me something really interesting about the Remos. When you decelerate through about 65 knots, you get a buffeting that feels virtually identical to a pre-stall buffet even though you're just entering the white arc. My instructor said that it's a flow separation issue. Anyone else who's flown a Remos notice this?
We did the same checkout maneuvers we did in the Sky Arrow and then headed back. On our way back to Bay Bridge to shoot landings, though, I saw traffic off our right nose. My instructor kept his eye on it, and we realized it was really really low and going up and down the creeks at around 200 ft above the water. He wanted to go down and investigate because of the NIMBYs who can be pretty vicious at this airport, so we did. It got very interesting very fast, but I'm going to leave that for another thread, because it deserves it. I'll get to that tomorrow...maybe.
So anyway, we shot four landings at Bay Bridge. First two were kinda ploppy (that's a word now, promise). That Remos really gets rid of energy fast, and it was hard to get used to from the Eaglets, which will glide glide glide and float float float. We aborted the third approach on the base to final turn because of our aforementioned newfound friend who will be discussed in his own thread tomorrow, but when I finally did land it was acceptable. The fourth was fine, and he got out. Dad got in, and we went for a little sunset cruise. Our newfound friend was back again, but this time out of the way so I took off and we went down the bay and back up. I would have a video of that...but my camera was set to photo mode instead of video mode, so we have one still photo out the windscreen. Oh well!
On the whole, it was a fantastic experience. I got to go back up, do some stick and rudder airwork that needed to be reviewed anyway, learn new planes, new speeds, new procedures. And now when all the Eaglets are down or booked, I can fly a Sky Arrow or the Remos! What fun
Oh, and stay tuned for more on this...friend of ours.
