Sport Pilot Talk

Charlie Tango, Jim Stewart:

I realy like reading your suggestions on landing. I have an Allegro 2000 that flys the same way. I also have a harder time landing without a 180 lb CFI on board. I think it is more the 180lb that the CFI part. Anyway keep the comments comming as they are not just for the CT crowd. I am still plugging away towards the checkride with 50 hours of dual so far... I think it is fair for readers to see that not all students in every SLSA can get a certificate in 20-30 hours as advertised.... Sooner that a PPL,,,Yes!!! Cheaper, should be!! Great FUN, Always!!

PS. My Allegro 2000 made another magazine. Check out page 39 of the Feb issue of "Flying". Thats my airplane!!!

Brian N3081X Allegro 2000
Taylor, AZ

ka7eej wrote:Charlie Tango, Jim Stewart:

I realy like reading your suggestions on landing. I have an Allegro 2000 that flys the same way. I also have a harder time landing without a 180 lb CFI on board. I think it is more the 180lb that the CFI part. Anyway keep the comments comming as they are not just for the CT crowd. I am still plugging away towards the checkride with 50 hours of dual so far... I think it is fair for readers to see that not all students in every SLSA can get a certificate in 20-30 hours as advertised.... Sooner that a PPL,,,Yes!!! Cheaper, should be!! Great FUN, Always!!

PS. My Allegro 2000 made another magazine. Check out page 39 of the Feb issue of "Flying". Thats my airplane!!!

Brian N3081X Allegro 2000
Taylor, AZ

All I noticed on solo was that I climbed at 1100ft/m rather than 900ft/m.
________
hash honey oil

solo vs. with passenger primarily changes 3 things.

#1 aileron trim is needed in my ct when i switch from solo to w/passenger and visa versa. other than this adjustment i never use aileron trim.

#2 stall speed increases with the extra weight so if you don't adjust your final approach speed you will have excess energy to bleed off when you are light. increasing angle of attack in order to round out increases lift. if you are light it is easier to add more lift than you need leading to balooning. if you have excess speed the adjustment is less back pressure/travel on your stick for round out. ( when you do baloon the good options are advance throttle to reduce the sink rate or advance the throttle and go around - pushing forward and lowering the nose reduces lift and is not a good option near the ground )

#3 center of gravity moves forward when you are light. as artp pointed out in a new ctsw this will likely put you forward of the cg limit. i find this part interesting, some ctsw pilots maintain that the flare is much easier with the cg more aft. aft cg theoretically should mean that pitch becomes more sensitive and a forward cg reduces authority. personally i don't find much of a difference in the way the plane flares.

another thing to remember when flying solo / light is that manuevering speed reduces because stall speed reduces. in other words in this light configuration you are more capabable of overstressing your airframe where when you are heavy you are more likely to stall the wing before overstressing it.

I tried again but the battery was dead. The design of the CTsw makes it very easy to connect a jumper to the batter (there is a probe just below the engine which is connected to the positive pole of the battery). Unfortunately it took me 2 days to figure out how to access the battery in my Prius. I was leery of actually starting the plane while it was connected to the car so I just left it connected for 30 minutes to charge the battery. The Prius would turn off the engine until the battery discharged enough to require charging then it would automatically run the engine until it was charged again.

I did one takeoff and landing. The takeoff was not good (I forgot to retract the flaps) and when I reduced the power as I turned downwind my speed got down to 65 before I realized I had a problem. My first instructor only permitted 3 landings a day and they had to be full stop. I enjoy landings as much as I enjoy parallel parking. Once I am back on the ground I am not willing to fly again just to land.

A couple of days later I decided that I had enough of pattern work so I went to Lancaster. The takeoff went well. I went to flaps 0 at 60+ and -6 shortly after. I then made the mistake of trying to engage the autopilot. It took a while to figure out the only way to engage it was by holding the button on the stick (I though you could do it with the mode button but apparently not). With the STEC55x when you engaged the autopilot only the lateral control engaged. With the CTsw autopilot lateral mode and vertical speed mode is engaged. Since I was still climbing out from landing and it maintained a high climb rate while turning on course. I was so concerned about not flying into the lateral boundaries of the BWI class B I almost flew through the floor of the class B above me (1300 feet AGL).

The flight wasn’t bad once I figured out the autopilot. Apparently the heater is worthless. I made the mistake of putting my coat in the baggage compartment. The outside temperature was -4C and the inside temperature couldn’t have been much higher. By the time I got to Lancaster I was blue enough the think I had hypoxia except I never got over 2900 feet. The oil temperature never got out of the yellow (it was reading 150F). I am supposed to have a water and oil thermostat on the engine but I am beginning to wonder if they are working. Also the #2 CHT was reading low the whole trip. The landing at KLNS went well except I touched down too fast (a little over 60) and floated longer than I would have liked.

After engine start for the return trip the #2 CHT keep dropping to 0 which set off the engine alarm. Once I taxied to the runway and did my run up it was high enough that the alarm stopped sounding. The takeoff went well and I didn’t engage the autopilot until I was on course with a cruise climb rate. During the flight back the #1 EGT went into the yellow mode (the engine was running at 4600 rpm). I cut the power to 4400 rpm and it stayed at the top edge of the green.

I now have 17.9 hours on the plane. I can’t decide whether to try another flight or just fly back to Lancaster for the 25 hour service and have them look at the EGT, CHT, oil temperature, and landing light.

art,

suprised your battery was dead, your right very easy to jump but perhaps hard on the battery. best for this battery is a float charger which can be left on all the time ( if you have a hangar )

i had to replace my battery due to deep cycling and jumping, then i learned about the float charger.

the heater isn't worthless, mine used to burn my foot. you need adequate tape on the radiator, wing root openings taped or covered with window repair. the heater's control cable's action should be checked, make sure it is doing more than exercising the cable. my expirence is that you need temps in the green ( no matter what your egt is ) to get heat, sounds like the radiator needs tape? and sounds like the oil thermostat ( if you have one ) isn't closed until you get temp in range. i would like an oil themostat too but have heard others saying it doesn't work as expected.

the dynon warnings can be worked out, i'm not a dynon guy and have no experience there other than noticing that this is a typical thing to fine tune. those low rpms will also prevent you from getting heat. i fly at 5,500rpms and if i lived in ma/pa area i would still fly at 5,200 or more.

Art. Honestly, I would get some more dual.

Get the dealer to come down, fly with you to lancaster and fix the other problems. Then give you dual in YOUR airplane.

Do enough takeoffs and landings that it feels like an old pair of jeans and then take it home.

You are going to wreck that CT, bust airspace or just plain get discouraged.

trying to get flying with alarms, dead batteries, airspace, winter weather is not good.

Accidents are usually caused by little things together not one big item.

art,

charlie may be right, it is hard to tell from your posts. i take what you say with a grain of salt thinking that you have a negative streak in you. i will admit that you don't sound so negative anymore.

the warnings are a big distraction and are causing you to fly in a rpm range that doesn't make a lot of sense for a 912.

1. Why was the battery dead? Did you leave something on. Shouldn't have died unless it had a drain on it! Charlie Tango is right about the charger. John at Sebring has a great one.

2. The AP works both from the stick and the panel - assuming it's the Tru-trak. Takes a little bit to get use to but it sure flies my plane great - better then me!

3. Heater can drive me out but I'll have to admit I haven't been below 30 with it. I do use the tape method which aggravates me to no end but does work.

4. You'll never get me back in a "steam gauge" airplane. I love my Dynon's. Make so much more sense - I know others disagree. BUT make sure the dealer has them working right. They can be intimidating at first - lots of buttons and things to play with but you should pick it up quick and man like I said there's no comparison.

Good Luck and don't forget I'll pay your airfare to the fly-in!!

Roger H

Roger wrote:1. Why was the battery dead? Did you leave something on. Shouldn't have died unless it had a drain on it! Charlie Tango is right about the charger. John at Sebring has a great one.

No idea. But the reason I knew how to charge it was that when I drove to Lancaster to be checked out in the plane the battery was dead and they had to charge it before we could fly.

2. The AP works both from the stick and the panel - assuming it's the Tru-trak. Takes a little bit to get use to but it sure flies my plane great - better then me!

I though I could engage it by pressing the mode button but it didn't seem to work and after reading the Tru-trak manual I can't find any reference as to how it is engaged. I just read the installation manual where it says it can be engaged by pressing "enter". I assume this is the round button. I will try it next time I am at the plane. I am no John Henry and I would never try to out perform a machine.

3. Heater can drive me out but I'll have to admit I haven't been below 30 with it. I do use the tape method which aggravates me to no end but does work.

Most of the holes were taped, but not the ones for the fuel tube which blows a lot of cold air. I am not sure if I should tape the holes in floor since they may be required for drainage.

4. You'll never get me back in a "steam gauge" airplane. I love my Dynon's. Make so much more sense - I know others disagree. BUT make sure the dealer has them working right. They can be intimidating at first - lots of buttons and things to play with but you should pick it up quick and man like I said there's no comparison.

There I am not sure I agree. I liked the 6 pack and its redundancy.

Have they changed the heat on the CT. We used to have one with the heat pouring out on the pilot's right foot. My foot was always tourched but the rest was cold. I wish they would go to a more even distributed system.

Better yet, I should just moved to the tropics.

Yes, they changed the "heat hole". Now instead of heat directly flowing straight out onto your foot it radiates thru a bunch of holes. Hard to explain but you if you have the old "burn your foot style" you can purchase this upgrade and make the change!!

Roger H

art,

might want to hit the dealer up for a new battery or a fix so yours doesn't go dead.

Hello Art,
With your experience buying a new CT, have you had more problems with the quality of the plane or is it a dealer support issue? It sounds like most of your problems should be a minor fix that the dealer should have no problem addressing.

Super Cub wrote:Hello Art,
With your experience buying a new CT, have you had more problems with the quality of the plane or is it a dealer support issue? It sounds like most of your problems should be a minor fix that the dealer should have no problem addressing.

I don't seperate the two. It is not like a car where you have lots of dealer choices. Flight Design has given a large enough area to my dealer that it makes him the only reasonable alternative. Since Flight Design selectes him, trains him, and hopefully monitors him, a dealer failure (if that is what it is) is a Flight Design failure. So since I have not alternative but to use the dealer who sold me the plane the distinction is meaningless.

Art,
If you wanted to have warranty work done by another dealer, would FD cover the costs?