From our POH:
Maneuvering speed (Va) is the highest safe airspeed for abrupt control deflection or for operation in rough air. Upon encountering severe gusts, pilot should reduce airspeed to maneuvering speed to lessen the strain on the aircraft structure. For any airplane, maneuvering speed can be estimated by multiplying the airplane’s normal stall speed by 1.7. Maneuvering speed decreases as aircraft weight decreases. Refer to aircraft operating manual for for correct speeds and operating procedures.

Continuing in the POH.
Maneuvering speed
2400 pounds 99 KIAS
2000 pounds 92 KIAS
1600 pounds 82 KIAS

OK, so we can pass the test, but why does this speed change with weight, what is really going on here? I’m glad you asked.

Let’s listen to this description for some hints:
Maneuvering speed is the maximum speed where full, abrupt control movement in the pitch axis will result in an aerodynamic stall of the aircraft prior to exceeding the design load limit.

Aha! Did you read what I read (and heard on the podcast)?

Here it is paraphrased from the podcast:
The engineers calculated the angle of attack that the wing stalls for a given weight (aerodynamic stall). They then calculated the second angle of attack that, with an abrupt control movement, would get the plane to the stall angle of attack before the g-force load exceeded their calculation of what it would take to stress the aircraft (design load limit).

So, for our plane, for normal category, that design load limit is 3.8 times gross weight with flaps up. If we are speeding along at 99 KIAS, with nobody in the plane, our angle of attack is small due to the small lift requirement, and we are further from the stall angle of attack and can therefor exceed 3.8G if we abruptly move the yolk. If we are at max gross, we need more lift, so a higher angle of attack for the same speed of 99 KIAS, which is closer to the stall angle of attack, so we will not be able to get to the 3.8G needed to stress the airplane if we abruptly move the yolk.

There you go. I hope that made you think a little more about what this maneuvering speed is, and how it’s designed to save the airplane (and you) when you enter rough air.

If anyone has any comments, disagreements, better understanding, please feel free to send them to all. Remember I am not a CFI, this is only meant to get you thinking.

I filed direct KPIE to KOPF, received clearance on the ground and was cleared as filed.  I took off on 35R and flew runway heading to 2000 ft., and was then routed over Tampa before release direct to KOPF.  Very nice flight at 7000ft, but I needed to get down to 5000 to get under a hot MOA. I was in and around a lot of smoke the last half of the flight and eventually got in and out of some clouds as well.  With some work I could have flown higher, lower or even around some of the clouds to stay in VFR, but I wanted the practice. Was vectored for the ILS runway 9L and broke out at 3000ft.  I followed the localizer and glide slope down to 400 for my simulated break out, then I called my spot for landing and was long by only 50 ft or so.  I’ll keep working on those spot landings.  It was a great flight over.

On the way back, I again filed direct.  We then taxied away from the ramp and called the tower.  The tower gave me “Cleared direct to KPIE via the Miami 9 departure, 2000 ft . . . “, a clearance that included a SID (standard instrument departure), after reading it back wrong, I finally got it right.  To be honest, I wasn’t ready for a SID at all.  After read back, I told the tower I needed a minute to program the GPS before I was ready to taxi.  In reality I was figuring out what I was getting in to.  After looking at the SID, I figured I could do it.  It was to fly runway heading to 2000, then to Dolphin VOR, which was to the southwest of the airport, then 3000ft. to WINCO, which was Northwest of the airport, then direct to my destination.  OK, easy enough, programmed the GPS and was ready to taxi.  Take off was normal, again runway 9L, so I was heading east, then when I was handed off, ATC turned me North.  Not what I expected, but no problem.  Then I was told to turn 270 and “join the WINCO departure��?.  I replied back asking for direct to WINCO since I was already north of the airport and WINCO was at about 300 anyway.  No dice, so 270 it was.  I then overheard another pilot given the same vector, and heard his confusion as he asked if he had to go to Dolphin first or if he was allowed to go straight to WINCO.  Departure clarified and said to fly the heading assigned until he was on the outbound radial of Dolphin and then to turn to WINCO and proceed outbound.  The exchange was very interesting to listen to and ATC was very nice in explaining it to the pilot.  To be honest, it took me a minute to understand the instructions before I understood it as well, maybe I got lucky.  So now, both me and the other pilot are flying the same departure and he is overtaking me as we are in and out of clouds, so since we couldn’t see each other, ATC sent me 20 degrees right until we where far enough apart.  Just past WINCO, I was thick in the clouds when I was handed off to Miami center.  When I was, center asked me if I could do the Bridge 5 arrival in to KPIE.  I had just “mastered��?, ok, not mastered, more like survived the SID, so I’ll take on a Standard terminal arrival (STAR).  I said yes, and he said to fly direct to Labelle and expect the Bridge 5 arrival.  I programed direct to LVL and then spent the next 5 minutes bouncing around in clouds trying to find the STAR.  See, the SIDS are in with the approaches and the approaches are in alphabetical order by airport city name.  The STARs are in the front of the book in alphabetical order of the name of the arrival procedure.  Makes no sense what-so-ever to me.  So, after I found it, it took me the next 5 minutes to program it in to the GPS.  I would be bumping along, program one fix, then go back to flying and make sure I was going the right way and at the right altitude.  Then I would program the next fix and so on.  The only way I could have done this at this stage in my flying is with the help of the autopilot.  Not a minute after accomplishing all that, and feeling pretty good about myself, I was out of the clouds, and the rest of the trip was cloud free.  This lead to a beautiful red sunset for the rest of the trip.  Upon starting the bridge arrival, I was then vectored over the skyway, west of KSPG and in to KPIE.  Didn’t use any of what I programmed except for the BRDGE waypoint.  Cleared for a nice visual landing, a little too much float, but a great day.

I really felt like a “real pilot��?, for lack of a better term, being able to take the plane on a business trip and not stress about the weather, or whether or not I would be delayed either way.  In other words, being able to take the plane where I needed to, when I needed to.  I am really glad I took the time to get my instrument rating (2 years I think it was).  Thank you Walt for making me an IFR pilot.  I would say teaching me, but it was more than that, he really made me.

A quick pre-flight and then we climbed in the plane with me in the pilot seat. After a reminder on how to start the plane, what to look for and why, I started it up and were ready to go. The plan was to do a few touch and goes. While taxiing, we were discussing airspeeds, and stuff when the tower came on and asked us what engine we had in the plane. Stuart told him it was the PT6. We did our runup and taxied on the runway. With 20 degrees of flaps and the breaks on, I started to power up the engine and watch the dials. When we got the engine spooled up where we wanted it, which isn’t full power, I released the breaks and away we went down the runway. Rotated at 70 and started to climb at 90 kts. It felt a little heavy, but not bad for such a big plane. I had to watch my altitude and speed since it wanted to get away from me a little. I got it under control and started the downwind. I wasn’t smooth on the throttle and was struggling with finding the right setting, but I wasn’t set up too bad for my downwind. On the downwind, the tower asked us to make a short approach. I took one look at Stuart and he nodded in agreement, then after I made my radio calls, I looked over at Stuart and he had this grin on his face. He then asked if I minded if he took the landing. Since this is his "toy", how could I refuse, so after giving him the plane I asked if this was going to be a tough landing that he thought I might have trouble doing since I wasn’t used to this plane. He said no, but instead that he was excited and he doesn’t get to do short approaches often and it would be fun. He was right, we had now turned base and was pointing right at the numbers play online poker,play texas holdem poker online,learn to play poker onlinetexas hold em gamehome poker gamepoker freeкомпютриfree texas hold em gamepoker game,online poker game,free poker game downloadno limit texas holdem,no limit texas holdem poker,tournament poker no limit texas holdempoker tiponline free pokeronline poker strategydraw poker7 card stud tournamentsfree online multiplayer pokeronline poker bonus7 card stud poker ruleshi lo omaha poker rule,omaha hi lo,hi limit lo omaha playpoker gamesplay texas holdem online,play texas holdem,holdem limit online play texasno limit texas hold emfree on line pokertexas poker,free texas holdem poker,how to play texas hold em pokerhow to win at pokerinternet poker siteinternet casino pokeronline poker downloadfree 7 card stud pokermac online pokerplay 7 card stud pokerfree video poker game7 card stud softwarebest internet pokerpoker gambling gamecard games 7 card studreal money online pokerhow to play pokeronline poker gamevideo poker softwaremultiplayer video poker7 card stud strategiestexas hold em pokeronline casino poker tournamentonline poker no downloadpoker sitepoker videoonline poker lawcelebrity pokerlearn how to play poker7 card stud rulesfree texas holdem poker playtexas holdem poker online,play texas holdem poker online,texas holdem poker game online perpendicular to the runway, dropping flaps while turning, we made our turn to base, right at the numbers and not very high. We came out of the turn and Stuart put it right down on the runway. Nice landing, then he powered up and took off again, but kept it in ground effect while we picked up speed and when we got to the end of the runway, started to lift off and then gave me the plane back. Stuart was still grinning ear to ear as I turned cross wind, then downwind for our next touch and go. I asked, then Stuart agreed that it was a fun landing. I had fun and I wasn’t even doing the flying. Now on the downwind, the tower again cleared us for the short approach. There were more than a couple of us flying around and he was kind enough to clear us in front of the others in stead of putting us on the long downwind. I agreed and made my radio calls then looked at Stuart and asked if he was going to do it or me. His answer was that I saw it done and it was my turn. I dropped a notch of flaps and turned towards the numbers, still flying a little fast (120 kts), I dropped another notch of flaps and had to push hard on the yolk until I could get the trim in. All this, while now turning final. I felt good, a little fast and still having problems with the throttle and the speed, I put her down and had a great landing. I then slowly powered it up and took off. That was a really fun landing. Stuart said that it was a good landing, which is always nice to hear. Back up, crosswind, then downwind, not a bad setup again. On the downwind for number 3, and again we were cleared for the short approach. By now, this is real fun. I’m still fast on the down wind and having problems getting my power settings right, but that didn’t prevent me from grinning again for another short approach. Now I’m getting the trim in as quick as the flaps are dropping and I’m not fighting it as much, but I’m still having problems with the speed. As I turn final, I am high and fast on this one and land very long. With as slow as I’ve been putting power in, Stuart took control of the throttle and got us up to speed a lot faster than I would have. This downwind, we were surprised to not hear the short approach, but there was already someone on short final. I actually had more of a problem lining up for this "normal" landing than the short approaches I was doing. Still can’t get the power thing right, but with the normal approach I had more time to get it right and came in at a much better speed than the others. Final downwind, we called tower to tell them that this would be a full stop and even though we couldn’t hear or see anyone else in the pattern, we were cleared for the short approach again. I think the tower might have been having as much fun watching it as I was doing it. Came in with some good trim and a little better power control but when I turned final, I was still fast. When I was about to land Stuart told me to hold the nose wheel off the ground as long as possible. So as I put her down on the mains, I kept back pressure and added more and more to keep the nose at the same height for most of the landing. Then I let it drop and I pulled the plane off of 17L at M and taxied to Signature. As we were pulling up, the spot we left from and the chalks were still there. I suggested to Stuart that it would be very cool if he could back the plane in to the old spot. He took the challenge and came within six inches. Not bad for that size plane. We chalked it up, put on the covers and stuff and walked away still grinning from some great fun, still amazed that 4 out of the 5 landings we got to do short approaches. It’s a lot of plane, but handles really well which made the short approaches really fun to do. The turboprop engine is a fun engine, it is a jet after all, but I need a little more time to get used to it. It would be a fun plane to fly often, to fill up with family, friends and toys and go off on an adventure out in the bush landing on a short grass strip. But for now, I’ll just enjoy the flying I’ve been able to do with it and continue to hope for a next time.

From St Pete ground get VFR clearance to go to the East to KISM with Class Bravo services. Take the CRAFT and head on out. Weather over TPA meant that they vectored us south around the bottom of Albert Whitted. We requested 2100 as the altitude and that worked really well. Above MacDill we were cleared on course KISM and were able to steer around the weather and get to KISM with tons of weather all around. Tampa Departure dropped us around 20 miles from KISM and we just went 1200 until 10 miles out and contacted KISM tower. They asked that we call them 3 miles out and then we came in to land on runway 15. Marathon Aviation has a courtesy car but they can only give it out for an hour at a time. Someone like Mike Kutz may be able to charm them for the car for the evening but I was not able to get that from them so we rented a car. The car ran us $35 but works out a lot cheaper and more convenient than a taxi. A short drive of about 10 minutes got us to the Arabian nights show.

After the show we headed back out to the airport. The FBO was closed so the code 2&4 then 3 got us in the gate and back to the plane. We did a quick preflight and headed out. I called Orlando approach since the tower is down after 9 at KISM. I didn’t get a response from Orlando approach so we just flew VFR out of there on runway 24. We called Signature and told them we would be getting in only at 11:30 and so Tim froom Signature stayed around for us and let us out of the airport. Coming in to TPA I contacted TPA approach on 118.8 at about 30 miles out. They vectored me in over runway 27 and I flew right over the top of TPA. TPA approach dropped me on the far side of TPA and said descend to pattern altitude for PIE and contact 118.3 for airport advisories. I gave them a call and they told me of a departing King Air and negotiated with a UPS A320 for my arrival. I let them know when I was on final and also when I was clear of the active. A relatively painless process.

The trip to KISM is well worthwhile. Make sure you ask Signature to stay on if you are going to be back after 11. You will need to pay Signature 15 an hour for being late, but it was worth it.

This is a good trip and I recommend that you take it anytime you get the chance.

When we returned from Bowling Green to Owensboro we had decent VFR conditions so we flew over to North Carolina to spend the night with a freind of mine Nick in Franklin NC. We landed there a little after dark and had an opportunity to give thanks for the terrain capabilities of my GPS. We did a successfull landing and spent the night in Franklin before heading back to Florida on Sunday. For the return trip we got to flex the capabilities of the GPS in the weather department. We were able to find a hole in the line of weather that went clear across Georgia. The weather capability kept us clear of weather all the way into PIE.

BTW the code at VNC is 531 for the gate near the tiki bar. After landing at Crystal river you can tie down on the ramp and walk straight to the DQ there is a gate right in front of the DQ. A really nice way to do the trip would be to land on the grass and pull the plane up right in front of the DQ. Runway 36 would be a good one to do this.

The flight back is very pretty with all the lights and it is a worthwhile dinner destination. Not quite as good as VNC but still a nice simple trip.

The Notam for the approach is very detailed and easy to follow. We flew in around 11:30 am and had about 7 other planes on the approach with us so it was not too crowded and very manageable. On base to final I was given a spot, my color was orange and I lined up for it on 9L. To my right flying off my wingtip for a landing on 9R was a Crazy Horse P51 Mustang. I put down exactly on the orange spot and high speed taxi to the end of the runway and parking. The parking was almost full. After we were parked and were the plane tied down and covered up we walked to the mobile registration station to register. There was a big pyre of smoke of the threshold of 9R and I was thinking perhaps a warbird went down. We checked with the registration officials and they said it was a car in the parking area. A big relief that it wasn’t a plane. Mostly we walked around looking at the aircraft.

Awesome things:
Dynon EFIS – This is becoming a standard in the panel of all experimentals. They have new version which is twice the size of the old one and it is $200 more than the small version so they are selling like hot cakes.

Corvette Power – A Republic SeaBee was on the flightline with a 405HP Corvette engine in the pusher configuration. It burns 8.5 GPH and looks really good in there.

Sports Planes – There had to be about 20 different vendors of sport planes. A lot of innovation in the design pusher/puller high wing/low wing amphib composite/aluminium.

We left out of PIE at around 7:30 on 17L and flew straight out over the top of Albert Whitted and stayed VFR below 1200 until clear of the class B and then climbed to 5500 to clear the layer of scattered clouds and also get to some nice smooth air. We picked up a tail wind of around 20 knots which made us feel like we were in a Cirrus at a fraction of the cost and almost the same speed. We landed at Boca Raton which is a Great stop. I phoned Mike using my headset gizmo and he looked up the cheapest fuel FBO which was Avitat and we stopped there. Boca has an abundance of Ferraris and Rolls Royces driving around the apron. The FBO was awesome and had cookies and all sorts of drinks with a really nice pilots lounge to check the weather and file an international VFR flight plan. We filled up with fuel and headed out to the east. Approach was too busy to give flight following so I just kept on the frequency and flew out VFR. The tail wind was still there and we made great time to Chub Cay where we climbed to 3500 feet to contact Nassau Radio 32 miles away to close our flight plan then dropped down to 1000 feet and flew along all the little islands that make up the Berrys, ending in Great Harbour our destination. I did all the calls on 122.8. Marsh Harbour is by far the busiest airport out there. We landed on 31 and pulled up to customs. It is a private airport so you have to pay $8 landing fees. The customs guys are about as freindly as customs folks anywhere and about half as speedy but we were on island time so no matter. We caught a taxi to our rental cottage. It was a splendid place with a fine view. Their were 2 resturants on the island that we frequented. The Beach Club on the main beach and then the Marina Pool Club. Both had great burgers and cold Kalik.

Things to do differently next time:
* Take provisions. You are allowed $100 of provisioning per person. Some coffee would have been a nice touch.
* Leave earlier in the day. We left at around 7:30 but the cloud build ups get going early down here so getting out really early would save you from having to climb like a homesick angel to get over the nastys.

Things to do the same:
* File pireps. Whenever you drop in a PIREP then Flightwatch will always give you whatever information that they have for your route of flight. More important from my perspective is the sky conditions at the destination airport. I am looking for clear broken few or scattered. That way I know if I come up to some clouds I can just pop over the top of them where the visibility is better knowing that when I get to the destination airport I will be able to drop through in VFR conditions. Admittedly this is risky business and should also take into consideration the trends and temp dewpoint spread. Takes me back to my earlier comment leave earlier in the day and you wont have to worry about this.
* Stop for fuel at Avitat at Boca. They cut us some slack with the weekend fuel rate even tho it was only friday. They were very nice about having us stop there for fuel even tho we only took 15 gals and the other planes that we parked next to took 2000 gals. Nice facilities too. Flying overwater with low fuel is about the least fun thing I can think of doing in a plane so getting those tanks topped off was awefully comforting.
* File international VFR from Boca. This worked well.
* Keep the oil at 6.5qts. The oil temp was noticibly happier with that much oil in there vs 6 qts which I did in the past.
* Preprinted the customs forms and filled them out before the flight.
* Used NRST WX on the GPS to check available weather sources in the route of flight. My Garmin 196 does a great job of presenting this information in a useful and relevant way.
* Run the engine at 2500. I feel a really good sweet spot in the engine at those RPM. She is very happy there.
* I leaned to 1380 on the temp rather than lean until she runs rough and then rich 5 turns. This latter strategy had me at 1420 or so on the temp. My fuel consumption was 7.7 gph vs 8.2 gph but I attribute that to a lot more taxi and hold short on this trip than previous. The point is I can run the engine a bit cooler without any apparent penalty in fuel consumption.

Friday night I was having dinner with my family and Stuart’s family and although we tried to keep from talking about flying, somehow it just came up (imagine that?). Stuart asked if I wanted to join him for some flying the following day taking a Cardinal (177RG) from PIE to SGJ, during which, I would be able to finish my complex rating, then I would fly a Cirrus SR22 back. Of course I wanted to, how could I refuse flying for free, in two planes I’ve never been in, one being the Cirrus and learning aviation stuff at the same time? My only hurdle was a baby sitter, which is no easy hurdle sometimes.

Saturday morning came and I had gone through my plan A, B and C with no luck. Finally plan D came through and at the same time, I got the call from Stuart that the plane was on it’s way from Wimauma. Feed the kids, skip my lunch and off to the airport I go. The car was out of fuel and so was my belly, but I didn’t have time for both, so the car won. When I got to the airport, Steve was there as well (Stuart’s boss) and I found out the plan for the day. The plan was for me to fly the Cardinal to St. Augustine and get my complex endorsement while Steve sat in the back, then Steve would fly the Cardinal back to Wimauma and I would follow in the SR22 with Stuart, pick Steve up and fly to St. Pete, where Steve would then fly the SR22 back to Wimauma. When I suggested that I would be better to sit in the back during the first leg is when Steve told me about keep passin’ it along (that I blogged about earlier).

So off we go to the plane, which has seen better days, so we check the oil, sump the fuel (with a lot of water, probably three little cup fulls in each wing), got in and started the engine. Fuel injected hot start, which she didn’t seem to want to start and the battery wasn’t very strong, but Stuart convinced her to start. He probably has that effect on most planes (and women?). While taxiing out, I found that I would lose the radio, but my microphone still worked. Stuart had the opposite effect, he could hear everything, but could only talk to me. So I figured that, worst case, Stuart would listen to the radio and tell me what to say. But, I reached under the panel and wiggled the wires to make a better contact and the headset was good to go the rest of the way. We then did a run up (which went fine), and took off on 17L, turned west, then headed North.

The flight went well, I learned that I was over controlling the plane too much and Stuart showed me how it was done and what I should be doing. It’s amazing what a couple of thousand hours difference in flying experience can do for how you control the airplane. I have a long way to go, and I’m going to have fun getting there. We were climbing up to around 5500 feet and I had to keep a close eye on the oil pressure gage, since it was showing just below the green arc, and the oil temperature gage that was showing at the top end of the green arc. This also had the effect of having me keep an eye out for all the airports and other suitable places to land during my trip. Nothing like low oil pressure to keep you on your toes. I enriched the mixture a little and at the higher altitude the oil seemed to cool and the pressure seemed to come up a bit. I still kept an eye on it, but felt a little better once it settled down. The rest of the flight was uneventful, I kept asking about Steve, since he wasn’t on the intercom and Stuart said he slept the entire way, even through the light turbulence. The only other thing I had to do was avoid the MOAs on the way using a Garmin hand held GPS (those GPSes, any GPS is worth it’s weight in gold while flying), while moving along with a ground speed over 140 kts. Contacted SGJ tower and had a tough time slowing her down. Actually had to go up in altitude to burn off enough speed to lower the landing gear, then I dropped flaps and lined up for my landing. Not enough cross wind correction, too fast, and even bounced it, all with Stuart and Steve in the plane. I hate it when that happens.

The least I could do after that was buy lunch, so we ate at the little restaurant on the field. Great burger, great service and great company. I got to listen to some cool stories about flying in China, Russia, and Alaska for instance, in planes that you and I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, in weather I wouldn’t dream of flying in, along with stories about Jimmy Buffett. Sorry, you’ll have to buy them lunch to get to hear them, but they were worth every penny.

We got back out to the ramp where the Cirrus SR22 was waiting. A little different than the 177RG, this plane is state of the art, only 4 or 5 years old, composite, low wing with high tech gadgets in the panel and a side stick for control and comfortable leather seats. I compare it to driving a Lexus after stepping out of an old Volkswagen bug. We topped her off with fuel, did a pre-flight where I could really appreciate the sleek lines of the composite body. I climbed on to the wing, and through the big gull wing doors as I got in to the pilot seat and strapped in while admiring the clean panel.

The control stick was along the left hand side, in front of me was the old style gages with a few “newer” style ones mixed in. In the center of the panel was the large multi-function display (MFD) and below it were two Garmin GPS/Comm/Nav’s below that was an autopilot and a transponder, then between the seats were the power and mixture lever. The power lever automatically controlled the manifold pressure and the RPM based on the position of the lever. I don’t really understand how it works, but it seemed to do the job.

We started her up (again, with Stuart’s coaxing) and taxied out. It was then I realized that we had a fully castering nose wheel. I got used to that, and got to the run-up, which was uneventful (especially compared to the Cardinal). Cleared for take-off, I moved to the beginning of the runway and pushed the power lever forward. We got up to speed so fast, it was amazing, we then lifted off and climbed quickly. As we were climbing, a nice female voice came over the intercom and said “traffic”, which I knew right away wasn’t Stuart (he has a British accent, not female). Looking down, both the Garmins were indicating a plane at 10 o’clock and they were right. I thought that was nice, especially since the tower didn’t say anything about it, and I would have liked to have at least known about it. We finished climbing and put the girl on Autopilot so we could look around and play with the electronic toys. We called up Steve in the Cardinal, and I had the hardest time understanding him, then I realized that it was because he was using the hand held mic instead of a headset. It was a good thing Stuart had an ANR headset to cut through the static and be able to understand him. We then used the MFD to auto lean the engine. You still need to work the mixture, but the MFD shows you which cylinder peaks first, and where the temperature is that you need to enrich the mixture back up to. Very nice feature. Played with some other toys in the plane while we were moving along at 150 kts, when we got to Wimauma.

Stuart took the controls and overflew the airport to inspect the runway before landing. He did it a little quicker and a little lower than I would, but he’s probably done this before. He then turned downwind and gave me back the plane. I then had the task of slowing it down and preparing to land. I was doing good until I turned base to final at 80 kts and heard a warning, and found out it was the stall warning. I thought it was odd stalling in a turn at 80 kts, but since I was used to the different volume levels of the Cessna, and this was just a low tone, I thought it was just the warning before the actual stall and completed my turn. I crossed the fence at 75 to 80 and setup for my landing. I started to hear the horn again, still it was low, so I kinda ignored it and continued my landing. When I was about 6 ft above the runway, I had the control stick all the way back and was continuing to descend. I then hit terra firma, and when I say firma, I mean firma. I asked Stuart what happened, and his explanation was that I full stalled the plane above the runway. Ouch. That was embarrassing. I guess I was expecting a shutter, or a louder stall warning, or something. Plus I thought I was still doing 65 to 70 kts. The other embarrassing part was that I never even looked at the V speeds for this plane before flying it. I don’t know if I was so excited to fly it, or that since I had Stuart with me, I didn’t think I needed to, but either way . . Ouch! It really highlighted the fact that all planes fly different and have a different sight picture when you take-off, fly and land.

We taxied back and picked up Steve, who again sat in the back. We took off, and flew toward Albert Whitted airspace before turning north, over my house, then in to PIE. I switched over to tower frequency when Whitted told me to, then couldn’t get a word in edgewise for a while. The caused me to come really close to busting in to their airspace without establishing communication (I might have actually busted it). I setup for a good base, and final, and when I turned final, realized I had a little bit of a crosswind. Stuart asked if I wanted to take the landing, and after a quick discussion, I did. It was a picture perfect cross wind landing ( I redeemed myself), but then started to over steer with the castering nose wheel. Stuart took over, and taxied us back to AirOne, where we shut it down. We gathered up our stuff and gave the plane to Steve to fly back to Wimauma.

Stuart and I then talked about what I learned, what I could have done different, and other things I did or didn’t do right. I really enjoy and appreciate the postmortem on my flying. It allows me to learn more and more each time. It was a beautiful day with some beautiful flying were I learned a lot, and nobody got hurt, maybe a little embarrassment on my part, but nobody got hurt. Thanks Stuart and Steve for a great, great day of flying!

When I spoke up, Steve disagreed and said that there would be no problem with him sitting in the back. He then proceeded to tell me that when he was starting to fly, his instructor would do as much for Steve as he could to “keep passin’ it along”, the “it” being the joy of flying and that Steve should do the same when he finally got in a position to do it. Which in this instance allowed me to finish my complex endorsement for free along with learning more about flying in general.

The more I thought about it after the flight, the more I’ve realized that this is a great motto to live by in everything we love to do. Specifically in the area of flying, it is sharing the great passion we have for flying with other people (pilots and non-pilots alike). And I bet a lot of people do it without even thinking about what they are doing, or how they leave a lasting impression on the people that fly with them.

I know, for instance, that Mark T. will do whatever he can to get every seat on every flight he has full of people. I think he even feels like he failed to some degree if there is an empty seat or there is someone he has to turn away from the flight. This is a great way to keep passin’ it along, and I admire Mark for doing it and I’m sure that if you talked to the people that fly with him, they will remember the trip forever.

I’ve personally had a lot of time and effort passed to me (thank you Stuart as well as others) and I intend to give as much back as I can by continuing to “keep passin’ it along”, and I hope that you will join me as well.