Complex Aircraft Endorsement

A complex aircraft is defined as an aircraft having retractable landing gear and a controllable pitch propeller. I found a Piper Arrow that was renting for a decent rate and scheduled a flight with a CFI to begin the process of my complex endorsement.

Really you have two more levers - a landing gear lever and a propellor control lever. Since I have had some time in the Cirrus, I was familiar with manifold pressure and quickly adapted to the additional instrument.

The flight went really well. We spent about a half hour on the ground going through systems (landing gear is controlled by a hydraulic system) and the V speeds along with the manifold pressure and RPM settings that correspond to different stages of flight in the traffic pattern.

Flight time: 1.3

Total time: 84.4

Fly to Fly

So, because I could, I flew from Falcon Field up to Scottsdale for my demo ride in the Twin Star...

Flight time: 0.9

Total time: 62.2

Multi-Engine Fun!

I had been reading a lot about Diamond Aircraft's Twinstar. This is a twin piston aircraft that burns either Jet A or Diesel fuel. It allegedly burns about 4gph in each engine at 65% power while making about 160kts.

This was something that I thought I had better checkout. Plus my buddy WH had flown it and, of course I have to keep up with the Jones'. So I made arrangements to fly it out of Scottsdale (KSDL). It's a pretty cool plane - doesn't require a lot of effort to fly though. FADEC controls all of the engine function and the Garmin G1000 avionics take care of everything else.

It really does sip gas though. We practiced engine out procedures and otherwise simply had fun. What's more, I was able to log some multi-engine time. I'll keep it in mind for after I get my instrument rating.

Flight time: 0.6

Total time: 59.7