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Short local flight in a DA40NG

Did a short local VFR hop today from/to LOWG in a DA40NG today to pay tribute to the wonderful prevailing weather, and, to use the time required for engine warm up (gearbox temperature) to stay current on the G1000 and take ample time to play around with settings etc.. Initial plan was to fly to another airport for touch and goes, but as it is a rental plane and I was a bit late and short on time I opted to postpone that to another time and do a “long blocktime, short airtime” maneuver instead.

I also wanted to try out recording ATC using a dedicated adapter and digital audio recorder (Success!) and video using a cheap action cam (total failure, forgot to turn off timelapse mode). Hence please apologize for the potato quality pictures, they are stills from a crappy video.

Preflight/Flight planning/filing was done using Foreflight. Works like a charm.
Weather: Calm winds, 0°C, VIS 30KM, CAVOK.
Flight Distance: 35NM
Average Groundspeed: 130kts
Max. Speed: 150kts

Tracklog:

A little fun with unpacking…

The apron was busy and lots of traffic was in the area. A couple of bizjets, police helicopter training with longline, a forest mapping Partenavia 68 with special sensing equipment, a few students training…

…and the regular airline flights. LOWG gets the entire variety of traffic.

Starting the engine is a non-event, even in cold temps. Starts just like a car. I took my time to warm it up slowly (up to 50% power setting is allowed to warm up the gearbox). Cleared take off runway 35C.

Right turn out to the east. After take off checklist complete.

View to the Northeast. “Schoeckl” mountain is approx. 1400M high and has cablecar service.

After a quick flight got a straight in for 17C. Turning final over downtown Graz.

A bit high gives extra safety margin over populated areas. The runway is 3000m long.

Once in a while I manage to park it like that. Nailed it.

The next pilots were already waiting for the plane, so I dared to park right at the “VIP lane”, only to be chased away by a ramp worker.. “I need this spot for a biz jet”. Haha :)

Rare Metro (?) from Spain going to work.

I realized how much fun it is to simply go fly because you can, all alone, without taking care of non-pilot guests/friends etc…
Thoroughly enjoyed flying today!

Last Edited by Snoopy at 04 Dec 23:05
always learning
LO__, Austria

G1000 is not touch-screen

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Emir wrote:

G1000 is not touch-screen

:) It’s a rental plane. I didn’t touch it, I swear!

always learning
LO__, Austria

Can’t believe you parked it like that without a guidance system!

EGTK Oxford

Snoopy wrote:

only to be chased away by a ramp worker.. “I need this spot for a biz jet”

What was your reply “wilco”, “standby”, “unable” or “mayday”?

Emir wrote:

G1000 is not touch-screen

Lot of emphasis on VS0 and QNH from previous flight, with some forensics you can guess who

Last Edited by Ibra at 04 Dec 23:45
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

JasonC wrote:

Can’t believe you parked it like that without a guidance system!

Keep it (the yellow line, what else) between your legs. Works from piston single to widebody airliner ;)
(I see the ambiguity now, and it’s actually a wise one too).

always learning
LO__, Austria

Ibra wrote:

What was your reply “wilco”, “standby”, “unable” or “mayday”?

It’s a case of „the smaller the authority the more it is exerted“. The ramp crowd work in three tight knit shift groups, the same people stay in their group for years, and they develop a bit of a lone wolf modus operandi in that they have decided that the prime parking spots are only for private jets. Obviously for overnight parking that makes sense, but it doesn’t matter at all for short stops what parks there. It does to them and a sep in that holy spot is a bit like a new dog marking his territory…

I was approached, and distracted, with engine running, while reading a checklist. I couldn’t care less and found it quite entertaining, but the airport‘s safety manager would probably freak out over a short report, and it would lead to some basic apron „etiquette re-training“. Mind that this would never happen to anybody driving a big plane, they’d never dare. Again, I couldn’t care less and smile about it ;)

always learning
LO__, Austria

Fuel analysis

always learning
LO__, Austria

I guess you only pay flight time? Don‘t know if I would be happy as the owner if the engine ran 49 minutes and I can only invoice 15…

If I were the renter here, I wouldn‘t run it 28 minutes before taking off (I know it can take some minutes to warm up in winter)….

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Snoopy wrote:

The ramp crowd work in three tight knit shift groups, the same people stay in their group for years, and they develop a bit of a lone wolf modus operandi in that they have decided that the prime parking spots are only for private jets

I tend to listen usually some have orders to follow and would get really in trouble when their boss is around others are just inventing their own dummy rules, 10 seconds chat will tell you which type you deal with and you can act accordingly

boscomantico wrote:

Don‘t know if I would be happy as the owner if the engine ran 49 minutes and I can only invoice 15…

I guess it runs on JetA, so fuel bill is less than 2€ for 30min idle/warm up, what is the risk? or the missing bill?

I rent a DA40NG where the owner would not bother with 1h warm up but yes for sure 15min airborne will not fly high (aircraft is pulled out of the hangar, already fuelled and sits on the apron ready to fly before I arrive )

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom
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