SPC089 [CS] Hi – Nice to Meet Rue

Hey everybody, I wanted to take a few

minutes to introduce you to my airplane

that I've had for about six months or so.

This is what we call Lil Ru.

And she's just an absolute blast to fly.

We've really been enjoying her.

I'm doing some lessons for students,

doing some transition training, even

doing its technologically advanced

airplane, so I'm even doing TAA training

for commercial candidates

who need to get more hours.

So yeah, she's a fun airplane, really a

blast to fly, and I'm going to introduce

you a little to her

today and also take you for a

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All right, I'm going to be

doing a little voiceover here.

So, kind of like a director's commentary.

So I'll pipe in from time to time when I

want to give some after-the-fact

commentary on what

you're seeing or hearing.

And so hopefully you enjoy that, gives

you a little more insight.

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By the way, that's one of my favorite

parts of this video when I act surprised

when there was no passengers.

I didn't mean to do that, but when I was

watching it later, that was pretty funny.

heat is off.

Propeller is clear.

Master's coming on.

Boost pump on for five seconds.

Clear.

Start second car.

Instruments coming on right away.

And we do have oil pressure.

That's good.

Cortex heat is across.

Good.

Lights will turn the naps on.

Leave the strobes on.

Lift the landing light off.

Weather received in flight instruments.

So go ahead and turn the transponder on.

Get my headset.

Wind 090 at 5, temperature 32 viewpoint

minus 2, altimeter 2, niner 8 niner,

visual approaching use landing in

departing, runway 4 left and 4 right,

notice check if you notice your UAS

activity, crane's in minimums.

south of runway center line 124.6, north

of runway center line 119.7, advise on

initial contact, you

have information Charlie.

Alright, I went ahead and got the ATIS.

I'm ground 994, leave my just to make

sure there's not any major closures or

anything, but I'm just taxiing over

to the fuel pumps so I don't really need

to talk to anybody not

ready to go yet ( Radio )

So just listening to ground if they have

to get in touch with me.

( Radio ) That's never

happened before, you never know.

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Why is 5 kilo Sierra parked

in front of the fuel island?

( Radio ) That is strange.

So,

So I was talking

there about 5 kilo Sierra.

Later on in this video 6 kilo

Sierra will play a big role.

Both of those airplanes are part of a

club that I am a member

of but I also teach at.

And so I've flown those airplanes before.

That'll come into play later on.

But the reason I was surprised it was at

the pump is because we have a deal with

the FBO and they

always fill it by the truck.

And so it turns out that I don't think it

was actually parked there to get fuel.

It just happened to be there.

Anyway, it's going to come back up.

go ahead and set that.

Instruments are gonna come off.

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All right, I'm going to talk about

something here that you

might notice during the video.

You might notice some flashing on the

warning light above the PFD there.

That happens quite a bit when I'm doing

things like touch and goes or landings.

I get terrain warnings and different

types of warnings like that all the time

on there, and they have to be

acknowledged or it'll continue to flash.

I'm going to work on fixing some of those

so it doesn't happen as much.

You'll also notice sometimes during the

flight possibly that the light stays on.

Well, there was a mistake in some of the

limits that I had to figure out.

It was happening for a couple of days and

there were no actual

problems going on at the time,

but one of the limits had gotten messed

up and so it was latched on all the time.

The day after this, I fixed it.

I talked to GRT.

And they gave me some things to try and I

was actually able to fix it.

So that went away.

But if you're wondering why that's on,

sometimes that's why.

If you're wondering why

it's flashing, that's normal.

off.

There we go.

Lights as required.

We're good there.

Transponder is set to altitude.

We'll get that on.

Radios are set.

Got 119.7 on the other side.

All right, take off brief.

We're going to be

taking off on four, right?

It looks like there's almost no wind.

Any wind there is looks

like it's down the runway.

We should be off the

ground by Bravo taxiway easily.

If we're not, something's wrong.

We're going to abort the take off.

If we're on the take off roll and

something anomalous happens,

we're going to cut the power.

And we're going to slow

down and get off the runway.

If we are off the ground, but there's

runway remaining, we're

going to do the same thing.

Chop the power.

We're going to put it back down on the

remaining runway and heavy braking.

If we're in the air and something

happens, we're going to keep it straight

ahead within 30 degrees.

And we're going to find some places as

safe as possible to land.

If we have electrical power, we're going

to put the flaps down more.

They'll already be at 10 degrees.

If we're in the air and there's no runway

remaining, but we are 800 feet AGL.

MSL.

The airport is available to us.

Falcon Ground, LightSport 648 Juliet is

complete with a run up.

LightSport 648 Juliet,

continue taxiing, monitor tower.

Continue taxiing over to tower 4H Juliet.

We're sending a note.

We're looking for traffic, not by street.

Blue Dep pursuit, power out, OK, you're

going to touch the existing

Well, if you hadn't noticed, taking off

from KFFZ, that's Fackenfield in Mesa,

Arizona, it is a very,

very busy GA airport.

There's a lot of training going on there,

but also a lot of based aircraft.

So you'll notice during this flight that

the radio's pretty much constant.

There's always people in the pattern.

There's always things happening.

Anyway, you'll see here,

it's busier than most airports.

Takeoff doors are closed,

flaps are set ten degrees.

Seatbelts are

secured, landing light is on.

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Alright, final is clear.

( Pause )

Alright, power is coming up.

No more braking.

Airspeed is alive.

Engine instruments are in the green.

Okay, we'll fly the nose.

( Pause ) Just continuing that heading

for now for IFR citation and balance.

No need to return to the green.

( Pause ) Alright, flaps are coming up.

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Juliet runway 4R, cleared to land.

Cleared to land 4R, 1-6-2.

Music

( Radio )

All right, I thought it'd be a good

opportunity to talk a little bit about

Lil Ru, tell you a little more about her.

It's got an updated Gen 4 Jabaroo 3,300

six-cylinder engine in it and an engine

instrumentation system from GRT or Grand

Rapids Technologies.

The PFD and the MFD are also from GRT as

well as the autopilot.

It's all part of an integrated Pretty

easy to use but as with most more

advanced instruments you have to spend

some time to get to know

them to get proficient.

Here's the other

thing about this airplane.

It's not that easy to land and take off

compared to more traditional trainers.

I've noticed this as I've done TA

training for a handful of commercial

certificate candidates and I've noticed

how they've struggled at first with the

rudder with how light it is and probably

other parts of the design.

The left turning axis on takeoff are

pretty pronounced compared to your

average Cessna or Piper.

You got to be Johnny on the spot with the

rudder and it's a strong push on the

right to keep that nose

straight when you're taking off.

But it's not just on takeoff either.

The adverse yaw is much greater than on

an Archer or even a 172 in just normal

turns when you're flying the airplane.

Besides the risk of ground looping, it

kind of feels a bit like

flying a tailwheel aircraft.

You have to really be on the rudder.

Likewise for landings it can feel a

little squirrely on touchdown and roll

out compared to common trainers.

Not as planted if you will.

You really have to dance on the rudders

to keep the nose straight at those speeds

just after touchdown.

You really get rewarded in this airplane

for keeping the nose off the

ground as long as possible.

So riding that wheelie on

landing really helps out.

The slower you are when the nose wheel

touches the ground, the

more off you're going to be.

So today since I don't get to do that

many landings anymore since I'm either

with students who do the landings or I'm

going somewhere with my wife or someone

else and I only get one

landing at our destination.

So I thought I'd go up and

just stay in the pattern a bit.

It was really fun just to relax and get

some reps in like that.

Like most skills in aviation it's a bit

perishable and I want to make sure I'm

keeping my proficiency up.

Maybe I got a little too relaxed though

as you'll see later in the flight so yeah

a little foreshadowing for you.

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There you heard me coach

myself more right rudder there.

That goes back to what I was talking

about a few minutes ago about, you know,

needing an extra rudder in this airplane.

So sometimes, uh, when I'm a little out

of practice, I got to coach

myself up a little bit too.

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Alright, how about some numbers?

That might be interesting for you, so

I'll throw some out here.

While the engine is very conventional by

today's standards, it does

have a bit of a wide RPM range.

I say conventional because it's a

horizontally opposed, air-cooled, direct

drive, carbureted aircraft engine.

Pretty standard stuff.

But there are some things that are a

little different, and we

can talk about that now.

First, it's got an

altitude compensating carburetor.

There is no mixture

control that the pilot can use.

The carburetor changes the mixture on its

own as appropriate for

whatever density altitude we're in.

Interesting concept, but yeah, no control

of the mixture by the pilot, which is a

little strange when you

first start flying it.

To shut the engine down, for example, you

turn it off like a car.

With the key.

It's something that's a little

different for most airplanes.

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It's also a pretty small engine, about

200 cubic inches of displacement.

But it's a six cylinder

engine, about 120 horsepower.

The result of that six cylinders, at

least from my perspective, is that the

engine is very smooth,

very little vibration.

With the lightweight carbon fiber prop

this airplane has, it just

starts and stops like a car.

It fires up basically

instantly every time.

You can barely hear or feel it when it

happens, relatively speaking, of course.

It's pretty cool.

Anyway, I'll let you watch this landing

and then I'll pick this back up after.

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I saw an opportunity for a short approach

so I asked for it and got it.

I don't, I haven't really gotten a chance

to do a ton of those in this airplane but

I like to feel what the glide feels like

and kind of really get to start to feel

how the energy is going to need to be

managed on something like that so when I

see this opportunity I had to take it.

There you go.

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I should note this

airplane's pretty slippery.

It's got a 12 to one glide ratio.

So it's actually not

that easy to get down.

So it's good for me to practice these

power off 180s and things like that.

So I can get a feel for it.

It's quite a bit more

floaty, quite a bit more glidy.

If that's a word, then the

trainers that I'm in a lot.

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Lie drive Arm assistant Access

Alright, I gotta mention it.

I mean, I don't get to practice these a

lot, but I did put that right on the

thousand footers which was my target.

So, hey, you win some sometimes.

Mark Copekell for the three light shirt out. Light shirt out.

Left close traffic approach.

Left close traffic behind that warrior

that's about my 9 o'clock for you Julia.

Thank you.

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Also, something that's a little different, like I said earlier, is the RPM range. Some of the numbers feel a little bit

normal, like it likes to

idle and taxi about 1,000 RPM.

That's pretty normal.

But pulling the throttle all the way out,

all the way to idle, doesn't really

reduce it much from that 1,000, maybe

down to about 900 or so.

Some of the other RPMs

you use seem kind of normal.

For example, I usually fly

the pattern at about 2,100 RPM.

The difference is, when I'm flying at

2,100 RPM in the pattern, that's usually

at about 80 knots, not the 90 or so you

would see in a conventional trainer.

Let's talk about cruise.

This is where things are a bit different.

The standard cruise range

is from 2,750 to 2,850 RPM.

She'll cruise at about 110 knots

indicated or more at the higher end of

that range, usually somewhere about 120,

maybe even a little more

true airspeed, maybe 125.

She'll do that sipping

about 5.2 gallons an hour.

There's an information screen on the MFD

engine page that, among other things,

shows the current mileage and

the average mileage as well.

Often, she reports that we're getting

about 23, 24, or even 25

nautical miles per gallon.

I haven't done the math exactly, but that

translates to likely over 30 statute

miles per gallon or

somewhere around that.

It's pretty funny that in cruise, my

airplane gets better gas mileage than, I

don't know, like a Corolla.

It does it at about twice the typical

speed and in straight

lines to your destination.

I don't know.

I love the efficiency

we get in this thing.

looking good.

I'm gonna start to walk that power out.

Alright, power's all the way down.

Just gonna let it float

to the thousand footers.

(Silence) Alright, that's good.

Keep that nose light.

All right, we are not

gonna let it go to the left.

Fly that nose.

Full power.

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Obviously, if you've watched the video

part of this flight, not just listen to

the audio, you'll also notice that it has

a control stick and not a yoke.

So for those only listening, it's a

shared center stick where it comes up in

kind of a why, so there's a grip for each

pilot on the same control stick.

It's pretty easy to fly

and works out pretty well.

Because the stick is between the two

pilots, there has to be a throttle

control for the outside hands, and sure

enough, there is a dual throttle control,

one on the far left of the panel and one

on the far right of the

panel, so either pilot can use it.

One more thing that might be a little

different is that the push to talk for

either pilot is just above their

respective throttle control on the panel.

It actually is pretty easy to use since

your hand is usually resting right there,

closer on the throttle, because there is

an arm rest on each door that leads your

arm straight to the

throttle and the push to talk.

Likewise, there's an arm rest in the

center for the stick hand.

Seriously, it's a very comfortable

airplane to fly as your hands are just

sort of naturally resting

in all the right places.

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is your

warrior 9 or 5 4 will you be landing out

warrior 3 9 or 9 or 5 4 talking to her

alright (Silence) nailed it, 75 knots

start slowing it down here 70 at least

there we are (Silence) (Silence)

(Silence) (Silence)

(Silence) (Silence) (Silence)

alright, alright alright, we are keeping

behind the lights for

it, for left, clear to the left, you have

to get to the earphone

box (Silence) (Silence)

(Silence) alright, the lights are coming

up, and we are going to fly the nose

(Silence) (Silence) (Silence) lights for

4-8 Juliet, fly straight out fly straight

out, 4-8 Juliet (Silence)

(Silence) (Silence) lights 4-6 4-8

Juliet, follow Cessna,

your left and downwind

alright, we will follow that traffic on

downwind to insight 4-8 Juliet

lights 4-4-8 Juliet, thank you traffic

over the confluence, we will follow you

for additional traffic, after you are

right, we will be turning northbound

outside of you as well, we will be

looking 4-8 Juliet extend downwind

There was six kilo Sierra.

Pay attention to them.

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So let me know what else you might want

to know about Lil Ru and I'll try to

include more

information in future videos.

Oh well it might be obvious but I'll tell

you anyway why we call it a Lil Ru.

First she's small so that part's pretty

obvious but the Ru part comes of course

from her manufacturer Jabberoo.

Ru happens to also be a family name in my

family so it fits even better.

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Alright, back to the 6 kilo Sierra.

Notice I'm kind of following them around

in the pattern a little bit here.

They're ahead of me.

Anyway, it'll come back up in a minute.

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( Pause ) That was nice.

Right on the money.

Right on the thousand footers.

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Negative contact.

48 Juliet, we'll be looking.

I should have mentioned this earlier, but

one of the reasons I was out here trying

to kind of do spot landings, I was trying

to make sure I was landing most of the

time beyond the beginning of the thousand

footers, is because I'm probably going to

be flying my airplane

to Oshkosh this year.

Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

But because I've only had it for six

months and I don't get to land it all

that often I talked about earlier, I

wanted to start getting real familiar

about managing the energy like I said

before, so that I can get proficient at

spot landings, making sure I can hit my

spots because that's an important skill

when you're flying into Oshkosh.

So that's one of the

reasons I was out as well.

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left base, turning four

left, good touch and go.

Good touch and go, four left, following

that traffic inside 48 Juliet.

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Alright, well she might be small, but

again, if you've watched the video, you

do get a glimpse at one point of the

baggage compartment.

I would bet it's likely the biggest

baggage compartment in

all of light sport world.

My understanding is that the same

airframe is used for a four-seat model

that's available in other countries, like

maybe Australia where it's made.

So in this light sport two-seat model,

the area behind the seats

is absolutely cavernous.

And it has a man-sized

baggage door to boot.

It's one of the things I

really love about the airplane.

It's really easy to get stuff in and out,

and anything light enough to take with

you is more than likely going to fit.

It's seriously huge back there.

So she might be little, but she's got a

big heart, as they say.

As long as by heart,

you mean storage area.

(Inaudible) If you need to climb for

train, that is approved.

Continue straight out.

(Inaudible) (Inaudible)

Alright, spot is made.

(Inaudible) (Inaudible) (Inaudible)

Flight 464H Julia, flight straight out,

gosh, virtual is departed citation.

Flight straight out, 4H Julia.

Yeah, that's in sight, 4H Julia.

Can't see the wake though.

(Inaudible) Turn left

crosswind, follow Archer

I know, I'm a smart aleck.

I thought at least I'd get a little

chuckle, but she just moved on.

Light 48, Juliet, if you need to climb

for train, set us up for

it to continue straight out.

We'll continue straight out, 4A, Juliet.

Warrior 0, Papa Fox, traffic left base to

2, Moaf line, Archer.

He's on the aisles traffic.

We have him on site,

7-0, Papa Fox, short.

6881, extend downwind.

Flight 4, 4A, Juliet, traffic ahead and

to your left, 1 mile

over climb and roof dam.

Traffic is in sight, 48 Juliet.

Flight 4, 4A, Juliet,

follow, set, snap your left.

We'll follow that, 7-0, 48 Juliet.

Warrior 0, Papa Fox, short, follow,

Archer, 2, Moaf line, running

4L, good, that's angle number

That's not what I'm following, by the

way, that's 6 kilo Sierra.

(Inaudible)

two fourteen running four left continuing

traffic holding position.

Four left, two

All right.

I was just feeling good.

I was having a good day and getting

pretty relaxed and what you're going to

see or hear upcoming is me picking up

somebody else's call

and it's six kilo Sierra.

So as I said before,

I'm pretty comfortable.

I was just sitting there kind of doing my

thing following six kilo Sierra.

She called them up and I

sat there for a second.

Nobody answered and then I answered for

them and then I got everybody confused.

Here you go.

full stop.

Request in full stop please,

we're your one eight seven.

Touching six two Juliet, number three,

correction number two, follow Warrior one

mile final, running four

left, six, touch and go.

Four eight Juliet, clear, touch and go

four left, I thought we

were following a Cessna.

Six two Juliet, correction,

follow Cessna three mile final.

Alright, we're following that Cessna

three mile final, four

eight Juliet, number three.

Alright.

Tower, this is nine two six, Kia was

here, did you make a call for us?

Two six two Juliet, affirmative number

two, follow Warrior half mile final,

running four left, quick touch and go.

Number two, behind the Warrior, four

left, clear, touch

and go, six two Juliet.

Identify three, extend downwind.

Okay, so yeah, kind of crazy.

So she correctly told

Sixquila Sierra to follow an archer.

And when I so confidently answered

that I was supposed to be following a

Cessna, then she's probably going, oh

yeah, did I get that wrong?

So she corrected herself.

And then a few moments later, Sixquila

Sierra jumped on and

said, did you call me earlier?

And so it was at that point when they

said that I went, wait a

minute, what just happened?

But my little blunder

there got everybody confused.

So, you know, don't say I didn't do

anything to keep it interesting that day.

empty one on the go, you have to do.

Tower five fifty two, contact tower one

two four point six, please.

Twenty

And by the way, I really didn't know for

sure what had happened until later on

when I went back to the recording and

kind of figured it out.

But I knew something was up when Sixgila

Sierra called back in, but I really

didn't even know at the time

that I had made that mistake.

It's pretty funny.

Cross five fifty two, contact tower one

two four point six, please.

Warrior zero, Papa five, start additional

traffic, opposite base, Archer, Lance,

Peral, runway, reduce, speed, please.

Seven zero, Papa five, start.

Venture west one zero

two, extend downwind.

Venture west one zero

two, extending downwind.

Warrior eight five

eight, extend downwind.

Extending downwind, Warrior five eight.

Calcutta, Oxford sixty eight eighty one,

hold short, four left at Echo one,

request short delay.

Sixty eighty one, five until standby.

Flight 48 Juliet, fly straight out.

Fly straight out, 48 Juliet.

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( Inaudible ) ( Inaudible ) 48 Juliet.

44 Juliet, roger, follow the system.

We'll follow that system.

48 Juliet.

2953, flight straight out.

53, not 53.

Falcon Tower 648, Juliet, can we make

this one a full stop?

Terminate police parking south side.

Well, as you just heard, I'd be making

this one my last one, full stop.

But listen carefully because the

controller is going to have a hard time

finding a Venture West airplane.

I think it's 108

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Tower, MD1, Echo ramp, request a cactus

to departure to the north.

MD1, cactus to departure, approved

traffic three miles north of the field,

aimbound on the Gecko

2 arrival helicopter.

MD1 will be searching.

Flight 440, Juliet, traffic opposite

Baseline's trail running.

Four ahead, Juliet.

So anyway, she got so distracted that she

almost didn't give me a clearance.

She did give it to me

at the very last minute.

I was ready to ask for it or go around,

but she did finally give it to me.

And then she also, as is the normal

practice, didn't tell me to turn right

and hold short of the parallel runway

because I had to get across over there to

park and didn't have me go over to the

other controller and everything.

I ended up doing it and you'll hear that

the other controller kind of cleaned it

up by making sure that I

was going to hold short.

Central West 108, Falcon Tower.

Central West 108, if you hear the

transmission, I dent.

Tower, MD1 has the Gecko helicopter,

traffic inside, no factor.

MD1, Falcon Tower, Roger.

Roger, 953, I told

you to extend downwind.

Turn back into the downwind and extend.

Extend downwind, not by three.

Turn right, turn right immediately.

Turn right, turn right

immediately, read back.

Where is it at?

0 Papa Fox, start, extend downwind.

Okay, extending

downwind, 7-0 Papa Fox, start.

Central West 102, thank you for the

extension, turn left crosswind.

Left crosswind, Central West 102.

Central West 108, Falcon Tower.

Central West 108, Falcon Tower.

Archer and Air 5-3, turn base.

Turn base, 953.

Central West 101, running 4 left, good to

land, number 2, follow

Cessna 1, mile final.

Clear to land, number 2, 4 left, 101.

Clear to land, 4 left,

clear to land, 4A Juliet.

4858, follow Archer left crosswind.

Central West 108, Falcon Tower.

Anyway, you can see where distractions

can be critical on the ATC side as well

as on the pilot side.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this.

we would like to make a 4

stop for the landing, 953.

Archer, 953, running 4 left, good to

land, number 3, follow Cessna 1, mile final.

Alright, I'm going to put this one down a

little shorter. 4

left, clear to land, 953.

Falcon Tower, Scatty 2 right now, for red

level, 4 stop, foot 12.

Archer 953, cancel landing, clearance

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ready to go for the next time.

So hopefully you enjoyed that time flying

with her for the

first time on the podcast.

Going forward, you'll probably see more

of her because as I do more cockpit

series episodes, some of them