Skyhawk

Cessna 172R

Crew: 4

We went flying today.

Plan was: Gustavo would be flying to Badajoz for instrument rating revalidation. António would fly from Badajoz to Coimbra and I would be flying from Coimbra back to Cascais. None of the three had recent experience in type so we took advantage of having a flight instructor on board.

The guys at Cascais Tower delayed our IFR departure clearance until we were holding short at runway 35.

1130 utc...

"After departure, turn left to intercept radial 239 outbound of CAS climbing to 3000ft".

Soon after that we were cleared for takeoff.

Having flown the Cherokee Arrow for the last few months, it felt like we were performing a reduced power takeoff. The 160hp powered IO-360-L2A with fixed pitch propeller dragged our 172 along the runway and, at 55 knots, the aircraft started to pitch up slowly by itself as the wheels smoothly left the ground.

It's been a while since I have flown fixed pitch propeller aircraft. It was more than a year ago.

This time, however, I accepted Gustavo's suggestion to give the 172 a second chance.

I don't feel really comfortable flying this aircraft. The pilot's seat doesn't have enough forward travelling range, the cockpit panel is too high for my height and I have to fully stretch my legs to use the rudder pedals. The sun visors also aren't of much help, of course.

Although feeling a bit uncomfortable, I still enjoy flying this thing. This particular aircraft has good soundproofing interiors and nice avionics which include a GPS unit with an airport and navaid database. It's main limitation is still the performance.

There we were slowly climbing FL070 on radial 239 outbound and were cleared to turn left direct to CP NDB once above 3000ft. This whole thing took us about 25min...

Badajoz had forced our flight plan arrival route via CCS VOR and we were a bit unhappy about that. CCS is approximately 40nm northeast of Badajoz and represented around 60nm added distance to our original plan. At top cruise descent speed it means 30min extra flight time in this aircraft.

1155 utc...

The nice guys at Lisboa Control give us good news as we overfly the Tejo river and the beautiful sights around it:

"Fly direct Badajoz FL070"

Sounds like music to our hears. All happy faces behind the cockpit :)

We were getting 108kt ground speed en route to Badajoz. Mixture leaned according to the manual and showing around 9 us gallons per hour fuel consumption at 2300 rpm. Oil temperature and pressure on green, vacuum indicator on green and ammeter showing no battery discharge. No one can be told how good it feels to be up there. You have to see it for yourself.

22nm from Badajoz...

"We're ready to start descent"

The spanish controllers aren't exactly the most fluent english speakers out there and I would say we had a 1:3 "say again" to spannish-controller-instruction ratio.

Badajoz serves both civilian and military aircraft and the runway is really big for the little Cessna. Gustavo barely touched the brakes after landing on runway 31 as our apron's exit was still more than 1km ahead.

Mental note #1: Bring cash to pay for Avgas 100LL at Badajoz.

Mental note #2: Bring food.

After paying for our fuel in cash and starving a little more while filling the flight plan to Coimbra we went through the security checks and took off direct to our next destination.

We flew inbound NSA (Nisa VOR) at FL070 and then direct to Coimbra following a GPS direct track. Very peaceful (and slow!) flight. We landed on runway 34, requiring only a small deviation from our ground track.

1600 utc...

Lunch time. Had some bread with ham and some drinks. After Badajoz, Coimbra looks like home. We took a break to talk to other pilots and spot some aircraft on the ground.

I flew the last leg from there to Cascais. Visual flight at FL050 via Ericeira and Cabo da Roca.

Landing by the sunset ... smooth :)