What's the bi-annual flight review all about?

Dylan Smith wrote:
On 2009-04-30, Ross wrote:
What was the cost of the A36 if I may ask and what did you usually fly
at 90kts?

Since it belonged to the instructor's brother-in-law, fortunately only
the cost of the fuel! (It burns 13.8 gph in cruise, at 170 knots. It has
GAMIjectors too which allows LOP operation. A fantastic plane...if only
I could afford one :-))

My usual mount is an Auster Autocrat built in late 1945. (It looks very
similar to the Taylorcraft BC-12, except it has flaps and the windows
are different - that's because the Austers from that period are British
built Taylorcrafts! However, instead of the Continental A-65 that you'd
expect to find in a BC-12, it has a 160 hp Lycoming O-320 which makes it
climb *rather better* and turns it into a really good aircraft for short
airfields and towing gliders. But not cruise an awful lot faster without
turning a lot of avgas into noise).


Thanks for responding to a personal question. I have two friends that
have A36s and with GAMIjectors. Really nice aircraft. I had a 65 Skyhawk
with a 180 hp engine upgrade and C/S prop. It really was a nice aircraft
and would it climb. But more horse power does not translate into more
speed, completely.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
Sold
KSWI

In article ,
Dallas wrote:

What's the bi-annual flight review all about?

I haven't been through one yet.. how tough are they? Is this like a
mini-practical test with stalls, engine outs and a tough verbal exam etc..
or is it more like an informal "Can he still fly an airplane and still
understands the basics?"

I just had my first one about two weeks ago and figured I'd chime in.
Mine was a glider BFR, of course, so not quite the same. But perhaps
it'll still be useful to some.

We did the flight portion first. First flight was 15 minutes long. I
expected a forced takeoff abort which never came. We then boxed the wake
(a maneuver done on tow to demonstrate control and precision in that
phase of flight) and various other easy maneuvers. I tried to thermal
but it was too early in the day, so we were back down pretty soon.

Next flight was a bit later, and we decided to try to stretch it to
cover the full hour. (Glider BFR is one hour of flight time *or* 3
flights, to make it reasonable on days where you can't stay up.) This
time the thermals were working, and we stayed up for an hour before
deciding to bring it back home for others to use. The instructor had me
do lots of good thermalling exercises, like flying at various levels of
bank, approaching a stall in the thermal, adjusting my circle, etc. For
other flight maneuvers, we did stalls, spin entries (silly trainer won't
actually spin, but what can you do), lazy eights, and finished up with a
covered altimeter landing.

(That last part was fun. I've carefully cultivated my no-altimeter
landing skills over the past couple of years. He offered to tell me what
our altitude was verbally at any time. I never did ask outright, but I
did confirm a couple of times. "We're at about 1900ft, right?"
"1950...." Always within 50 feet. I was pleased.)

The ground portion was interesting. We went over various airspace rules,
like cloud clearances in the various classes of airspace, what you need
to go there, etc. Not particularly useful in a glider but that also
means it's easily forgotten, and that is one of the mandatory subjects.
We also went over things like currency requirements, equipment
requirements, and various other things along those lines. The
environment was friendly and educational. The instructor asked
questions, but it was not like an exam. If I stumbled or didn't know, he
simply explained it.

He also had me pick up a book called "Safer Soaring", and gave me some
other documents to read as well, which was all very interesting and
useful.

All in all, it was a good experience. Nothing to be afraid of, unless
your skills or knowledge are poor and you have no desire to improve
them. I would rather have been flying my own plane and having fun, given
the choice, but that's true of virtually every other activity I do as
well.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon