Flying With Dave: July 2008

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Reminds me of the old days

This past week I got the chance to once again fly the mighty Cessna C210 Centurion. It's been awhile since I put my hands on the control yoke of this type of aircraft. I was looking forward to the flight.

The Centurion is a relatively fast single-engine aircraft with a big heavy feel to it. I got my first taste of the C210 during my initial year of instructing in Boulder, Colorado. The airplane was plenty powerful with a lot of space in it for stuff. I eventually became the primary instructor for the C210 at Dakota Ridge Aviation. Also, part of our flight school's operation was a service provided to NOAA to check for green house gases. Essentially it was a flight in a 210 to a predetermined point ( usually the 21 DME of of the Cheyenne Vortac ) starting at an altitude of 26,000 ft and ending at 7,000 ft. I would fly a holding pattern from the point and circle down collecting data at every 1,000 ft. The collection of the data was done via a "magical" electronic box provided by the NOAA scientist. The "NOAA flights" were done by me on the average of once a week.

I started to get some good experience in the 210, by doing things like the "NOAA flights", student instruction, and things like that. Then on November 14, 2002, flying a 210 from Boulder, CO to Cheyenne, WY I experienced an engine failure in flight. I was on a modified left base to land at KCYS when the crankshaft decided to break into pieces. I chose a field to land in and successfully put in down with no damage to anything on the ground, the airplane or myself. I'll never forget that moment.

So me and the Cessna C210 has had some good times and some bad times. I enjoyed all of the flying that I did in it. So when I had the opportunity to ferry the aircraft above from Detroit to Tulsa, I jumped at it. And it reminded me of all the times I'd spent in this aircraft. I hope more of these opportunities come around.