Tweet
It was a typical day in Oregon: low ceilings with with drizzle and about enough forward visibility to see the hood ornament, as we drove to the airport.
I had just soloed two weeks before and wasn't about to let the weather deter me from another exciting experience at the controls of an airplane. I admit that I was pretty proud of my accomplishment, so I had invited my next door neighbor to share this ride with me. I planned to fly to a neighboring town about 200 miles away, where I heard there was a good restaurant. On the way to the airport, my neighbor expressed some worry about the trip. "Don't worry about a thing" I reassured him, "I understand the food is excellent."
When we arrived at the field, the drizzle had turned to a steady rain. This concerned me a little, as I had just gotten my suit back from the cleaners. We checked with the local operator and found my regular plane, a Cessna 140, was down for repairs. The office boy was a good hearted fellow though, and when he saw my disappointment, he said they had another plane, N3341P, which turned out to be a twin engined Piper Apache.
"It's practically the same thing as the 140", he told me. "Just remember that you have to put the gear up and down."
I noticed that the tail wheel was missing but did not say anything for fear he would cancel the trip. We climbed aboard and began looking for the starter. Different makes and models of light airplanes are pretty much the same, like changing from one car to another.
The takeoff was uneventful, but we did use what seemed to be a lot of runway. (I later learned we had taken off down wind with the parking brake on.) We climbed into a solid overcast at about 400 feet. This was a bad disappointment as I knew John would have enjoyed the scenery. The air was pretty smooth though, and except for the ice that kept forming on the windshield, there was little to be seen.
For a pilot with only 12 hours, I thought I handled the controls pretty smothly, although for some reason, things occasionally flew out of my pockets up to the roof; but Jonh didn't seem to notice. In fact, he kept staring with a sort of glassy expression. I guessed that he was afraid of hieghts as some non-pilots are.
After an hour, I became comcerned over the fact that I could not see anything. It was going to be difficult to spot other traffic around the airport of our destination, and I hoped the other pilots would use a little common sense and keep a shap eye out for other traffic in such bad weather. It was obvious that I was going to have to get down lower if I wanted to see anyting; it was too bad the altimeterwas so unpredictable. It kept winding up and down very rapidly; I guessed because of poor maintenance.
As I started down, the left engine quit. No warning, no nothing - it just quit. John made a kind of gurgling noise, and it was about the first thing he had said since our departure. I explained that there was nothing to worry about, as we had another engine. So I started the the right engine, and John felt better and appeared to go back to sleep.
Well, pretty soon we did get down low enough so that I could see the ground occasionally. It was pretty dark under the clouds, and if it hadn't been for lighting flashes, it would have been hard to find any good landmarks. Then I spotted a highway, and remembered there was a highway near the airport we were heading for, so I followed it. It was difficult to read the road signs in all the rain, and I had to stay pretty low. Several cars ran off the road as we passed them, and I could see it was true about flying being a lot safer than driving.
After a while, we did find an airport, but I had to fly around the tower a few times to make it was the the right one. I didn't want to make a mistake and have everyone know I was a student pilot. They were very hospitable at the airport and flashed all sorts of colored lights as a welcome. So I landed and slid up to the parking area. (The operator should have emphasized that part about putting the gear down.) Everyone there was pretty excited. It was easy to see that they had never seen a Piper Apache before. John still appeared to be sleeping soundly, and I had to have help to carry him to the restaurant.
Well, I certainly learned about flying from that, and I want to pass on some good advice to other student pilots:
Don't believe everything you hear......the food in that restaurant was TERRIBLE!!!!
I had just soloed two weeks before and wasn't about to let the weather deter me from another exciting experience at the controls of an airplane. I admit that I was pretty proud of my accomplishment, so I had invited my next door neighbor to share this ride with me. I planned to fly to a neighboring town about 200 miles away, where I heard there was a good restaurant. On the way to the airport, my neighbor expressed some worry about the trip. "Don't worry about a thing" I reassured him, "I understand the food is excellent."
When we arrived at the field, the drizzle had turned to a steady rain. This concerned me a little, as I had just gotten my suit back from the cleaners. We checked with the local operator and found my regular plane, a Cessna 140, was down for repairs. The office boy was a good hearted fellow though, and when he saw my disappointment, he said they had another plane, N3341P, which turned out to be a twin engined Piper Apache.
"It's practically the same thing as the 140", he told me. "Just remember that you have to put the gear up and down."
I noticed that the tail wheel was missing but did not say anything for fear he would cancel the trip. We climbed aboard and began looking for the starter. Different makes and models of light airplanes are pretty much the same, like changing from one car to another.
The takeoff was uneventful, but we did use what seemed to be a lot of runway. (I later learned we had taken off down wind with the parking brake on.) We climbed into a solid overcast at about 400 feet. This was a bad disappointment as I knew John would have enjoyed the scenery. The air was pretty smooth though, and except for the ice that kept forming on the windshield, there was little to be seen.
For a pilot with only 12 hours, I thought I handled the controls pretty smothly, although for some reason, things occasionally flew out of my pockets up to the roof; but Jonh didn't seem to notice. In fact, he kept staring with a sort of glassy expression. I guessed that he was afraid of hieghts as some non-pilots are.
After an hour, I became comcerned over the fact that I could not see anything. It was going to be difficult to spot other traffic around the airport of our destination, and I hoped the other pilots would use a little common sense and keep a shap eye out for other traffic in such bad weather. It was obvious that I was going to have to get down lower if I wanted to see anyting; it was too bad the altimeterwas so unpredictable. It kept winding up and down very rapidly; I guessed because of poor maintenance.
As I started down, the left engine quit. No warning, no nothing - it just quit. John made a kind of gurgling noise, and it was about the first thing he had said since our departure. I explained that there was nothing to worry about, as we had another engine. So I started the the right engine, and John felt better and appeared to go back to sleep.
Well, pretty soon we did get down low enough so that I could see the ground occasionally. It was pretty dark under the clouds, and if it hadn't been for lighting flashes, it would have been hard to find any good landmarks. Then I spotted a highway, and remembered there was a highway near the airport we were heading for, so I followed it. It was difficult to read the road signs in all the rain, and I had to stay pretty low. Several cars ran off the road as we passed them, and I could see it was true about flying being a lot safer than driving.
After a while, we did find an airport, but I had to fly around the tower a few times to make it was the the right one. I didn't want to make a mistake and have everyone know I was a student pilot. They were very hospitable at the airport and flashed all sorts of colored lights as a welcome. So I landed and slid up to the parking area. (The operator should have emphasized that part about putting the gear down.) Everyone there was pretty excited. It was easy to see that they had never seen a Piper Apache before. John still appeared to be sleeping soundly, and I had to have help to carry him to the restaurant.
Well, I certainly learned about flying from that, and I want to pass on some good advice to other student pilots:
Don't believe everything you hear......the food in that restaurant was TERRIBLE!!!!
Comment