152/heavy - Lesson 35
Sep. 1st, 2006 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfrI had today off work. I got up early and the weather was just looking so nice so I scheduled my favorite 172 for an hour of touch and go's at 10 this morning. I figured I'd welcome in the first day of the new tower in full functioning glory at GKY. I got to the airport and found out that the C152 was back on the line after having the rudder pedal fixed. A quick call to Mischa and we were set for 11 am to go out and get me checked out on the 152. 508 sits on the tarmac looking lonely, but it's time to check out in a smaller plane!
I went out to the plane to check how much fuel it had in it. A little less than half tanks. That puts our weight and balance and gross weight within allowable limits for two. I had a lot of time to kill before Mischa would arrive so I grabbed the PIM out of the glove box, dug around the cockpit and found the checklist they've been using. I haven't sat in a 152 in more than 16 years. Would I even still fit? At 6 foot 4 it was an exercise in creative folding to get my size 13 feet into the cockpit. I think I'll need to get in first before Mischa to get situated. Plugging in the headset first would be a good idea too.
Small. In a word, small. The 152 is certainly the little brother of the C172 and looks it. 67712 is a pretty basic 152, built in 1978 she has one radio, one nav, pretty basic instruments. The intercom is one that is velcroed to the floor. The wing is lower to the ground, I have to duck under the 172 wing, but it's quite a bit further on the 152. Heck, I can stand in front of the wing and reach the fuel caps. The Tach is over on the far right. That's going to be a little annoying. The tank selector is either on, or off, not other setting, and it's up between the seats along the lip. More something you reach down and feel than see.
Mischa arrives and I preflight the airplane. It's pretty much the same, just smaller. It has less oil in the crankcase, the seats don't adjust up, and they are already at the far end of the rails. He quizzes me on some of the speeds. I've been running through the checklists and have most of the important ones. Stall clean and dirty, normal approach speeds, best glides. Things look good, so I fold myself into the plane. Mischa follows, we buckle up and then manage to close the doors.
Snug... But doable. A call to ground and we are cleared to taxi to the runup area for 16. Away we go. The pedals are smaller, or seem to be to me and I'm hitting the brakes a bit more than normal. I adjust me feet a little and I'm doing better. Run up completes fairly well, though we lean the engine for full power on the ground, not something I've ever needed to do on the 172. Then again, we are a 152, running very near maximum weight, and it's starting to get a little warm.
I taxi into position and call tower, who clears me to take off, asking my intentions. I tell them I'd like to stay in the pattern and am instructed to make right close traffic. Power goes in, the rudder travels, but not quite far enough and we drift left on the take off. Rotation then a little longer in ground effect to build speed and pitch for climb. Anemic. Don't fly this at max when it's 105 in Texas my friends. In the 172 I could get away with being a little sloppy on my Vy speed. Not so in the 152. If you are going to get anything out of her you'd better hold 67 to 70 knots.
We make our pattern and shoot the first landing. The first with no flaps and it's interesting. As others have said, she's much more responsive with the power off than the 172 is. I do an okay landing, firm, but not bad and the power goes in, ooops, not enough right rudder again and I'm off. Better control on climb airspeed and we make altitude quicker. I'm drifting off the runway centerline because I'm tending to hold too much right rudder once I'm off the runway now and the ball isn't centered. In 67712 the turn/slip indicator, the white paint behind the ball, is all about worn away. It's there, you CAN see it, but you can also feel it in the seat of your pants easier in the 152 than in the 172.
We shoot several more landings, we start working with the flaps because it seems to be the way the 152 likes to be landed the most. Airspeeds are close, about 5 knots off the 172, but she does require you to carry power on the landing until you are ready to flare. Otherwise she likes to sink like a brick.
On our last landing I did a really nice job and greased the plane onto the runway, holding centerline nicely. I pushed the power in and started to feed in the rudder and something wasn't right. The plane started pulling to the right far more than it should with the amount of rudder I had in. I backed out the rudder, tried to feed in left rudder to counteract the right pull, the pull got stronger. Mischa said, "right brake." I said, "Not me, full left rudder." We are veering more to the right and I'm thinking a brake is stuck, Mischa says, "Tire..." and I am already pulling the throttle back and we slow to a stop, resting at the edge of the runway. Mischa calls the tower and lets them know we have had a flat on take off. The tire is off the rim.
I ran over the events leading up to it. Was it something I'd done? Did I land with too much side load and roll the tire off the rim? No, it was a perfect landing, slow, full stall, no side-loading, a greaser. Was it low when I did the preflight? No, it was fine then, they both looked good. Better than some of the other tires on the fleet. Just a flat, it picked that moment to start to loose air. We can't tell from what we can see of the tire if it blew out, we don't think so, we didn't hear anything like that, it just lost air all of a sudden. The tower closes the runway while we wait a tug to come pick us up and carry us back to the mechanic. With any luck he'll have the tire replaced for David who is on the schedule later today to fly her.
So, that's the story of my 152 checkout this morning. Mischa endorsed my logbook and 712 is now an airplane I can fly. Not only can I land it, I also know very well how to handle a flat on take off. So, not only did I get to welcome in the tower on their first day of full operation, I got to be a part of their first runway closure.
I'll take 712 up next week sometime and shoot some more landings by myself, probably close to an hour. Then next weekend, she'll run my long solo cross country with me. It'll be different running it with only one com radio. Mischa's only negative comments about my flying today was that my patterns are a bit looser than he'd like. Make then square with the field, not the roads, and watch it when I fly past the end of the runway as it slips past and out of my vision I tend to drift right far more than I should. Otherwise the landings were fine, a little firm at times but nothing that would trip his radar as something to be worried about , especially the last one, it was a greaser.
--0.8 dual
--6 landings
C152 checkout!
I went out to the plane to check how much fuel it had in it. A little less than half tanks. That puts our weight and balance and gross weight within allowable limits for two. I had a lot of time to kill before Mischa would arrive so I grabbed the PIM out of the glove box, dug around the cockpit and found the checklist they've been using. I haven't sat in a 152 in more than 16 years. Would I even still fit? At 6 foot 4 it was an exercise in creative folding to get my size 13 feet into the cockpit. I think I'll need to get in first before Mischa to get situated. Plugging in the headset first would be a good idea too.
Small. In a word, small. The 152 is certainly the little brother of the C172 and looks it. 67712 is a pretty basic 152, built in 1978 she has one radio, one nav, pretty basic instruments. The intercom is one that is velcroed to the floor. The wing is lower to the ground, I have to duck under the 172 wing, but it's quite a bit further on the 152. Heck, I can stand in front of the wing and reach the fuel caps. The Tach is over on the far right. That's going to be a little annoying. The tank selector is either on, or off, not other setting, and it's up between the seats along the lip. More something you reach down and feel than see.
Mischa arrives and I preflight the airplane. It's pretty much the same, just smaller. It has less oil in the crankcase, the seats don't adjust up, and they are already at the far end of the rails. He quizzes me on some of the speeds. I've been running through the checklists and have most of the important ones. Stall clean and dirty, normal approach speeds, best glides. Things look good, so I fold myself into the plane. Mischa follows, we buckle up and then manage to close the doors.
Snug... But doable. A call to ground and we are cleared to taxi to the runup area for 16. Away we go. The pedals are smaller, or seem to be to me and I'm hitting the brakes a bit more than normal. I adjust me feet a little and I'm doing better. Run up completes fairly well, though we lean the engine for full power on the ground, not something I've ever needed to do on the 172. Then again, we are a 152, running very near maximum weight, and it's starting to get a little warm.
I taxi into position and call tower, who clears me to take off, asking my intentions. I tell them I'd like to stay in the pattern and am instructed to make right close traffic. Power goes in, the rudder travels, but not quite far enough and we drift left on the take off. Rotation then a little longer in ground effect to build speed and pitch for climb. Anemic. Don't fly this at max when it's 105 in Texas my friends. In the 172 I could get away with being a little sloppy on my Vy speed. Not so in the 152. If you are going to get anything out of her you'd better hold 67 to 70 knots.
We make our pattern and shoot the first landing. The first with no flaps and it's interesting. As others have said, she's much more responsive with the power off than the 172 is. I do an okay landing, firm, but not bad and the power goes in, ooops, not enough right rudder again and I'm off. Better control on climb airspeed and we make altitude quicker. I'm drifting off the runway centerline because I'm tending to hold too much right rudder once I'm off the runway now and the ball isn't centered. In 67712 the turn/slip indicator, the white paint behind the ball, is all about worn away. It's there, you CAN see it, but you can also feel it in the seat of your pants easier in the 152 than in the 172.
We shoot several more landings, we start working with the flaps because it seems to be the way the 152 likes to be landed the most. Airspeeds are close, about 5 knots off the 172, but she does require you to carry power on the landing until you are ready to flare. Otherwise she likes to sink like a brick.
On our last landing I did a really nice job and greased the plane onto the runway, holding centerline nicely. I pushed the power in and started to feed in the rudder and something wasn't right. The plane started pulling to the right far more than it should with the amount of rudder I had in. I backed out the rudder, tried to feed in left rudder to counteract the right pull, the pull got stronger. Mischa said, "right brake." I said, "Not me, full left rudder." We are veering more to the right and I'm thinking a brake is stuck, Mischa says, "Tire..." and I am already pulling the throttle back and we slow to a stop, resting at the edge of the runway. Mischa calls the tower and lets them know we have had a flat on take off. The tire is off the rim.
I ran over the events leading up to it. Was it something I'd done? Did I land with too much side load and roll the tire off the rim? No, it was a perfect landing, slow, full stall, no side-loading, a greaser. Was it low when I did the preflight? No, it was fine then, they both looked good. Better than some of the other tires on the fleet. Just a flat, it picked that moment to start to loose air. We can't tell from what we can see of the tire if it blew out, we don't think so, we didn't hear anything like that, it just lost air all of a sudden. The tower closes the runway while we wait a tug to come pick us up and carry us back to the mechanic. With any luck he'll have the tire replaced for David who is on the schedule later today to fly her.
So, that's the story of my 152 checkout this morning. Mischa endorsed my logbook and 712 is now an airplane I can fly. Not only can I land it, I also know very well how to handle a flat on take off. So, not only did I get to welcome in the tower on their first day of full operation, I got to be a part of their first runway closure.
I'll take 712 up next week sometime and shoot some more landings by myself, probably close to an hour. Then next weekend, she'll run my long solo cross country with me. It'll be different running it with only one com radio. Mischa's only negative comments about my flying today was that my patterns are a bit looser than he'd like. Make then square with the field, not the roads, and watch it when I fly past the end of the runway as it slips past and out of my vision I tend to drift right far more than I should. Otherwise the landings were fine, a little firm at times but nothing that would trip his radar as something to be worried about , especially the last one, it was a greaser.
--0.8 dual
--6 landings
C152 checkout!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-07 02:22 am (UTC)Funny tire story.. glad it didn't cause any serious trouble...
When you refer to your upcoming cross-country.. how cross country is cross country?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-07 08:04 pm (UTC)my long solo cross country will be about 200 nautical miles. I'll go from Arlington to Fort Worth Spinks, then from there to Stephenville - Clark Muni. From there I'll fly north over Possum Kingdom lake (beautiful!) to Graham RPH. I'll have a late breakfast with a pilot friend that lives there. I'll leave Graham and fly to Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, then south back to Arlington GKY.
It should be a lot of fun :) Can't wait until I'm done and can take friends up with me :)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-07 07:23 pm (UTC)-Kysh
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-07 07:58 pm (UTC)They are are fun things though.