I went to the Victoria Flying Club restaurant with an old friend of mine, who retired to Vancouver Island some years ago. He and I have a very similar flying history - UAS and then many years gliding and towing in Calgary. However, because he is 12 years older than me, when he was in a UAS, he flew Harvards in his last year!
We had breakfast with David, a pilot who I had exchanged emails with but never met. There was a very nice view out of the window of the restaurant - a turbine Widgeon:
While we were eating and exchanging flying stories, David asked me if I was doing anything after breakfast. I said no, so he asked if I would like to go flying. I felt a bit guilty in abandoning my UAS friend, but only a little bit, because David took me flying in this - a CJ-6A Nanchang
:
Rear panel - the gear lever had been removed and the mag switch disconnected to avoid any unfortunate incidents due to non-pilot passengers:
We took off and flew south over the city, talking to Victoria Harbour Radio, who manage the float plane traffic in the harbour and then negotiated an airspace block, with Victoria Approach, over the Strait of Juan De Fuca. David demonstrated some rolls and loops and I had a couple of ham-fisted attempts, one of which resulted in an inadvertent cockpit-floor FOD check! I requested to knock it off after about 15 minutes, because my G-tolerance is not what it was. We then flew back up the coast and joined right-downwind for a run-in and break. Most exhilarating.
I’ve got a few hours in a Yak 52, so it was interesting to compare it with the Nanchang. The Nanchang is much nicer to look at than the Yak, particularly when the gear is retracted, but it doesn’t have the brute-force power of the Yak - 260 HP versus 360 HP. However, it is a much nicer aircraft to fly. The control-run torque tubes are supported by needle roller-bearings, which results in beautifully harmonized, light controls, dare I say it, better than the Chipmunk's, although to be fair, it is many years since I’ve flown a Chippie. There was no free-play in the controls and no break-out force - it was a joy to fly.
After our flight and having re-fuelled:
and put the Nanchang away, we went over to have a look at a Catalina, which is being restored to airworthiness:
TAPs will immediately notice that these are DC-3 props and not the proper "toothpick" props.
Thanks David, for an unexpected adventure.