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JediNein · July 27th, 2002, 23:52

Howdy!

I am in Van Nuys and Bakersfield. Fresno was several moves ago.

Our Van Nuys competition offers somewhat new (1998-2000) Cessna 172's at $82 per hour DRY (renter pays for fuel at 8 gallons * $3 per hour, aircraft owner/lessee gets to replace cylinders more often).

The new (2001/2002) Cessna 172SPs for rent in Fresno are at $98 per hour WET (with fuel). The owner of that school reports business is just fine.

The $100 rate mentioned is for the Chief Instructor. I think he is underpriced.

Some personal background to this story&#8230; When the Chief Instructor for the American Bonanza Society crashed in IMC after a vacuum failure, I stopped flying IFR. If this instructor that WROTE the IFR training program for their refresher clinics couldn&#8217;t survive gyro failure, how could I?

Here goes:

At the time of this incident, the instructor had given less than nine hours of training over the previous four months towards my regaining IFR currency and proficiency. I had almost one hour in the right seat working on the CFII.

Ten thousand plus hour pilot in left seat. Flown in all sorts of conditions including a 3 hour hard IMC flight the previous week. I&#8217;m riding right seat for the fun of it. Pilot is taking aircraft owner&#8217;s son to summer camp. The son is not a pilot and sitting back seat. We are in IMC and the pilot, also an aircraft maintenance technician, is evaluating the autopilot&#8217;s function. He finds the autopilot will not couple to the nav, but will hold heading and altitude. A while into the clouds, I notice we are rolling into a medium right bank for no apparent reason. The pilot complains about the autopilot not coupling again, but we were in heading hold mode.

I had less than three seconds to figure out which, if any, flight instruments were telling me the truth looking at them from the right seat. This process is not in any book. In fact, the only way to get this process is attend one of our WINGS Seminars (free) or obtain training at this flight school. Then I had to battle for the controls as the pilot was completely disorientated and who knew what trim the autopilot had left us.

When I recovered the aircraft, we were about to exceed red line airspeed, over 60 degrees of bank, over 10 degrees pitch down, and the VSI was pegged down. The autopilot had disconnected during this so the aircraft was very much out of trim. Passing through 500 feet below our assigned altitude, my hearing returned to ATC screaming at us to climb. The passenger didn&#8217;t know a thing as the pilot had the intercom on &#8220;crew isolate.&#8221; A few more seconds and the NTSB would be investigating P210 confetti from the inflight breakup.

I logged that flight as dual given. I figured I&#8217;d earned it.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

BTW, the &#8220;Surviving Gyro Failure in IMC&#8221; WINGS Seminar will be in Bakersfield on August 8th.

July 27th, 2002, 23:52	#20
JediNein Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 119	Re: PRICES for Private Howdy! I am in Van Nuys and Bakersfield. Fresno was several moves ago. Our Van Nuys competition offers somewhat new (1998-2000) Cessna 172's at $82 per hour DRY (renter pays for fuel at 8 gallons * $3 per hour, aircraft owner/lessee gets to replace cylinders more often). The new (2001/2002) Cessna 172SPs for rent in Fresno are at $98 per hour WET (with fuel). The owner of that school reports business is just fine. The $100 rate mentioned is for the Chief Instructor. I think he is underpriced. Some personal background to this story&#8230; When the Chief Instructor for the American Bonanza Society crashed in IMC after a vacuum failure, I stopped flying IFR. If this instructor that WROTE the IFR training program for their refresher clinics couldn&#8217;t survive gyro failure, how could I? Here goes: At the time of this incident, the instructor had given less than nine hours of training over the previous four months towards my regaining IFR currency and proficiency. I had almost one hour in the right seat working on the CFII. Ten thousand plus hour pilot in left seat. Flown in all sorts of conditions including a 3 hour hard IMC flight the previous week. I&#8217;m riding right seat for the fun of it. Pilot is taking aircraft owner&#8217;s son to summer camp. The son is not a pilot and sitting back seat. We are in IMC and the pilot, also an aircraft maintenance technician, is evaluating the autopilot&#8217;s function. He finds the autopilot will not couple to the nav, but will hold heading and altitude. A while into the clouds, I notice we are rolling into a medium right bank for no apparent reason. The pilot complains about the autopilot not coupling again, but we were in heading hold mode. I had less than three seconds to figure out which, if any, flight instruments were telling me the truth looking at them from the right seat. This process is not in any book. In fact, the only way to get this process is attend one of our WINGS Seminars (free) or obtain training at this flight school. Then I had to battle for the controls as the pilot was completely disorientated and who knew what trim the autopilot had left us. When I recovered the aircraft, we were about to exceed red line airspeed, over 60 degrees of bank, over 10 degrees pitch down, and the VSI was pegged down. The autopilot had disconnected during this so the aircraft was very much out of trim. Passing through 500 feet below our assigned altitude, my hearing returned to ATC screaming at us to climb. The passenger didn&#8217;t know a thing as the pilot had the intercom on &#8220;crew isolate.&#8221; A few more seconds and the NTSB would be investigating P210 confetti from the inflight breakup. I logged that flight as dual given. I figured I&#8217;d earned it. Fly SAFE! Jedi Nein BTW, the &#8220;Surviving Gyro Failure in IMC&#8221; WINGS Seminar will be in Bakersfield on August 8th.