Pattern Work in the Skylane

Did 9 touch and go landings at HAnscom today with the Cessna 182 Skylane. The weather was a brisk 37 degrees so the plane was quick to leap off of the runway. Pitch and of between 15-20 degrees kept the plane at Vy with full throttle and rpm. After 500 feet AGL, I retracted flaps, set manifold pressure to 24" and rpm to 2400 for the in pattern climb. Ince in the pattern, I pulled the power back to 18" m.p. and abeam the numbers dropped that to 17" and 10 degrees flaps to start descent pitching for 80 knots. 20 degrees of flaps were put out onshort base and in the turn to final I did a Gumps check and pitched for a 75 knot approach speed which kep the m.p., down at 15 " or so. For landing I rotated to stop my descent and then simultaneously reduced power to idle while flaring whcih worked real well.
Tried two soft field takeoffs as well, rotating at 50 knots and leveling off in ground effect to accelerate to 75 knots and then pitch for a climb at Vy. Also did a go around and a no flaps landing. Looking forward to starting some IFR approaches!

Flying the Cessna 182-G1000 Skylane

Just got back from my first 1.5 hours in the C182-G1000, flying through the lovely Boston haze and boy, is my right leg sore! We started off with a takeoff and climb at Vx and I asked the instructor if he could get his foot off of the rudder pedals. Of course, he didn't really have his feet there, it just needed that much extra right rudder compared to the Skyhawk. Once at altitude I ran through the checklist....set power, reduce rpm. I would have forgotten the cowl flaps without the checklist. Then for some air work.
Some turns to headings and steep turns; once again needed a lot of right rudder and back pressure to stay coordinated and level but it all worked out. Then a bunch of Dutch Rolls to get a feel for rudder and aileron pressures. In my years flying, I never actually did that maneuver, but boy was it helpful to work on rudder coordination! Then a couple of power on stalls, once again a ton of right rudder to keep from dropping a wing and I was surprised how high an angle of attack you can get before the stall break....at least it seemed steeper than the 172. Getting back to the pattern, I was having some trouble in finding the right m.p. and rpm to slow it down to 90 knots and after turning final I thought for sure I'd have to go around because I was so high. I was warned about the high sink rate of the 182 when power was pulled off. I dropped 20 degrees of flaps and pulled off 2 inches of manifold pressure and next thing I know, the VSI is showing 1200 ppm sink rate. I got it back together and made a couple of nice T & G's, each one having a better approach. On thing I did really like about the 182 is it didn't seem to want to float....once it pulled power back and started to flare it settled solidly to the runway.
Actually, the hardest part I found about flying the 182 is parking it! I'm used to happily pushing the Skyhawk back into it's tie down spot but by the time I maneuvered the Skylane, I worked up quite the sweat. Thankfully, my instructor told me there was a towbar in the plane to make it a bit easier.Great experience. Next week I'll get in more T&G's and then work on some simulated IFR approaches.