High-Performance Endorsement

Part Two

Flight 4: Sun, Mar 16. (1 / 7.9)

I just got my instrument training back on track, so it's my top priority now. However, I hadn't flown the Arrow in a month, so we did another hour in it today. We did the basics- landings, slow flight, steep turns, and stalls, plus emergency procedures. My landings were fairly decent by the end of the lesson. In my 172, I can pull the throttle and float in like a paper airplane (on a calm day), but the Arrow needs power to land without slamming it on the pavement. I was happy with how well the lesson went, since I had just finished an instrument lesson an hour before on the other side of town.

Flight 5: Fri-Sun, Apr 4-6. (8)

One of the commercial requirements is a long cross-country flight of at least 250 miles, with landings at three places. I didn't want to make a meaningless 500-mile round trip, so I used this month's Bahamas fly-in for that purpose. I wanted to do it without another pilot on board, so I rounded up a couple of friends and left Tampa Friday morning in my plane. After a fuel stop at Boca Raton (BCT), I called Miami to activate our flight plan and turned on course east over the Atlantic. Moments later I heard "Shuttle's up!" on the radio and looked out the left window to see Space Shuttle Columbia, 150 miles north. We had forgotten the launch was scheduled that day; it was sheer luck that it happened then.

The ride across Florida to Boca was bumpy, and we had a 25-knot headwind. Once we got over the ocean, it was smooth. (That's usually the case- the heat rises off the ground on warm days, making the air rougher, but that doesn't happen over water.) We flew across Grand Bahama Island, where Freeport is located, on the way to Great Abaco Island and Treasure Cay (MYAT), where we spent the weekend.

Runways in the Bahamas were built where space was available, not necessarily aligned with the prevailing wind, so there's often a stiff crosswind. Some airports like Treasure Cay were carved out of wooded areas, and the trees affect the wind in nasty ways. When combined with heat and a loaded airplane, the result is often rather interesting takeoffs and landings. I had wanted to get some crosswind practice in before the trip, but the wind at home hadn't cooperated lately. Luckily the wind was almost right down the runway Friday, so I didn't have too much trouble getting down. (MYAT's runway 14 is actually well-placed for the typical southeast wind.)

There's no fuel at Treasure Cay, so we made a stop at Marsh Harbour (MYAM), 20 miles down Great Abaco, on the way home Sunday. I had a direct crosswind of about 15 knots, plus the windshear from the trees around the airport, to deal with. I was just relieved to get the plane safely down on the runway, but it was actually a decent landing. (My flying seems to improve quickly when necessary.) The takeoff from there was probably the trickiest thing of the whole trip, keeping the nose down to build up airspeed for the climb and avoiding the urge to pull up too much and get slammed into the trees beyond the runway.

We followed the Abaco chain of islands to the northwest on the way back to Florida. We got close to some ugly weather in front of us and had to drop down from 4500 feet to 2000 to avoid it. For a while it looked like the Florida coast would be IMC, but our destination of Fort Pierce (FPR) was still reporting a few clouds at 3000. Sure enough, we got past the cloud layer about ten miles offshore, and it was a bright, sunny day, as if somebody had just turned the lights on. FPR was windy, 15 gusting to 20, but it was right down the runway, and after a couple of Bahamas landings, no problem. We cleared customs there and flew back direct to Tampa.

Flight 6: Tues, Apr 8. (1.6 / 9.5)

Tonight was another example of how instrument and commercial training can complement each other. I just got my instrument training back on track, so it's my top priority now. However, the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In has shut down the airport at Lakeland this week, so we took the Arrow down the Gulf Coast to do approaches. We did an ILS at Sarasota (SRQ), a VOR approach at Albert Whitted (SPG) in St. Pete, and returned to PIE for the back-course localizer approach. The approaches went pretty well, considering that I hadn't done them in anything but my 172 before.

After this flight I got a high-performance endorsement in my logbook, meaning that I can now fly planes of that type by myself.

Bonus Multiengine Lesson

Flight 1: Sat, Apr 19, 1997. (1.4 hrs today / 1.6 total)

Most people get their instrument rating before starting on their commercial. (I'm finishing my IFR training as I start this- in fact, after this lesson I did an afternoon session with my CFII.) Most people also do single-engine commercial before multiengine. Apparently they don't realize the benefits of doing it the "wrong" way. If I did single first, the only real change would be the word "commercial" instead of "private" on my license. (OK, technically I would be eligible for a flying job, but one of the smallest books in the library is Jobs for Low-Time Single-Engine Pilots.) I already took the written exam and did the long cross-country flight, so "all" I have left is the transition to flying a twin.

Today I got an intro to flying a Piper Seneca. (Until now, I had only a few minutes in one.) The lesson ran longer than planned due to some traffic delays, and I was surprised how much we covered. In addition to takeoffs and landings, we did slow flight, various turns, and some simulated one-engine-out drills. I learned how to identify which engine has failed and how the plane performs on one engine.

Update: April 1998.

My instrument rating took much longer than I expected, and I never felt confident enough with it to fly IFR by myself, so I decided to put the rest of my commercial training off indefinitely. The main reason I started on the commercial training in the first place was to eventually become a flight instructor.