It was hard not to smile as the Lycoming fired and the brand-new Hartzell propeller spun up to 1,000 rpm as the Cherokee Six roared to life with me in the left seat.
After trying to mesh schedules for a month, my friend, and CFI, Todd Griener and I were finally sitting on the ramp in the Cherokee Six 300 ready for our first flight.
The goal of this flight was simply to familiarize me with the differences in the Warrior and the Cherokee Six. Adding 140 horses, a constant-speed prop, and a few hundred pounds of weight makes a big difference. Not to mention the Six approach speed is 20 knots higher than that of the Warrior.
After a smooth takeoff, which is a five-step process as opposed to one in the Warrior, we headed out to the practice area to get me comfortable with the airplane.
The Cherokee Six is a wider, longer, heavier, and more powerful version of the Piper PA-28 Cherokee series…of which the Warrior is a member. The Six feels pretty much like any other Cherokee, but has noticeably more rudder feedback, and seems to yaw more drastically in turbulence requiring the pilot to have more positive control on the rudder.
Today was a bit gusty, and turbulent, overall a great day to practice. We flew up to Fairfield, IL with a good tailwind and did some low approaches at the airport there. The North/South runway is only 1,900 ft. long at Fairfield, and since I’m used to an 8,000 foot strip, I didn’t try my first landing there.
Now with a 30+ knot headwind, we had time on the return trip to play with the autopilot and various other toys in the Six.
Setup on final approach to runway two-zero at Marion, I felt the controls get mushy as the Six slowed to 85 knots for touchdown. It felt fast. A chirp from the tires and we were down. I was actually really impressed with how smooth my first ever landing in that plane was. Flaps to 10 degrees, prop full, and we’re off again.
Four landings later we decided to call it a day. Chalk up 1.7 hours of high performance time for me. I can’t wait to get back in the left seat and do it all over again.