Watch this video first:
This post chronicles my flight from yesterday, January 15th, 2010.
This was one of my best lessons, period. First off, a week ago, I scheduled this early morning flight to finally try and accomplish that duel cross country to Sullivan County that I posted about earlier in the year. At the time, the dispatcher at Century told me that because they are down an aircraft (see second to latest post), I would have to take one of their Cessna 172 S/Ps (the latest model of the Cessna 172). I have only been flying the standard Cessna 172N or Ps so far. These aircraft are from the late 70s, and they make up the majority of the Century fleet. They are fine for training purposes: they have no moving map systems, basically no GPS built in, and just a standard VOR navigation package. Nothing fancy, just a pure training aircraft. In fact, often times, when it is raining outside, it is raining in the cockpit as by 2010, the water proofing isn’t what it used to be in the 70s. Anyhow, I have always wanted to move up to flying the S/Ps – it was just a matter of time. So, I told dispatch I would love to take it, and I was schedule to go. Friday evening, I called Barry and told him I wasn’t comfortable with the weather out at Sullivan County – low ceilings. So, he said to just come in anyway, and we would get started learning how to operate the S/P.
So, that’s what happened. First off, the preflight inspection is more involved for the newer aircraft. There are more systems to check, and I had to get accustomed to this. Dealing with all the snow and ice everywhere doesn’t help either. Once we were in the cockpit, Barry went over starting procedures with me. Perhaps the biggest difference, besides the fact that the S/P is faster, and is a better performing bird than the older Cessna’s, is the fact that it has a fuel injected engine. No more carburetor heat to deal with! What doe this mean? On the older aircraft, because they have carbureted engines, I am constantly pushing in the carburetor heat, in order to prevent the carburetor form icing. Whenever you slow the engine down, or descend rapidly, you need to pull the carburetor heat on to prevent this form happening. No longer. You want to reduce rpm, just pull out the throttle, simple as that. It really makes flying much more enjoyable! There are a variety of other features that are different in the S/P, but I want to list the important ones below:
- Fuel injected engine
- More advanced avionics including:
- Moving map/GPS
- Advanced three axis autopilot
- Annunciator panel (panel that tells you if systems are good, and also talks to you as part of the autopilot)
So, this means that there is a lot more to do when starting the engine, and warming it up. For example to start, you have to hold down the aux. fuel pump for five seconds, and then start the ignition while enriching the fuel/air mixture. Also, before takeoff, you have to check the autopilot system, and make sure the avionics are a go.
Finally, we got in the air, and boy what a feeling that was. Flying the S/P felt like the real deal. After over a year of flight training, it finally felt like i was flying, and it felt natural. I felt like I was really flying!!! It was an amazing feeling – the aircraft was a joy to handle, it was just an all around amazing experience. After practicing a few basic maneuvers, like stalls, turns, etc. Barry wanted to demonstrate the capabilities of the autopilot, and GPS. So he had me relinquish control of the aircraft, and armed the autopilot. First he dialed in a desired altitude, which the aircraft started flying too, then he put in a descent rate, followed by a heading, and then told the aircraft to fly direct to Andover-aeroflex airport. Before I knew it, I was lined up for an approach on runway 21 at Andover, without having to do anything. At 600 feet above the ground, I clicked the autopilot disarm button, and hand flew the landing. What a joy.
Same thing going back to Caldwell. I took off from Andover, and headed out West, and inputted Direct to KCDW into the GPS. I clicked the Autopilot onto altitude, gave it 2500 feet, 400 feet per minute, and pressed Nav to get it going to Caldwell. Again, once I entered into Caldwell’s airspace, all I had to do was turn the heading bug (selects the desired heading for the autopilot) to my desired course, and the aircraft flew to that. In fact, I put down my first notch of flaps, and the autopilot adjusts for that. Every time you leave your altitude, the autopilot announced “leaving altitude,” so it does take some getting used to the plane talking to you all the time.
I can’t stress enough the advantages of having an autopilot plus a moving map GPS system in the cockpit. It improvers safety, reduces stress and workload, and adds to the fun of flying, greatly. I LOVED flying the s/p, and I’m sure I will be back in N506SP shortly.
I took two videos introducing, and then wrapping up the flight. Enjoy!!
Keep flyin’
– Rafi
Moving map system:
The cessna 172SP:
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