Aviator90 Episode 35

Man: [0:32] Welcome to another episode of Aviator90 from Angle of
Attack. Today we will be flying from five-zero-whiskey-alpha, which
is south of Centralia, Washington and we’ll be going to Bowerman,
Washington which was in the “Traffic Pattern” episode. This is
going to be a really simple episode where we’re basically just
going to follow a road up to Bowerman. It should be very simple, as
I said, so let’s get right into it.
[1:01] So as I said, here we are in the Cessna 185 from Caranato
and we are going to get everything set up for this very simple
flight. All right, as always, we go to the switches and we turn on
the alternator and battery. Magnetos are already on both, I’m just
going to turn those off for now until we’re ready to start.

[1:23] Now lights beacon and avionics are off. Circuit breakers are
in, everything’s good there. Let’s see. Let’s set the mixture and
throttle here, so as always, mixture full rich, then we just crack
the throttle for the start. And that should set everything up for
the engine start. Now, we’ll go to the switches and we’ll start the
engine.

[1:48] But we need to do some primer first. Three pumps of the
primer should work to get some fuel into the cylinders. Then we can
turn the magnetos to ready and we’ll just start it here.

Man: [2:03] And we have a start. So that sets everything up for the
engine start. And radios still aren’t on.So now we can turn the
avionics on and that’ll turn the radios on, so let’s flip that
switch there. And then, let’s see, we have 122.8 from the last time
someone flew the airplane so we’re good there.
[2:28] Com1 is on, all set there. We’re not going to use Com2, that
radio looks old and unreliable. It is quite shiny for how old it is
though, but I’m not going to use it. So I’m going to run the engine
up to just 1, 000 RPM for now, just make sure it’s heating
properly.

[2:53] I’ll do a flight controls check very quickly. We’ve got full
range of motion, check the rudder as well, everything’s good there.
Tap the brakes, nice and free. And that’s it. So now we can do the
actual run up of the aircraft and that is important, as always, to
make sure that the engine is running properly.

[3:20] So I’m going to look at the tachometer here, the revolutions
per minute. We’re going to set 1, 700 and we’ll get that number and
then we will check the magnetos. So I’ll just adjust here until I
get right on that. All right, that looks good enough.

[3:45] And all our engine things are in the green as well. We have
full fuel. Amperes are charging, that means that the alternator is
actually charging the battery which is always a good sign. Then we
will check left and we’ll go and check the tachometer to look for a
small drop. There is a small drop.

[4:04] Then we’ll go and look for both, back to the tachometer,
look for a fall, there is a rise and fall, go back to the magnetos
right. Looking good. And then we go back to the switches and we
switch it back to both. And there we go, we got it.

[4:37] All right. So that pretty much does it. We don’t have a
whole lot of setup today for the takeoff here, so we’re just going
to cycle the prop. Now I’m cycling the prop to make sure that we
get a couple hundred rpm drop on that to make sure that it’s all
ready to go. Depending on the day, one would be sufficient for a
hot day. Two or three would be good for a colder day.

[5:15] And so now I’m just going to taxi over here to the runway,
and we will get out of here. So this is a little bumpy taxi here.
I’ll just move up here to this little grass strip. No delay in the
power up, and then we’ll get out of here.

[5:34] All right, rock and/or roll. I’m going to turn on the
landing light. All right, let’s do this. Here we go. Everything’s
good to go. We’re set up, so I’m going to smoothly advance power to
full power, and we will get the engine all revved up to make sure
that everything’s in the green, so once it is we release the
brakes.

[6:08] Here we go, maintaining center line, as it were, but we
can’t on this grass strip so we just get our rotate speed, as
always, and we get off the ground, so there we go.

[6:21] This particular airplane is really unstable in the climb, so
I am using a lot of rudder in these initial moments to compensate
for whatever’s going on, which is how the aircraft acts. A lot of
dancing on the rudder pedals, very important.

[6:41] And essentially, what we’re going to do, is we’re just going
to climb straight ahead, on about a heading of 300, and we’re going
to look for a pretty big highway that will take us all the way to
Bowerman. And I’m going to turn off my landing light, now that
we’re in the air, and no longer in the landing area, just so I
don’t forget that.

[7:00] And as I was saying, we are just going to climb straight
ahead, we’re going to do 2500 feet today, since we are on a
westerly heading. Then if you remember that as even thousands, plus
500, and that’ll get us on our way to Bowerman.

[7:14] And it’ll be pretty simple. We’re just going to follow that
main highway, past a couple landmarks, that’ll be pretty cool to
look at. And then we will, basically, just do a straight in, into
Bowerman.

[7:29] So, we’re continuing the climb, it’s going to be a short
climb, because the aircraft is performing pretty well. All the
while, what I’m doing is, I’m adjusting for our climb power, and
climb fuel flow. So, I’ve pulled the mixture back a little bit to
get in the green on the fuel flow. And I’ve also pulled back the
power on the aircraft, and the props, so we’re at about 2500 rpm,
or 2700 rpm, and we’re within the green on all the engine
instruments.

[8:00] Now, a lot of these engines are rated to go above full
power, or above their cruise limits, on takeoff. And you can do
that for about a minute, but then you need to make sure that you
bring it back to the recommended continuous power setting.

[8:18] And that’s typical on older aircraft like the Cessna 185,
this is a big workhorse in the ’50s and ’60s. So, it’s definitely
an older airplane that has that type of engine that you need to do
that for. These days, with fuel injected engines, it’s pretty
typical to just be able to plug around at full power all the time.

[8:44] All right, so, at cruise, and now it’s time to pull back the
power, even more if you want to, for the cruise portion. You don’t
have to today, we have plenty of fuel. And I’m just going to trim
out for a cruise altitude of 2500 feet.

[9:02] Now, I’ve already overshot my cruise altitude by 150 feet
just by virtue of the power being too high and just blowing through
it and not paying attention and talking to you guys, so I’m going
to get that coming on down and trim during the process, and we are
going to continue straight ahead here.

[9:23] Now it’s not really necessary for me to stick around for
this because basically what you guys are going to do is go straight
ahead. We’re going to find a road, and that road is going to turn
left basically toward the east.

[9:36] And you’ll see where that happens within the video as it is
in fast forward, and we’re going to go past the power plant. If you
remember in episode 11, which was the traffic pattern episode,
Bowerman is basically on the coast or at least close to the coast.

[9:56] So you’ll see that as we fast forward here, but just keep
track, and the road is right there ahead in the valley, and I will
see you guys in a few minutes as this thing fast forwards. I’ll
keep it a little slower than usual so you can kind of see the
progression of where it is I’m going and what I’m doing. I will see
you guys in a few minutes.

[11:56] All righty. I’m back, and we have Bowerman in sight. It is
that little light out there just above the air speed indicator. So,
I’m going to begin my descent now just by pushing forward on the
yoke a little bit, maybe, reducing power. I’ll turn the landing
light on since we’re approaching.

[12:17] And I will continue on down here and just set up for a
straight-in for the runway. And that will be nice and fancy for us
today. Pretty simple.

[12:37] Now, one thing you will notice that today I am not making
radio calls. This is not a typical real world maneuver. I do not
recommend not making radio calls, but in flight simulator when you
don’t have air traffic control.

[12:53] Whether it be with in-flight sim air traffic control and
you don’t have to go on, then you have the freedom to just troll
around and basically do whatever you want. I think that freedom is
very cool to do sometimes. It lets you focus more on some other
attributes that you may need to grow.

[13:11] Some people consider that may be a problem, maybe,
something that I should have done, but I think that’s one of the
cool things about flight simulator that we can turn that part off
and just basically fly around and have fun every once in a while
and go out and look around. So, that’s basically what we’re doing
today.

[13:32] Now, I’m continuing to come down here on this runway glide
slope, and what the glide slope, and what the glide slope is is
it’s basically a 3-degree angle that goes to the touchdown points
on the runway, and when we have a red over white as you see now, or
actually it just changed, but when red over white, that means that
we are all right.

[13:54] That means that we are on glide path and everything is good
there.

[14:01] So let’s see, pulling up here. And again you see we have a
red on white, red over white, we’re all right. And I am continuing
to come down here. This aircraft is pretty interesting because it’s
really unstable in slow airspeeds, extremely unstable, and it’s
very different to take off, it’s very different to land.

[14:24] I’m not too sure why, if that’s how the real thing is or if
this is just a matter of how the developers made it, but this thing
is a real challenge to fly.

[14:36] So I’m coming down here I guess not necessarily on center
line, so I’ll get that back, but I’m focusing a lot on just keeping
it stable and coordinated with the rudder so it’ll stay
straightforward.

[14:51] And especially as we get down here even slower that’s going
to become an issue. So we’re coming over the runway now, and I can
pull power now and we’ll be good to flare in on the runway. So this
becomes very difficult-just need to keep that directional control.
All right, that was probably a little too hard. Going to have to
check the landing strut after that.

[15:21] But if you guys do fly this aircraft you’re going to find
it’s really unstable; nothing wrong with that. It’s actually cool
to have that bit of extra challenge, so that’s just the way it is,
I suppose. We’re going to pull up here and pull off the runway, and
then we will taxi in.

[15:40] All right, clearing the runway. Easy does it. And once I
get off the runway here, past the hold short lines, I will turn off
my lights. And there we go.

[16:01] And now we’re just going to continue the taxi in here to
the ramp. Nothing special this time, just another pretty dang cool
Pacific Northwest airport. I kind of like this view, helps me taxi
more. Well, not more, but you’re going to taxi the same amount
anyway.

[16:22] But it allows me to taxi better. I can just see the line
better and I’m not necessarily focused on anything within the
aircraft. So we will come up here and we’ll park next to that other
185 just beyond the yellow airplane.

[16:45] Pull up here and get some lunch, or not. I like my virtual
hamburgers made medium-rare. Not really. Flightsim Hamburger X.

[17:09] All right, so we will pull into this here taxi spot. I find
these tail draggers sometimes hard to taxi, especially in these
tight little corners. So I often have difficulty with it. Trying to
ease her on in and then we’ll straighten out. Good there.

[17:30] And we’ll pull the power and apply brakes. Check and make
sure we are where we want to be. We are, that’s good enough. And
then I’ll pull the power; the mixture, that is. So we got that.
Beacon nav light off, avionics off, magnetos off, battery and
alternator off.

[17:53] And that does it, another cross-country flight in the bag.
Not too shabby. Just a simple little visual cross-country this
time. And you now these are all going to be visual anyway. But
we’re not using VOR’s or anything like that.

[18:08] We’re just going out, having a lot of fun. No air traffic
control, no one to tell us what to do. And that is the joy of
flying sometimes. So next time we’re going to do another episode of
“Cross Country.” And until then, throttle on.

Transcription by CastingWords