Post by Cluemeister on May 24, 2016 3:15:00 GMT
As you know, I’m interested in buying a P2008. So when Mark from Tecnam called me and said he was picking up a plane near Houston, TX and was going to fly back to Minnesota, and asked if I wanted to go along, I said absolutely!
After canceling the first weekend, the second weekend looked promising enough to head out. The plan was as follows: Mark and Patrick (works with Mark) would take the Cirrus SR22 to Houston, and I would fly commercial into Houston. They would land at Houston Executive, and I would take a cab from KIAH and meet them there. MackAttack (Joel) is texting me, and says “I’ll pick you up no problem.” This is awesome, because it saves the hassle of getting a cab/Uber, and I’ve got a local guide who loves to talk planes. I land at KIAH, and Joel picks me up right on time. Off we go to Executive. We track Mark and Patrick in the Cirrus, and they are traveling 175 knots at 12000 feet. They flew straight through, 5 hours nonstop from MN to Houston. Gotta love the Cirrus!
We all meet at Houston Executive, and decide as a group the weather is too iffy for a flight down to Wharton. It’s about an hour and a half drive, about a 25 minute flight. Oh well. We hop into Joel’s SUV, and talk planes for another 90 minutes. We arrive at KARM, this is where the P2008 is located. We meet the owners, John and Anna, and look over the plane. Turbo 914, looks brand new. Well cared for. Owner is moving up to PPL, and has bought a faster four seat aircraft. It’s getting later, so we head to dinner, a great little place in El Campo. Food and company is awesome. We talk powered parachutes, aircraft, and business.
After dinner Joel (being gracious again) offers to have Patrick stay in W. Houston at his house, and that way Patrick is close to the airport in the morning. John offers to have Mark and I stay at his home in Wharton, so we can depart in the AM. Aren’t pilots great people?
Morning comes and weather is iffy. We wait and wait and wait (time to spare? fly by air!). The ceilings don’t lift until noon, and then it’s MVFR. But after an hour, everything is supposed to clear. Patrick says he is heading out in the Cirrus. Mark and I put our bags in the P2008, and head out. For the first 45-60 minutes, we are flying at 1500 under the ceilings. Just north of Houston the skies clear up, and we are all VFR to Nashville!
Thermals start to kick in, so we go up to 5500, and then 7500. Air gets smooth as glass at this elevation, and we stay right on it. Mark sets the autopilot in the Garmin, and it tracks beautifully. I’m in the right seat for the first leg, and i spend time reading the Garmin manual, and then set up the screen on the right just the way I want it, moving map and traffic. I have to take a minute to state how amazing the G3X is. So user friendly, so much information at your fingertips, and large screens to see it all.
Now a little about the plane. When you take off in a turbo P2008, it pulls you right off the runway. You kick in the max power, and the climb is around 1500 fpm. You get up in a hurry. The engine is smooth, and just a pleasure to listen to. At 5500 when we wanted to get to 7500, we went back up to max power (there’s a 5 minute limit), and the climb for that 2000 feet was in the 800-1000 range. Just wonderful. Of course there is a fuel penalty for that performance. For the first leg of the flight, we were max continuous power combined with some turbo boost time, and we averaged close to 6.5 to 7 gph. If you back off the 5500-5600 max continuous, the fuel economy gets much better. Those last few knots are costly in the fuel department.
Speaking of speed, the plane at 7500 was between 125 and 130 knots TAS. Unfortunately, we had 16-20 knot headwinds the whole way, so that slowed us down. But the plane was definitely hitting those numbers without trouble.
We flew for three hours, and landed at a small Class D in Greenville, Mississippi. Bathroom break, fuel, vending machine, and back in the air. We are about at the halfway point. We switch seats, and I’m in left seat. We take off, and head back towards Nashville. We are hoping the winds aloft are better at 5500, but they’re about the same, and it’s bumpy at 5500. Back up to 7500 we go!
We continue to fly, and decide to add flight following. Mark gets on the radio, and gets us set up. We also let them know we want to go into KBNA. A large class C airport. We get on fight following, and we are brought right into KBNA. As they are bringing us in, they are also bringing in SWA jets at the same time. We are both hoping they don’t put us right behind a jet, as we don’t need to deal with wake turbulence!
They ask Mark to keep up his speed, and he does. They thank him, and have us come in on 2C. Although I’m a student pilot, I was helpful in reducing the workload on Mark as we came in to land. The runway was full of jet tire brake marks, which were longer on the runway than what we needed to land in total.
We landed uneventfully, and taxied to Atlantic Aviation. Mark and I shook hands, as our trip together was over. He was headed to Indiana, and I was driving home.
Closing thoughts:
- It was an awesome trip. Everyone enjoyed each other’s company, and just another reason to enjoy the flying culture.
- Mark was great company in the plane for 6 hours. He said the flight would go quickly, and it did.
- The plane was wonderful. It absolutely confirmed what I hoped to be true about the aircraft. Stable, fun to fly, and pretty fast for a light sport aircraft!
After canceling the first weekend, the second weekend looked promising enough to head out. The plan was as follows: Mark and Patrick (works with Mark) would take the Cirrus SR22 to Houston, and I would fly commercial into Houston. They would land at Houston Executive, and I would take a cab from KIAH and meet them there. MackAttack (Joel) is texting me, and says “I’ll pick you up no problem.” This is awesome, because it saves the hassle of getting a cab/Uber, and I’ve got a local guide who loves to talk planes. I land at KIAH, and Joel picks me up right on time. Off we go to Executive. We track Mark and Patrick in the Cirrus, and they are traveling 175 knots at 12000 feet. They flew straight through, 5 hours nonstop from MN to Houston. Gotta love the Cirrus!
We all meet at Houston Executive, and decide as a group the weather is too iffy for a flight down to Wharton. It’s about an hour and a half drive, about a 25 minute flight. Oh well. We hop into Joel’s SUV, and talk planes for another 90 minutes. We arrive at KARM, this is where the P2008 is located. We meet the owners, John and Anna, and look over the plane. Turbo 914, looks brand new. Well cared for. Owner is moving up to PPL, and has bought a faster four seat aircraft. It’s getting later, so we head to dinner, a great little place in El Campo. Food and company is awesome. We talk powered parachutes, aircraft, and business.
After dinner Joel (being gracious again) offers to have Patrick stay in W. Houston at his house, and that way Patrick is close to the airport in the morning. John offers to have Mark and I stay at his home in Wharton, so we can depart in the AM. Aren’t pilots great people?
Morning comes and weather is iffy. We wait and wait and wait (time to spare? fly by air!). The ceilings don’t lift until noon, and then it’s MVFR. But after an hour, everything is supposed to clear. Patrick says he is heading out in the Cirrus. Mark and I put our bags in the P2008, and head out. For the first 45-60 minutes, we are flying at 1500 under the ceilings. Just north of Houston the skies clear up, and we are all VFR to Nashville!
Thermals start to kick in, so we go up to 5500, and then 7500. Air gets smooth as glass at this elevation, and we stay right on it. Mark sets the autopilot in the Garmin, and it tracks beautifully. I’m in the right seat for the first leg, and i spend time reading the Garmin manual, and then set up the screen on the right just the way I want it, moving map and traffic. I have to take a minute to state how amazing the G3X is. So user friendly, so much information at your fingertips, and large screens to see it all.
Now a little about the plane. When you take off in a turbo P2008, it pulls you right off the runway. You kick in the max power, and the climb is around 1500 fpm. You get up in a hurry. The engine is smooth, and just a pleasure to listen to. At 5500 when we wanted to get to 7500, we went back up to max power (there’s a 5 minute limit), and the climb for that 2000 feet was in the 800-1000 range. Just wonderful. Of course there is a fuel penalty for that performance. For the first leg of the flight, we were max continuous power combined with some turbo boost time, and we averaged close to 6.5 to 7 gph. If you back off the 5500-5600 max continuous, the fuel economy gets much better. Those last few knots are costly in the fuel department.
Speaking of speed, the plane at 7500 was between 125 and 130 knots TAS. Unfortunately, we had 16-20 knot headwinds the whole way, so that slowed us down. But the plane was definitely hitting those numbers without trouble.
We flew for three hours, and landed at a small Class D in Greenville, Mississippi. Bathroom break, fuel, vending machine, and back in the air. We are about at the halfway point. We switch seats, and I’m in left seat. We take off, and head back towards Nashville. We are hoping the winds aloft are better at 5500, but they’re about the same, and it’s bumpy at 5500. Back up to 7500 we go!
We continue to fly, and decide to add flight following. Mark gets on the radio, and gets us set up. We also let them know we want to go into KBNA. A large class C airport. We get on fight following, and we are brought right into KBNA. As they are bringing us in, they are also bringing in SWA jets at the same time. We are both hoping they don’t put us right behind a jet, as we don’t need to deal with wake turbulence!
They ask Mark to keep up his speed, and he does. They thank him, and have us come in on 2C. Although I’m a student pilot, I was helpful in reducing the workload on Mark as we came in to land. The runway was full of jet tire brake marks, which were longer on the runway than what we needed to land in total.
We landed uneventfully, and taxied to Atlantic Aviation. Mark and I shook hands, as our trip together was over. He was headed to Indiana, and I was driving home.
Closing thoughts:
- It was an awesome trip. Everyone enjoyed each other’s company, and just another reason to enjoy the flying culture.
- Mark was great company in the plane for 6 hours. He said the flight would go quickly, and it did.
- The plane was wonderful. It absolutely confirmed what I hoped to be true about the aircraft. Stable, fun to fly, and pretty fast for a light sport aircraft!
