Unlucky with aircraft - first flight in the Seneca

Something I forgot to mention about my PT2 the other day: The last week or so has seen Steve and myself squawking plane after plane for some fault or another - a pattern which has followed me to PT2 and also onto the Senecas. For my PT2 I arrived at the airport very early and went to pre-flight N203F. I had flown that plane the previous day with my instructor Scott, and was aware that the Pitot heat was inop, and also the front tyre was very worn. When I went to preflight it also turned out to have a missing oil dipstick (later found lying in the bottom of the engine bay), and also incredibly stiff controls and trim. I told Tom (examiner) that as PIC I was happy to fly, and he concurred so off we went. What then happened was on the take-off roll, just as the airspeed reached 60 knots the airspeed indicator starting fluctuating wildy between 40 and 80 knots. I called out that I was aborting the take-off, but as I started to reduce the power the ASI seemed to smooth out. I told Tom that given we had plenty runway left I would apply max power and try again, which I did. This time the speed held steady, and I kept a close eye on it as I pitched for 80 knots for the climb out. I think Tom was fairly impressed that I made both decisions so quickly and decisively, I think maybe some other guys may have either not aborted the take off in the first place, or if they did abort they would have not been brave (foolish?) enough to try again when things looked ok. Anyway, I was just glad that I appeared to have made the right decision. Interestingly the fault re-appeared later in the flight when I was carrying out stalls - on the recovery back up to cruise speed the ASI went mad again when passing 60 knots. Also on the way back into Goodyear I had quite a challenge - numerous aircraft in the pattern, a few inbound from the north and east, and an airship departing Goodyear at low level. It meant I was diverted quite a lot from the normal arrival procedure, and actually flew right over the top of the airship at one point. Tom was again impressed that I wasn't phased by any of it, and just got on with the job in hand, then landed safely back at Goodyear once cleared to. Steve and Scott were waiting for the aircraft when we got back, so we told them about all the problems before they flew. As it was Steve's last two missions before his PT2, and having already had a flight cancelled that morning, they did fly the plane but later took it to maintenance when they got back.

So, as previously mentioned yesterday was my first flight in the PA34-200 Seneca. Tom Armstrong (chief flying instructor) is my new instructor, which is fantastic news for me. Things didn't run quite according to plan, my 9:30 flight became a 14:30 flight due to various problems. After having carried out the pre-flight on one aircraft the lesson was cancelled due to Tom being needed in a meeting. A couple of hours later we tried again, but had to take a different aircraft, which meant a fresh pre-flight, but the battery turned out to be dead, which meant a trip back to Dispatch to get yet another aircraft. Third time a charm, and having gone through all the checks I was soon taking to the skies in N555L. What a fantastic aircraft! So much nicer than the Warrior, as you would expect - much heavier, but with 2 x 200hp engines instead of 1 x 160hp engine, the acceleration on the take-off roll is pretty impressive. Especially when those turbos kick in....
My first flight was a basic introduction to the handling and feel of the aircraft - we flew out to the practise area and pretty much just threw the plane around the skies for a bit. Cruise speed and rate of climb are much better than the Warrior, so you get to where you want to be much sooner, which is nice. It's also much less susceptible to being thrown around by thermals, which makes things easier and more pleasant. We came back into Goodyear, and Tom demonstrated the new landing technique required. It was a great flight, and thanks to Tom's infinite patience and superb teaching technique, left me feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

This morning I was scheduled to fly at 08:00, but noticed that the barely trained monkeys who do the schedule has put Tom down to do a navigation test at 08:30. This unfortunately for me meant my flight was moved back (so much for AP256 getting priority...) - and it was nearly 11:30 before we were good to go. I bumped into Steve in the crew room and asked if he wanted to back seat, and he jumped at the chance. It later turned out that Steve also has Tom as his instructor, so we will be staying as flying buddies for this last part of the course.
We headed outside and carried out the pre-flight, then went through the much longer start up procedure. Just as I rolled the aircraft forward to taxi, I noticed that we didn't have three greens for the landing gear - so no fly. Circle round, park up, shut down, stomp over to Dispatch to get another Seneca....
Finally sorted, into N555L again, and off we went. This second lesson was an introduction to pattern work in the Seneca, so with my first class passenger (and part time cameraman) comfortably seated down the back, I took us off and flew round and round in the pattern. It was very enjoyable, despite the much higher workload, and I soon started to feel pretty comfortable. There are a couple of pictures here, and also a video of one of the landings as viewed from the aft passenger seat. You can see how much faster, flatter, and steadier the approach is, with a very positive touch down as the extra weight settles down.



End of the day, end of the week, and things are looking good. If all goes to plan I'll have my last flight next Thursday with my CPL test on Friday - and if that goes well we could be on the plane home on Saturday. More likely to be Monday I would have thought - we're not in a rush to get back to sunny England, that's for sure.
This could be our last weekend here, so we are hoping to make the most of it!