Three Night Stop and Gos in the V (9 JAN 08)

Arrived at the airport just before sunset last night. Nathaniel was going to help me retrieve John's car from the hangar. The wind had died down and after checking on 2714V I did a full preflight and decided we'd take her for a few turns around the airport.

N2714V is serial number D-90, a straight model 35 with the E-185-1 engine and Beech electric prop. The panel needs serious work, and the interior can use a face lift, but overall this is one fun airplane.

I decided to practice short field takeoffs and landings tonight while I tested out the V after a month of hangar sitting. She started on the second turn of the prop, and I sat at 1000 RPM for a while and watched the gauges.

Everything looked good, so we taxied over to 26. The airport was quiet tonight. The only other traffic was a Cessna twin that rolled on behind us and took off for AFJ.

I rolled onto the runway, came to a complete stop, held the brakes, fed in full throttle, and watched the gauges -- all good. Everything sounded right and felt normal, so brakes released and we're rolling.

I've been flying the A36 exclusively the past month, so I wasn't quite prepared for how quickly the V is ready to fly. In no time we were at 70 MPH. Steady pressure back on the yoke and we rotate, there's the briefest of moments in ground effect, and we maintain the 15 degree nose up to maintain 80 MPH (78 is Vx).

We were 100' AGL before the 1500' mark.

I didn't raise the gear as we were staying in the pattern. With the gear down at Vy (100 MPH) we were still climbing in excess of 1200' FPM. Not bad with me (190), Nathaniel (160), and a full load of fuel on board.

At 800' AGL I slowly reduced MP to 20". Since this is an electric prop the RPMs reduced to about 2000 with the MP drop.

A bit of a wind here so I made a 180 to turn onto downwind. The sky was still lit from the sunset -- a beautiful night to fly.

Level off at 2200' and reduce the power to keep level at 95 MPH. Trim and wait for the threshold to slide by. Reduce MP to 15", trim for 80 and drop full flaps. I used to use partial flaps on downwind in this airplane, but since there is no detent it is a pain to hold the switch down and count to 15. Last night I realized that dropping full flaps doesn't result in much pitch change, while making the descent rate predictable all the way around.

Since there is a wind I turn in a bit sooner to base. ASOS is reporting 270 @ 5, but at 1000' AGL it must be closer to 20.

I trim again to maintain 80. I'm still learning the slow flight characteristics of this airplane, so next time I'll try 70 MPH (flaps down stall speed is 47, flaps up is 58, so 1.3 x Vso = 61 with flaps, 76 no flaps), but I didn't want to experiment with a passenger on board.

I needed a touch of power to maintain glide slope on final after reducing power to 13" MP on base. The wind was steady on the nose. I aimed for the numbers and we touched down just beyond them. I avoided the nose high attitude I'd placed the airplane in on previous full flap landings and it worked much better. Forward visibility was more than adequate and controllability perfect. We touched down gently and rolled to the second taxiway exit, which on this airport is 1500' down the runway.

I taxied back, took off again, with near the same results on takeoff. The landing was even better with the power set to 14" MP all the way down base and final.

By the third takeoff it was completely dark. Twilight was past and the winds kicked up some. There was a bit of buffeting about 500' AGL, and then smooth again. The landing was even shorter this time, with no braking required to roll onto the second taxiway.

This is truly an amazing airplane -- 61 years old and still going strong!