Piper Tomahawk

Finally I went flying! It was two months ago when I decided to validate my FAA certificate. I was confident to do that during the week I came back from Canada. Obviously I was wrong. I will be working on it until January or so. But let's talk about the joy of flight rather than to complain!

I flew this Piper Tomahawk. It was even faster than it looked like. Our ground speed read 144 knots! No wonder the snow melts underneath! (No I won't tell you the tailwind...haha) I liked the airplane very much. It was a lot more stable than the 152s and compared to float planes there was like no work for my feet. Only on the landing I used a bit of rudder due to a 23 knots almost-headwind. I liked the weather on that day, though. We experienced rain, drizzle, snow... and a lot of wind.

We departed from LSZG, Grenchen, and flew westbound for basic practice maneuvers. I did standard 360ies, steep turns and slow flight. The airplane was a joy to handle. On this flight I also did some radio work. It was fun to listen to the Swiss-Accent-ATIS. Let's compare!

North America:

(some guy says the whole thing in one breath)

VancouverInternationalinformationBravoonethreefivefiveZuluweather.Windthreezerozeroateight,visibilityfive.Fivehundred few,onethousandtwohundredscattered,ceilingthreethousandovercast,temperatureonefive,dew-pointeight.Altimetertwoninereightseven!!!

Switzerland:

(a friendly female voice)

Grenchen Information Bravo - .........Runway in use 25 25 left and right - ...............Met Report 1550 - ...........wind 060......... degrees, 3 knots - ..........visibility 10 kilometers or more - ..........clouds broken........ 5400 .............scattered 7000 feet - temperature .........22, dewpoint 16 - QNH 1018

Oh, how I enjoyed to listen. Everytime she took a breath (........) I had time to think: ''Awww, what a beautiful day to fly. Oh, 10 kilometers or more...nice...let's take a note of this...'' haha :) On the way back we crossed the control zone of Bern. I didn't do the radios but it wasn't anything special. After that I worked my way through the never-ending checklist. It's made extra long for the ATPL trainees. It had some good stuff in it. Before takeoff I had to say out loud the departure and emergency procedures. My landings were not really nice. But hey, it was my first flight in this landlubber of a Tomahawk!

I had a blast! :) I'm happy with the flight school and I'm looking forward to complete the course to fly my dad's Skylark!

(And I know...that's not what you call English. But I had fun writing it. :D)