Aug 2014
So Friday morning, I pulled the Cessna 310 out of my hangar and climbed inside. Gary, my flight instructor buddy, climbed in after me. Bob, the 310 owner, settled into the rear seat. I started the engines, taxied to the runway, ran thru a quick checklist and we were off…
Now some of you may remember that this is the plane that I completely rebuilt some 8 years ago. Then because of a few bad decisions by the then-owner, it sat abandoned until Bob bought it last year. I’ve spent the last year, on-and-off, installing new engines and props, replacing the troublesome generators with alternators, and generally getting the plane ready for flight. Gary and I made a short ferry flight from Fox Field to my house here at the Rosamond Skypark about 4 or 5 months ago, but that was a very short flight with the gear extended. I didn’t want to risk raising the gear until I had double-checked everything.
So here we were on a beautiful Friday morning, roaring down the Skypark runway and lifting off. I had airspeed and a positive rate of climb. The moment had come… I moved the gear handle to the UP position. I could hear the gear motor whine, then a few seconds later felt the gear thump into the wheel wells. The red “gear up” light illuminated. We were up and away.
I turned us north towards Kernville and the Kern Valley Airport. It’s my favorite place to go for breakfast; far enough away to make it an interesting flight yet not too long to be boring. The rapid descent just as you get over the mountains is fun; think “falling out of the sky like a bag of hammers.” And the runway is in a canyon, so you have to be paying attention to get a plane turned around and lined up for the runway. Oh, and make sure you don’t run into the hill on the downwind leg. Like I said, it’s fun.
So I got us down over the lake, airspeed is about where I want it, we’re about to enter the downwind leg for the runway. Time to lower the landing gear. Hope it works…
I move the gear handle to the DOWN position. Again the gear motor whines, and after a few seconds all three gear bang loudly against their downlocks and I get a green light on the panel. It worked. Now the extra drag of the extended gear is increasing our rate of descent. I add a touch of power until we clear the hill, then reduce power and start a 90 degree turn to our base leg. We’re coming down. Gary adds flaps at my call. I turn another 90 degrees and we’re lined up with the runway. More flaps. Now is when the fun really starts…
Realize that I haven’t flown a 310, or anything else, in 8 years. Which means I haven’t landed a plane in 8 years. It’s not something you can practice on a video game; you have to just get out there and do it. This is also a very short runway so I have to pretty much land it right on the end, “on the numbers” as we say. Gary is watching my every move like a hawk, ready to snatch us from the jaws of death if I make a wrong move. But not to worry; it’s like riding a bicycle… you never forget. I can see we’re just a little low so I add a touch of power to carry us to the runway. We’re really low now, maybe 50 above the ground and moving at about 110 mph. I smoothly reduce power while letting the plane settle to the runway. We touch down firmly on the mains; I hold the nose off for a few hundred feet to help bleed off more speed, then lower the nose wheel to the runway. It’s a big, heavy plane moving fast, so I just let it roll out to the far end of the runway. No point in burning up brakes just to make a midfield turn-off. We get to the end, and I turn the 310 around and back taxi to the midfield, then exit the runway onto the taxiway. A few hundred-yards later and I’m nosing us into a parking slot on the ramp. Mixtures to Idle Cutoff and switches off; the heavy propellers coast to stop. Time for breakfast…
We eat on the covered deck of the airport cafe, enjoying the cool air and sunshine, and laughing and joking about the flight. Eventually, it’s time to go so we pile back into the airplane and repeat the takeoff chores. Over the mountains, Gary asks if he could do a touch-and-go landing at Fox for proficiency. Well, of course. He takes the controls from me, guides us into the Fox traffic pattern and makes a pretty good landing, a little bumpy but not bad for someone who is new to 310’s. “Your turn,” he says. So I push the throttles up, we leap back into the sky… gear up, flaps up, haul back on the yoke and get us back into the pattern. We repeat our same landing procedure: gear down, flaps down, coming down. I get us lined up right on the runway centerline and just grease the landing. Really, really smooth. I allow myself a slight smile. I push the throttles back up for another take-off and head for Rosamond. Gary turns to me and complains that my landing was better than his. Beginner’s luck, I tell him.
The 310 is so fast that it only takes us about 2 minutes before we’re back over Rosamond. Again we run the landing procedures, and again I make another really smooth landing. Gary is very surprised that I could land so well after having been away from it for so long. “Told you I could fly,” I joke.
Again we roll out to the end of the runway, then taxi back to my hangar. I spin the plane around so that we can push it back, then shut everything down. Everybody gets out and stretches; I get the hangar door open and we push it inside with the help of a very nifty electric towbar. I look the airplane over…nothing dripping, nothing hanging. The big 310 is ready for another flight.
And that’s the news from Flying Dog Ranch…