Earlier in Spring 2019, I enrolled at my chosen commercial flight training organisation with a view to commence the commercial flight training -MEP (multi engine rating) and CPL (commercial pilots licence ) in October 2019. With this in mind, I needed to build the remaining PIC (pilot in command) hours towards the 100hrs needed before commencing the CPL. I had a plan of how and where I would fly to build these hours but I took the opportunity to fly a new aircraft type, the Robin DR400 pictured above, which was kindly offered to me by the owner to build the remaining hours.
Compared to the G1000 glass cockpit of the school Cessna 172’s, the Robin offers ‘traditional’ analogue instrumentation, which I wanted to gain more experience of before moving onto the analogue instruments of three PA28s at the commercial ‘big school’! It’s not a major difference but it would I thought it would benefit my instrument scan. The obvious differences being that it is a low wing aeroplane compared to the high wing Cessna and Piper Cub I had been flying up to this point plus a few different systems like the braking system -using the parking brake lever instead of toe brakes which I had become accustomed to previously. This Robin is a joy to fly, light responsive controls and an impressive cruising speed to build those much needed hours.
Before setting off to hour build, I completed a checkout on the aircraft with the owner which comprised of some stalls - demonstrating a fully developed stall and base turn to final configuration stall , steep turns, and a PFL. We flew in the local area to the east of Goodwood before joining the circuit for three touch and go’s. These included a normal circuit, followed by a flapless and glide to land. With the checkout complete, I could now go and forth and hour build, but first I had to go back to work, after spending a lunch break airborne!
Later that night, I continued to read the aircraft POH (Pilots Operating Handbook) and set about planning future trips...
