![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfrToday's lesson had on tap more VOR practice and it was my choice as to where to do it. I opted for a short dual cross country down to Athens Texas, F44. I chose to fly via the Cedar Creek VORTAC.
I picked up the book on the plane from Mischa and went to start the preflight. Again, an airplane just back from it's 100 hour inspection and I'm the first one on the books with her. I preflighted again with extra care. Still wondering what the white tape on the top of the flaps is there for, and why didn't they replace the right brake pad. Still, she has new tires, air in the nose strut and fresh oil. If I didn't know any better, I'd think the A&P must have vacuumed the floor in there too. But maybe I'm just imagining that. ;)
What they didn't do is fill her up. She had less than half tanks when I got to her so I called for fuel while I went about the paperwork for before the flight. Mischa comes on out to the plane by this point and we go over the flight. He likes what I've done, with the except of the VOR heading I've written down after I make the turn. I had put it on the flight plan as 270 FROM He said that while that would work, it would make more sense to use the 90 TO. 90 is more the heading I'd be looking at flying on the DG so why not make things easy for myself. Then he asked why I had picked the 270 anyway. I told him that logically, to me it seemed that if I was flying FROM the VOR I should use the FROM radial. He nodded and said that made some sense, but if I did it this way, then the numbers would match and I'd be far less likely to be confused.
We called and picked up the recent weather and TFR's. I did a couple of last minute wind notes and numbers and we were ready to head off. The fuel had come, I had doubled checked to make sure the caps were put back on and it was really the right stuff in the tanks and we were ready to start.
Start her up and taxi out and what do I see but everyone there watching me get ready to go. Sorry I took so long guys. It had to be hot on the tarmac. We taxi past everyone and down to do our run up. No problems there and we are off and rolling for 16. I did a good takeoff this time, even hugged the centerline on take off. Unlike the one I had done just a bit earlier with Gary in his excellent example of a straight tail 172.
We're off, on a brand new cross country!
We went just north of the big transmission towers and I knew I was going to end up snugging up to Red Birds airspace. Going north of the towers was a last minute change suggested by Mischa. I hadn't prepared beforehand and didn't have their frequency on my cheat sheet. I found them on the sectional, put them in on the radio, called them and let them know we would be transitioning just south and west of their airspace. A tower came back and said transition approved, have a good day.
Notice I said 'a tower.' Mischa asked me what did they say before they said my call sign? I thought hard about it, then realized, Grand Prairie tower had responded. I looked at the sectional again and sure enough, I had been mislead by what I'd seen, being in a hurry makes for mistakes in reading sectionals I've decided. We were past their airspace and had managed to stay outside of it but it was still a reminder that I should be better prepared. We did our jog about the towers and I dialed in the frequency for the VOR and set up for my radial. We talked again about how to fly to intercept one, and I gave it a shot. It's going to take doing this a few more times before I get it down. I managed to get on the radial and even started having the things on the ground match the things I'd marked on my sectional. I had realized about 10 minutes before that I was still at 2500 feet, and could really climb now, but had been busy dealing with the VOR stuff and feeling good about matching my path on the sectional I didn't take the initiative and climb.
You know where this is going right? I sure do. Mischa finally asked where we were on the chart, how high could we go? I pointed to where we were and told him sky's the limit for us here. He said great, let's head up and find some cooler air.
I pitched for the climb, and we found some crazy thermals along the way. 1000 fpm + climbs, in a c172, in Texas, when it's nearly 100 degree's outside. This made it a bit hard to keep a constant altitude once I got up to where I wanted to be. But the temps were certainly better at 5500 feet. By this point I was still tracking the VOR radial and my ground track had fallen to following the power lines through this part of the country. Those are a BIT harder to really see know for sure what you are following from 5500 feet. Up ahead I saw Cedar Creek lake. I felt pretty good about that. So far, I'd managed to get us this far. We even saw the VORTAC on the ground. I made the turn and we intercepted the other radial and headed to F44.
As we got closer to Athens I started looking for the field, and started having the same old problem of invisible airfields. I had felt pretty good, I had seen a couple of other ones on the way out, how could F44 hide so dang well. Mischa was asking if I knew where we were on the chart, how would I find the field. What's that town there? I pointed to the chart and told him we should be right about here, yes, that's Athens just north of us. I KNOW the airfield should be right......
there....
(hangs head) it was off the nose and I was looking past it again. Will I ever learn that when all else fails, look CLOSE to you for those silly invisible airfields? We were high, of course, I thought I had a bit further to go, so I opted to turn south of the field and swing out so I could do a mid-field 45 degree entry into their patter for 17. I made my radio calls and worked the plane around the pattern. Their field is about 4000 feet and 60 feet wide. Another narrow short one (compared to my home field) and it threw me again. I was high, and slow to correct for it. I think subconsciously I am having a problem letting go of the altitude when I'm high like that. I think I must be afraid of then ending up too low and not being able to make the field. This will take some thinking on my part, and some practice to fix. I'm over the threshold and I'm fast, I keep the flair flat so that the 40 degree's of flaps I have out will slow us down and then I'll pitch it for the landing. Well, that's a good idea, only I didn't. I landed flat. And that is never a good thing. The nose popped up and we porpoised, just like last night. This one bounced, came back down, bounced a second time and I almost did a go around but it felt like I had just gotten things back together on it so I brought it down one last time as gently as I could and we touched left, then right then nose and I braked for the turn off.
Repeat after me. If you should find yourself in a porpoise in an airplane, just go around. If you are going to try to salvage it, by all means, LIFT the nose and ADD power to buffer the descent.
The next time I mess up like that. I'll handle it more correctly. No damage done, I had arrested the problem after the second bounce, but it could have gotten worse, and adding a bit of power would have sure made the final touchdown much nicer.
We taxied down to the end of the runway, did a quick, hot runup and were off again. I dialed in the reciprocals of the radials I used coming down and had a weird indication in my VOR. It was reading FROM. It shouldn't be reading FROM, it should be reading TO. I glanced at the DG, it said the right thing, I looked the wet compass, it said the right thing. I looked at the ground, the sectional, everything there was in the right place. What gives? Mischa and I futz with the indicator and it was still showing FROM, but the needle was moving correctly. We dialed it in on the upper NAV and it showed TO like it was supposed to. Strange, the lower gauge had worked fine on the way down. I started to intercept my radial with the upper indicator while we talked. After a few minutes of flying I went back to futzing a bit with the dial again. Mischa watched me with some amusement I think. I finally tapped the glass a couple of times. THEN the flag flipped. Yep, just like a PC I said. How's that he asked? If they don't work right the first time, just kick them in the side of the case a couple of times, it usually fixes them. ;) He laughed and soon it was time to turn north on the other radial.
I tracked back to GKY, cutting north around the towers again, staying south and west of the Red Bird, I dropped altitude when I had to, but was advised I should think a bit further ahead next time. And low we are over the end of Joe Pool lake. The transmission towers on Cedar Hill are obnoxious!! I HATE coming in of them over the lake. To much static!!
I'd already had the weather on the bottom radio so I picked up the winds and altimeter. Brought us in on the 45, made my calls. Flew my pattern, dropped a bit of altitude when I joined in on base. I've got to watch and make sure that either I put back in cruise power, or I retrim for the lower RPM in order to keep my altitude. Getting a little sloppy there. I dropped in my flaps and power settings when I needed. Made my turns, got her lined up and worked her all the way down the centerline. We had a crosswind (of course, the wind ALWAYS blows ACROSS the runways doesn't it) but I handled it fairly well. We had a big sink going over some buildings north of 20 before the airport, added a little power to stabilize that out. It was a really nice landing, until I dropped out the crosswind correction during the rollout. (hangs head) (will do better, soon!!)
Put her back on the centerline and Mischa said to take her around again. Another pattern, this time with a twin ahead of us in the patter flying a LONG final. I watch him, extend my downwind until he's abeam us and I then reduce power, and start my turn. This time I only take 20 degree's of flaps because we are a LONG way from the airport but I work it, riding my speed all the way down, I came in a bit higher over the sink so I wouldn't have to add the power, had the field made, had the cross wind correction in, had the centerline in, had us lined up, worked for the landing, and ended up just a bit off the centerline to the right, but not by much. I landed and HELD the dang crosswind correction in until I turned off the runway and cleaned everything up. I called that one a 8 or 9 out of 10 for effort and keeping the stupid crosswind correction in. Mischa agreed. Off to park it and clean up the plane for the next student.
This short cross country went well. I was MUCH more ahead of everything this time around. Even with the botched call to the wrong tower early on, I had FAR fewer problems with finding things, with managing the tasks in the cockpit than I did when we went to Possum Kingdom. I really felt good about this one. I planned it, I flew it, I found everything I meant to along the way. Even with the bad landing at F44, it was a GOOD lesson, a good cross country. Even Mischa agrees.
Next up... I don't know.. I think more air work, more landings. All I know is that it'll be HOT down low tomorrow.
--2.0 hours dual
--3 landings
I picked up the book on the plane from Mischa and went to start the preflight. Again, an airplane just back from it's 100 hour inspection and I'm the first one on the books with her. I preflighted again with extra care. Still wondering what the white tape on the top of the flaps is there for, and why didn't they replace the right brake pad. Still, she has new tires, air in the nose strut and fresh oil. If I didn't know any better, I'd think the A&P must have vacuumed the floor in there too. But maybe I'm just imagining that. ;)
What they didn't do is fill her up. She had less than half tanks when I got to her so I called for fuel while I went about the paperwork for before the flight. Mischa comes on out to the plane by this point and we go over the flight. He likes what I've done, with the except of the VOR heading I've written down after I make the turn. I had put it on the flight plan as 270 FROM He said that while that would work, it would make more sense to use the 90 TO. 90 is more the heading I'd be looking at flying on the DG so why not make things easy for myself. Then he asked why I had picked the 270 anyway. I told him that logically, to me it seemed that if I was flying FROM the VOR I should use the FROM radial. He nodded and said that made some sense, but if I did it this way, then the numbers would match and I'd be far less likely to be confused.
We called and picked up the recent weather and TFR's. I did a couple of last minute wind notes and numbers and we were ready to head off. The fuel had come, I had doubled checked to make sure the caps were put back on and it was really the right stuff in the tanks and we were ready to start.
Start her up and taxi out and what do I see but everyone there watching me get ready to go. Sorry I took so long guys. It had to be hot on the tarmac. We taxi past everyone and down to do our run up. No problems there and we are off and rolling for 16. I did a good takeoff this time, even hugged the centerline on take off. Unlike the one I had done just a bit earlier with Gary in his excellent example of a straight tail 172.
We're off, on a brand new cross country!
We went just north of the big transmission towers and I knew I was going to end up snugging up to Red Birds airspace. Going north of the towers was a last minute change suggested by Mischa. I hadn't prepared beforehand and didn't have their frequency on my cheat sheet. I found them on the sectional, put them in on the radio, called them and let them know we would be transitioning just south and west of their airspace. A tower came back and said transition approved, have a good day.
Notice I said 'a tower.' Mischa asked me what did they say before they said my call sign? I thought hard about it, then realized, Grand Prairie tower had responded. I looked at the sectional again and sure enough, I had been mislead by what I'd seen, being in a hurry makes for mistakes in reading sectionals I've decided. We were past their airspace and had managed to stay outside of it but it was still a reminder that I should be better prepared. We did our jog about the towers and I dialed in the frequency for the VOR and set up for my radial. We talked again about how to fly to intercept one, and I gave it a shot. It's going to take doing this a few more times before I get it down. I managed to get on the radial and even started having the things on the ground match the things I'd marked on my sectional. I had realized about 10 minutes before that I was still at 2500 feet, and could really climb now, but had been busy dealing with the VOR stuff and feeling good about matching my path on the sectional I didn't take the initiative and climb.
You know where this is going right? I sure do. Mischa finally asked where we were on the chart, how high could we go? I pointed to where we were and told him sky's the limit for us here. He said great, let's head up and find some cooler air.
I pitched for the climb, and we found some crazy thermals along the way. 1000 fpm + climbs, in a c172, in Texas, when it's nearly 100 degree's outside. This made it a bit hard to keep a constant altitude once I got up to where I wanted to be. But the temps were certainly better at 5500 feet. By this point I was still tracking the VOR radial and my ground track had fallen to following the power lines through this part of the country. Those are a BIT harder to really see know for sure what you are following from 5500 feet. Up ahead I saw Cedar Creek lake. I felt pretty good about that. So far, I'd managed to get us this far. We even saw the VORTAC on the ground. I made the turn and we intercepted the other radial and headed to F44.
As we got closer to Athens I started looking for the field, and started having the same old problem of invisible airfields. I had felt pretty good, I had seen a couple of other ones on the way out, how could F44 hide so dang well. Mischa was asking if I knew where we were on the chart, how would I find the field. What's that town there? I pointed to the chart and told him we should be right about here, yes, that's Athens just north of us. I KNOW the airfield should be right......
there....
(hangs head) it was off the nose and I was looking past it again. Will I ever learn that when all else fails, look CLOSE to you for those silly invisible airfields? We were high, of course, I thought I had a bit further to go, so I opted to turn south of the field and swing out so I could do a mid-field 45 degree entry into their patter for 17. I made my radio calls and worked the plane around the pattern. Their field is about 4000 feet and 60 feet wide. Another narrow short one (compared to my home field) and it threw me again. I was high, and slow to correct for it. I think subconsciously I am having a problem letting go of the altitude when I'm high like that. I think I must be afraid of then ending up too low and not being able to make the field. This will take some thinking on my part, and some practice to fix. I'm over the threshold and I'm fast, I keep the flair flat so that the 40 degree's of flaps I have out will slow us down and then I'll pitch it for the landing. Well, that's a good idea, only I didn't. I landed flat. And that is never a good thing. The nose popped up and we porpoised, just like last night. This one bounced, came back down, bounced a second time and I almost did a go around but it felt like I had just gotten things back together on it so I brought it down one last time as gently as I could and we touched left, then right then nose and I braked for the turn off.
Repeat after me. If you should find yourself in a porpoise in an airplane, just go around. If you are going to try to salvage it, by all means, LIFT the nose and ADD power to buffer the descent.
The next time I mess up like that. I'll handle it more correctly. No damage done, I had arrested the problem after the second bounce, but it could have gotten worse, and adding a bit of power would have sure made the final touchdown much nicer.
We taxied down to the end of the runway, did a quick, hot runup and were off again. I dialed in the reciprocals of the radials I used coming down and had a weird indication in my VOR. It was reading FROM. It shouldn't be reading FROM, it should be reading TO. I glanced at the DG, it said the right thing, I looked the wet compass, it said the right thing. I looked at the ground, the sectional, everything there was in the right place. What gives? Mischa and I futz with the indicator and it was still showing FROM, but the needle was moving correctly. We dialed it in on the upper NAV and it showed TO like it was supposed to. Strange, the lower gauge had worked fine on the way down. I started to intercept my radial with the upper indicator while we talked. After a few minutes of flying I went back to futzing a bit with the dial again. Mischa watched me with some amusement I think. I finally tapped the glass a couple of times. THEN the flag flipped. Yep, just like a PC I said. How's that he asked? If they don't work right the first time, just kick them in the side of the case a couple of times, it usually fixes them. ;) He laughed and soon it was time to turn north on the other radial.
I tracked back to GKY, cutting north around the towers again, staying south and west of the Red Bird, I dropped altitude when I had to, but was advised I should think a bit further ahead next time. And low we are over the end of Joe Pool lake. The transmission towers on Cedar Hill are obnoxious!! I HATE coming in of them over the lake. To much static!!
I'd already had the weather on the bottom radio so I picked up the winds and altimeter. Brought us in on the 45, made my calls. Flew my pattern, dropped a bit of altitude when I joined in on base. I've got to watch and make sure that either I put back in cruise power, or I retrim for the lower RPM in order to keep my altitude. Getting a little sloppy there. I dropped in my flaps and power settings when I needed. Made my turns, got her lined up and worked her all the way down the centerline. We had a crosswind (of course, the wind ALWAYS blows ACROSS the runways doesn't it) but I handled it fairly well. We had a big sink going over some buildings north of 20 before the airport, added a little power to stabilize that out. It was a really nice landing, until I dropped out the crosswind correction during the rollout. (hangs head) (will do better, soon!!)
Put her back on the centerline and Mischa said to take her around again. Another pattern, this time with a twin ahead of us in the patter flying a LONG final. I watch him, extend my downwind until he's abeam us and I then reduce power, and start my turn. This time I only take 20 degree's of flaps because we are a LONG way from the airport but I work it, riding my speed all the way down, I came in a bit higher over the sink so I wouldn't have to add the power, had the field made, had the cross wind correction in, had the centerline in, had us lined up, worked for the landing, and ended up just a bit off the centerline to the right, but not by much. I landed and HELD the dang crosswind correction in until I turned off the runway and cleaned everything up. I called that one a 8 or 9 out of 10 for effort and keeping the stupid crosswind correction in. Mischa agreed. Off to park it and clean up the plane for the next student.
This short cross country went well. I was MUCH more ahead of everything this time around. Even with the botched call to the wrong tower early on, I had FAR fewer problems with finding things, with managing the tasks in the cockpit than I did when we went to Possum Kingdom. I really felt good about this one. I planned it, I flew it, I found everything I meant to along the way. Even with the bad landing at F44, it was a GOOD lesson, a good cross country. Even Mischa agrees.
Next up... I don't know.. I think more air work, more landings. All I know is that it'll be HOT down low tomorrow.
--2.0 hours dual
--3 landings