Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Jun 15, 2011
Description:
Here's my intrepid instructor, Michael Kuhnert, of Bay Aviation, based at W75, (Hummel) in eastern Virginia, right on the Chesapeake Bay.
He let me sit in front, where there's a placard, 'FRONT SEAT SOLO.' I had the only PTT switch for the radio, so it was the real deal. (Well, except that he had stick, rudders, and throttle in the back seat.) I had all the switches--master, mags, starter, and alll--so it was up to me to get the 200 hp inverted inline air-cooled six running. Wobble pump until the fuel pressure is about 2 lbs. Keep pumping, jam the throttle forward and back to closed, keep pumping, switch to L mag, keep pumping, blip the electric starter switch. Brrrrrrrr. Very smooth and quiet. (I was glad it didn't have an inertial starter.) Switch mag to Both.
Visibility over the nose was better than I expected, but it still required S-turns when taxiing.
I did the takeoff in a 12 knot 60 degree left crosswind--with his coaching, but didn't feel any help on the controls. (But he's probably that good.) It was a heady moment, as the runway at W75 is only 45 feet wide, but it went well enough. LOTS of right rudder.
80 is the magic number in that PT-19, sort of the way 65 is in a SeaRey. Climb at 80, glide at 80, approach at 80. Stall is 60.
I'd never been in an open cockpit in a low-wing airplane before, and I must say, the visibility was very good from the front seat. In biplanes the wings are everywhere.
We flew to nearby KFYJ at West Point, VA, where there's a much bigger runway (and a right crosswind), for some touch-and-goes.
My first landing was really terrible. The second was just terrible. By the third, I was getting the hang of it and it turned out to be not too terrible at all.
All landings were wheelers--and that's what surprised me the most: The airplane wouldn't bounce! It has the longest oleos in the world, and they just absorbed all the bounce I handed it.
Back at W75, with that relatively short, narrow runway and odd patches of trees along the downwind side, it was all Michael's show. I just sat and watched. Two very quiet chirps and we were down.
Best BFR I've had in a long time.
Date Taken:
Jun 15, 2011
Place Taken:
W75
Owner:
Don Maxwell
File Name:
MichaelKuhnert_2b.jpg - Photo HTML
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Category:
23, Max Pix
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