a couple of firsts
Nov. 18th, 2007 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfrI didn't think that yesterday I'd get it all to come together.
Many things were in the way.
The Citabria had gone down for maintenance and an annual just as I completed my 10 hour checkout for insuance.
The mechanic had had issues come up that slowed him finishing the work.
The weather had been iffy here and there.
But then my tailwheel instructor had called. The plane was ready, she knew I wanted to fly to O44 for a fly-in at Mc Caslin. "Let's go up and brush some of the rust off, I know you haven't flown her in 5 weeks since she's been down for annual." It turns out she has a checkride (have I mentioned my tailwheel instructor is also one of the local DPE's? She's great!) to give at 10 on saturday. We can get together before that and see how it runs.
The die is cast and saturday morning comes bright and early.
I'm to the airport early and waiting, checking my weather one last time, going over my notes for the cross country. O44 is a small grass strip just south of Norman Oklahoma. 2135 feet long and 80 feet wide. The weather is forecasted to be about as perfect as you can get it. Light winds at home and there, a bit of a quartering tailwind on the way up and back. My cfi arrives and we head to the plane, checking her closely after her extensive work, she's got new tires, and a new tailwheel! Perhaps they've solved the shimmy we've had back there from time to time.
Before long we are loaded up and getting ready for our first takeoff. Power in and I am lax on the ailerons. The wind is a light crosswind and yet I don't correct for it at first. The next will be better. The rust begins to chip off. First time around the patch and the plane is climbing well, it's cooler now in the mornings, the sky is deep blue, scrubbed of the smog by the high winds we had the previous day. Power out and I nurse a 3 point landing out of it. Not bad, and we are soon off for another. Talking with my CFI on the way around, marveling on how much different the plane really feels from the 172 I've flown so much before, the two of us enjoying a nice morning. The second landing is on tap, and I've flared a bit early, a bit high, but still set the stick back and plant it, only to relax the pressure for a moment. This garners a light reprimand from the back, I know better. Power back in and off we go again. I'm asked, how big is the strip, is it grass? When I answer I'm instructed, the numbers next time then. Set it up and I'm a bit high, no matter, a dip of the wing into the wind and a slip and we are taking the express elevator down to the numbers. "Extra points for dropping the wing into the wind with the slip!" I hear from the back, she makes me smile. Booting the rudder back out and keeping the wing down for the crosswind I 3 point it again and we roll to a stop, easily before the 1000 foot bars. Very good I hear again, once more and we'll call it complete. Another trip is made about the patch, another slip and then the tock tock as the tail falls first, followed by the mains. Nicely done.
As she endorses my logbook one last time before this flight she reminds me, "look long on the landings, no matter how many people are about, look long on the landing, be safe, have fun". The note in my logbook entry from her "Smooth, OK to PIC Citabria", that single, simple entry, holds a lot of meaning coming from her.
The plane is refueled and I'm off to O44, a quick landing at Midway to see how she handles without the CFI in back and going west around the DFW Class B, talking to Meacham and Alliance on my way out, it's a beautiful morning. The heavies are working south flow in and out of DFW, crystal clear from miles away this morning. Before long I'm out from under the class B and climbing for altitude, watching the countryside slip past me, off to my right some appears Gainsville, then the Red River at the border between Texas and Oklahoma, the tree's having already lost much of their leaves, the indian summer we've had will soon be at an end, cold weather is coming and the fields are all harvested and plowed awaiting the first winters freeze. The ground rises a bit just after the Red River, soon I'm passing Ardmore, then later Pauls Valley and I'm getting close to O44.
I've been to O44 several times as a passenger with someone else in their 172. This is the first time I'll have shot the landing myself, if I'm too hot, or too long, I'll go around. Never any shame in that. I'm arriving late to the fly-in and they have been working the spot landing contest(I'm later informed I came in last). I'm slip into the pattern behind the last contestant and set up for my approach. 2135 feet is short, but I've landed the 7gcbc Citabria in far less. A barbwire fence is at the end, well marked, I'm over in and just a bit fast having been intimidated by the fence. There's a crowd of 25 or more people standing around to judge the spot landings, they don't concern me though. Look long she'd said before I left and I do. My speed bleeds off as my nose comes up and the tail, then the mains comes down and rumbles on the turf. I'm down and slowing, easing the brakes on and I taxi to the end of the field and park. Mc Caslin is landed, turf, short, on my first solo flight in the Citabria no less. I'm grinning ear to ear like a fool as I set the brake, open the door and window.
We ended up with nearly 40 planes shoehorned into Mc Caslin yesterday. A good fly-in by anyones definition. Lots of pilots and planes, lots of stories and conversations. Lots of good fun. In far too short of a time I have to go. Back in 27Golf I trundle down to the other end of the field, soon it's my turn and I turn to face the runway. Power in and the dance on the rudders begins again and the tires rumble on the turf, she's getting light, the rumble trying to fade away and she's off. I hold her low in ground effect to build just a bit of speed before we climb into that azure sky once more. A trip south and back home on tap. In the quite still as I cross the Red River I practice some dutch rolls, keeping the nose on point as I rock the wings 30 degree's left and right. She's a heavy on her ailerons, we have no spades on them so it's a workout after a bit, she reacts so much faster than anything else I've flown. She begs for more but not from me this Saturday. Flying the stick in a tube and fabric plane is unlike anything I've ever done before. I suppose it's because there are fewer pulleys and bearings between you and the flight controls but I feel the nuances that I don't in an aircraft with a yoke. The drum of the wind on the fabric, the nudge, it's almost as if it's the heartbeat of the plane, the wind, the sky.
Back home at Midway a nice landing is done, again stopped before the 1000 foot bars, taxiing to the turnoff I can't help but smile. As I spin her into her parking space and shut her down I remember back to the start. Just 2 months ago I had the hardest of times with the first landings, swerving this way and that and yet I'd just flown 4.5 hours with her. To another state, to grass, and back she and I flew. There we always be more to work on, more to learn, more to refine, more that she will teach me. It was one of those special days in your flying career.
It's hard to get better than this...
Many things were in the way.
The Citabria had gone down for maintenance and an annual just as I completed my 10 hour checkout for insuance.
The mechanic had had issues come up that slowed him finishing the work.
The weather had been iffy here and there.
But then my tailwheel instructor had called. The plane was ready, she knew I wanted to fly to O44 for a fly-in at Mc Caslin. "Let's go up and brush some of the rust off, I know you haven't flown her in 5 weeks since she's been down for annual." It turns out she has a checkride (have I mentioned my tailwheel instructor is also one of the local DPE's? She's great!) to give at 10 on saturday. We can get together before that and see how it runs.
The die is cast and saturday morning comes bright and early.
I'm to the airport early and waiting, checking my weather one last time, going over my notes for the cross country. O44 is a small grass strip just south of Norman Oklahoma. 2135 feet long and 80 feet wide. The weather is forecasted to be about as perfect as you can get it. Light winds at home and there, a bit of a quartering tailwind on the way up and back. My cfi arrives and we head to the plane, checking her closely after her extensive work, she's got new tires, and a new tailwheel! Perhaps they've solved the shimmy we've had back there from time to time.
Before long we are loaded up and getting ready for our first takeoff. Power in and I am lax on the ailerons. The wind is a light crosswind and yet I don't correct for it at first. The next will be better. The rust begins to chip off. First time around the patch and the plane is climbing well, it's cooler now in the mornings, the sky is deep blue, scrubbed of the smog by the high winds we had the previous day. Power out and I nurse a 3 point landing out of it. Not bad, and we are soon off for another. Talking with my CFI on the way around, marveling on how much different the plane really feels from the 172 I've flown so much before, the two of us enjoying a nice morning. The second landing is on tap, and I've flared a bit early, a bit high, but still set the stick back and plant it, only to relax the pressure for a moment. This garners a light reprimand from the back, I know better. Power back in and off we go again. I'm asked, how big is the strip, is it grass? When I answer I'm instructed, the numbers next time then. Set it up and I'm a bit high, no matter, a dip of the wing into the wind and a slip and we are taking the express elevator down to the numbers. "Extra points for dropping the wing into the wind with the slip!" I hear from the back, she makes me smile. Booting the rudder back out and keeping the wing down for the crosswind I 3 point it again and we roll to a stop, easily before the 1000 foot bars. Very good I hear again, once more and we'll call it complete. Another trip is made about the patch, another slip and then the tock tock as the tail falls first, followed by the mains. Nicely done.
As she endorses my logbook one last time before this flight she reminds me, "look long on the landings, no matter how many people are about, look long on the landing, be safe, have fun". The note in my logbook entry from her "Smooth, OK to PIC Citabria", that single, simple entry, holds a lot of meaning coming from her.
The plane is refueled and I'm off to O44, a quick landing at Midway to see how she handles without the CFI in back and going west around the DFW Class B, talking to Meacham and Alliance on my way out, it's a beautiful morning. The heavies are working south flow in and out of DFW, crystal clear from miles away this morning. Before long I'm out from under the class B and climbing for altitude, watching the countryside slip past me, off to my right some appears Gainsville, then the Red River at the border between Texas and Oklahoma, the tree's having already lost much of their leaves, the indian summer we've had will soon be at an end, cold weather is coming and the fields are all harvested and plowed awaiting the first winters freeze. The ground rises a bit just after the Red River, soon I'm passing Ardmore, then later Pauls Valley and I'm getting close to O44.
I've been to O44 several times as a passenger with someone else in their 172. This is the first time I'll have shot the landing myself, if I'm too hot, or too long, I'll go around. Never any shame in that. I'm arriving late to the fly-in and they have been working the spot landing contest(I'm later informed I came in last). I'm slip into the pattern behind the last contestant and set up for my approach. 2135 feet is short, but I've landed the 7gcbc Citabria in far less. A barbwire fence is at the end, well marked, I'm over in and just a bit fast having been intimidated by the fence. There's a crowd of 25 or more people standing around to judge the spot landings, they don't concern me though. Look long she'd said before I left and I do. My speed bleeds off as my nose comes up and the tail, then the mains comes down and rumbles on the turf. I'm down and slowing, easing the brakes on and I taxi to the end of the field and park. Mc Caslin is landed, turf, short, on my first solo flight in the Citabria no less. I'm grinning ear to ear like a fool as I set the brake, open the door and window.
We ended up with nearly 40 planes shoehorned into Mc Caslin yesterday. A good fly-in by anyones definition. Lots of pilots and planes, lots of stories and conversations. Lots of good fun. In far too short of a time I have to go. Back in 27Golf I trundle down to the other end of the field, soon it's my turn and I turn to face the runway. Power in and the dance on the rudders begins again and the tires rumble on the turf, she's getting light, the rumble trying to fade away and she's off. I hold her low in ground effect to build just a bit of speed before we climb into that azure sky once more. A trip south and back home on tap. In the quite still as I cross the Red River I practice some dutch rolls, keeping the nose on point as I rock the wings 30 degree's left and right. She's a heavy on her ailerons, we have no spades on them so it's a workout after a bit, she reacts so much faster than anything else I've flown. She begs for more but not from me this Saturday. Flying the stick in a tube and fabric plane is unlike anything I've ever done before. I suppose it's because there are fewer pulleys and bearings between you and the flight controls but I feel the nuances that I don't in an aircraft with a yoke. The drum of the wind on the fabric, the nudge, it's almost as if it's the heartbeat of the plane, the wind, the sky.
Back home at Midway a nice landing is done, again stopped before the 1000 foot bars, taxiing to the turnoff I can't help but smile. As I spin her into her parking space and shut her down I remember back to the start. Just 2 months ago I had the hardest of times with the first landings, swerving this way and that and yet I'd just flown 4.5 hours with her. To another state, to grass, and back she and I flew. There we always be more to work on, more to learn, more to refine, more that she will teach me. It was one of those special days in your flying career.
It's hard to get better than this...