Monday, May 15, 2017

Flying Lesson #121 - The Short and The Soft Of It

So yesterday at 2 I went to the airport to get a flying lesson in.

Winds were a gusty 13-15 out of 320 so it was a good crosswind kind of day. We were originally going to go to Linden but Ray said we would be going to Romeo as the runway was better aligned for the wind (being a 36/18 runway) than Linden's 27/9.

So I did a good crosswind takeoff and headed out to Romeo.

I then came in and did a normal landing at Romeo on Runway 36 and then the fun began. The winds were out of the left at Romeo, at times almost perpendicular at 27 with some good gusts. Yep the wind conditions were different at Romeo and made things fun.

I then did a short field takeoff which I have down technique wise and its pretty eassy in an Archer but feels like a sharp angle up - that nose is very high at 64 knots. Then came to do a short field landing and came in a bit too fast but at least I have abetter idea what I'm doing than before.

Next was a soft field takeoff and boy did the wind decide to mess with me on that takeoff. Heavy gust pushing me to the right as I'm at a high angle and trying to stay in ground effect. It was not a pretty takeoff but it worked. I then lined up for another short field landing and the wind gusted and pushed me on base, I almost had it lined up to recover but really didn't like how it was going - balancing a short approach, low airspeed, wind correction and realigning the approach path basically said it was go-round time, so I did. Ray said that was good aeronautical decision making.

I then did the pattern and came in for a decent short field landing with a very nice and stable approach.

The next soft field takeoff was better and I had a ton more wind correction in with some serious left aileron to stop the wind getting under that wing and pushing me off again. I then did a good short field landing and we did it again with a soft field takeoff and then a soft field landing - which felt a lot like a short field landing - in other words not so good.

Next the Aircoupe stationed on the field also started doing some patterns and we all played nicely together with good separation and communication.

We did a few more soft and short field landings and headed back to Pontiac.

As we were rolling down the runway to depart, a Citation came on that he was 3 miles out on final for Runway 36.

Yes, A Cessna Citation Jet cam in and did a short field landing. It certainly needed to do a short field as depending on if it was the XLS+ model it needs 3,180 ft for landing and Romeo is a 4,000 foot strip, and its going to need 3,560 to takeoff. It really ate up the runway but landed fine. Not a sight you see everyday at Romeo, that's for sure.

Then back to Pontiac and I did a forward slip to landing and did a nice crosswind landing.

I really need to get these soft and short landings perfected.

After fisnishign up we had a bit of a chat on what I need to work on and if the weather is good the next time I'm out will be solo and I'll be doing the altitude maneuvers and the ground reference maneuvers in the practice area.

1.6 and 7 landings.

No comments: