Post by scottb on Jan 15, 2016 20:28:41 GMT -5
I’m on a bit of a different assignment this morning. I have been working out of our Anchorage base at Merrill Field lately, flying high wing Cessnas and Beavers to various bush strips around the area.
Today I’ll be flying our fleets lone low-wing single engine piston prop, a Piper Saratoga II TC. The Saratoga is our lower-cost, short range charter plane. It also serves as a bit of training ground for us rookie pilots before moving up to twin engine props.
Nicely appointed with a club seat cabin and modern avionics, the Saratoga is popular with our customers. It makes for a comfortable, low-cost charter trip. The cockpit is extremely well appointed with a new Garmin GTN 750 unit.
My trip today is a little on the long side for this aircraft. A two and half hour flight from Talkeetna (PATK) to Dillingham (PADL). Since I’ll be flying an unpressurized single engine plane, I will avoid overflight of high mountain ranges. I’ll fly down toward Anchorage, then hug the west side of the Kenai Peninsula following Cook Inlet. Once down near Homer, I’ll cut west through the Aleutian Range south of Iliamna Lake. The mountains are much lower that way.
I’ll be flying today with three VIP passengers. I get everyone and their gear onboard, then go over the routine safety briefings. Once that is done, I call in for my IFR clearance. It will be nice to fly higher today, instead of scud running a Cessna down low in marginal weather.
Departing Talkeetna at sunrise.
Approaching Anchorage.
We skirt the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. Here we are passing Kenai Municipal Airport, PAEN.
As I cut west in between the mountains, some low cloud rolls in.
On final for Dillingham. I had some excitement on my final approach. As I deployed my landing gear, the gear warning alarm started going off. The gear warning usually goes off if you have full flaps without the gear down. But I had put the landing gear down before putting in all the flaps.
I heard and felt the gears coming down, but I radioed to see if anyone on the field could visually see my gears now. I received a report of positive gear down. Feeling a bit relieved, I nevertheless tensed a bit in the flare to land, hoping the gear didn’t collapse. All was well though, and I had a nice touchdown and rolled out to a stop.
I made note of the gear warning in my report. Hopefully it was just a faulty sensor, and not a bigger problem.
With another successful flight behind me, I seem to be getting good feedback with my new company. I should be done with my single engine probationary period soon, and hopefully I can get some multi-engine time in.
-Scott
Today I’ll be flying our fleets lone low-wing single engine piston prop, a Piper Saratoga II TC. The Saratoga is our lower-cost, short range charter plane. It also serves as a bit of training ground for us rookie pilots before moving up to twin engine props.
Nicely appointed with a club seat cabin and modern avionics, the Saratoga is popular with our customers. It makes for a comfortable, low-cost charter trip. The cockpit is extremely well appointed with a new Garmin GTN 750 unit.
My trip today is a little on the long side for this aircraft. A two and half hour flight from Talkeetna (PATK) to Dillingham (PADL). Since I’ll be flying an unpressurized single engine plane, I will avoid overflight of high mountain ranges. I’ll fly down toward Anchorage, then hug the west side of the Kenai Peninsula following Cook Inlet. Once down near Homer, I’ll cut west through the Aleutian Range south of Iliamna Lake. The mountains are much lower that way.
I’ll be flying today with three VIP passengers. I get everyone and their gear onboard, then go over the routine safety briefings. Once that is done, I call in for my IFR clearance. It will be nice to fly higher today, instead of scud running a Cessna down low in marginal weather.
Departing Talkeetna at sunrise.
Approaching Anchorage.
We skirt the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. Here we are passing Kenai Municipal Airport, PAEN.
As I cut west in between the mountains, some low cloud rolls in.
On final for Dillingham. I had some excitement on my final approach. As I deployed my landing gear, the gear warning alarm started going off. The gear warning usually goes off if you have full flaps without the gear down. But I had put the landing gear down before putting in all the flaps.
I heard and felt the gears coming down, but I radioed to see if anyone on the field could visually see my gears now. I received a report of positive gear down. Feeling a bit relieved, I nevertheless tensed a bit in the flare to land, hoping the gear didn’t collapse. All was well though, and I had a nice touchdown and rolled out to a stop.
I made note of the gear warning in my report. Hopefully it was just a faulty sensor, and not a bigger problem.
With another successful flight behind me, I seem to be getting good feedback with my new company. I should be done with my single engine probationary period soon, and hopefully I can get some multi-engine time in.
-Scott
. The cloud textures are REX4 with soft clouds. Weather engine used is Active Sky Next.
