Saturday November 14th, 2009
Saturday morning 10:45 AM. Today was to be the second extended time lesson. I was ready for a full day of checkride prep. First, our DA-20 would not start. So we called a lineman to come out and recharge the battery. 30 minutes later, we started up and I called PDK ground for taxi clearance. Nothing. Turns out the pilot-side transmit function is hosed. So Chris would have to do all the radio calls.
Once we got up into air, things went more smoothly. I nailed the slow flight, stall, and steep turn maneuvers. At Winder, we did soft field takeoffs and landings and those went fine. The short field takeoffs and landings went well too, but there is a characteristic of the 546DC that makes precision landing hard. 546DC's throttle is configured such that it keeps some power in all the time, even when throttle is completely pulled out. DA-20s float forever anyway, so with added power it means everything has to be extra low, slow, short in order to hit the point. I hit some and missed some, but was close and in control the entire time.
We headed to LZU for lunch at The Flying Machine. It was a picture perfect day for flying, so LZU was extremely busy and so was the restaurant. Lots of families sitting outside and kids running about. A older gentleman approached our table and asked if we were pilots. We talked aviation for a while until the food arrived. Toward the end of the meal, a very fancy jet landed at LZU and pulled up to the FBO for refueling.
This was the Pink Pony owner's jet. I was hoping to see some pink ponies, but all I saw was the pilot. He looked tired. My sympathy is limited.
After lunch, we got back in the sky and headed to Lumpkin county airport. This is the shortfield strip nestled in the woody hills of Dahlonega, GA that we've practiced on several times. Apparently, the Lumpkin folks had put on a free airplane rides event that day, so there were lots of people around the hangars. This was very fortunate for us because after 2 more close but missed short fields, I asked Chris to do one. He missed the first one just liked I did. And on his second pass, he hit the point and our right tire burst. Thus the end of the flying for today.
DA-20 tires are really the weak link in the plane's design in my opinion. They tend to burst often. Even with a burst tire the plane is controllable though.
The kind Lumpkin county people helped us drag our bird off the runway.
Darrick flew us in a replacement tire, but a bolt in the wheel was damaged. Diamond parts are exotic and nobody had anything that would fit, so I flew back with Darrick and Chris convinced somebody to drive out and pick him up. The good news is that I am now officially scheduled for a checkride on Monday November 23rd.
Ironically, back at home our washing machine that has been running without issue for 5 years broke and my wife spent the afternoon shopping, purchasing, and installing a new one. Cynthia was the only one today who triumphed over technical difficulties.
