First flight in Piper N30385

I personally flew N30385 for the first time yesterday. It was the perfect day to fly, sun beautiful clear blue skies and very little wind.

I had invited Esteban to come and sit in the back, as he is also interested in flying the Piper and even purchasing something similar.

So Esteban and I pulled it out of the hanger and up to the fuel pumps where we refuelled and completed the pre-flight preparation and checks.

We were then ready to venture into the large cabin to have a look at the cockpit and start the internal checks. The cockpit is very crowded and complicated compared to those of the Robins, as the aircraft has TCAS, a weather radar, two types of GPS, DVD player, and music input so all of this equipment means there is quite a lot of little buttons. Anyway once I had worked out what everything was and how to use it, we started it up and taxied to S2 for a runway 21 departure.

Previously I had only ever flown the Robins and the Diamond which are fairly light aircraft, so at 1,156kg nearly twice that of a Robin, N30385 is heavy and quite a large aircraft and as soon as you start taxiing you immediately notice the effects of the extra weight, as quiet a lot of power is required to get the aircraft rolling, however once you have got it going it feels a lot more stable while taxiing.

The pre-takeoff checks were completed and we were cleared to takeoff runway 21. I advanced the throttle completely forward and despite being a 180 hp like F-GMKT it obviously has to carry twice the weight and was fairly slow of the mark. However the speed soon came up and we were rolling down the runway, compared to the Robins that are rather wobbly while going down the runway needing a lot of rudder to keep it on the white line N30385 did not move, it was so stable it needed hardly any rudder input, it just stuck on the white line. We hit the 60knt takeoff speed and tugged back on the yoke before getting it off the ground. This was a new experience for me as you can pull back with one flinger on the control column of a Robin and it will come up straight away however it was more like trying to get a tank off the ground in the Piper.

However once we were up the Piper performed really well, climbing up to 3000ft very easily. At first we just flew around the local area so I could get a feel for the aircraft before heading over to Gajoubert where Esteban has a private strip, and where his new home will soon be located, for a few steep turns and Practice Forced Landings. Again during the flight it was incredibly stable hardly ever moving. We completed a few Practice Forced Landings where unlike the Robins once the throttle was closed the aircraft came down like a ton of bricks and then we did a few ‘Go Around's’.


We then tracked the Limoges VOR (LMG) so I could see how the instruments worked and needed to be operated. We arrived at LMG and asked for rejoining instructions to complete the training in the circuit with a few touch and go’s, glide approaches. This was hard work as first of all the aspect from the cockpit is so different from those of the other aircraft in the fleet and a lot of force was needed on the yoke to keep the aircraft straight, flare and turning at low speeds however it was great fun.

Finally we finished on a flapless landing, and taxied N30385 back to the apron after an hour and a half of flying. Upon landing the previous owner of the aircraft was at the aéroclub and kindly explained anything I had not understood and we ran though all the instruments and equipment again so I fully understood.

I really enjoyed flying the Piper and cannot wait to fly it again, however I think this aircraft will come into its own when being flown on a long journey and then you could not find a better aircraft.