Doug,

Gee I am jealous. I only get to taxi J-41s and CRJs around Dulles
Airport. I get to work on them too. I would rather be flying them.....
Maybe someday.

Michelle

Capt. Doug wrote:

I had the opportunity to fly a Jetstream 31 recently. The -31 is a 19
passenger pressurized turboprop commuter with a MGTOW of 14,450 pounds. It
was built by British Aerospace with Garrett engines. Most have a belly pod
added for additional cargo space.

In preparation, I read the limitations and reviewed the memory items for
emergencies. Being written by the British, the AFM had some words and terms
that seem strange. 'Torches' actually means flashlights. I sat in the
cockpit for about 20 minutes to learn where all the switches and knobs were.
The only thing that confounded me was the where-abouts of the control lock.
I consulted the captain who pointed to a little lever near the bottom of the
center pedestal.

Engine starting is easy. Push the start button until 10% RPM, then just
monitor the guages. The start relays cut out at 60% RPM and the engine
stabilizes at 71%RPM. After both engines were started, the generators are
brought online and the air conditioning is cranked up. The windshield heat
is turned on even though the OAT is 30*C. This is done for birdstrike
protection. Cold glass is more brittle. Garrett engines are not known for
being quiet, but most of the noise stays outside the cockpit.

Taxiing was different. The first thing I found out is that the brakes are
powerful and touchy. Just a slight touch of brake would send the plane
lurching to one side or the other. I stopped using the brakes and relied on
reverse thrust to stop. As a passenger on J-31s, I had noticed that the
pilots always had a hard time following the taxi lines with precision. Now I
know why. The nose wheel steering has a lot of slop in it. One has to
average out the slop to taxi straight. Flaps are set at 10* for normal
take-off. Rotation would be at 107 KIAS and Vy was 122 KIAS.

For take-off, my senses were heightened more than usual because the plane
had been sitting for 2 years. The take-off was routine however. I climbed
out at 160KIAS so that I would have a better look over the nose for traffic.
I've heard that the Jetstream has some funky yawing because of the short
coupled vertical stabilizer, but I didn't find it to be any worse than other
planes in this class. As we climbed, our true airspeed stayed the same but
our fuel flow decreased. We climbed to FL250 so that we could squeeze 4.5
hours out of the fuel tanks. Leveled off at FL250, we were burning a measly
570 pounds/hour with 230KTAS and an 8000' foot cabin. The controls were a
little sluggish in the thin air.

Along the way, the TCAS alarm went off. That's one of those things that sits
you up right away with wide open eyes searching frantically for the other
plane. Apparently, the other plane was well below us but without Mode C. The
TCAS unit doesn't know the altitude, so we get a warning. If the other plane
had an operating Mode C, the TCAS unit would have determined there was no
threat.

At FL250, the plane flies at about 4* nose up. We picked up some ice and
lost 15 knots. I'm guessing it's because the belly and belly pod picked up
quite a bit of ice due to the nose up attitude.

Just before descent, the left engine started fluctuating wildly. I shut off
the engine computers and it stabilized. We flew a practice ILS approach to
check the avionics. The -31 is stable and airspeed is easily kept at 120
knots. The flight director makes flying the approach even easier.

The stall warning sounded just as the mains hit the runway. I pulled the
power levers back to the flight idle gates and felt the enormous drag of the
propellers as they flatten out. Then the nose started to drop down. And drop
down some more. And then some more. I had serious concerns that the nose
gear wasn't right. Then the nose dropped some more. Finally the nose wheels
touched down. The -31 normally sits nose low and I'm not used to it. It got
my pulse rate up for sure. Reverse thrust is very effective down to about 40
knots. Below 40 knots, I started the herky-jerky with the touchy brakes and
ponderous steering tiller.

Over-all, I enjoyed flying the -31. It doesn't have the baggage space that
comparable planes have, even with the belly pod, but operators I know who
use -31s are happy with them.

D.





--

Michelle P CP-ASMEL-IA, and AMT-A&P

"Elisabeth" a Maule M-7-235B (no two are alike)

Volunteer Pilot, AirLifeLine

Volunteer Builder, Habitat for Humanity