Thanksgiving Flight: Diamond Star DA-40

Thanksgiving Morning in Georgia

Tuesday night, I picked up Lauren and Bill from Hartsfield. Miraculously, we managed to meet up with minimal delay even in the middle of a massive power outage at the infamously busy Atlanta airport. On the drive home, I pointed out Turner campus where I work - already wondering what it would look like from above. Cynthia had some snacks waiting on us when we arrived. The following morning would be my sister's first ride in a little plane, and my first time in the DA-40.

Wednesday morning, I was up early. After some breakfast, I drove us over to Advanced Aviation. Chris had not arrived yet, so we sat down to wait on him. I could see that quiet look of anticipation/tension on Lauren's face that I had felt the first time. Chris came in the back and I introduced everybody. It was cold outside and this flight was more of a luxury, sight-seeing bit of fun than an actual lesson. So Chris went out and did the preflight while we stayed warm in the office.

Ten minutes later, Chris returned obviously chilled. We were ready to go, except we needed a gas topoff. We walked out to the ramp. The 40 was waiting with the canopies open. I showed Lauren the Cessna 172 and DA-20. We took a bunch of pictures, waiting on the fuel truck. After 2o minutes or so, we got filled up and were ready to roll.

The Diamond Star DA-40

Lauren and Bill climbed into the back, Chris took the right seat, and I the left. Chris noticed me digging around for the handle to adjust the rudder pedals.

"It's electric. There's a switch just under the left corner of the seat," he said.

Fancy. I was already falling in love with the DA-40. Chris told me once I fly it I would not want to get back in the 20. I believed him. We expeditiously went through the checklist, which is similar to the 20 until the avionics check. Our 40 is equipped with a Garmin 1000 flat panel system. Between the monitors are 3 steam gauges: Altitude, Attitude, Airspeed. These guages are backups in case of electrical failure.

As we taxied off the ramp, I could immediately feel how much easier the 40 taxies. It reminded me of the 172. We cruised down, did the run-up. We got takeoff clearance, made a left facing down runway, and hit the throttle. The DA-40's 185 horsepower engine got us to 60 kts quickly. It was much easier to keep the 40 straight than the 20.

We lifted off around 60-65 kts. The climb-out was smooth with predictable right rudder input. Again the stability of the heavier more powerful aircraft became clear. The 40 is far less apt to drift around compared to the 20.

"How's it going? Do you feel ok?" I looked back at my sister.

"Yep. I'm good," she replied and gave me a thumbs up. Her body language agreed with her words. Bill looked fine too.

We headed East for Winder to do a touch and go. Chris keyed the location into the Garmin and hit the auto-pilot. The DA-40 was flying itself; the stick and pedals physically moving. On the primary screen, a "tunnel" of squares formed a 3D spatial route that the computer would follow, flying through the center of each square in series and ending at Winder. It was really amazing to watch the computer fly the plane. As we neared Winder, I switched back to manual control. We circled for the approach, touched down, and boosted back up for a takeoff. Again, the 40 was ultra smooth. Not nearly as much wiggle and drift as the 20

We left Winder and flew north to lake Lanier then southwest into the city. We circled around 10th street where I work.

Auto-pilot is especially handy for sight seeing and generally eases the multi-tasking stresses of piloting a plane. As we landed, I was already getting depressed at the thought of leaving the DA-40 to sit in traffic. We touched down, said goodbye to the beautiful DA-40, and began the painfully slow road trip to Cape San Blas, FL.

Thanksgiving Evening in FL

The drive from Atlanta to Cape San Blas is a voyage to the edge of sanity .. and beyond.  Observe here my sister succumbing to what Team Zissou calls "the crazy eye".

Ultimately, the destination is worth the trip.  Cape San Blas is a lesser known, but absolutely beautiful beach about 20 miles west of Apalachicola.  

The only way I can possibly imagine improving such a view would be to see it from the cockpit of DA-40.

Lesson 7: Ground School and Touch and Go

11/14/2008 : (Last weekend) The weather was bad so I did ground school with Chris. We went over basic flight physics, control surfaces, gauges, and things like that. Uneventfull classroom type stuff, but required for licensure.

11/22/2008 : Saturday was beautiful - no clouds, visibility forever, and no traffic. Just us and the sky. We went to Winder for more touch and goes. The actual landing from an approach I've got down. What I need to work on is control of altitude and attitude. For example, climbing to 2000 ft and not deviating from that altitude. Or turning to NE and hitting NE and staying there. I tend to drift around.

It was cold and the wings had ice on them. The Diamond's composite material makes icing a bit of a problem in that it takes longer to burn off than other surfaces. Icy wings makes a big difference in flight characteristics. Chris said he would not fly a plane with even moderate ice on the wings. It causes air turbulence over the normally smooth, streamlined control surfaces. This results in uneven pitch and roll response, and greatly impedes basic maneuvering. So we did the run up and then waited at the line for sun to melt the ice. We did this by looking at the wings and waiting for the appearance of water beads.

The touch and goes were fine, except one I had to go around on. I made a mistake when I flipped the flaps all the way up (cruise flaps) instead of all the way down (landing flaps). That combined with being too high to begin with dictated a go around. I made some mistakes, but I'm still improving with every lesson, so it just takes time. There is no substitute for experience. I'd rather make evry mistake in the book with Chris than solo.

My sister and her husband Bill come into town tommorow evening. I'm excited to see them. Wednesday we go up in the DA-40 with the glass cockpit Garmin 1000. Even though it doesn't count toward my DA-20 certification, it will give me good comparative flight experience. The plan is to go to Winder for a touch and go, fly over lake Lanier, and then fly over downtown Atlanta. The DA-40 has an autopilot, so that will be another first.

I have almost 20 hours of flight time logged. Based on a 60 hour estimate, I'm about 1/3rd of the way to a private pilot license. Probably about 1/2 way to my first solo.

Lesson 6: Radio And Landing .. And Barack Obama

Barack Obama wins!
Now its just a simple matter of running the United States for 4 years. Who in their right mind would want that job? Not me. But I'm glad there are those who do - and who seem to consider the office a privilege of national service, rather than an entitlement to 4 years of VIP rockstardom. Barack might just as well ask who in their right mind would strap themselves behind an engine and pretend to be a bird ..

Wednesday morning I had another flight lesson. Like last time, I did the pre-flight by myself with Chris looking on. The one thing I forgot was to untie the tail and left wing. It is not on the DA-20 standard checklist for some reason. Chris recommended that after the pre-flight, I stand back and look the plane over from a distance. That way, any major stuff stands out more than when you’re right up close.

I did my first radio communications with tower and ground. I had to write down what to say. I still messed it up, forgetting to repeat my call-sign at the end. Like anything else, it takes practice. That’s something I really appreciate about flight; it seems that the only real credential is flight hours logged. There is no substitute for experience. Aside from the communication, Wednesday was basically a repeat of last lesson: touch and goes at Winder. Chris told me that working up to the point of solo is in large part gauged by how good you’re landings and takeoffs are, since those are the riskiest phases of flight.

We did have a moment of excitement. On my third touch and go, I got wheels on the ground and then throttled back up. At about 45 knots, just shy of takeoff, a jet on the crossway started moving. In other words, imagine the runways as a big letter “L”. We were taking off on the long side toward the corner, and the jet suddenly started moving on the short side toward the same corner. Unsure of the jet’s intentions, Chris slammed on the brakes and watched the jet. The jet slowed down and it became obvious he was not going to pull out in front of us, so Chris throttled back up to complete the takeoff. We got back up to 55 knots and took off, but had very little runway left.

The whole encounter only lasted about 5 seconds, but felt much longer. He apologized, but I’m glad he had his eyes open. Over-caution is much better than unawareness. So 5 more touch and goes under my belt. Chris said next time we would practice emergency procedures. The next lesson will probably be in a week or so.

Also, I am especially looking forward to flying with my brother in law, Bill, in the DA-20's big brother : DA-40. That happens the Nov. 26th. I'm thinking I'll put him on camera detail so we can get some pics and maybe some video of the flight.

Lesson 5: Touch and Go

On Friday I took the morning off to get a flight in before the weekend. Chris was running late, so he left instructions for me to start the preflight. I went through the list, line by line and checked everything. When he arrived, he double checked the oil and decided it was a little low and topped it off.

We opened the cockpit and turned on the radios to test my new headsets. I can hear through them fine, but the mic input is a little low. I might look into having the output gain turned up. We finished the check and taxied to the runway. LZU was busy this morning. We were on deck for takeoff.

"Today we're going over to Winder to practice landing." Chris looked at me. "You look nervous about that .. " he continued. He was right. I was nervous and excited.

We throttled up and took off. Chris obviously left more of the takeoff to me this time, because the plane was REALLY wanting to yaw and roll left. I had to apply significant right rudder and right aileron to keep a level climb.

We headed east to the Winder-Barrow airport to practice "touch and go"s. A "touch and go" is a landing practice excercise where the pilot lands, getting all wheels down on the runway, and then immediately throttles back up and takes off again.

Chris would handle the first one. We got runway clearance and circled around to begin the approach. Chris called out the actions as we approached the runway.

"Power down to 1700 RPMs and descended to 2,000 ft."

"Flaps to takeoff. Pitch for 70 knots." I switched flaps down one notch.

Pitching for speed means that on a descent, you pitch the nose up to induce drag and slow airspeed and likewise pitch down to decrease drag and increase airspeed. Thus, you are using pitch to control airspeed.

"Pull power to idle and set flaps to landing." I pulled the throttle level all the way to idle and switched flaps down all the way. The stick was getting mushy. We were over the runway at about a 100 foot altitude, a little high intentionally. We descended down to what looked like about 30 feet.

"Start pulling back," Chris said. I pulled back on the stick to level. Our descent slowed.

We were almost down. "Now pull back more," Chris said. I did as he said and felt our back wheels bump down, followed by the front. That was it. We had landed. Bumpy but intact. It was back to the pedals for rudder control.

"Ok full throttle, 1st notch flaps, and take off again." I flipped the flaps to T/O, throttled up and lifted off again, this time anticipating the hard left turn tendency. I felt the bird wanting to roll and turn left, stepped right and rolled right to keep level.

"At 1500 feet flaps to Cruise." We passed through 1500 feet. I flipped the flaps up.

Rinse and repeat.

We did 4 more touch and goes at Winder, each one getting better and smoother. We got back to LZU and landed. The LZU landing was much smoother. I need a lot more practice, but I'm getting more and more comfortable with each lesson.