Citation Mustang Flight
Well, it's been a year since I posted an update here. Since then I have moved to TX and added maybe 80 hours of flight time to my (ForeFlight) logbook in the Cirrus. Not taking many long trips now that I live closer to fellow ForeFlight folks, but I have had a few good trips back and forth to Houston and my total flight hours is nearing 1,000. Our company has grown considerably over these last 12 months (we're around 80 people now) and being able to chat in person with more folks has been helpful.
I got the chance to fly a PC-12 a few months ago and enjoyed it. That plane is especially enjoyable in the back cabin, as there is loads of room. It is a nice balance of speed, comfort, and endurance.
I spent a fair bit of time in a Piper Meridian too, and enjoyed it. It's not the fastest or roomiest Jet-A powered plane, but is quite nice for the price.
Last week however, I got the chance to fly a Citation Mustang on two flights, start to finish. While I have an hour or so in the Eclipse and the L-39 Albatross, I am really totally new to jets so was soaking up all the knowledge I could.
The mission was to leave for a BBQ run to nearby Lubbock. We started with a preflight briefing of the exterior and I learned how easy it is to do things like check hydraulic and oil fluid levels. Once in the cabin, I headed into the front left seat and starting taking stock of what was around me. The G1000 panel was familiar to me, and having previously read the operating handbooks and other docs, the switches were where I expected. My mentor for the flight, Gordon, walked me through the very simple "boot-up" flow to get the screens and the engines going. The engines were certainly the highlight of the flight, from how easy they are to start up to how easy they are to manage in flight, it doesn't get any simpler (or smoother). They are computer controlled using a FADEC and manages the engine at speeds a human could never achieve. They even handle the full start procedure, shutting things down if a "hot start" occurs.
A hot start for a jet engine is when the temperatures go above redline (due to improper air flow when lighting up the fuel) which is different from a hot start in a piston engine which refers to the difficulty of getting good fuel flow/mixture when starting a engine that was recently run and up to full temperature. A hot start with a piston just means you have a hard time getting it running. A hot start with a jet means you are going straight to the maintenance shop for a inspection of the engine (if the temps are too high for too long). A very expensive inspection.
In this jet, no matter whether you just shut it down or it is the first flight of the day, you just push the start button and move the throttle for that engine to the idle position. Then watch the screen as the FADEC gets it running. You are poised to put the throttle back to idle cut-off if somehow the FADEC failed to do its job, but I'd guess that is a 1 in 100-million type of event.
After startup, we taxied out to the runway. This was when I experienced one of my biggest challenges of the day: taxiing with a steerable nose wheel. I have been flying the Cirrus for so long (with its free-castering nose wheel) that I was over controlling a fair bit, at least at first. In the Cirrus, I will put in full deflect with the rudder to try to get it alone to correct my heading on the ground, then tap the brakes as required to get more of a turn going. I had to unlearn that in the Mustang, as a little push on the peddles has it turning quite readily, since that actually moves the nose wheel along with the rudder. Toward the end of my second flight I was getting noticeably better at that though, so I think I could pick it up again fairly quickly.
The takeoff was interesting as well. You move the throttles all the way forward and start to roll forward a bit as the engines start to make more noise. Then, after a few seconds, the power really kicks in and you can feel the acceleration pick up. We rotated and left the ground around 95kts and quickly picked up speed as we raised the gear and then the flaps. I pulled the power back to the climb setting once we had a little altitude under us. We used a pitch of 10 degrees for the climb out, which felt nice and high. The speed kept building though, as the engine were happily pushing us higher and faster.
I got the chance to fly a PC-12 a few months ago and enjoyed it. That plane is especially enjoyable in the back cabin, as there is loads of room. It is a nice balance of speed, comfort, and endurance.
I spent a fair bit of time in a Piper Meridian too, and enjoyed it. It's not the fastest or roomiest Jet-A powered plane, but is quite nice for the price.
Last week however, I got the chance to fly a Citation Mustang on two flights, start to finish. While I have an hour or so in the Eclipse and the L-39 Albatross, I am really totally new to jets so was soaking up all the knowledge I could.The mission was to leave for a BBQ run to nearby Lubbock. We started with a preflight briefing of the exterior and I learned how easy it is to do things like check hydraulic and oil fluid levels. Once in the cabin, I headed into the front left seat and starting taking stock of what was around me. The G1000 panel was familiar to me, and having previously read the operating handbooks and other docs, the switches were where I expected. My mentor for the flight, Gordon, walked me through the very simple "boot-up" flow to get the screens and the engines going. The engines were certainly the highlight of the flight, from how easy they are to start up to how easy they are to manage in flight, it doesn't get any simpler (or smoother). They are computer controlled using a FADEC and manages the engine at speeds a human could never achieve. They even handle the full start procedure, shutting things down if a "hot start" occurs.
A hot start for a jet engine is when the temperatures go above redline (due to improper air flow when lighting up the fuel) which is different from a hot start in a piston engine which refers to the difficulty of getting good fuel flow/mixture when starting a engine that was recently run and up to full temperature. A hot start with a piston just means you have a hard time getting it running. A hot start with a jet means you are going straight to the maintenance shop for a inspection of the engine (if the temps are too high for too long). A very expensive inspection.
In this jet, no matter whether you just shut it down or it is the first flight of the day, you just push the start button and move the throttle for that engine to the idle position. Then watch the screen as the FADEC gets it running. You are poised to put the throttle back to idle cut-off if somehow the FADEC failed to do its job, but I'd guess that is a 1 in 100-million type of event.After startup, we taxied out to the runway. This was when I experienced one of my biggest challenges of the day: taxiing with a steerable nose wheel. I have been flying the Cirrus for so long (with its free-castering nose wheel) that I was over controlling a fair bit, at least at first. In the Cirrus, I will put in full deflect with the rudder to try to get it alone to correct my heading on the ground, then tap the brakes as required to get more of a turn going. I had to unlearn that in the Mustang, as a little push on the peddles has it turning quite readily, since that actually moves the nose wheel along with the rudder. Toward the end of my second flight I was getting noticeably better at that though, so I think I could pick it up again fairly quickly.
The takeoff was interesting as well. You move the throttles all the way forward and start to roll forward a bit as the engines start to make more noise. Then, after a few seconds, the power really kicks in and you can feel the acceleration pick up. We rotated and left the ground around 95kts and quickly picked up speed as we raised the gear and then the flaps. I pulled the power back to the climb setting once we had a little altitude under us. We used a pitch of 10 degrees for the climb out, which felt nice and high. The speed kept building though, as the engine were happily pushing us higher and faster.
We climbed up to around 25,000' as I got used to to the plane a bit. This is the first plane I've flown where it is fairly easy to overspeed it, and so watching your power level is important. The speed brakes were also helpful in the descent - though they make a lot of noise startling the passengers when they deploy.
There are detents in the fly-by-wire throttle control, so shortly after takeoff I moved them into "Climb" position, then after level off I let the speed build and then moved them into "Max Cruise". Doesn't get much easier than that. You can even slam them around if you want, the computer will prevent the changes from happening at an unsafe rate.
My landing at Lubbock wasn't bad, made easier by the forgiving landing gear. After we had some excellent food at Black's we came back and I was already feeling a more at ease with the plane for the second leg home. My landing back in Austin was really good, though I did float it further down the runway than I wanted (must have had some excess airspeed).
Compared to the cirrus, I would say the Mustang is easier to manage. It's just that things happen significantly faster at times and your energy/speed management needs to be much more spot on - you need to think ahead as power changes take time. If you get low and slow in a prop plane like the cirrus, you just bring in the power and the wing instantly has more air moving over it. In a jet, the spool up takes more time, and the entire jet has to be accelerated to get more lift over the wings. Requires more forethought, which can be helped by flying longer final approaches and larger traffic patterns.
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