Back in the Saddle!

Buckle up, big boy. It’s time to learn to fly all over again!

First, the search. Hangar neighbor Bill and I have been searching for replacement airplanes for the ones we lost last year in a freak storm when our birds were flooded (along with every other airplane on our little airport). We both made false starts but never stopped looking.

Unbeknown to each other, we settled on the same type airplane at about the same time: the Aerotrek A240. I found mine in Missouri, a 2008 model; he found his 2021 model much closer to home in North Carolina and we landed at our home airport two days apart!

Boy, was I a happy camper when I flew home on a Friday from Missouri! The trip took a little over 6 hours of flying and 2 fuel stops, the second one just to make myself feel more comfortable on the last leg over the mountains.

Bill didn’t have as far to go when he picked up his airplane from Shelby NC . . . But his smile was just as wide as mine when he landed two days after I did on Sunday. With airplanes in side by side hangars it’ll follow that we begin doing side by side performance comparisons. I have larger tires mounted for use on grass and he has the smaller tires with speed fairings (he’s already talking about switching to the larger tires for our grass runway at the WNC Air Museum).

Needless to say, both Bill and I are glad the long wait is over and we’re looking forward to many forays stalking the hundred dollar hamburger - only the cost will be a lot less with our very efficient Rotax engines sipping auto fuel!

Now, for the flying part of the story . . . This airplane is a little different in terms of flying characteristics. The differences begin when starting the engine: The last time I used a choke to start a vehicle was when I cranked up the 1952 Bentley back in 1972. The carburetor equipped Rotax uses a choke for starting and that has to be gradually opened or the engine will not like me. Rotax 912 series engines are liquid cooled at the cylinder head where all the fuel is burned while the cylinders are air cooled. The engine has to warm up before power for takeoff is applied. That warmup can take a few minutes. All that done, the engine is remarkably quiet and smooth.

Taxiing the Aerotrek is like taxiing a Piper TriPacer - the nose wheel steering is a direct link to the rudder pedals and there is no diffferential braking. Instead, there is a red T handle at the center of the lower edge of the instrument panel. That’s your brake handle and brakes are applied equally to the main wheels. Conveniently, there is another red T handle located right under it for the BAS emergency parachute! Two red T handles that close together could get interesting and expensive so the parachute handle is secured with a pit pin to prevent inadvertent deployment. I leave the pin in even though the checklist says to remove it after takeoff. I figure I’ll have enough presence of mind and time to pull the pin and deploy the chute if I need it.

Once lined up on the runway, 100 horsepower will yank the airplane off the ground in about 200 feet .. and that’s when the fun begins.

The airplane is equipped with full-span flaperons. This allows excellent low speed maneuvering but it also brings back the need for nimble footwork on the rudder pedals to counter adverse yaw when the  ailerons are employed. On a windy day when ailerons are used a lot, it’s a dance on the rudder pedals. This airplane is used a lot for training in Europe and I understand why: They help student pilots build good stick and rudder skills from the very first.