Oh my goodness... today I had my first flight in the schools Cessna 177RG Cardinal and... wow!!!

I am in love. That plane freakin' rocks! The thing that surprised me the most was the incredible forward visibility out of it... I'm used flying Warriors and Arrows with the really hi panels. In level flight I kept wanting to climb and get that panel back up where it "should" be. haha (well, only for about the first 5 minutes really)

We did some steep turns, slow flight then went to PAE to do stop and goes. My first landing needed assistance, but the three after that he kept his hands on his knees and man those had to be the best landings I've made! Greasers, with that nose way up in the air! AND the nose wheel was right on centerline! For some strange reason the last several flights back at Ellensburg I couldn't get that nose wheel to touch the centerline to save my life! haha I'll blame it on them being Pipers! haha (sorry guys... it's never the pilots fault. j/k)

I hadn't flown out of a short/narrow strip (2,000 x 35) in about 4 years and was pretty nervous about putting this beast down OK back at Harvey Field (Home base) but put those mains about 50 feet beyond the threshold no prob... and that 35 feet felt AWEFULLY narrow! I'm sad to say I felt that way, as I got my private based at an airport whose runway was 30 feet wide, and 1,700 feet long! haha Those were the good days!

Anyway, the flight was AMAZING as if you couldn't tell. The instructor was impressed with how quickly I adapted to the differences of the Cardinal (I only had 1.7 in the Arrow) especially with my landings. Lets just hope I can keep them this way.

Next flight will be Thursday! Wohoo!


Oh yeah and one more thing... I can't believe how SLOW that landing gear retracts/extends! It's about 10 seconds! Feels like forever when you're sitting there holding that gear handle waiting for the green!

So my very favorite plane to fly... is officially the Cessna 177 Cardinal RG! 

I think I warned you to be careful.. it's an easy plane to fall in love with..   

Hold that altitude.. hold that heading.. umm wait.. adjust that heading to stay established outbound..  OK.. when am I allowed to descend and to what altitude, before and after the procedure turn ??   WHAT ?  ..  descend DURING the procedure turn (ok.. the wind is gonna change the procedure turn leg headings.. (was it twice the correction coming back in or half ?) (did I ever close those cowl flaps ?  argh) (remember noise abatement.. DO NOT set the prop to high rpm until short final)...  

OK.. outer-marker.. gear down, gas on both, mixture rich (hold off on the props goofy), lights on, center the localizer.. watch the glidescope, switch to tower and report established (did I remember to look out the window for a wheel?) WATCH THAT AIRSPEED !

Did your head just explode ?   LOL

Quote:


I dunno; Marco was doing it for awhile, and he's not terribly bright. He said it was no big deal, but one has to not be distracted by the fear of forgetting to lower the gear before landing. I think I overheard his IR instructor mention that he teaches newbies to the RG to check the gear on downwind and base, or in the case of an IFR approach, at the let-down fix and the middle marker. He likes to quote the old adage about there being 2 types of retractable-gear pilots: those who've forgotten and those who will.  The event that spurred this conversation was the arrival of an RG in the pattern:
Husband of the lady who minds the desk at the FBO to me: "How good are your eyes?"
Me: "20-30 in one and 20-20 in the other; why do you ask?"
Him, pointing out window: "See that Cardinal? Is it me, or is the gear up? "(it appeared to be on base).
Me: "Ummmm... it's... it's up. Definitely up". The sun was behind them, but there was no mistaking it. They were turning final...

He grabbed the mic and reminded them, but I think they knew... they were going around anyway (dual flight-NOT our pal Marco, BTW, somebody else!)
Whew....

I don't care, though-  I still think that if Marco can handle an intro to IFR and retract/constant-speed ops at the same time, so can I...

Cessna Cardinal RG....
The Rolls-Royce of General Aviation light aircraft... 8)...!

Every owner's pride and joy, with a luxurious interior to match.......!

Quite a rare aircraft...(Because their owners don't want to sell them)... ... ...!

Cheers all...!

Paul... 8)...!

<typo>

Today my instructor asked if I minded if he had two of his friends come along for the flight and I said sure since it will be good to see how it flys with the CG a little farther back  and stuff... so we got up and had done some slow flight and stuff, then my instructor had me do steep turns... and I did one to the left, one to the right and leveled off.   The guy in the back goes, "whoa, that was pretty sweet guys.  What'd we pull, 6 G's?" 

My instructor just looked at each other hesitated then couldn't help but start laughing out loud!  The friend was kinda confused, he's like, "what... was it more?"  When my instructor could finally talk  he goes, "man, we were lucky to push one and a half!" 

Oh I remember the day I thought those steep turns were so cool because of the G forces.  I remember asking a similar question on my first flight. lol 

But anyway... todays flight was great fun.  It's amazing how much ground we covered in the 1.3 flight!  We went up near Mt. Pilchuck, crossed the puget sound, circled over Paine Field (above their airspace of course) to watch a NEW Boeing 777-300 land directly below us... man was that SWEET!!  then up north of our field to Monroe (my home) and did stalls, steep turns, then did two landings back home.  It'd take that much time to go to one of those spots and back in a 152, let alone ALL of 'em! lol 

Man, I'm liking this plane!  Today I felt a bit more behind than I did the other day (beginners luck I suppose)  but my instructor said that I still did a really good job.  So, as long as he's happy, that's a step in the right direction.  I just gotta get things a bit more tight now.