So, because getting it will lower my (not insubstantial) insurance bill, I am going for my Commercial Pilot rating.
(Note that I have zero plans to fly for hire, simply learning more and (hopefully) saving money down the road.)
So I went up with an instructor to start the process….They had good reasons for wanting to use their cessna 172 over my plane, even though the rental cost is about my hourly cost to fly the 340.
Now, I have been flying a (fairly) powerful twin engine airplane…high performance, as it were., for the past year. It has been a bit over a year and a half since I flew a single engine airplane. 3 or more since I flew a 172.
Lots of adjustment to be made.
So, I tended to fly the poor 172 Way Too Fast….approaches especially. Can’t land at those speeds (but those same speeds would cause the 340 to fall out of the sky). Plus my control was…lacking. Flared too high as well, but that is just because I am used to a plane that sits higher. Flap deployment speeds are much slower that I am used to as well. Gotta pay attention to that…..
But the speeds and the flare are gonna take some work to adjust to. I hope I can still fly the 340 after this.
Ever learning though…or re-learning as it is, really.
Congrats on going for another certificate! Good luck and I’m sure you’ll get the transition worked out in no time.
This is why it is HARD to switch between high and low performance airplanes…
Reminds me of when I flew a checkride in a 172 for a new member of our flying club. He had been flying C-97’s in Biafra on humanitarian missons. He was beginning his flare at a dangerous altitude and I was having to gently push the nose down each landing. He was finally able to re-calibrate his visual cues after about 8 approaches.