Last weekend we had the inauguration of class 0407 which was a happening as always. That night I also celebrated my 23th birthday.

On Monday we first had to do groundschool for the Seneca V followed by a test on Tuesday. I was scheduled to fly on Wednesday but since we were under influence of a cold front, low clouds made it impossible to fly. My flight was cancelled and luckily enough replaced with a simulator session. The next day I was scheduled again but weather conditions were still not perfect. My instructor decided to cancel the VFR flightplan and to do the first flight IFR.

After completed the walkaround and startup we proceeded to runway 19 for a November departure. The take off was fantastic. You can really feel that this airplane is turbocharged! Also when we made the recovery from an approach to stall in landing configuration you could really feel the turbo's kicking in and accelerate the airplane.

We proceeded through the clouds at F050 IFR to Nisa VOR and along the way I had to do some exercises to get familiar with the airplane's behavior and handling characteristics. The aircraft flies remarkably light especially in the roll and it's very stable. We did some timed and steep turns as well as approach to stalls. My instructor also asked me to fly an DME arc and to do some interceptions. After one hour we had to return to Evora and got a straight in approach for runway 19 which is highly unusual! The wind was also cross and blowing with 10 to 15 knot's. The Seneca's demonstrated crosswind component is 17 knot's. Not the best situation to try your first landings on a new aircraft I think. My instructor was pretty confident that I was able to make a nice landing. Instead of moving his seat closer to the controls to assist or take over he moved his seat backwards. The first landing was pretty nice but my second one was perfect as my instructor said. Well maybe beginners luck.

I was very pleased with the flight and really like the Seneca. Off course it's only the beginning and when we are going to train single engine flight everything will be a lot more difficult. Nevertheless, i'm really looking forward to next week!