Circuits

Time logged this flight: 1.4
Landings this flight: 9

Total Time: 83.2
Total Landings: 273

Today's flight was to get more familiar with the "handling" of the Piper Cherokee 180, so I spent my time in the pattern. 9 circuits were flown in total, for 2 of them my AOPA project pilot mentor Tom joined me. The Cherokee has many traits that make it different from the Cessna 172's I am used to. I will need to get used to a much more picky and delicate starting procedure, as well as remembering to switch fuel tanks on a consistent basis.

95T (the abbreviated tail number) has alot more jump than the high wings and climbs like crazy. At Mettetal, the noise abatement procedures when taking off to the north ask that you fly an extended upwind (about 2 miles) to fly past the city of Plymouth, before turning cross and downwind in the traffic pattern. In most of the Cessna aircraft I would be reaching pattern altitude around the time I was turning downwind... with 95T I was at pattern altitude on my upwind leg BEFORE turning crosswind.

I experimented with different pattern sizes and flap amounts, deciding quickly that a tighter pattern versus the high wing aircraft was necessary and I found that 2 notches of flaps worked very nicely. A good day of practice on a clear, crisp (summer is truly over here) fall day in Michigan.