Retract endorsement a complex affair

Second and last flight for my retractable undercarriage endorsement, two days after the first one. I spent a full evening in-between writing down lists of checks and actions for each leg of the circuit, and drawing flow patterns that take me in a sequence through each gauge or control required at any stage of the circuit.

This proved quite useful, although there is as always a big difference between rehearsing things at home and doing them for real in the cockpit. Plenty of things come in the way, such as other aircraft in the circuit, that pesky instructor in the right seat, or the tower controller. Not even talking about the effect of stress on cognitive abilities. It is a well known fact that one only has half a brain left when flying an airplane, which makes planning and rehearsing beforehand all the more important.

So we did about 7 or 8 circuits in the Arrow IV on runway 29L. It's true that because of the T-Tail one has to pull harder on the yoke to get the airplane to rotate or flare, even with the trim slightly aft of neutral. The accepted explanation is that because the stabilator is outside the propeller slipstream, it becomes less effective at low speed. All other things being equal.

But are the other things really equal? The moment arm between the center of gravity and the stabilator is longer in the T-Tail Arrow IV compared to the Arrow III, which should help. Maybe the surface of the stabilator is smaller. Or maybe the reason for the design change is to be found elsewhere. According to this pilotfriend.com article on the Arrow IV, in 1979, Piper made a controversial design decision, opting to equip many of its airplanes with trendy, fashionable T-tails. So it may all boil down to a marketing fad in the end.

This turned out to be a lot of work in the circuit, which really stresses the importance of having sequences of actions and checklists memorised. I forgot quite a few times to touch the brakes before retracting the gear, which is not good since the wheels keep spinning inside the well, which may create some wear on the tires. Olivia had to use the Law of Intensity on me so that this particular aspect of operating a retractable undercarriage would stick with me, and it worked.

I made a conscious effort to slow down in the circuit to maintain separation with the other slower aircraft. It's actually a nice way to measure the ground covered since I started learning to fly in the C152 at Redcliffe two years ago: I am no longer the slowest guy in the circuit.

In the last circuit Olivia pulled the circuit breaker of the landing gear pump on me. I noticed that the three green lights didn't light up. She was happy I noticed, pushed the circuit breaker back in and asked what I would have done otherwise. I said I would have flown to the training area to perform the emergency landing gear extension procedure, which was the right answer. Olivia also insisted I verbalise out loud "three greens" as part of my pre-landing checks.

On each landing I tried to not float as much as on the previous one. The airspeed on final recommended by the club is 80 knots, while 1.3 Vs is 71 knots. The extra 9 knots add a lot of energy to the airplane, which also means that as it slows down from 80 knots it crosses a region of lower total drag, which does not help with slowing down further obviously. This was actually the topic of a recent training tip in AOPA ePilot newsletter.

We taxied back and Olivia put a new stamp into my logbook with an endorsement for the P28RT type, where R stands for Retractable and T for T-Tail. So I am now allowed to fly "complex aircraft" solo. Complex aircraft refers to aircraft with flaps, variable-pitch propeller and retractable undercarriage.

It's a very impressive term that conjures up a picture of aircraft mightier than a Piper Arrow. If I wasn't married I may even be tempted to use my newest endorsement in order to impress girls. Not unlike that scene from a movie we all know.

Look mum, no wheels!

After getting checked out in the Archer I decided to go for the next aircraft up in the Piper family, the Piper Arrow. This way, I would have access to the entire fleet of single-engine aircraft at the Schofields Aero Club.

This was a little bit more involved than a check flight though, since the Arrow has a design feature for which I was not yet endorsed: a retractable undercarriage. Undercarriage being a fancy name for a landing gear.

I had already obtained an endorsement for aircraft with a variable-pitch propeller (the so-called Constant Speed Unit endorsement) propeller last year on the Cessna 182, so I was already familiar with this aspect of the Arrow. The only thing to keep in mind really is "rev up and throttle back" to avoid overboosting the engine, and the manifold pressure and RPM settings for climb and cruise, 23-23 and 25-25 in the Arrow.

Each of the two main wheels retracts by rotating 90 degrees towards the fuselage into the wheel well situated inside each wing. When retracted, the main wheels are parallel to the wing. The nosewheel retracts by rotating aft. The pre-flight inspection includes checking the wheel wells for any obstruction such as birds nest and the like.

Each wheel has its own hydraulic actuator. On the photo below, the silver arm of the actuator can be seen. It is extended when the gear is down. The pressure is provided by a reversible electric pump: it pumps fluid into the actuator to make the gear go down, out of the actuator to make it go up. Once the gear is in position, either up or down, the pump stops and a shuttle valve isolates the actuator lines from the rest of the circuit. This keeps the fluid lines under pressure without having to keep the pump on, which comes in handy for emergency gear extensions. More on that later.

The main wheel doors are linked to the wheel leg. A microswitch somewhere reports if the door is closed, and activates the "gear unsafe" warning if it is not. Which I understand is utterly unreliable in the Arrow. The pipe on the right-hand side of the wheel is simply the hydraulic line to the main wheel brakes, which is a completely separate hydraulics circuit from that of the landing gear actuators. Hydraulic pressure for the brakes is simply provided by a master cylinder connected to the top of the rudder pedals, the so-called toe brakes.

On the main left wheel is a "squat switch", a microswitch that opens the electric circuit of the electric pump when the gear is extended and on the ground. This way, the gear cannot be retracted when on the ground. Of course we didn't try it. Call that lack of faith, but we were only one faulty switch or faulty wire away from a very, very embarrassing wheels-up what? Parking?

The plan was to go to the training area to get me used to the feel of the aircraft, operate the landing gear and perform the emergency gear extension procedure. We taxied and I called ready for 28R at the holding point, to which the controller answered that they do not have a runway 28 at Bankstown, so I re-issued my ready call with 29R this time.

Take-off didn't feel too different from the Archer. When I first flew the Cessna 182 I remember being surprised by difference in power with the 172SP, not so much going from the Archer to the Arrow. I guess a fairer comparison would be between the Archer and the Cherokee Six. Passing 400 feet I touch the brakes to stop the wheels from spinning, pull the gear lever over the detent and up, and a few seconds later the three green lights go off, and we climb a lot better.

Once in the training area Olivia pulls the circuit breaker for the landing gear pump and I went through the checklist for the emergency gear extension. This involves first checking that it is not the light bulbs for the three greens that are the problem. The bulbs are designed to be pulled out of their sockets and swapped very easily, which I find is very neat.

Then we slowed down the airplane and I pressed the emergency landing gear button. What it does is release the pressure from the gear actuator lines. The actuator no longer maintains the gear up, which then falls under its own weight into the down position. Same story for the nose wheel, except that gravity is not enough to lock the nosewheel down because of the relative wind. A spring is therefore used for moving the nosewheel fully into the extended position.

When the gear free falls into place it locks with a sound not very different to that heard on airliners when the gear goes down. Which feels good. Once the gear is down I do a normal retraction. We do one practice engine failure which takes me onto final for a ploughed field. Olivia asks me to keep a tight circuit since we're not very far from Camden CTR. We go around and go back to Bankstown via the 2RN. The day is quite misty and it's early morning, so we're greeted by the sight of the 2RN radio mast sticking out of the mist. Thank God there's a strobe on that entry point, otherwise I wouldn't have found it.

We join the circuit behind a Cherokee for a few touch-and-goes. The Cherokee is slower than us and at some point we have to request an extended upwind leg for adding a bit of space between us and him. In-between the CSU and the landing gear that's a lot of things to keep in mind when in the circuit. Feels like going back to GFPT days when a circuit in the 152 felt overwhelming.

Olivia insists that I do not rush the downwind checks and wait for the gear indicator lights to come up and not skip to the next item on the check list while the gear is coming down, which usually takes about 7 seconds. Pitch is only put to full fine on final, otherwise it is left where it is from downwind onwards, power adjustments are made with throttle. On final we check Red-Green-Blue for mixture to full rich, gear down and propeller pitch to full fine.

After three circuits we make a full stop and taxi back. Olivia recommends I work on memorising the cockpit actions and checks to be conducted while in the circuit for next time. Today was in Arrow III VH-SFJ, next time will be in Arrow IV VH-LSG. The big difference between the two is that the model IV has a T-Tail, which Olivia assures me is not terribly different from the regular tail assembly, except it's a lot heavier in the flare.

So what I do for the next hour is to sit in LSG, get used to where everything is and take picture of the panel so that I can later prepare flows patterns at home, an idea I found reading Sam's blog.

First competition, third place!

Two weeks ago I took part in my first flying competition ever. I didn't really know what to expect and to my great surprise I came out third. Out of seven.

Now, before you start thinking my flying skills reached Red Bull Air Race level overnight, you need to know this was a competition in name only, and is really primarily a nice social event organised by the club. But still, ending up third place left a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

The idea was for each competitor to fly two circuits: a normal circuit with a simulated engine failure and the subsequent glide approach, and a blind circuit with the whole instrument panel covered. There was an instructor in the right seat to give marks according to what was happening in the cockpit, and a judge near the runway threshold to assess the quality of the landings.

The tower wanted us to be finished with the competition by 8:30AM, so this was a very early Sunday morning start, even with daylight saving time now off for the next six months. So we're back to UTC+10, just like in Queensland. We had two Warriors doing circuits for the competition, white HQR and orange BVM below.

After an uneventful short-field take-off I started recording in my mind the airplane attitude and the picture through the window. I thought this would surely come in handy in the blind circuit, and it did.

Craig called for engine out on very late downwind and I made a glide approach, cutting the base to final corner a bit. As usual with this kind of exercise I ended up too high on final, and even with full flaps I had to coerce the airplane into landing in the box that gave me maximum points for landing precision.

This was not a very good landing, and the points that I earned on precision I lost in style. In hindsight, I should have pushed the nose down on final in order to increase airspeed beyond best glide speed, which would have dissipated more energy. Will do better next time.

Touch and go and as we pass 400 feet Craig covers all instruments. I couldn't even see the position of the throttle lever. As you can see on the photo above, taken when contestant Kevin was getting ready, a heavy binder and a regular teacloth are all that's needed to simulate a complete failure of all instruments.

The blind circuit was a lot of fun and a real confidence-builder. Climb at full throttle was easy, with the top of the dashboard just a notch over the horizon for best climb speed. I knew when to turn crosswind and downwind by reference to the ground, assuming the wind was the same as for the previous circuit.

Mid-downwind Craig lifted the teacloth to look at the altimeter and annouced I was too high. I descended a little and was close enough to 1000ft for getting full marks on this one. I made the base turn approaching the railway tracks, lowered flaps and adjusted the throttle for obtaining approximately 500 ft when turning final over the racetrack at Deverall Park. Craig later said I was 600ft when turning final. The approach was faster than planned, partly because I wanted to make sure we wouldn't come too close to stall speed. We floated quite a lot, eventually touched down and taxied back to the clubhouse.

A cooked barbecue breakfast was waiting for us. I couldn't stay around for long because I had enrolled in a full-day GPS theory course on the same day. Half an hour later I briefly left the classroom to hear the tallied results of the competition. I was very happy to arrive third, and walked back into the classroom with a certificate in hand.

The blind circuit in particular was a great experience, and I wish I had been exposed to it in my PPL curriculum. It's fantastic for building confidence, should I ever loose the ASI or the altimeter in the circuit. I wasn't spooked at all. One gets a feel for the right airspeed through the controls and for the right altitude by looking out through the window. Highly recommended, but make sure there's an instructor in the right seat!

Spot the airfield: Southport, Queensland

On a flight from Sydney to Brisbane in a Qantas Boeing 737-800, I spotted Southport aerodrome (YSPT) as we were on descent into Brisbane International.

Southport (YSPT) is a private aerodrome run by the Southport Flying Club. Unless in an emergency, the approval of a club member is required for landing there. The runway is 01/19 and all circuits are on the west side of the runway, on the far side of the photo. This, I imagine, as a way to limit noise pollution over the nearby houses.

Prior to our descent into Brisbane, we made one turn in the hold above Gold Coast airport. This is how I got this nice shot of Cape Byron, the easternmost point on the Australian continent.

Earlier in the day, we took off on 34R at Sydney airport, right behind a Saab 340 from Rex which performed an intersection departure from taxiway T5 holding short of T4. Our airplane was on T6.

The departure to the north was glorious as usual, offering great views of the city.

My plan for my next flight to Brisbane is to spot Heck's Field, a small airfield just north of Southport. Thanks to Qantas online check-in, I know I will have a window seat on the left hand side that's not obstructed by the wing. I wonder though if I should bring baby wipes to clean the window beforehand.

Around Sydney we fly

Last Saturday I took Nina on a scenic flight around Sydney. This was our first time flying together since we moved from Queensland to New South Wales late last year. The plan was to follow the VFR route out of Bankstown northbound, fly the Victor 1 coastal route southbound, then head west to the Blue Mountains before going back to Bankstown. With a little surprise thrown in.

Early in the morning the area forecast mentioned broken stratus clouds at 1000ft near the coast, 1500ft over the slopes and 3000ft over the ranges, with thunderstorms coming in from the south later on in the day. The Sydney part of the trip was still do-able, but I wasn’t so sure about the part that involved climbing to 6500ft for flying over the mountains. The wind was blowing at 25 knots from the north-west, which translated into a planned ground speed of 89 knots on the slowest leg, with a direct headwind, and 140 knots on the fastest leg, with a near-direct tailwind.

By averaging the two values you get our airspeed, which was planned at 115 knots. The planned duration of the flight was about two hours in the Archer. But things rarely go according to plan in aviation.

At Schofields I signed in, hired two life jackets and one headset for Nina, and off we went to the grass parking area. One tank was filled up to the tab but the other one was slightly below the tab. I called the fuel truck, their phone number being in the ERSA, and asked them to come refuel VH-SFR with full tanks. Maybe this was being extra cautious since the fuel already onboard gave us an hour of endurance on top of what was required for the flight plus legal reserves. But as the aviation adage goes, fuel in the tanks is life insurance.

The red and yellow truck arrived shortly after and while he was filling up both tanks I added a bottle of oil to keep the engine happy since the dipstick was showing below 6 quarts. After the fuel truck had left, Nina noticed liquid dripping from under the left wing. I checked and it was fuel coming out of the overflow pipe for the now-full left tank, probably because the aircraft was parked on a slight slope. I knew I made the right choice when I married her.

We taxied, performed the pre take-off checks, took off on 11L and left the aerodrome on downwind, on climb to 1500ft. Tracking north we soon passed the Sydney Olympic Park, purposely built for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and crossed the Parramatta River. One thing I forgot though was to bring cushions for Nina, who ended up having to look at the views through the side windows only since her eyes couldn't see over the dashboard. Bad husband will keep little things like that in mind for next time.

At Parramatta I called Sydney Terminal with an estimate for Long Reef and requested a clearance into the CTR for a scenic flight. This was the surprise element of the flight. At that stage the controller simply asked me to stay outside of Class C airspace and standby. We kept flying north via Pennant Hills and soon had Cottage Point under our right wing. Cottage Point is not only a very pleasant place for spending a day near the water or on the water, it is also a seaplane base for those who fly in from Rose Bay for a lunch at the Cottage Point Inn.

The controller came back to us with a transponder code and Sydney QNH and asked us to contact Sydney Departure approaching Long Reef for clearance. He also asked us to "verify level", i.e. tell him which altitude we were cruising at (2100 ft was the answer) so that he could cross-check with the altitude reported by our transponder and displayed on his radar scope. At Patonga we turned right and tracked south-east to Long Reef, overflying Narrabeen.

I had not told Nina about the scenic part of the flight since this was subject to a clearance which may or may not be granted depending on a number of things such as which runway was in use at Sydney International and how many other week-end flyers had the same brilliant idea. Approaching Long Reef the controller working Sydney Departure gave us a clearance for the Harbour Scenic One procedure. Yey! Clearance granted! And two big smiles in the cockpit. We tracked direct to the Harbour Bridge at 1500ft, overflying Manly Beach.

Spit Bridge was soon on our right, and we even had the pleasure of overflying our local beach.

Approaching the bridge I slowed the airplane down to 80 knots and extended one stage of flaps. The rule for the Harbour Scenic One procedure is to stay east of the bridge and north of the Opera House at all times, which we did. Left-hand orbits are required, which unfortunately does not give the passenger the best view, especially in a low-wing aircraft. Nina managed nevertheless to snap a few nice photos of the harbour.

The airspace below 1500ft is for seaplanes and helicopters, and we saw one of each kind fly right under us. I still find it amazing that a procedure such as the Harbour Scenic exists. We are very privileged in Australia to be able to fly that close to many of our iconic landmarks such as Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef or the Twelve Apostles.

After completing two orbits I requested a clearance to Sydney Heads for entering Victor 1. It all went just like the scenario explained in the Sydney Basin Visual Pilot Guide: the controller asked me to leave the controlled airspace on descent and call him back when established on Victor 1. We flew east over the water, headed south, descended to 500ft and broadcasted our position on the broadcast frequency for Victor 1, 120.8. Only one helicopter on the frequency, behind us and maintaining 200ft. I reported established to the controller, who asked us to squawk 1200 and approved the frequency change. Back into non-controlled airspace and trying to keep my eyes out of the cockpit as much as I could.

After the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House another iconic Sydney landmark appeared in front of us: Bondi Beach. Because of the proximity of Sydney control zone we couldn't overfly the beach but the view was breathtaking nevertheless. Flying south overwater we passed Coogee Beach, Maroubra Beach, the airport, Cronula, Marley Lagoon and crossed over to the land at Sea Cliff Bridge.

Less pictures of the rest of the flight I'm afraid because my favorite passenger felt asleep, which I interpreted as a sign of absolute trust in my superior flying skills. Or something approaching that. By then it was clear that the increasing layer of clouds wouldn't let us go to the Blue Mountains, so we headed back to Bankstown via Prospect Reservoir after overflying Camden aerodrome and the Warragamba Dam.

The photo above is Chipping Norton Lake, a couple of nautical miles from Bankstown airport. The facetious tower controllers at Bankstown had turned the airport around while we were away so we joined on a downwind for 29R and landed right behind a white Cessna and a red Robin. Total flying time 1.8 hours, and I have the suspicion I will get plenty of other occasions to fly that same scenic route in the future. Which I am very much looking forward to.

Piper Archer III Checkride

Second lesson in the Piper Archer III. Circuits on the menu today. When I say menu I should say wish list, because circuits at Bankstown are more of a privilege than a due as I learned near the end of the previous flight. As for any airport, there is an upper limit on the number of aircraft that can fit in the circuit for obvious reasons of separation between aircraft. In addition, Bankstown is currently suffering from a shortage of Air Traffic Controllers, which forced the tower manager to limit circuits during certain hours. Of course local flying training organisations are less than pleased but don't have any other choice than grin and bear it.


I pre-flighted the airplane, on my own this time. My instructor Olivia arrived with two brightly colored cushions, one for her back and the second one perpendicular to the first one. I started up, taxied for the run-up bay of 11R, which means a very very long taxi all the way around the airport, performed my pre-take-off checks and called ready at the holding point. The tower cleared us for circuits with an expedited take-off, and I left the transponder on standby since we'd stay in the circuit.

We did a number of circuits, about 6 or 7 in total. Two flapless. One go-around. One engine failure after take-off. Olivia pointed at a number of local landmarks I can use for different legs of the circuit. Point the nose at the big green building on downwind. Turn base before the racecourse. Watch out for those tall trees on final. There were only two other airplanes in the circuit, which was good.


This was actually my first time doing circuits at a controlled aerodrome, since all my training took place in a CTAF at Redcliffe. I had been in the circuit at Archerfield a few times, but only with the purpose of landing there. Nothing too weird about it though. We call downwind on downwind, and get cleared touch-and-go usually on final. Maintaining sufficient separation with the aircraft in front is not only the right thing to do for safety, it is also the smart thing to do if you don't want to be told to go around on short final because the aircraft in front is still on the runway.

The downwind BUMFHH checklist works for the Piper the same way it works for the Cessna, except for the (F)uel item. On the Cessna, because fuel is fed to the engine by gravity, (F) consists only in checking that the fuel selector is on Both. In the Archer, this also means turning the electric fuel pump and landing lights on. The fuel pump is turned off with the after-take-off checklist passing 400ft. Carby heat is a small lever on the right-hand side of the throttle quadrant, turned on before descending on late downwind and off on short final to prepare for a potential go-around. The throttle quadrant unfortunately blocks the view, so I had to lean over to the right to double-check if off was up or down.

Where I learned to fly, we didn't turn the landing lights on and off with each touch-and-go. I think the reason it's done this way at Bankstown is to make our airplane easily visible to the controller in the tower. It's not a Cessna vs Piper thing. In a CTAF such as Redcliffe, there's no controller, and landing lights would not help other aircrafts see us better, that's the role of the rotating beacon, nav lights and strobes. Or maybe I was taught this way to avoid having to change expensive lightbulbs.


As can be seen on the picture above, the mag switches are guarded with a metal bar so that one cannot turn the magnetos off while trying to turn landing lights off. Of course the switch being turned off should always be positively identified, but this is an extra layer of safety.

Speaking about fuel earlier, safety is also built into the fuel selector: it can be simply rotated from one tank to the other, but rotating it all the way to "off" required depressing a little button on the selector.

All my landings were good, but all floated way too much. I need to take a few knots off my short final speed in the future. The ground effect provides long floats, but also makes most landings nice and soft, with ample time for the stall horn to go off.

On our last circuit Olivia asked for a full-stop on 11L to shorten taxi back to the clubhouse, which was denied. We landed on 11R, vacated the runway and waited for clearance to cross 11C and 11L. At Bankstown you do not ask for clearance to cross runways, you just wait for it in order to limit congestion on the frequency.

As we taxi back Olivia asks if I think I'm ready to go solo in that airplane. I say yes. She says she thinks so too. We park on the grass in front of the clubhouse and shut down. I meet Olivia inside a few minutes later and she stamps and signs my logbook with the mention "competent to fly solo by day in PA-28B". Awesome.

Looking at the stamp again later, I realise Olivia's ARN number is greater than mine, which means she started learning to fly after me. I started flying training two years ago, almost to the day, and after two years have a PPL and a CSU endorsement. In less time, Olivia progressed from zero to Grade 2 instructor. Not bad. I wonder how far I would have got without a full-time job. Probably not very far since I would have run out of money fairly soon!

New airplane, new airport

One week after joining I was back at the Schofields Flying Club clubhouse for a dual flight with the objective of familiarising myself with both the Piper Archer III and Bankstown airport.

Prior to the lesson I had read the ERSA section about Bankstown, spent some time with the Visual Pilot Guide for the Sydney Basin and read through a POH for the Archer III that I found somewhere on the Web.

According to Airservices Australia, Bankstown was the busiest airport in Australia for 2008. With 362,206 movements, it is just ahead of Jandakot near Perth and Moorabbin near Melbourne. A movement is either a take-off or landing, i.e. one circuit counts as two movements. The tower being open from 7AM till 10PM, that's more than one movement per minute on average using three parallel 11/29 runways. Typically, the south runway (11R/29L) is used for circuits, the north runway (11L/29R) for arrivals and departures, and the center runway for arrivals and departures of larger aircraft since, with 1416 meters, it is the longest one of the three.

Olivia my instructor was there and we had a quick chat about my flying experience and what I was here for. I filled in the usual paperwork and headed to the airplane. She joined me soon after and we pre-flighted the airplane together since this was my first time doing the walk around a Piper.


Coming from Cessnas, a few things were unusual for me. Having to crawl under the wing to check flap and aileron hinges was one. The combined pitot tube with both a static and dynamic pressure ports was another one. The stall warning indicator is an electrically-activated vane rather than a suction-activated whistle. The control surface for pitch is an all-moving tailplane rather than an elevator on a fixed horizontal tail. All the rest is pretty much the same really. Not having to climb on top of the wing to check fuel is definitely a plus. Contrary to other aircraft of the Piper Cherokee family, the engine cowling on the Archer III cannot be opened to look inside.


Inside, I struggled a bit to understand how the parking brake worked but got the hang of it eventually. I went through the checklist and started the engine. One cool feature of the Archer III, compared to earlier versions, is the row of overhead switches for anything engine-related and lights. It's a bit gimmicky, but it gives the cockpit a bit of an airliner feel. I guess that's what the marketing people at Piper were going for, forcing the electrical engineers to re-route a bunch of cables from the front panel to the roof.

I wrote down the ATIS and started taxiing, with the airport diagram on my lap. Bankstown being very busy, radio calls are limited to the strict minimum. We don't even check in with the grounds controller before taxiing as was the rule at Archerfield. We taxied to the run-up bay for 11L, went through the pre take-off checks, called ready at the holding point for a downwind departure and were cleared for a rolling take-off with a request from the tower to "expedite take-off". Which we did. Full throttle, check RPM, check engine needles in the green, check airspeed alive and maintain the nose wheel on the centerline.


The Archer accelerates really well thanks to the 180 HP engine. I takes quite a bit of back pressure to rotate though. I had the trim on neutral, next time I'll try to have it a little bit down to see if it helps. I kept climbing throughout a left turn onto downwind then headed left of Prospect Reservoir, staying clear of inbound traffic. We headed west for the training area and I climbed to 3500ft under the CTA steps for Sydney airport. Olivia pointed at features on the ground that match the boundaries of section of airspace. When tracking north-west the second set of railway tracks we cross means we're out of the control zone. Further out the tadpole-shaped pond with a little island in the middle means we're within the training area and beyond the 2500ft step.


The training area doesn't have a radio frequency as in Redcliffe, and the practice is to not request traffic from Radar as is the rule at Archerfield, so it's entirely see and avoid.

I ran the HASELL checklist then we did stalls, in the clean and landing configuration. Nothing too spectacular here. The nose does not drop much, which makes it even difficult to realise the stall happened. There's no wing drop on stall, even with full flaps down. Olivia commented that I should push the nose down a lot more to un-stall the wings. Speaking of flaps, they are actuated using a Johnson bar on the floor, which looks very similar to the parking brake handle on cars. The trim wheel and trim indicator are right below the flap handle on the photo.


Between each series of stalls we did a clearing turn. Which proved very necessary, since on each turn I ended up spotting other aircrafts in the area. Keep your eyes out. The Archer turns so much more nicely than a Cessna, and the view is a lot nicer since the inside wing is not obstructing it as is the case with high-wing aircraft.

Then Olivia asked for a forced landing. I pulled the power back and went through the usual drill. Capture and trim for best glide speed. Carby heat on, mixture full rich, fuel pump on and change tanks. Pick a field. Plan the approach. There was a field to the north, right in-between a timbered area and a lake. I made a large turn to lose altitude, sideslipped a bit and turned onto final. Of course I was too high, so I extended full flaps. I didn't forget my passenger brief but I did forget the FMOST restart checklist. I guess that's better than forgetting to fly the airplane, so I got away with it. Olivia asked me to describe exactly which field I was aiming for. She confirmed she thought we would make it, and we went around and back to Bankstown via Prospect Reservoir.


I took the ATIS and called inbound at Prospect with a request for three circuits on arrival. The controller asked me to report three mile final. We aimed for the racetrack and reported three mile final crossing the rail tracks. Our request for circuits was unfortunately denied and we were cleared to land on 11L. The landing was great by my standards. Because of the low wings the ground effect is much more pronounced in the Archer than on the 172, and we floated for what seems like a very very long time. The stall horn went off for a couple of seconds before we touched down.

I exited the runway and before Olivia could stop me I made a call "Sierra Foxtrot Romeo clear runway 11L" which the tower acknowledged, with a hint of surprise in their voice. Olivia explained we do not need to do that here since the tower can see we've vacated the runway, and that would unnecessarily clutter the frequency. We taxied back to the club, I shut down and tied the aircraft down. Olivia said I flew very well and that I would need one more lesson for circuits. I booked a lesson for the next week-end.

Hopefully the weather will hold and I'll end up the day with a new stamp in my logbook that welcomes me to the Piper, and Bankstown, families.