Thread: Donegal Flyer

Hi to all on the forum,

My name is Malcolm ( Mac to anybody who knows me ), originally from Cornwall in England but living in the extreme N.West of Ireland for 40 years and now an honorary Irishman. After a lifetime in boats I took up flying a couple of years ago and learned to fly with Gerry Breen in Portugal, check out the ceiling beside the light fitting of the club house.
Model aircraft as a kid, Royal Navy 7 years, Rolls Royce 5 years and nearly 30 years teaching engineering at secondary schools from which I retired 2 months ago. Needless to say I have a bit of an engineering chromosome in me inherited from my steam engine loving dad. Built a couple of kit planes over the past 2 years and sold them on a few weeks ago and bought myself an almost unused (107hr) CT2K this weekend. I did all the trawling through any articles I could find either in print or on the internet about the CT family and knew that this was for me and I must say I wasn’t disappointed with my first introduction to the plane. The plane I bought was based at an airstrip north of Cambridge in England and because I wasn’t prepared to fly between Ireland and England just to just kick the tyres and do some horse trading I bought the plane over the phone. The first time I saw it was last Friday afternoon and sat in the P2 seat for a circuit to see how it should be done, changed seats for the 2nd circuit and landed it good enough for the CFI to declare me capable…. Hmmm
Saturday dawned sunny and clear so with 100 litres in the tank and the forecast for the following 5 days looking pretty bad I set off for Ireland. Flew up the east coast of England as far a the Scottish border, west along the border to Stranraer and over the Irish sea to N.Ireland. Across N. Ireland to county Donegal in the republic and made my first solo landing in a CT at my home strip in Letterkenny. Job done! Total time 3hrs 35 mins in one hop and sipping 12.8 ltrs of fuel per hour, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Now I have time to find out what some of the silver knobs on the panel are for… Being at 4000 feet over the Irish sea is not a good time to pull anything you shouldn’t.
So, to everyone on the group I say thanks for all the articles and threads you have posted in this forum. I have found them informative and supportive and if I can add anything in the future that may help others then I’ll be happy.

Mac

Hi Mac
congratulations welcome and well done you were braver than I was doing that trip; I got assistance for the trip across but came the relatively shorter route across holyhead. I take it you bought the plane with its 100 hour service? Having the CTSW I am interested in us meeting up and making a comparison of the two. For instance do you find it floats a lot on landing, what approach speed are you?

Thanks for the welcome John and looking forward to meeting up with you this ‘summer’. The CT was just out of the factory workshop after getting it’s nose leg replaced because of a mole induced tip up so its new annual permit begins this Saturday. At least we won’t have the mole problem in Ireland cos as soon as they bury under ground here they would drown.
Too early yet to be certain of my preferred approach speed . The first one with the CFI in England was at an amazing 45 kn which I copied on my attempt but when I arrived home for my own landing felt happier with 55kn and felt it float a lot longer than the rag and tube plane I was used to but I’m sure we’ll get it into the customary 2 acre fields of Donegal as soon as the gales relax.


Mac

Typically I land 30-40 flap and 54-55 kts with two up and half fuel, maybe 50kts if flat calm. Need more sideslipping practice. Any extra and boy it floats. Pitch round too high and you may land firm or even bounce. A well know trick is to apply a dribble of power, maybe 2700 rpm, just as you flare and it makes the plane behave like a 152, gives you more time to be happy in the flare. And no side force on the legs! All this from someone with 100 hours total
Question, for 12.8l/h what was your speed? Did the nosewheel damage result in a prop strike? Has the engine dropped a little, apparently quite common but not much consequence according to Oliver Achurch. I have about 3mm drop on mine.