Wings on High.

.8 in a new friend’s ’68 182 – good times, then good beer!

Backstory – A while back (early October if I remember right), I’d signed up to assist on an AngelFlight mission with a pilot in the area, but the mission was scrubbed when he needed work done on his plane before it could fly again.  I hadn’t met the pilot yet, but we’d had a good chat about the mission, what I’m doing with training, etc.  Jump forward to today.

I was at the airport on Friday afternoon watching flight ops (after another AngelFlight mission was scrubbed, this time because the passenger couldn’t get a return flight), when I called him to see how things were going, and if he was taking a flight anytime soon and wanted someone to fly right seat with him (and pay for some of the gas).  We chatted for a few minutes, he was telling me about his planes repairs, how they were going, etc, when he heard one of the Boeing experimental jets (the Turkish AF 737 – N358BJ) take off overhead.  He asked where I was, and I said I’d come down to the airport to hang out while I had some time to kill.  Apparently his office wasn’t too far away, as he said “well hang on for a bit, I’ll meet you there in half an hour.” 

So we met at one of the FBOs up the way.  After shaking hands and sitting down, he said “It’s a shame we can’t get out and fly today.”  I said “Well, why not?”  “Seriously?” he asked.  “Sure!  The weather should hold up for a while longer” I replied (after having checked the weather reports while I was waiting for him to arrive).  He lit up and said “Alright!  I don’t need my arm twisted to take a few laps around the patch.” 

We went out to his plane, a ’68 Cessna 182.  He started to explain some of the characteristics of the model to me, and I must admit I was quite surprised.  The first is the lack of flipper trims.  In this model, rather than having trim tabs, the entire elevator is pullied and has a range of a few degrees both up and down.  When you trim, you’re not adjusting a tab, you’re adjusting the angle of the entire elevator.  A very cool fact I never knew about – I’d always assumed trim tabs were the standard.

The next particular trait he explained to me was that the plane had no counterweights built in.  At some point along the way, the FAA mandated that planes be built with weights and balances placed throughout the frame so that if a pilot were rendered unconscious, the plane would stabilize itself as best as it could (makes sense, right?).  I believe that up until now I’ve only flown planes with those weights built in.  He described that the plane would handle much differently than planes with those weights – much more responsive, much easier to ‘feel’ the handling of the plane.  I imagined the difference would be something like driving with manual or power steering in a car (not turning sharply, just driving and feeling the road).  This metaphor wasn’t far off. 

And finally, once we’d done the preflight and checked over everything, I noticed the cockpit felt about as big as a 152.  I wasn’t far off with that, either.  The cabin is 8″ narrower than the present day 182s.  Definitely cozy.  He got us cleared with ground and the tower, taxied over (we passed a twin-Otter RG, which was a sight), and took off. 

Although I must admit, I’d been hoping to get a chance to take the controls and fly for a bit, but I wasn’t presuming and I didn’t intend to ask – it was his plane, and just being able to get up and fly was more than enough of a thrill.  But sure enough, after we were up and level, he said “Go ahead and take it.”  Well, once I was done grinning like an idiot, I started to notice what he had been talking about earlier.  It really was a different feeling in the controls.  It felt heavier, sturdier than the other planes I’ve flown.  I don’t know about more responsive, but it certainly felt like you were more in touch with what the plane was doing.  Did some steep turns, power-on stalls, flaps-down slow flight (at about 3500ft), and he demonstrated a few maneuvers to me.  Turned out he has his CPL, and a former CFI that accidentally lapsed – turns out the FAA isn’t as forgiving about deadlines as other government agencies. 

As we flew around, I asked him about what got him into aviation, he told me about some of his work (and how he gets to commute to Alaska for a few months out of the year, flying himself), and we chatted for a bit.  We kept flying around Seattle and Renton for about 45 minutes, and started to head back to the field.  Surprisingly enough, he let me land as well.  (With his help) I brought it in with a fair crosswind coming from 2 o’clock.  I had to crab into the wind a bit, but we brought it down about 3/4′s of the way down 13R (intentionally, as it was much closer to the parking spot than we’d have been on 13L). 

Ran through the post-flight and got it put away, when I offered to buy a round in gratuity.  We went to a pub down the way from the airport, and spent a couple of hours chatting some more about IT (my industry), a trip he’d made ferrying a friends plane from Alaska to Maine, and general conversation.  We both had homes to get back to, so we called it a night just after dusk. 

For having started out the afternoon watching planes come and go and getting ready to go home, it definitely wound up quite well.  I’m certainly grateful for a chance to get out and fly, let alone a plane in as nice of a condition as his is, and I hope this was the first of many good conversations.