More power than I knew what to do with

Tonight was my checkout flight in the latest of my long line of aircraft relationships: N75898. Eight-niner-eight, as she's known, is a beautiful ship that belongs to the Center O Flying Club, of which I am now a member.

First, a little about Center O. It's been around for 30+ years, has about 50 members, and is really an excellent way to fly a variety of aircraft--more variety than any FBO on the field at KOLM--very, very economically. Fortunately they accept students as members (in fact, many current members started as student pilots), and had a few memberships for sale. I've been working with them over the past couple of weeks to secure a membership. I applied, and the members voted me in at their annual meeting, which as luck would have it was last Saturday evening. I have learned that it is a very well-run organization, whose members take flying very seriously and take very good care of their aircraft.

The club recommended--and I insisted--on a checkout flight in the new plane, so I arranged to meet Joel at KOLM tonight for a lesson. I went into it thinking that the extra 20 horsepower of 898's engine would not make that much difference, and that I'd pretty much pick up where I left off on Saturday in 6268D. So Joel and I planned to work on "high performance" takeoffs and landings--practicing short-field and soft-field operations, which are required on the private pilot checkride (and good things to know anyway).

898 is kept in a hangar...new experience #1. Preflight was the same routine, though there were a few more details like engine heaters and wheel fairings to consider. Joel and I pulled the ship out of the hangar, and it was then that I noticed how immaculately clean it is. The club repainted it last year, so it looks much better than any aircraft I've ever flown. It doesn't really look like a typical FBO "trainer". The inside is in very good shape as well. A very pleasant ride.

898 has a panel-mounted Garmin 430 GPS...new experience #2. This is a very nice feature, but it has a bit of a learning curve. Joel gave me a very quick primer on it, but it was hardly enough to be productive. I've noticed that Garmin makes a free simulator for it. I will definitely be downloading that and playing with it. Joel said that once I get comfortable with it, I will fall in love with it. I believe him!

We had to takeoff without delay, as there was a Beech 1900 on final behind us, so we scrapped the idea of practicing a short-field takeoff. I flew over Michael's elementary school where his baseball team was practicing...I usually watch his practices, just usually not from this perspective.

10 minutes later we were at Tacoma Narrows airport (KTIW). During the whole trip there, Joel was showing me the 430 while I was flying and scanning for traffic. KTIW tower cleared us for a straight-in approach, and it was during the approach that I realized how much more power this aircraft has, and how much the difference would change my routine...new experience #3. I'm sure seasoned pilots just adjust to this, but for me it was a stark contrast. We stayed there for 4 trips around the patch, and after the second one we gave up the high performance bit...I was just focusing on basic takeoffs and landings. In the picture on the page linked above, you can see that one end of the runway (the 35 end) is near the water; what you can't tell from the picture is that between the runway threshold and the water is a 300 foot cliff, which really tends to skew the perspective and also, I found, created some strange wind currents on short final.

By the time we left, I felt like I was starting to get the feel for the aircraft, but we needed to head back to KOLM and park the ship for the night. Between the different perspective of KTIW and the different handling of the aircraft, it was a very challenging evening. But I am already eager to go out again and master it. Once I do, this will be a very, very fun airplane to fly.

Next lesson: tentatively Sunday, weather permitting.