Flying the SportCruiser

Czech Aircraft Works SportCruiser

I finally found a rental light sport airplane in the area! It's a Czech Aircraft Works SportCruiser. operated by Atlanta Sport Flight at Fulton County airport in Atlanta (FTY). The picture above is of the exact plane (N187SF) I flew, A sexy little new low-wing plane with just 100hrs on the engine and airframe.

This airplane is made in the Czech Republic by an aircraft company that used to make airplane parts for the old Soviet Union. Once the bear dismantled, in fine capitalist style the company retooled as Czech Aircraft works (CZAW) and began producing light aircraft for the civilian market. They first built Zodiacs for Zenith Aircraft, then started making the SportCruiser as their own design.

The SportCruiser has a lot going for it. It has the same 100hp Rotax engine as the Tecnam I trained in. It's an all-metal structure, which is great for maintenance (the newer carbon fiber and fiberglass constructed planes are very strong, but much harder to repair correctly). It also has a full "glass" cockpit, meaning electronic displays rather than traditional gauges.

One thing that's very different is that the SportCruiser does not have nosewheel steering on the ground. The nosewheel is free castering, and will rotate around on its own. All steering is done by differential braking -- braking one of the main wheels causes the plane to turn in that direction. This makes the plane very maneuverable on the ground, as it can basically pivot within its own wingspan. It is not nearly as intuitive as nosewheel steering though, and I ended up taxiing like a drunken sailor. I may come to love it, but for now I found it just difficult.

The castering nosewheel also means there is little directional control on takeoff roll before the rudder becomes effective. You can tap a brake to maintain direction, but then you are slowing down just when you want to be speeding up for takeoff. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, and a lot of other aircraft like the Grumman AA-1/AA-5 series use the same arrangement with no major problems.

How does it fly? I could describe it in one word: light. The control forces needed to control this plane are minimal; in fact they don't really seem change much. I don't think I *ever* touched the trim, and the stick forces never got heavy at any speed from 32 knots to 108 knots. This is a little puzzling to me, as I don't think the Czechs have learned a way to repeal the basic laws of aerodynamics. Nonetheless, on this flight trim was unnecessary.

Handling didn't seem unusual (other than the trim enigma), and there were no really bad habits. Stalls were benign and predictable, and turns were easy to maintain and roll into and out of. Overall it felt more like the Zodiac than the Tecnam, but not in a bad way.

The plane has big wings and lots of lift, which is evident in the 32 knot (!) rotation speed on takeoff. It's also evident in the pattern, which when properly flown is completely power off from abeam the numbers on downwind to touchdown. You essentially just glide it in, progressively adding flaps, only adding a little power if you get below the glideslope.

The big bubble canopy is a blessing and curse. You can see all around, and the only blind spot is directly to the rear. This makes spotting traffic easier, and sightseeing more enjoyable. What I know from flying the Zodiac, however, is that when the sun comes out and it's hot outside, that big greenhouse will COOK you. The SportCruiser has a retractable sunshade overhead that will help, but I think it's still going to be a sauna in there pretty often.

Then there is the low wing vs. high wing debate. I now have about equal time in low wing (Zodiac) and high wing (Tecnam) aircraft. While I think low wing planes just look better and remind me of fighter planes, for actual flying I prefer the high wing. The visibility to the ground is better, which helps in the pattern and for sightseeing. Only on the downwind-to-base turn does the high wing block your view, and it's a simple matter to lift the wing a little to peek, or just judge your turn by the compass or directional gyro. I don't mind the low wings, I just think for the things I usually want to look at the high wing is more suitable. Plus in Georgia that big wing overhead gives you some shade!

The Dynon Electron Flight Information System (EFIS). There's a LOT of data here.

And of course, don't forget the glass panel vs. steam gauge question. The glass panel gives you a LOT of information in a small area, which is nice, but sometimes it's a little tough to find the exact bit of info you want. In the picture above you can see the EFIS. In a seven inch area you have airspeed, altitude, pitch and roll attitudes, slip/skid indicator, Vertical speed, heading indication with GPS steering cue, angle of attack, wind speed and direction, ILS and VOR deviation, density altitude, outside air temperature, altimeter setting, local time, and more. And that doesn't include the other display, the Engine Monitoring System (EMS)!

All this information is great and helpful, but the density of information can be distracting. If I just want to know my airspeed, for example, it's easier to glance at a standard airspeed gauge and get that information than it is to get it off the EFIS without getting distracted by other data. I find myself looking more at the panel when I've got glass, and really that's a bad thing. You want your attention outside the airplane, looking for other traffic, and only looking at the panel occasionally to confirm what you already think is happening, such as heading and airspeed.

Honestly, I think I prefer standard gauges to glass. It's not a strong preference, but I just think it feels more like flying and less like flying a simulator. There is something to be said for keeping each piece of information separate.

So what's my overall impression of the SportCruiser? I think I'll like it in the end, but right now it's a lot of work and feels difficult. To be fair, I've felt this way every time I've transitioned to a new plane. Once I get the feel for it and the controls and procedures become second nature, I'm sure I'll really enjoy it. In the meantime I'll just keep working at it!

I'm a pilot!

It's done, I passed my FAA checkride and now I'm a certificated Sport Pilot! I have not updated this blog in a while, so I guess I'll need to catch you all up.

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Lockwood Aviation in Sebring, Florida to to to get things finished up. I scheduled eight full days of training, from Friday through the following Saturday. I ended up needing an additional two days, finishing with my checkride on Monday morning.

The folks at Lockwood are amazing, and really went out of their way to make sure I had every opportunity to fly and learn all the information I needed to be a safe and proficient pilot. All of their instructors and very skilled and also quite good at transferring those skills to their students. Their aircraft were also expertly maintained by their on-site maintenance shop. Overall the Lockwood experience was great, and I'd go back for further training without hesitation.

The FAA checkride was a nervewracking experience. None of the knowledge you have to know, or the skills you have to demonstrate are particularly difficult, but you only get one chance at each maneuver, and the tolerances for success are pretty tight. I was a wreck for about two days beforehand, but of course it wasn't as difficult as I'd made it in my mind (there's no way it could have been!).

Once it was all over I took a great long nap, then had my first flight as a licensed pilot. My wife Kellie agreed to be my first passenger, against all reason. She ended up having a really good time. I thought that the landing might be uncomfortable for her, but actually she loved landing, but hated takeoff. She didn't like how we went into an immediate crab due to the wind. Fair enough, but she's willing to go up again so I guess the freak out factor was not too high.

Now to find a plane around here that I can fly...

Crazy Bad Luck and Moving On...

My bad luck with flight training continues. First it was my training plane getting wrecked on landing the day I was supposed to solo. That was pretty bad. The Zodiac came back from the repair shop on May 2.

Now this. The NTSB has issued a letter strongly urging the FAA to "prohibit further flights" of the Zodiac CH-601XL aircraft, due to six structural failure accidents causing a total of ten fatalities. Any guesses what *exact* type of aircraft I have been flying? Yep, Ch-601XL.

The FAA has not acted on this recommendation (they often ignore NTSB recommendations), but it has been an industry-wide confidence shaker. My school, for example, has decided to forego the liability issues, and voluntarily grounded the newly-repaired N130AW. So now I'm without a plane to train in again, and there are not really any other flight schools with suitable aircraft in the area that I want to train in. So where does that leave me?

Spending money, of course! I'm taking a week off of work and heading down to Lockwood Aviation in Sebring, Florida. There I'll fly several hours every day for a full week. That should be enough time to familiarize myself with the Tecnam P-92 Echo Super aircraft I'll be flying, get my solo flying time in, and take my checkride (the Lockwood senior flight instructor is an FAA examiner and will adminser my checkride oral and flight test). Here's the P-92:


Clearly a little different plane from the Zodiac. It's a high wing design, like the classic Cessnas. It also uses a Rotax engine, which is lighter weight that the Zodiac's TCM 0-200 engine and runs at a much higher RPM (5200 vs 2500) but produces the same 100 horsepower. Otherwise, performance between the planes is similar. I like how the Zodiac flies, but I'm looking forward to trying a new plane.

I'm planning to make daily updates to this blog when I'm in Florida, so look for them the week of May 30 to June 6!

I Passed My Knowledge Test!

Waiting for N130AW to be repaired has been frustrating, and I have received word that it will not be back in service until the week of May 2. That means basically I will have not been in the air for nine weeks when I get to fly again.

I decided I didn't want all of that time to be wasted, so I started studying for the FAA knowledge test needed to get my pilot certificate. The test is a comprehensive test covering all aspects of flying including weather, procedures, regulations, aircraft systems, flight dynamics, and navigation among others. The test is a 40 question multiple choice test. That sounds easy, but the 40 questions are randomly selected from a bank of hundreds of questions. The only way to do well on the test is to all the material cold, since there's no way to know which questions you might be asked, or on what topics. The test is administered on a computer and 120 minutes are allowed to complete the test.

I brought the allowed items into the test: a flight calculator, a navigation plotter, and a pencil for working out any problems (scratch paper is provided and must be surrendered on leaving). You are given a booklet that has all the charts, tables, illustrations, and figures referenced in the test questions. You are only allowed to write on your scratch paper, not on the booklet.

I found the test to be pretty easy, but I think I lucked out in the random questions I was asked. They were mostly "simple" questions, not requiring any calculations. In fact, I only needed my flight calculator for one question. There were none of the "math intensive" questions I had studied, mostly navigation and weight/balance questions. Lucky in one sense, but a little disappointing I didn't get to put the skill I'd learned to use.

A score of 70% is passing. I scored 98%, meaning I missed one question. There were three questions on the test I had never seen before in my studying, and I'm pretty sure which one I missed. I really wanted to get 100%, but it's rare for anyone to get a perfect score, so I don't feel too badly. In fact, I'm very happy...I got a very good score and it's now behind me!

Just My Luck

I'm all ready to solo, butterflies in my stomach, excited and nervous. Then the flight school calls two hours before my flight. It turns out that Zodiac 130AW, the plane I was training in, had an accident on landing at the hands of a renter.

The plane was landed hard in a crosswind without proper crosswind correction. This caused the nose gear to fold about ninety degrees, which in turn caused the nose to lower enough for the propeller to strike the runway. This is a Bad Thing, because it destroyed the prop, and the prop is directly connected to the crankshaft of the Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) 0-200 engine. That means the engine must be removed from the plane, torn down completely, and inspected for damage. It could be fine, or it could be time for a costly major overhaul of all the internals.

What does this mean for me? Sigh...it means I will not be flying the Zodiac for several weeks, at least. There are no other nearby flight schools offering Sport Pilot training. Peachtree-Dekalb airport (PDK) has it, but it's farther away (about an hour's drive or more) and it's is one of the most busy class delta airports in the nation. I don't think I want that kind of pressure during training.

I could take a couple of weeks and go to an accelerated sport pilot training course and finish up quickly, but that's at the whim of the weather, and I've already taken something like 50 hours off work for flight training already, so I'm not thrilled about burning up the rest of my leave.

For now I think I'll just wait and see what happens with N130AW. If it will only be down a few weeks, I can tough it out. If it will be 6, 8, 10+ weeks, I'll have to reevaluate what to do to get this thing finished. In the meantime I'm studying so I can get my written test out of the way.

Sigh...

Pre-Solo Passed & Emergency Procedures

I passed my pre-solo test today with flying colors, so Eric told me to expect to solo either Sunday or Monday...gulp! I think I'm ready, but there is a natural amount or apprehension and nerves that go with getting in an airplane and flying it around with no safety net in the form of an experienced in the right seat.

This morning we practiced engine out emergencies in the Zodiac. First a simulated off field landing from 3500 feet. This is not hard, you just pick a landing spot you can glide to and pitch the airplane for best glide speed (65 knots in the Zodiac). One thing Eric mentioned and I definitely found is that a field that looks great at 3500 feet might look questionable down low. The field I picked looked great up high, but once we got lower it looked a little small and had tall trees on the side I was approaching from. Clearly another case of something in aviation you need to be very conservative about.

We then went to WDR and did some simulated engine outs in the pattern and power off landings. This is an area where a Zodiac is not like a Cessna; once you pull the power to idle in the Zodiac it starts to come down like a meteor. At the 65 knot approach speed we were seeing sink rates up to 1200fpm. Our firt try at this in a normal pattern made it clear we could not make the runway from abeam the numbers. On the second try as soon as I cut the throttle abeam the runway numbers I started a moderate 180 degree turn. This time we made it very well. I gave the plane a little throttle just before the flair to soften the landing, but we would have made it easily even with no power. It just would have been a hard impact landing.

The Zodiac is a great plane, and a lot of fun. A Glider it aint.

Pre-Solo Test Tomorrow

Has it really been almost a month?!? Oh well. In that month, I had seven flight lessons scheduled. Five of seven were canceled due to weather. Highly annoying. I had a lesson two weeks ago, and it was bad; my head just was not in the game. I made five landings -- one of them was really good, two were just okay, and two severely sucked. Nothing dangerous, just pretty marginal technique on my part.

Then yesterday I had another lesson. That one went very well. No major mistakes, though I did miss one ATC radio call. Eric made the reply and didn't say anything, so I guess it's not a biggie. My landings were much better, but I am still having a some problems holding off the nosewheel enough on touchdown...I'll have to play with my stick technique after the main gear touches down and see if I can figure that out.

Tomorrow I have another lesson, and it's going to be some ground school and the FAA mandated pre-solo test. Once that and some logbook endorsements are out of the way, eric will be able to spring my first solo on me whenever he chooses. That's pretty scary, but one learns by doing, right? Wish me luck!