Learning how to fly a complex aeroplane - The Flying Reporter

I know many of you have been wondering what type of airplane I'm going to fly next. Well, today everything will be revealed. No, no, no, not this one, at least not that one yet, let me introduce you to the Piper Arrow 3, this is the guy. The type of plane I'll be

flying

from now on looks a lot like the warrior I'm used to, but this plane has retractable landing gear, a constant speed propeller, and a 200 horsepower engine, all of which means I'm going to need a bit of training, unlike a car change, if you change the aircraft you fly you need to receive some instruction to be up to date with the different systems, important air speed limitations and emergency procedures, so I have come to Black Bush Airport. in Hampshire and commercial airline captain and instructor Steve Pels agreed to help, so Steve, I fly like a warrior, the arrow looks very similar, but I know it's quite different.

I mean, what are the main differences between the two? The similarities are greater than the differences. You will find that the plane is very similar to what you are used to. The main differences are the fact that it has the retractable gear and the constant speed propeller. Those are the differences that we will have to analyze today in today's training. It involves a flight to the local area where I will practice with the Aero and then we will complete some circuits where I will get used to the new procedure. Steve sent me some reading material before today's lesson, so I've already learned the relevant speeds for retracting and extending the gear and now know some of the theory behind the variable pitch propeller, the right rudder of the water.

Wow, like live pizza, when do you think we could get the train up after takeoff, presumably when we've run out? of runway, we have run out of runway, yes, on larger airplanes, the gear is raised immediately, but with a light airplane, especially a single, when there is a possibility of engine failure, we may want to reland on the track, we retract the train. once there is no more runway left, then we will take off. Once there is not enough runway to land on, we will hit the brakes to prevent the wheels from spinning and then retract the gear.

The track is gone, so we'll stop the next step later. Takeoff is reducing power to the 2500 rpm climb setting and 25 inches in manifold pressure, but with a variable pitch propeller it's not as simple as just throttle back if you're dropping power we want to move the levers from left to right yes We are increasing the power, we want to move the leaders from right to left and now the throttle is again very fine, there we go as the plane climbs, the ambient pressure will reduce and that will cause the manifold pressure gradually reduces as we progress. climb about an inch for every thousand feet, so when doing a long climb we need to slowly increase the manifold pressure by pushing the throttles forward, but the RPM has not moved, so at a thousand feet above the airfield we can do the post takeoff checks, which are probably pretty similar landing lights its pop the recognition light the gears are slaps are up and the temperatures and pressures are fine so why don't we go up to 2000 in this direction so they can take a look look at some of the gale warnings?

Look, Romeo came out of the eighties edition hanging west-northwest to request a frequency change away from Moreno to five John, a traffic service or are you happy with the basics, your ovation, if you don't know, will be leveled First, listen to me, so it will go out. our first 2023, she is about to turn 23 and then we can lane, you just have to judge it with your eyes to attend, leave my sight to the ten farmers, call the radar, Charlie Bravo Zulu Romeo, apply for the basic service department, Charlie Bravo Zulu Romeo, pa-28, to push to push. appears far northwest of Black Bush about four miles altitude 2000 feet one zero one five request basic service hopefully the very qnh one zero one six basic service Corp zero four four zero one six basic service Corp zero four four zero columns already now You're clear, Steve shows me the warnings that we can receive with different and powers, okay, we're at a hundred knots, so we can put in one stage, eight select another stage, okay, hey, police see that you have everyone at the same time. time, guide your fin. you're probably going to land here is our pop so you get another one again two ways to get rid of the other one is to be okay, so that's the kind of warnings you can get up to nine, we below, so why not?

We downshift just to see how it feels as an indication because it's not safe, you can feel the ground changing as the airflow changes, now the sounds go out, we have three greens, okay that sounds cruising with the gear descent, obviously fits or drags, yes. the air speeds are down to about nineteen yeah what's the maximum speed to retract gear 100 and something 107 so we're safe so let's retract it right there and the same thing you saw before hold on from okay, so we're moving, so no speed? sound oh yeah three black tree master switch fake name switch oh master alternator master on circuit breakers well we know you called it the light switch is out of the gear indication poles but they are all off so changing them is not going well no can do nothing The difference is that the sticks down don't control much the airspeed reduces below eighty-seven knots so there are 85 that match all the way so we have one that is no good never screw , that doesn't work, we'll check the bowl. is not the goal, okay, so anything else on the checklist that has some of that, we can make your ring on the plane aggressively left and right towards the slowest speed is designed to help Lock the remaining wheel in place and with three green lights I go back to black to do some circuits turning off now the obvious place to lower the gear is on the downwind leg.

I like to lower the gear at the beginning of the downwind leg and that gives me time to wait for the gear to drop. to get my three greens, continue with the rest of my pre-landing checks and then turn around to land. The problem with that, of course, is that we don't always have a downwind leg if you've reached this long finish on a base leg or any other combination of it, you're losing the trigger to downshift, which obviously is dangerous, so now we have a pillow speed that will also help you keep the speed under control.

See batch three cranes, brakes, the landing gear mixture is rich. Look, Romero Lake went down to five, so we introduced a secondary check in the final where we say out loud if you like reds, greens, blues, so in the final with the track in front of you you will say Reds, you will check that have your mixes bright green that the gear is down three green and blue that the propeller levers are fully forward red blue greens somehow of course we have clearance or you don't need clearance but you know what I mean in the next circuit Steve Check if I've been taking it all in without realizing it.

He turned on the navigation light switch, dimmed the green landing gear lights. The question is: will I identify the problem? Well, with a driving speed and we have the brakes down. landing gear mix there are no green lights, but I said the gear is down, this is confirmation bias. Will I remember my reds, blues and greens? I will check the final approach and detect the error. Correct blue. I'm so mad at myself for missing the Lights are on downwind, but I'm glad I realized my mistake on final approach. Check the reds, blues and greens. We have three excellent ones.

We completed the exercise with a flapless landing and then turned back to the parking lot. It was a really exciting flight. It's great to learn something new again after so long. I think I started

flying

the Warrior around 2013, so here we are a few years later and I'm starting to learn how to fly another type. There is a lot to think about. new things to have to remember, but I am looking forward to flying this aircraft and others like it and putting into practice my gratitude to Steve Pearl's Black Bush Flying Group, Black Bush Aviation and the airfield management for a small amount of money each month.

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