Flight Journal: flight 48, 49

[beaky]

Flight 48, 49

08-04-96

1979 C-172N
TEB-FWN
0.5 dual
3 landings

"Norm & short to/lng, VOR nav, normal TP"


-supervised solo-

FWN
0.5 solo
6 landings

"Supervised solo: norm/short, TP"


 4600 SCT, 6000 BKN, wind variable 4 kts,
vis 6 mi haze
80F

Yesterday was too foggy, so I sat in the classroom watching training videos. Probably for the best, as I hadn't slept very well the previous night.
Today I'm in good shape, and I arrive early for an afternoon flight. It's hot and hazy, but it should be OK.
Plan is to visit MMU after a little airwork and do some touch-and-gos.
BUT... ,  apparently 6FR is stranded at FWN with a bum transponder. A. wants to swap it out with the one in 23F (I'm scheduled in 23F), and he asks if I'd be willing to fly 23F out there and catch a ride back by car with him. This will add about 20 minutes to the plan, so A. graciously agrees that I will pay only for one hour of dual, no matter how long the side-trip takes. This seems like a good deal to me; I accept.
So, an annoying surprise turns out to be a blessing, as will soon become apparent.


I head out to the practice area NW of TEB, but once there, C. says: "screw the maneuvers- take me to MMU for touch-and-gos".
Whatever. Time for some radio nav... C. tells me to tune in the Paterson NDB and head to it. Once again he messes me up by doing about half of the procedure, and I'm quickly confused by the ADF reading, because he hasn't set the card properly.
Eventually I get it sorted out, and soon I take us past N07, then I'm making contact with the tower at MMU.

I forget to request touch-and-gos, as I'm assuming we'll do a full-stop first. This becomes a problem only because when I decide to mention it, we are denied by the controller. She has a full pattern, and is "unable".

So off we go to Sussex, heading first for the Sparta VOR. I do quite well tracking an inbound radial- in practice this is all much easier to understand than it is in writing.
The wind is calm at Sussex, but they're using runway 21, which means that as I turn to base my view will be obstructed by "Freeloader Hill', as it's often called because people gather there to watch the annual airshow without paying. It is just tall enough to intimidate me a little on final, but I get us down fine.
We taxi around and C. has me do two more circuits, with him scolding me throughout. I am rusty and a bit uncomfortable at this unfamiliar field. None of my old familiar visual cues are here to help me; my patterns are not tidy enough.
But as we taxi after a landing, C. asks me if I'd like to take her around a few times by myself. We've apparently got plenty of time before A. arrives to pick us up.
I taxi over by the fuel pump, on the big apron where the superstar airshow pilots park during the show. By the hangar, a group of airport denizens sit in the shade of a tin roof, and one of them has a 2-way station before him on a table. Here is "Mr. Unicom".
"Can I help you?" Mr. Unicom asks as I sit idling 23F while C. extricates himself and some belongings.
"Negative," I reply laconically. "Just discharging a passenger; thanks."
C. pauses. "Passenger?" he says with mock indignance.
"Yep", I say, grinning. This is fun- the banter, getting him out of my hair for a while, flying 23F SOLO- !


 Solo... it still sounds wonderful. I decide to begin with a short-field takeoff, and almost forget to lower a notch of flaps before rolling- Must! Use! Checklist!! I tell myself sternly.
Takeoff is good, but I have also forgotten to anticipate the lighter gross weight, and I find myself hunting a little for the right pitch angle. My pattern is not great, but I get things squared up by the downwind leg.
First landing: good, but not great. I flare high, letting the runway width fool me (it's about twice the width of N07's, but much narrower than any at TEB).
Taxi around, and another takeoff, this time without flaps. But I'm still not ahead of the now-lighter plane- she gets airborne before I'm ready, and I drift a little on climbout, then overturn onto my crosswind.
I've been hearing a strange, anonymous clicking in the headset. What the hell is that? I wonder. I call midfield downwind, and hear it again. Hmmm... of course. It's Mr. Unicom, letting me know I have been heard and understood.
Once again I make my way around the hill, and I make a much better landing. As I pass the apron, I look over to see if A. has arrived yet. I don't see him, so I'm free to try again.
Next, another short: I impress myself this time by getting airborne just past the midfield taxiway. But as I look back, enjoying resting my arm on the now-empty seat back, I see that I've drifted right. Probably too much right rudder...

After turning crosswind, I hear "Sussex traffic, skydivers over Sussex, ten thousand."

Well, now. This is novel... how long will it take for them to reach the pattern, falling at over 100kts from 10,000?
I've never had this explained to me, and my math skills fail me suddenly, so I decide to forge ahead and keep a sharp lookout. They will definitely open their canopies above the pattern altitude, so they'll be easy to spot. I slow down early on final, so as to get a very good look before turning. I finally spot the first canopy, a tandem jump, as I glide down final. I guestimate that I'll be down and rolling before they touch down,and I can see that their DZ is a large grassy area north of the runway.
My guesstimate is perfect. As I roll out, I see them touch down, the canopy collapsing as I roll past the DZ. I know there's another one, so I'm watching as I taxi... I stop for a moment, and there it is. I continue after watching the jumper gather up the canopy.

Another fine takeoff follows. This is very useful, working out the bugs alone. My pattern is also better this time, and I decide to land well short, making a properly steep descent. But I'm just too damn high at the top of final; on the way down I think: this has no chance in hell. You're hot... not good...

C. had advised me that I should go around here if I don't touch down by the midfield taxiway. So far I've touched down well before it, but on this attempt I can see that with the extra speed, thing will soon get ugly unless I go around. Already in ground effect, I advance the throttle... too quickly. 23F's growl fades for a moment, as the engine falters. But in the next instant, the growl resumes and rises into a roar, and we get airborne just before the end of the runway flashes by.
Interesting, I think, but let's not do that again, shall we?
I climb out for another try.

Carb heat abeam the numbers throttle back flaps 10 looking for 70... good.

Base leg: more flaps less power around the hill... whoops. Already too low for a proper short landing. But I'm determined to touch down short, even if the approach is shallower than I'd hoped. I slide 23F past the hill at 65, gliding quietly over some power lines... then she seems to start floating as I try to settle down to flare. But she relaxes quickly, and sets herself down right on the numbers!! Eureka!!

I pull back slowly and gently, retracting the flaps, and as I bring 23F to a leisurely halt, there is the midfield taxiway.

Amazing. That was truly a fine short-field landing, albeit a shallow approach.
The key to my partial success here, it seems clear, is airspeed control. The shallow approach kept me from diving in at the last moment- I definitely worked better from under the glideslope than over it.
I taxi close to the hangar again to look for A., but before I get there, I hear Mr. Unicom again:

"23F, you can go around again... 2 more times."

Apparently C. has relayed this message to me, and it is good news.

 
My last two patterns are pretty good, but I bounce on the last landing. Just once, and she didn't thump down hard after bouncing.
I see A. on the ramp after that one, and taxi over to park it, chagrined that this was probably the only landing he saw.

All told, a splendid session... but the total was exactly one hour, including the solo time, which should technically be at a lower rate. I'm so elated at my 1/2 hour of solo flight that this doesn't dawn on me until later.

The 45-minute drive back to TEB, with A's wife at the wheel, reminds me of how much safer I feel in the sky than on the highway...

Next- lesson 50: tired student. loose screws

[Brett_Henderson]

I sure do enjoy these posts  :)  I could reply to each thing that reminds me  (oh so clearly) of my own expereinces.. but it would pretty much end up as a duplicate post..  :D

Can't help but comment on the ADF card. One of the many ways that simming can help a pilot's training along, is that you can drill yourself to ignore the compass card on the ADF. Spinning that card to match every heading change is just another "chore", in what could be an already busy, IFR cockpit. ADFs aren't that accurate to begin with.

Even if you're flying a published NDB approach.. your DG will be off by a few degrees; you'll be adjusting for winds aloft; and your matching of the DG on the compass card will be off by a few degrees. The old mental superimpostion of the ADF needle onto the DG works out fine.

Of course, NDBs are fading fast, so the point is moot.. I just can't stop myself from typing, once I start..

[beaky]

I'm glad somebody's reading these...
I don't really care; it's fun just re-reading them, and re-living them... and this is part of the process of typing up all these notebooks full of scribbles.