All dressed up and no where to go....
After watching the weather all week, I decided the other day that Wednesday looked like my best chance for calm winds (aka "solo wx"). So, I scheduled with Kary to be at the airport at 9:00am, after I finished a meeting at work.
As usual, the meeting was over and I had a couple of small things come up that made me late getting out to the field. By 9:30, I was pulling in the parking lot and listening to AWOS one more time. In the 25 minute drive from my office to LUG, the winds had gone from 7kts to 4kts. "Woohoo!", I thought. Maybe today I can kick Kary out of the cockpit!
Well, I preflighted the plane...extry careful. I figured Kary had been there with the plane waiting on me and had plenty of time to "fix" it for me. Now, he's never done that to me before, but I'm trying to not let him :)
At any rate, no squawks found. Finished the preflight , pulled 51F out of the hangar and started her up. While the engine was warming up, I tuned into AWOS again....7kts from 80 degrees off the runway heading! DANGIT!!!. Not that 7 kts is major wind, but, like Kary has said, it would be nice to solo when everything is in my favor. Well, we decide to give it shot and do a few circuits just to see how it goes and see how I do.
We taxi out, do the runup, take the runway and away we go. As soon as the plane got "light" on it's wheels, I knew that 7kts hitting you almost directly in the side was a big difference than 7 kts quartering from the front. The plane would be juuuust ready to lift-off and the wind would start trying to push us sideways. It was just enough wind to make me appreciate what it would be like to actually see REAL wind, but not enough to make it a baptism by fire experience.
As we climbed out, the crab angle necessary to track the centerline (or somewhere close) was pretty noticeable. As soon as I started leveling off on the downwind, I realized that I wouldn't be solo'ing today. It was a tad bumpy and the wind at 1700' was a little more than on the ground. But hey, lets see what this crosswind stuff is all about.
So, we make the turn to final and I let the plane windmill into the wind....It amazes me how the plane will setup almost exactly where you need to crab on final if you just stop trying to make it do it. As we crab down, I'm thinking..."ok, Franks...here it is. Let's not make a bloggable event out of this...."
As we crossed the threshold, push a little right rudder to line up, drop the left wing and hold it there. I must admit that this is NOT how I would have imagined a "Good" landing would look.
***For those of you who don't fly, the idea of landing in a crosswind is that you drop the upwind wing to keep you flying straight down the runway. At the same time, you use the rudders to keep the nose of the plane pointing straight down the runway. So, in a crosswind, you will land cross-controlled (aileron going one way, rudder going the other).
It's exactly the opposite of what your supposed to do when your up in the air....in fact any time I feel the cross-control in my ears, I want to scream "rudder! rudder! rudder!", but alas...no.....This is the one time I get to do it my way. ***
Back in the plane, I'm trying to figure out how much aileron it takes to counter the amount of wind blowing....and then how much rudder it takes to counter the aileron's effect on the nose.....and how much more aileron it takes to counter the effect of the rudder inputs that are making the wings drop....... and so on....and so on....and so on....
Before I know it, we're landing on the up-wind wheel just like we're supposed to. Pretty cool. I do have a problem with releasing the control inputs too quickly once the wheels touch. I guess I figure if we're on the ground, then I'm finished....dunno.
We ended up with about 4 good landings. I was getting more excited with each one, because I seem to be conquering my problem of judging my height when I'm at about 1-2 ft of altitude. Before, I mentioned that I was flaring fine, but when I thought I was about 1 ft off the ground, I'd land....always a bit harder than I wanted. Well, today, I seemed to be getting better at it. In fact, one landing, I managed to come across the numbers at about 80mph (a little fast). So, I knew I was going to float. I got it all setup and adjusted for the wind and kept the upwind wheel off the ground (at about 1ft agl) for more than 100ft while the plane slowed....then eerp, erp, erp. Way cool.
Kary suggested that we make it a short lesson. Since I wasn't going to get to solo, he wanted me to end on a good note and not do anything to screw with my confidence (how's that to blow your confidence ;) ). We taxied up with 36 minutes on the clock and probably the most fun flight I've had yet.
Solo is next. We've just got to get 'ol
Aeolus on my side. We'll see.....
jf
Waiting for the day....
Well, after some pretty nasty winds moved through last night, today offered up a bit calmer weather. I wasn't able to get out to the airport this morning (more of that work stuff), so when Dad called up and offered to ride with me this afternoon, I jumped at the chance.
I got to the airport about an hour before sunset, so I preflighted and had it ready to go by the time Dad made it there. We jumped in and away we went.....more rectangles around the runway.
With the wind nearly calm, it made for some fun flying and confidence building. Dad rode along and was always ready to...eh..."fix" anything that needed "fixing". After the last few lessons being in gusty conditions, today's calm wind offered a nice break. I figured out that I can actually do this thing.
I managed 7 "unassisted" landings and Dad even suggested making one with no flaps, just to mix it up and make for some good experience. It was different. My site picture was all screwed up, but I didn't break anything.
One thing that is driving me crazy on all my landings is my inability to get the nose up as high as I want before the wheels touch. I keep thinking I have another foot or so before touchdown, when SQUIRK (or BLAM!) I touchdown, almost unexpectedly. While I'm flaring and slowing down almost enough, I'd like to feel like I'm making the plane touch rather than it doing it to me. It's another one of those perception things. I've just got to do it more to make it right. I need to try looking further down the runway like several articles I've read mention, but I can't seem to remember that while I'm actually doing it.
But, like I told Dad and Kary, if thats the only thing I'm worrying about now, then I'm doing ok.
It was a beautiful evening to fly. Calm winds, cool spring weather (72 when we started) and nothing but landings in front of me.
Oh, well. Maybe one day next week I'll be able to manage a morning off with Kary AND the winds will be calmer....then if I can show up at the airport and not act like I've never seen a plane before, we'll see if I can pull this thing off.
But then again, like I told the guys at the airport....if Kary and I don't get scheduled to try this solo thing sometime soon, I may just go ahead and do it, then call him afterward to let him know :)
I can hear it now...."Hey Little Mac. I need you to sign something....."
.....maybe not.
jf
Hey! What are these pedals for!?!?!
Late last night, I decided that I could probably work in a lesson this morning. I had caught up on most of my outstanding issues at work and, what they hey? I needed the break. So, I emailed Kary (Heretoafter referred to as "LittleMac", but I digress) and scheduled us to be at LUG at 8:15 this morning.
The weather was calling for 10mph winds from the NNW, but I figured that I needed to get in the air no matter where it blew me (well, to a point). So, I woke up a little early this morning and turned on the weather. Predicting 15 mph winds by 9:00. I call up AWOS and it's 270 @ 4.
Hrmm. I'll bet I might be able to get this thing in. So, after calling up LittleMac (see below), we decided to give it a try. When I get to the airport, the wind is 290 @ 8. Still nothing too bad, so I go out, preflight the plane in the hanger.
When Kary arrived, I got the pleasure of meeting his father who was in town visiting from Georgia. As we pulled out the plane, I had a chance to talk to him a bit and get the scoop on Kary and some of his exploits. Apparently Mr. McNeal doesn't enjoy flying "little planes" quite as much as his son, but I did pick up on the fact that he never called him "Kary"....only Little Mack. Of course, there is no way I'm going to let this one slide.
So, LittleMac and I get in the plane and start it up. Well, wouldn't you know it. I tune in AWOS and now we're gusting to 15. "Let's give it a try" LittleMac says, so here we go.
Actually, compared to my last crosswind experience, it wasn't bad at all. The gusts were manageable and I dare say I never saw a 15 knot one. We took off, flew out to do some turns about a point and some S-Turns in the wind. I managed to lose the airport for about 3 minutes, and was juusssst about to figure it out when LittleMac managed to keep me from blowing through the departure end of the runway. (Seriously, I wasn't lost....just didn't know where I was :) We were on about the 280 radial from Shelbyville and were flying TO the VOR, so I was in the process of deducting that the 262 FROM radial should be off to my right when LittleMac distracted me with the information that the Citation that was leaving LUG might run over us. )
So, we entered the downwind and figured we'd try to do a landing or two. Actually, it was fun, in a sick demented sort of way. The wind was a bit stronger than my norm and was blowing slightly from the left. It was just enough to make me have to work a little for it.
I managed 3 landings (and one go around for the sadist in the cockpit) and each was a good lesson on moving my feet. Keeping the airplane in line isn't that hard until you push a bit on the rudder, then the plane lines up, but it screws up the aileron you already have in. Sooooo, landing was a learning experience, but a good one. Other than the last landing, none were....er...concerning.
The last one got hairy due to PIMA (pilot induced moronic activity). All was well until I was about 5 ft off the ground, then I just lost my mind and decided I should test the structural integrity of the gear. Only a little bounce, but enough to irritate me.
At any rate, my confidence is good, LittleMac's confidence in me is good and if I can ever get a calm day scheduled around my work and LM's work....I might do this thing alone........we'll see. Now...to find that shirt my wife bought for me last Christmas....MAN I hate that thing.......
jf
