Date: Saturday, November 17, 2001, 9:53:09 PM Subject: Nice flight to Santa Paula Friday Howdy all, I've been trying to escape work long enough to go check out a paint shop at Santa Paula airport (SZP), and yesterday, after getting up at 2am and working until 10am, I finally managed to do it. I invited a couple of good friends, Kevin and Becky, who had not gone flying in a long time, and we met at Stratmans' around 11am. It was a beautiful day: the sun was out, it was 72 degrees, and only a little bit of marine layer fog had refused to let go of the shoreline at the Santa Barbara airport. Kevin is a pilot, so he rode right seat. I explained the preflight procedures to both of them as they were occurring, since neither had been flying with me before. As we took off, I kept a good rate of climb (about 800 FPM) to make sure we cleared the fog bank right on the shoreline, at the departure end of runway 15L. Once we cleared 1000 ft., I engaged the auto-pilot in HDG mode, which I had preset (during the preflight) to our assigned departure heading. I then engaged the VS button,and dialed the rate of climb to 700 fpm. In the preflight, I had also preset the altitude alerter to our assigned altitude limitation -- 1500 fpm. Kevin, the pilot-friend, laughed with amazement, as the auto-pilot controlled the plane, while I controlled the auto-pilot. He said, "You're not flying a plane! You're playing a video game!" Once we were handed off to SBA Departure, they released our altitude restriction, and then I dialed the altitude alerter up to 5500. Once we escaped SBA's Class C airspace, SBA Departure handed us off to Pt. Mugu (Naval Air Station) Approach. At this point, I let Kevin have the controls to get a feel for the Piper, since he's only flown Cessnas. We did some standard-rate 360s, including some altitude changes, and then Pt. Mugu Approach spoke up and asked what our heading was. I explained that our destination was Santa Paula, but that we were in the middle of some 360s. He confirmed with a hint of a chuckle, and then asked that we maintain VFR. The VNAV alert on the Garmin went off, which I've programmed to trigger with a 500 FPM descent to 1000 FT. above and 5 miles before the destination waypoint, I dialed in the alt. alerter to 1500 (as advertised for the SZP approach), hit the VS button the auto-pilot, and dialed in 500 FPM descent. Since we were also flying an approach to landing at SZP, and following the approach instructions, I had switched from GPSS to HDG mode, and controlled the plane's direction with the heading bug. Of course, I could have flown it by hand, but I was showing Kevin how easy it would be to follow vectors to an IFR approach, including altitude assignments, using the auto-pilot. Once we actually got near the city, I disabled the auto-pilot by pressing the large red button on the yoke. At which point, the auto-pilot went BEEP BEEP BEEP -- and I cautioned Kevin and Becky by telling them that this was the airplane's way of warning passengers that the plane was now under manual control. :^) We flew the tight left-based pattern for runway 22 SZP, and landed with only a very slight bump, and then we were rolling. We taxied around a bit, since I had never been to Santa Paula Aircraft Painting before, but eventually we got there. After shutting down, Kevin Barr, the owner, came out to meet me and do an assessment of the plane's condition. My Cherokee 6-300 had the Mid-America STOL kit installed in the early 70s, which includes a bonded leading edge that is now delaminating on some of the bottom edges. He also noticed a very slight dent in the bottom of the right elevator, which he said could be fixed by popping the rivets, straightening out the bottom panel, and riveting it back in place. The largest piece of non-standard work for the paint job is to make the engine cowl nice again. Several edges are showing the underlying fiberglass weave, and there are quite a few cracks in the laminate around stress points (like the front baggage door lock). Some paint stripping on the cowl might be necessary -- normally they don't strip paint off of fiberglass, but there are several layers on this one, and there are several spots that are peeling off. I liked Kevin Barr; I liked how he handled his assessment, and brought up even little things. He seems to be a "straight shooter" (as they say in the old West). I've seen some of his work around our airport, and everyone, especially the mechanics, always have good things to say about his work. I'm pretty sure I'll have my plane done at his shop. The big problem (other than cost, of course :^) is now finalizing our paint scheme. After getting his quote, I rejoined my friends, and we went over to Logsdon Restaurant, at midfield of the airport, to have lunch and talk over old times. After lunch, we climbed back in, powered up, and flew straight out of rny 22, and headed directly back to SBA. The day had gotten warmer, which explained why the shoreline fog layer had completely burned off, As we spoke to SBA Approach, we were cleared at 10 miles out as #2 behind a Brazilia for landing on rny 25. "Follow the Brazilia." they said. I laughed. At 10 miles out, at our best descent speed of 146 MPH, there was no way I was going to be able to "follow" the twin turboprop Brazilia, except in the loosest meaning of the word. But, we did our best! :^) The landing was a good one, with a very gentle let down, and I still had time to turn off at the second parallel (15R/33L), which was being used as a taxiway by tower (I guess because there was no other traffic being assigned to the parallel runways). As we taxied back up to Stratman's, the view in our windscreen, to the North, never fails to make an impression on me: the 4500 ft. high mountains, which help give Santa Barbara the nice, year-round temperate weather we were able to enjoy today. What a beautiful day for a flight! (I'll think about the painting costs later ... :^) -- Best regards, Alan K. Stebbens , N4184R, PA32-300, SBA