Cross Winds Under Control

I'm having some trouble with weather and schedules again, and all I could find on the schedule was an hour with Mario in 661, but I took it anyway, and it was a good lesson.  When I called ATIS, the wind was 220° at 8 knots, almost a direct crosswind (well, 70° anyway).  This sounded like a good chance for some pattern work with crosswind, something I hadn't done in a while.  One MAJOR thing I need to do all the time…

• Draw and/or talk through the projected wind situation before the flight, or if it's a return from x-country, after I get wind info from ATIS!

By this I mean, "OK, 220° is from the southwest, 70° from the runway heading, a LEFT crosswind, so I will need to establish a crab to the left on takeoff, and I will have a headwind on the crosswind leg, so I'll be slow there.  Then on left downwind leg, the wind will be from the RIGHT, so I'll have to crab out to the right, away from the runway to keep spacing constant, and I will have to make MORE than a 90° turn onto base leg, where I will have a TAIL wind.  This will make the base leg very fast, so I will have to anticipate this and start my turn to final earlier to avoid the overshoot.  Final approach will require a crab to the LEFT to hold the centerline, and on short final, transition to the slip, HOLDING IN the left bank to counter drift and straightening the airplane's axis with right rudder to stay aligned with the runway.  This will put me in a left-wing-low attitude so left (upwind) wheel will touch down first."  Whew!  That's a lot to think through, but as long as it still isn't automatic for me, I should do that sort of self-talk every time.  Mario says this is good preparation for instrument work when you can't use visual references.

Anyway, once I got in the pattern, I did pretty well with all this, and my pattern was fairly square.  I did overshoot final once or twice (out of 6), but flew back over the centerline OK.  I drifted on short final a couple of times but corrected OK – better to correct sooner and keep it lined up all the way, of course.  On one landing, there was a truck on the runway and I was told to do a 500 foot "low approach" – I didn't know what this meant, and I had some trouble with the read-back (I need to learn to be more brief in general on the radio).  What it means is, DON'T LAND, just pass over the runway at 500 feet or higher (1500 MSL at ORH).  Apparently this is for spacing, to keep the pattern going, more or less a holding action, but it was weird.

On another approach, there was an Allegheny Dash-8 turboprop on long final ahead of me, so Brian (tower) said "continue downwind, I'll call your base."  I properly slowed down to avoid going too far out over the city, and I stayed high to be above the airliner's path to avoid wake turbulence.  It was cool to see him pass me counter-parallel at about 1 mile distance (maybe less) as I was downwind and he was on short final.  All in all, it was a good flight.  Mario said I really have the procedure down and just need some more practice to smooth it out.  Other notes:

• Radio brevity!  Don't read back everything, just the essential stuff (what they want you to actually do). There's an article on this in the new March issue of Flight Training magazine.
• Remember to flare!  And keep the nose up as I do, ready to add power if I flare a bit too high, which I still often do!
• Fly the airplane all the way to the runway!  Keep the wind correction in until all three wheels are rolling, and use back pressure to keep weight off the nose wheel and improve braking.

Time: 0.8 hours dual, C152 at ORH.

Shear Madness (Short Field Technique)

Tuesday weather held up pretty well, and even though 69L was down with the transponder and vacuum pump problems I discovered Monday, I was able to swap planes and get two flights in 661, one with Mario, one solo.  With Mario, I worked on short field takeoffs and landings, and I didn't do so well, partly because of the headwind (20+ knots mostly down the runway – I think ATIS said 15G22 or something) and strong gusts and wind shear that we experienced.  It was a real bucking bronco in the pattern, with bad downdrafts in a few places (including climb-out a couple of times – dropped suddenly from 700 fpm to zero, though it didn't get negative). 

We did 6 landings (Mario did one as a demo), and my big problem was flaring high.  On one I think I came close to a prop strike when I let the nose drop after flaring too high.  I was also slow in learning to kill the power, RETRACT FLAPS and apply FULL BACK YOKE as soon as I touched down before applying maximum braking (this is SHORT FIELD landing!).  I need another lesson on this, and some practice, ideally NOT on such a gusty day.  At least I got ONE unfinished requirement out of the way (instruction on short field procedures).  It also showed that I could handle the airplane in some ugly winds.  But…

• I'm still VERY weak on wind awareness and establishing corrections for the wind on my pattern turns.  I need to think about this on paper AND have a review lesson with Mario on ground reference maneuvers.
• Need to do this short field stuff on an actual short field next time!
• When there's a strong headwind on landing, TURN BASE EARLIER so you don't get so far from the runway (normal position would not allow a glide to the runway if you lost power at 2000 feet turning final).
• Read up and CHAIR FLY the short and soft field procedures before next lesson (next lesson will focus on instrument work, unusual attitude recovery which I should have done before x-c solos, oops).  Maybe make up some "flash cards" with the procedures on index cards to carry in my knee board folder.
• Some days after this flight I was looking at some of the on-screen training material for Flight Unlimited III (FU3 – good training stuff actually) and found a comment about short-field landing techniques and winds.  It basically said that a windy, gusty day is not the time to be practicing short-field approaches where you are on final at maybe 55 knots with full flaps.  You need to carry extra speed and use less flaps, and this means it isn't really short field practice!  This was not a good day for short field work!

Time: 1.1 hours dual, C152 at ORH, local.

Dual: Pattern Practice

I've decided to lose the "lesson #" or "flight #" designation since there are now both dual and solo flights, plus some semi-documented flights, so I'll just mark posts as Solo, Dual, or Supplemental.

Mario was out this week because his wife just had a baby (their third, a baby girl). I planned to do some solo landing practice, and although the sky was clear and beautiful, the winds were outside the limits Mario set on my solo flight endorsement (8 knots, 4 knots crosswind) – they were at 300 degrees, but 16 knots, gusting to 23 knots. I was out of luck, but it looked like Doug Rio was just hanging around, so I asked him to fly with me. He said OK. He’s a young Brazilian guy, working on his MEI right now. We took the third C152, one I had never flown, 69L (six-niner-lima in the trade). It’s newer than the others, pretty nice, red-white-and-blue paint scheme, pretty sharp.

The wind gusts blew my around a bit, and it was fairly turbulent. I decided to use only two stages of flaps and tried to fly base and approach at around 70 knots rather than 65 on final. I got slow on one approach, got down to 1800’ on one base leg, and got down below 500’ AGL pretty far out on one final. Line-ups were fair, I’d say. All my usual problems, but slight improvements – I really held 70-75 kts from the numbers to final on all but one approach (on one I was up to 80 kts on part of the final). Still playing with power too much because I’m not consistent and I’m not nailing the 65 or 70 or 75 airspeed I need. ALSO – the view was lovely (not that I notice much in a landing session!), but the sun in the west was BRUTAL flying off runway 29. I need sunglasses, even some clip-ons for the flight bag for now, get Rx sunglasses soon, though! I quit after 4 landings because the sun was just too blinding, especially on climb-out.

It frustrates me that I plan to notice more things in landings – speed, trim, landmarks to hold headings and to turn toward, crosswind correction. But I get this tunnel-vision thing going and focus on 3 or 4 things (it used to be one or two – I read my account of lesson two with Mario, the June 5 evening landing session with two after-dark landings, which MiGMan just posted – man, I was CLUEless back then, just about 10 weeks ago, so I guess I am making progress). Doug was nice, he told me to watch my airspeeds, especially in gusty conditions, and also to watch pattern altitude (usually I’m good on this). Nothing to blame on Rio, though I wish I could have been sharper flying for another CFI.

I received my Jepp knee-board and the timer and yoke mount I ordered. Ready for cockpit management on cross-country flights!

Time: 0.6 dual, 0.0 solo, TT 31.8/1.1 hrs, C152 at ORH

Practice in the Rain (Lesson #8)

It didn't look VFR to me -- gray and drizzly -- but clouds were all at 10,000 feet, the WX said, so Kern said "we're go." Well, they weren't ALL at 10K -- quite a few floating around at 1100-1500 feet gave us some trouble. Not to mention the C172 was in for 100 hour maintenance, so we flew the little C152 (not a bad little plane, though we were only 60 pounds under max gross weight, and it climbed VERY slowly). Kern took a Boston VFR Terminal Area Chart -- a good idea, it turns out.

Well, it's late, so I don't have time to give the gory details. I did better than last time but still rather spotty on holding altitude and keeping my nose where it should be and my eyes out of the cockpit. Taxied better (need work on even braking). First takeoff was still a bit hesitant (Kern said last flight I "kissed the ground goodbye," touching my wheels lightly after liftoff, insufficient back pressure and a dip in the runway). I did OK on the climbs, some drift, but OK on rudder and coordination I think. Practiced turns (including two 360's), climbs, descents. Little wind and poor ground viz, so we didn't do ground refs today. Visibility started to look QUITE poor in some directions when we reached 1500 feet, but we pressed on to 3000. Ended up west for a while, then south, then north, then south -- then lost!

Not exactly LOST, but neither of us really knew where the airport was, and there were a LOT of clouds around. Kern tuned in the Putnam VOR (in CT, 122.8), knowing the 074 radial points straight to 1B6 (we practiced intersecting a radial, I guess!). But we got confused by the lack of recognized landmarks, the clouds, and the fact that we BOTH forgot we had crossed Rt 140 at some point (we were briefly actually IN some of the clouds -- Kern is instrument rated of course, but it's still not a good idea). So it took a couple of iterations with the VOR to get us back -- Kern was real annoyed with himself. I was never worried especially -- we had a lot of fuel and plenty of places to land if need be. Coolness or clueless? Good question - I really did relax and enjoyed a few minutes of sightseeing while Kern took the controls and tried to find a recognizable landmark (he was not as good as I expected at this, oddly enough, considering his long experience, but in fairnesss, he really doesn't know the Hopedale area that well yet).

ALWAYS carry a VFR Boston area chart, PAY CLOSER ATTENTION to landmarks -- maybe try to say "we're southwest of the airport, maybe 10 miles" to track our position.

Finally Kern talked me through the pattern on a left upwind entry from the south (runway 36). Again, sloppy on nose attitude and altitude control, but I managed, and we both were on the controls for the final approach, flare, and landing. Then we back-taxied and took off for one more time around the pattern -- this time I controlled the takeoff much more smoothly (smaller "pressure like" excursions on the rudder pedals compared to large excursions needed for taxi at low speeds). Overall a very educational and enjoyable flight (finally hit double figures in logged time, barely).

Next lesson in two days! Then off to Japan for two weeks (oy!). I think I may be able to solo this summer if I can make progress as Kern expects. I have my student pilot flight physical scheduled for July 8 in Newton (another $75 for that, but I'll be qualified to solo if I pass). Better check my eyes with these glasses before the test…

Time: 1.2 hrs dual, TT 10.1 hrs, C152 at 1B6

Flight log supplemental: Ground school etc.

I'm working on a plan to get started on lessons sooner rather than later... (financial and marital negotiation notes omitted, though these are certainly part of the process of learning to fly!)

I also sat in on a ground school session with Jason at HAS (Hopedale Air Service) last night. It was on METAR/TAF weather reports (new ICAO coding for weather and formats info). Jason was OK as a lecturer for the short part I sat in on – he then switched us to a King video on this stuff, which was fairly good (I think I can actually read those things now!). So I'm thinking that it will be worth it to do the ground school with them too rather than try to do only self-study – the discipline of weekly classes and readings and the chance to "show off" my knowledge in class will be good for me, I think. HAS also has a new CFI, and I do mean NEW, just out of flight school, and just off the boat from Germany. I forget his name – he's 23 and he's really green, with a strong German accent. I'll stick with Jason, thanks – but I better get going before he signs up too many students and dumps me on someone else!

I also began to read and study my new "Jepp" materials in earnest – chapter one on fundamentals of flight and stability, including the exercises. Pretty much review, though I need to get to the "second nature" point on some things like what the control surfaces do when you move the yoke (i.e., left yoke, left aileron goes UP, right goes DOWN). This was also covered in the demo video that came with the Jepp kit, and it will be lesson one of ground school, next Tuesday 6:30-9:30 pm (when I will be in LA). They will allow you to make up two lessons for free, or sit in on another class if they cover one you missed. I guess this is tied to their having to sign off in your log book for covering the required material before you take the written test.