Shaking the rust off!

[Xyn_Air]

No important questions or words of wisdom here; just a short, amusing tale about hopping back into the cockpit after too many months away!

So, the last time I put my hands on the flight stick was about 3 1/2 months ago according to my flight log.  Just looking at the instrument panel and trying to remember which buttons did what was starting to make me worry.  Not wanting to get to fancy on my first flight back, and anxious to get started, I skipped flight plans and so on and started with my plane (a Cessna Skyhawk) already on the active runway and ready to go.  Note: my plane was ready to go, but I am not so sure that I was!

While taking off, I made sure to use the entire width of the runway - whether I needed to or not!  Had I been in a real airplane, I am sure the rudder, the landing gears, or my passenger's stomach would have given way before we even left the ground.  But, FS is forgiving in all the ways reality is not, so after a couple hundred feet or so I was able to get the plane heading straight along the runway and then up into the air.

Now, if I thought keeping the plane from going side-to-side was exciting, I was totally unprepared to keep it from bobbing up-and-down like a cork in the ocean.  My VSI did its very best to display +1,500fpm, -900fpm, +500fpm, -1,100fpm, and level flight simultaneously, while my aircraft did its very best to make that a reality.  All that time, I could have sworn that I was holding the flight stick steady as a rock.  I mean, I do remember that once upon a time I was able to gently ascend into the sky like a feather on a soft, summer breeze.  This was more like a trailer being picked up by a passing tornado.

Managing to keep the aircraft airborne and moving forward, I was able to settle into what could generally pass as or be mistaken for straight and level flight.  Well, it was straight and level flight for various, brief intervals.  When not in straight and level flight, the nose of my aircraft was sniffing around the skies like a dog sniffing around the yard after being kept inside too long.  Still, I swear that my elevation didn't vary by more than, oh, 300 feet give-or-take.  And to think, once I would have been cursing at myself if I had a unplanned 30-foot variation in my altitude.

Strangely, the one thing I did not struggle with was staying on my desired heading.  I remained in the airport pattern, so my flight path was a pretty simple set of 90 degree, left-hand turns.  Still, with everything else that wasn't going exactly as planned, that I could stay right on course was a pleasant, if mysterious, surprise.

After about 10 minutes in the air, it was time to land.  I gave myself plenty of room for my final approach.  Maybe a mile or two out, I was already at 20 degrees of flaps and down to about 60 knots.  And though I was a little to the right of the runway, I was able to get lined up with room and time to spare.  So it was that after I crossed over the edge of the runway, I flared the nose up, cut the throttle . . . and then realized I was still about 60 feet above the runway!

As the plane began to rapidly imitate a rock falling from the sky, I applied a lot of throttle in a hurry.  It was just enough!  I managed to land on the wheels without tearing them off (though, a review of the video replay shows a disconcerting amount of smoke coming off the wheels, and an even more disconcerting hop after the first touchdown).  I was relieved.  I was ecstatic.  I had managed to safely circle the airport and bring the plane back in for a landing that I could walk away from.  Rusty, yes, but still able to pull it all off.  Now, all that remained was to pick the next available exist and taxi off the runway . . .

Only, the "exit" that I picked happen to be another runway!  :o

So, the moral of the story is, don't let too much time go between flights, all the fundamentals are always important, and never, ever give me a PPL!



Still alive,
~Darrin

[beaky]

Nice write-up...
Shaking off FS rust is even harder than the real thing, I think.

Sounds like a classic case of "scale illusion", coupled with failing to look at the far end of the runway in the flare (it's easy to flare too high if you're fixated on the view just over the nose).

[Xyn_Air]

Nice write-up...
Shaking off FS rust is even harder than the real thing, I think.

Sounds like a classic case of "scale illusion", coupled with failing to look at the far end of the runway in the flare (it's easy to flare too high if you're fixated on the view just over the nose).

I have to admit that, yes, I was looking right over the nose of the aircraft and not down the runway.  Doh!  Another lesson learned (or, should I say, re-learned!).

Also, to give myself a little bit of a fair shake, since it has been so long since I have fired up FS, the settings are a little wonky and the frame-rate was absolutely horrible.  While FS, fo so many obvious reasons, is many times more forgiving that reality, visual acuity and the like is the opposite with FS being inordinately more punishing than reality.

Well, like the title says, right now it is about getting the rust off . . .



~Darrin

[Brett_Henderson]

That was a fun (and familiar  :-[ )  read ...  

[BFMF]

Nice write-up...
Shaking off FS rust is even harder than the real thing, I think.

Sounds like a classic case of "scale illusion", coupled with failing to look at the far end of the runway in the flare (it's easy to flare too high if you're fixated on the view just over the nose).

Last spring when I came home on leave, my Medical had just expired a few weeks prior, forcing me to go up with an instructor. It didn't bother me, since it had alreay been a good ten or so months since I had flown. We went up and he showed me a few flying techniques for mountain flying. There's a small grass strip on the other side of a little mountain range in North Idaho, and he asked me if I wanted to go there. "Sure, sounds fun" was my reply. The strip is a narrow strip on a slope, with tall trees on either side. To say it was nerveracking for me was an understatement. Between not flying at all in the last ten previous months, and the fact that the strip was on a slope, I flared just a few feet too high. I realized my mistake and quickly added power, but still managed to hit the ground hard. It was hard enough for me to genuinly wonder if I had damaged the landing gear, but he assured me I had hit only a third of how hard it was capable of. Thankfully, it was only my ego that was hurt...

[pepper_airborne]

Indeed does sound familiar, although i only make the mistakes on the landing .

[beaky]

Nice write-up...
Shaking off FS rust is even harder than the real thing, I think.

Sounds like a classic case of "scale illusion", coupled with failing to look at the far end of the runway in the flare (it's easy to flare too high if you're fixated on the view just over the nose).

Last spring when I came home on leave, my Medical had just expired a few weeks prior, forcing me to go up with an instructor. It didn't bother me, since it had alreay been a good ten or so months since I had flown. We went up and he showed me a few flying techniques for mountain flying. There's a small grass strip on the other side of a little mountain range in North Idaho, and he asked me if I wanted to go there. "Sure, sounds fun" was my reply. The strip is a narrow strip on a slope, with tall trees on either side. To say it was nerveracking for me was an understatement. Between not flying at all in the last ten previous months, and the fact that the strip was on a slope, I flared just a few feet too high. I realized my mistake and quickly added power, but still managed to hit the ground hard. It was hard enough for me to genuinly wonder if I had damaged the landing gear, but he assured me I had hit only a third of how hard it was capable of. Thankfully, it was only my ego that was hurt...

That had to be a Cessna.

[BFMF]

That had to be a Cessna.

That it is....

Their previous two trainer Cessna 172's were crashed, and I was a little worried about putting their third one out of commision

[JBaymore]

Xyn_air,

Welcome back.  Still in Japan?

I expect to be up there in Aomori-ken again this summer for about 6 weeks making pots.

best,

..................john

[Xyn_Air]

Xyn_air,

Welcome back.  Still in Japan?

I expect to be up there in Aomori-ken again this summer for about 6 weeks making pots.

best,

..................john

John!

Hallos!  Yeah, I am still out here in the inaka of Aomori.  I'll be here until the first few days of August, so if you are coming before then, let me know.

Speaking of Japan . . . one thing I have learned is that there does not seem to be a great number of private pilots here, at least not in comparison with the States (as a per capita percentage, that is; I realize that the U.S. would have a bigger total number of pilots regardless).  When I talk about wanting to get a PPL, everyone's eyes at work get very wide.

Just imagine how wide their eyes would get if they had seen these first few flights back in the saddle!  ;D  Hm, I want if this could be worked into my classes on American culture . . .

All the best,
~Darrin