508 is back!! - Lesson 31
Aug. 20th, 2006 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfr508 came back from its extended 100 hour this afternoon. A bunch of instrumentation had been removed, sent out, cleaned, returned, reinstalled. New seat belts were in order, as well as a new brake on the right hand side. I grabbed it on the schedule for an hour this afternoon.
I got to the airport, talked with Mischa for a bit, showed him some of the pics from Kansas. I talked with him about the Athens cross country for saturday, and went over with him about my thoughts for a long cross country from here, to Fort Worth Spinks for 1 full stop landing, off to Mineral Wells for a landing, then up to Graham for a landing, then back pilotage to GKY. He asked a few questions, checked my distances, then told me to work it up and bring it and Athens back to him as full flight plans and he'll sign me off for them.
He looked in his book and asked when we'd last flown together, and it's been a bit over a week now. We scheduled for a quick dual lesson on wednesday night, just so that he can be comfortable with my abilities before he sends me out on the cross countries. I'm stacking the deck in my favor, not only did I shoot a half hour of landings today, but have scheduled hour sessions on Monday and Tuesday night after work as well.
So on with the flying!
I called for fuel and preflighted the airplane. Noticed the few new things installed on the airplane, they even fixed the window on the pilots side. It'll stay open now without flapping in the wind! Ah! The comfort of open window flying in Texas in a C172. :) Fuel arrived, pumped, and cleared away. Everything checked one last time, then it's in and getting ready to start and taxi. Checks complete, engine started, a quick brake test. Then another. The brakes are balanced even, the new one isn't grabbing more than the old one. How NICE! A short taxi ride later and I'm doing my engine run-up. Everything checks out okay. The gyros are a little less whiney now that they've been cleaned. So far everything looks to be hooked back up correctly.
I make my radio calls, taxi onto the runway, line up, power smoothly forward, listening closely for anything odd sounding in the engine. It doesn't miss a beat. We are rolling, rudder feeds in to help on the roll. Engine is green, airspeed alive, rotation, then the climb. 508 seems sprightly today. It could be the placebo effect, the knowledge that it's just come back from a big inspection and fix up, but she sure seems to be a nice plane this afternoon.
I call my pattern, flying behind another plane, the first landing to be no flaps, I have to extend my downwind due to the long final the other plane is flying, so I have to carry a touch of power on the landing until the field is made. Power off, everything is lined up, flare, feel for it, lower, lower, speed is bleeding off, and we drive a bit lower, one wheel, the second.. then the nose. Nice landing. No side loading. Power up and I'm of again. The second landing goes almost the same as the first, I'm a little high on my flare, but not too bad, float a little, but roll it on before taking off again.
The 3rd landing everyone had cleared from the pattern. I make my turn to base early, not wanting to drag in on the no flap landing, but by turning early, I'm hitting some big thermals now and the plane doesn't want to lose altitude. I'm high, and tight on the base and final. Options are a slip, full flaps NOW, or go around. This is 508, I've got 40 degrees of barn doors to drop out there in the wind. Full flaps it is on the final. In they go, pitch the nose down to keep the speed at 70 and my descent angle is amazing. :) Over the threshold, remembering that I tend to flare late with flaps in I start to flare, but am too high, by far too much. 40 degrees of flaps are an amazing thing at bringing you down in a hurry, they are also an amazing thing at bleeding off all of your airspeed. I quickly lower the nose and bump the power just a bit to stabilize things, to keep my speed up. I pull the power back out as things are now in the happy place again and I start a flare at the right height. The speed comes out, and I land, nose high, a comfortable firmness on the main gear, but not too bad. I ease the nose down, and clean up the plane, flaps coming up first, carb heat, then power in smoothly and we are off again.
The last landing I will shoot today is a repeat of the 3rd, with the exception that I am now expecting to be high and tight on the base to final so I add in my flaps in stages, 10 degree's when I pull power abeam the touchdown markers, 20 on base, the last on final. Everything is looking nice, then the wind shifts, now blowing out of the east, directly across the runway. It pushes me off my centerline. It's not going to win though, I drop the wing, a bit too much, ease it back out and line myself up again, a bit of rudder and I'm straight and I flare, nose is up and the left main touches first, we roll a moment, then the right settles, the the nose, as the speed comes off I feed in more aileron for the crosswind and hold it until I brake and turn off the runway. Nice, it all came together and I didn't drop anything out this time before I should.
I cleaned up the plane, taxied it back and parked. Shut her down and sat for a moment and reflected. Yesterday I flew to Kansas and back with friends for the Cessna fly-in at the factory. Today, I took up 508 for a short flight, just around the pattern. How much things have changed lately. Wow...
More flying to come this week, then solo cross countries if the weather permits on the weekend. This is just fun. :)
--0.6 solo
--4 landings
I got to the airport, talked with Mischa for a bit, showed him some of the pics from Kansas. I talked with him about the Athens cross country for saturday, and went over with him about my thoughts for a long cross country from here, to Fort Worth Spinks for 1 full stop landing, off to Mineral Wells for a landing, then up to Graham for a landing, then back pilotage to GKY. He asked a few questions, checked my distances, then told me to work it up and bring it and Athens back to him as full flight plans and he'll sign me off for them.
He looked in his book and asked when we'd last flown together, and it's been a bit over a week now. We scheduled for a quick dual lesson on wednesday night, just so that he can be comfortable with my abilities before he sends me out on the cross countries. I'm stacking the deck in my favor, not only did I shoot a half hour of landings today, but have scheduled hour sessions on Monday and Tuesday night after work as well.
So on with the flying!
I called for fuel and preflighted the airplane. Noticed the few new things installed on the airplane, they even fixed the window on the pilots side. It'll stay open now without flapping in the wind! Ah! The comfort of open window flying in Texas in a C172. :) Fuel arrived, pumped, and cleared away. Everything checked one last time, then it's in and getting ready to start and taxi. Checks complete, engine started, a quick brake test. Then another. The brakes are balanced even, the new one isn't grabbing more than the old one. How NICE! A short taxi ride later and I'm doing my engine run-up. Everything checks out okay. The gyros are a little less whiney now that they've been cleaned. So far everything looks to be hooked back up correctly.
I make my radio calls, taxi onto the runway, line up, power smoothly forward, listening closely for anything odd sounding in the engine. It doesn't miss a beat. We are rolling, rudder feeds in to help on the roll. Engine is green, airspeed alive, rotation, then the climb. 508 seems sprightly today. It could be the placebo effect, the knowledge that it's just come back from a big inspection and fix up, but she sure seems to be a nice plane this afternoon.
I call my pattern, flying behind another plane, the first landing to be no flaps, I have to extend my downwind due to the long final the other plane is flying, so I have to carry a touch of power on the landing until the field is made. Power off, everything is lined up, flare, feel for it, lower, lower, speed is bleeding off, and we drive a bit lower, one wheel, the second.. then the nose. Nice landing. No side loading. Power up and I'm of again. The second landing goes almost the same as the first, I'm a little high on my flare, but not too bad, float a little, but roll it on before taking off again.
The 3rd landing everyone had cleared from the pattern. I make my turn to base early, not wanting to drag in on the no flap landing, but by turning early, I'm hitting some big thermals now and the plane doesn't want to lose altitude. I'm high, and tight on the base and final. Options are a slip, full flaps NOW, or go around. This is 508, I've got 40 degrees of barn doors to drop out there in the wind. Full flaps it is on the final. In they go, pitch the nose down to keep the speed at 70 and my descent angle is amazing. :) Over the threshold, remembering that I tend to flare late with flaps in I start to flare, but am too high, by far too much. 40 degrees of flaps are an amazing thing at bringing you down in a hurry, they are also an amazing thing at bleeding off all of your airspeed. I quickly lower the nose and bump the power just a bit to stabilize things, to keep my speed up. I pull the power back out as things are now in the happy place again and I start a flare at the right height. The speed comes out, and I land, nose high, a comfortable firmness on the main gear, but not too bad. I ease the nose down, and clean up the plane, flaps coming up first, carb heat, then power in smoothly and we are off again.
The last landing I will shoot today is a repeat of the 3rd, with the exception that I am now expecting to be high and tight on the base to final so I add in my flaps in stages, 10 degree's when I pull power abeam the touchdown markers, 20 on base, the last on final. Everything is looking nice, then the wind shifts, now blowing out of the east, directly across the runway. It pushes me off my centerline. It's not going to win though, I drop the wing, a bit too much, ease it back out and line myself up again, a bit of rudder and I'm straight and I flare, nose is up and the left main touches first, we roll a moment, then the right settles, the the nose, as the speed comes off I feed in more aileron for the crosswind and hold it until I brake and turn off the runway. Nice, it all came together and I didn't drop anything out this time before I should.
I cleaned up the plane, taxied it back and parked. Shut her down and sat for a moment and reflected. Yesterday I flew to Kansas and back with friends for the Cessna fly-in at the factory. Today, I took up 508 for a short flight, just around the pattern. How much things have changed lately. Wow...
More flying to come this week, then solo cross countries if the weather permits on the weekend. This is just fun. :)
--0.6 solo
--4 landings