A SLIM LOGBOOK - JOHAN WALDEN
THE BRICK
SOMETIMES IT TAKES AN EVENT OR EXPERIENCE TO MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND THE TRUE WEIGHT A WORD CARRIES; LIKE ‘PLUMMETING’ DURING YOUR FIRST SPIN. TODAY I WAS GOING TO LEARN TO FLY ‘COMPLEX AIRCRAFT’. ONE of the requirements (a fun one) for the
After rolling back the hangar doors I looked
Commercial Pilot Licence is to complete five
at the plane and took it in. The Turbo Arrow – it
hours of training in a complex aircraft: One with
looked like it sounded. From its high T-tail to its
flaps, retractable undercarriage and a constant
pointy spinner it said, ‘I’m fast.’
speed propeller. A ‘real’ aeroplane as some like to call it.
I hopped inside and surveyed the cockpit. Usually I’d found cockpits to be simpler than they
Our ‘real aeroplane’ today was the school’s
first looked once I broke them down into the main
Piper Arrow. Now one of the constants of this
parts: flight instruments, avionics, engine gauges,
universe is that if you ever hear someone describe a Piper Arrow during a bit of clubhouse banter, the word ‘brick’ will always follow – usually within a sentence or two. Always some ‘war story’ of a scary take-off or other hangar talk. This is the story of my introduction to a spiffy
Three greens above the gear lever on the panel are cool.
looking red and white Turbo Arrow IV – and by
46
extension its close association with the humble
and controls etc. But the Arrow was quite opposite.
brick.
The more I searched, the more buttons, lights,
Still, at first glance the only new things appeared
and gauges I found. Every square inch of space
to be the gear and constant speed prop. Oh, and
on the panel was taken up by something. There
of course the turbocharger on the Arrow. Two
were even placards and performance tables
extra controls; how hard could that be? Well, one
printed on the sun visor. On the floor in the centre
morning bright and early I rocked up at the airfield
was the flap lever, rudder trim, and emergency
to find out just that.
gear extend lever. And on the wall by my left
February 2021
