Piper Warrior II

Today I went to get a conversion in a Piper PA-28-161 Warrior aircraft in preparation for my Navigation trip. Its been an interesting day.

First going into M'sia, met an elderly couple who were real helpful. Ahmad was the man's name I think. They told me which buses to take to Kotaraya. After that, met this Indonesian at Johor customs who took me to Kotaraya bus terminal. Instead of taking a bus there, we walked. He taught me how to be streetsmart in Malaysia. Very lucky to have met good people like them.

After I got to Senai by shuttle bus, I had a hard time finding the container box where the flying club was located. First person I saw was my instructor Andrew Law.
He looked about 55-60 and was quite jovial. First he briefed me on the Piper Warrior, then after that he said it might be difficult to checkout in the PA28 in just 2 flights. Well, if I could not, then I'll go back to the Cessna for my Nav.

As we walked to the aircraft, he invited me to have a look at other aircraft like the Cessna 152 and Pitts arobatic aircraft. Egad! the 152s cockpit is small and the Pitts even more so. Certainly, I can tell that Andrew loves flying and planes. He seemed kinda excited when near them.

I was kinda confused with the checklist though. The layout of the Piper is different from the Cessna I'm used to. Took some time but finally we got started and took off with Andrew doing the RT. I was not too impressed with the Piper at the take off cuz I had to PULL real hard to lift the airplane up even after rotation. Don't seem to nice to me. I like my takeoffs gentle and artistic. We flew to South of Gunong Pulai and did some general handling there. Slow flight was ok, Incipient stall. Then, Steep turning was the best. Its my favourite maneuver. Too bad only did 45 degrees when I like 60 because of the Gs.

The area is pretty nice and spacious compared to Singapore. The majestic mountain Gunong Pulai was a humbling sight. Andrew said another Piper Warrior had crashed on top of the mountain last time. No survivors. We flew pretty low from 100 ft to 2000ft over the towns. After that we did PFL. One thing about flying in Malaysia is that if you had an engine failure, you'd feel better because there are lots of landing areas to choose from like open fields to rice paddies. I judged it pretty well. I would land right on my selected area had I Continued. But on the Go Around. I kinda forgot how to retract the flaps. I was yanking at the handle but it wouldn't budge and the Piper CANT CLIMB WITH 40deg flaps and I was only abt 300ft high. But Andrew then retracted for me and I saw that I forgot to press the button before pulling it. Its kinda like a Car's parking brake.

After that we did some circuits. 3 normal landings. Pretty much like Cessna landings but except the Piper sinks rather than float like a Cessna when power is cut. So one has to carry power into the roundout and flare all the way to jus before touchdown when u slowly cut the power. I did ok except for maybe one near 3pointer.

I took a break while Andrew went up with another guy.