Tell us about your last flight

[BrendAn]

Had my last flight the weekend before last. I got to sit in the right seat if my xair for a couple of flights around Latrobe valley airport and some touch and goes. A friend was pic as I haven't got my certificate yet. Hopefully will get that done soon. I had a ball flying in my own aircraft and learning how to fly a draggy rag and tube plane. Learnt how important using the rudder is .

A lot different to the jab and the tecnam. The weather was a perfect clear winters day 

 

[Lucky01]

Bailey and I going for a quick flight over keepit dam today 🙂

[Thruster88]

Flew the RV rocket ship after a six week break from flying. Perfect spring day in the central west nsw. Crops looking good. Bush barbecue for lunch, no wind, views to Mt Canobolas, it doesn't get much better.

 

 

[Blueadventures]

Had a great fly this morning for WUFI day with Sandy. Perfect spring weather.

 

[RFguy]

 

Looks fantastic. I did 'airwork'. practiced flapless approaches, glides etc. It  took 4 goes for me to make the glide approach work.... in nil wind. tut. tut. needed the practice after flying many 400nm A to B flights....

I even got carb ice ! (during startup/ runups) . 
 

[Blueadventures]

Yeah mate, No.  Just shows my poor IT skills.  I tried all I knew even copied and inverted the image and it still displayed upside down.  If a moderator can invert I'll be happy.

[pmccarthy]

If it was a kidnapping proof of life pic I would expect a news paper front page. You could have written that any time!

[Old Koreelah]

Whoopie! I flew! 
This morning I flew my little plane for the first time in 14 months (since I fell on concrete and broke my hip).

Over the last year I’ve done some overdue maintenance and made a few improvements. This morning the weather was ideal- no wind, clear sky. I had the airport and sky almost all to myself.

 

I still remembered how to do it and everthing worked well, although I thought I heard the engine stumble a bit on climb out. I used my newly-installed reostat to adjust the water injector back from 12 lph to about 5 and she sounded sweeter. 
 

Although the sky was cloudless, above 2000’ there was a layer of dirty haze, presumably from fires further west. That sure cut visibility until I got above it near 4000’.

 

OzRunways proved useful when I heard a garbled 10-mile incoming call and was able to read his Rego from my screen. As he was on a conflicting course, I called him up and he dropped below me as I climbed. As he passed within two NM I turned to get a better look. Despite having 20-20 vision, I never saw him, even though he’s white and was below me with the sun behind. 
 

I wish every plane showed up on my screen like that.

[RFguy]

Bush strip today. 650m long. DA=3000' OAT 6 ....Piper nice and light today. Deep valley  at the approach end, obstructions at the other  end, top of windy hill. half of runway is 'uphill' at 5% ! rest is 1%.... 

all in the lee of a big mountain , lots of turb. but turb was OK once I slowed down in the vicinity,  90 kts 1st stage flap.

 

I calculated the hell out of it before setting out.   rehearsed a few scenarios in my mind.  final was into 15kts I guess  wind .. Landed into the ~ 10kt wind, on the uphill section about one third off the way in. (on the steep bit) . no issue. Experienced high wind gradient as got into the flare and aircraft went below the top of the hill - experienced down draft as I got near the ground and also sudden 8 -10 kts ish loss of airspeed (as expected so I came in with 10kts to spare) . I had done a PSL immediately before on it so I had some idea what the wind was doing over the hill.  complex.

nose down , jesus the end of the runway and obstruction  is coming up brakes on ...... and taxi , hmm with 300m to spare, (used half the runway) . so that was good. 

Went for a walk with my GPS and barometer to meausre height one end to the other...., measured strip length and surveyed the height and gradients and estimated tail wind speeds at different regions for takeoff downwind. Determined a 'decision point' .   

....wind now 15kts minimum.  on my tail. 

Did what I needed to do at the site, back in the plane.... went off with a short fielder , 25 flap..... got past the decision point with only 55kts. geez we use up runway fast with 15 kts of tailwind ! Back pressure and now flying but not climing, still acceleratinginto ground affect, flying down the hill. golly does the  speed build.. climbing....  75 kts time to dump some flaps.. 85 kts, dump last 10 deg.  climb more ....  off we go.  

 

Colleague made an observation that the other hazardous thing about taking off downwind AND  downhill is that once I climb from the 'sheltered' region where I have say 10 kts of tailwind to where I suddenly have 20 kts of tailwind, and consequently 10 kts less airspeed, that is potentially hazardous and a good reason to continue to accelerate to and beyond  the T.O.S.S  in ground effect flying down the hill to have plenty in hand.....

Go around probably couldnt be done if it was hot.  photo of hill.... doesnt look like much but  downdraft from wind over the hill and hot weather would be trouble

 

looking downwind, and down hill. You can only see HALF the runway before it heads off the side of the mountain

. 

uphill , and upwind.  Top is 500m away from strip end. needs greater than a 1 in 10 climb to get over it. 

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by RFguy

[RFguy]

I'd say I was fortunate  that I had a headwind, which slowed down the transition of descent , to following the runway up-slope .  Although that has to be traded off with the hazard of the abrupt wind gradient .....but I was anticipating that one...

Try to to do this though with a shorter runway, say half ,  well that would have a high degree of skill and danger, not for me.....

Certainly, a hazard checklist  is a good thing. I can see how this though is rolling a dice.   if you didnt think about it before you tried it, that could be trouble.

A couple of years ago there was fatal nearby to here (Combing Park)  - a fatal GA accident , was a training touch and go, where they attempted a go around with a hill ahead just like this one and crashed.  The report concluded they tried and failed to outclimb the hill. I am beginning to think , it was as simple as they just didnt think about it , before doing it , didnt do the numbers and consider the possibilities.  IE not a flying skills problem, a decision making problem.

Edited October 28, 2023 by RFguy

[RFguy]

6 circuits. 4 normal + 2 glide. both glides from downwind  went well in Xwind. which means the work I did 2 weeks ago on them was useful . (were I failed on the first 3 glides from downwind) .
Observation :  2nd glide was onto the grass cross : - feeling of  loss of depth perception about 100' up  down to flare height  on featureless wide green carpet. 

The grass cross at cowra is 90m wide and 1km long , and the edges are not marked, so it might as well be 500m wide.... . out the sides, you see same green world. Now what is interesting is when you get close to the large wide strip that looks completely featureless -- IE no visual differences in my whole field of vision.

- I felt that I lost vertical speed and depth perception when I got close to the flare.  Of course, coming down at 850 fpm the ground comes up fast.

BUT - compared to coming onto a narrow strip- IE narrow strip with various visual cues, edges, maybe edge  markers strip lines, these all assist in providing spatial cues for height and location.   IE narrow strip I feel better depth / height perception.   Landing was fine, smooth....  there's another weird thing also, there's a (not sure if it is good)  part of me that enjoys the rush and adrenaline of the ground coming up quick at the same time you must execute a precision maneuver to get right  as you turn straight and throw out all the flaps with a very serious feeling of commitment to land without option.  The feeling of it all happening very fast in the last few seconds may be reduced by doing this more regularly. (IE becoming more adapted / current by repetition) .... I do - do glides once a month....     
 

Edited November 5, 2023 by RFguy

[jackc]

Triggered reminder for me…..when building airstrip, make sure sides are clearly marked…..

[facthunter]

Nah. Give them the Practice they need when they have to land in a paddock. WE had "all over"  fields once..  Nev

[RFguy]

well, you dont need much, you just need SOMETHING that changes as you get closer to the ground.

Rob, my instructor was saying the same thing happens with a glide onto  flat or glassy water- no visual clues to descent rate/ height  when near to the surface results in "  poorer than expect outcomes " 

When doing water training, abinitio, they dropped floaties onto the water so the pilot could get some idea . 

 

Nev, please chime in 

Edited November 6, 2023 by RFguy

[facthunter]

Earlier training methods used to analyse what  clues pilots used to help judge flare height. One of these was "texture" of the surface, available more on surfaces like grass. Dead calm water is an obvious problem. If you dump a flying boat on the water it will '' knock the bottom out of it. The parallel sides of runway markers also help judge the Approach  angle more precisely..  Every pilot has a different way of judging the "PLANE of the runway". You've heard of the' Look ahead' idea. You have been using "something" so I'm NOT going to suggest any change Here. Do that with your Instructor. Call it "depth perception" or whatever. I'm not  sure I like the term, but I have trained Monocular People and it's more difficult for them. (and the Instructor).. Good airspeed control is part of it but If it's reducing can be a factor as there may be a lag and you can't land chasing airspeed.  and you aren't looking there, generally, at the stage of the game. In gusty conditions use of power is needed.   Nev

[facthunter]

Every landing is "potentially" different. You have to be ready to put in the work necessary at the specific time. Situational awareness . Not a 1,2,3. thing.   Nev

[facthunter]

And energy management . No low & Slow or High and Hot.. No glide stretching and brush up on your sideslipping. 95% of people do them badly.  Nev

[red750]

I used to travel this road fairly regularly when I was learning to fly, and used it to train my eye. The descending road equated to an approach path and the level ground the runway. I kept my eye on the level ground and watched the changing angle as I got nearer. The far end dropped away as I approached the start of the level road. 

 

[facthunter]

As it presents itself visually, it could be flat with a rise coming up.   Nev

[RFguy]

Cowra - Went out for a hot one late this morning. 31 OAT,  Flew out of busy circuit down to Young, 20 kts at 3000' tail, 15 kts on the ground at Young.

Significant bumps in circuit in the hills . No fun at all. But not difficult. airplane upset 30 deg roll late final and including application of full power late final to counter a vicious sink.

Lesson learned : Might come in a bit higher and a bit steeper on that one next time. Would provide a little more room for such phenomena... Yeah it's been since last summer since I have flown in hot and gusty weather and I am rusty !!!

Climb out from the T&G was 1500 fpm initially. got a great thermal climbing out.

Other notes- I did not hold off the 20 kts of NE blowing across my runway heading departure track when I departed Cowra . It's clear I drifted significantly.

Tut Tut ! . (as reviewed on my flight data) .  

This is something to think about, since you can't see ahead , and cues are otherwise difficult. Need to consider before departure and add to heading . Only a little wind at ground level, but the GWPT data which I DID review before flight - it  did say 19 kts @ 2000'- (so why didnt I use it ?!)   I have not   thought enough about it in recent times.  I will need to do this with precision when departing Canberra.

what else - Flew in a 1959 Cessna 180 (tailwheel) yesterday. Now that was different !!! wow landings  are different......
Other thoughts - the 1500 fpm I got (about 750 fpm boost ) could have easily been -750 fp sink, and that would have been tough. good reason not to T&G but land, and backtrack to the start of the runway to give myself some more climb room on the high DA departure.

Edited November 11, 2023 by RFguy

[Markdun]

Interesting. Here at Mt Fairy oat 20C at 5500asl at 9.00am and 25kt NNW.  Nah, sink is not as strong as up from thermals….. But it can easily be in wave/rotor or hill lee.

 Don’t you have GNAV or GLS to maintain the runway track after T/O instead of the runway bearing?

[RFguy]

"Don’t you have GNAV or GLS to maintain the runway track after T/O instead of the runway bearing?"
It's in a big pile  to do. Designers never thought of avionics people when they designed panels and access. Except in the Lanceair.
I could look at Oz runways but at the critical moment of first 1000', bumps, wind, traffic, I am looking out the window.... and at my critical gauges.

Edited November 11, 2023 by RFguy

[facthunter]

The 180 will give you a good workout on a hot gusty day. When you add lots of power do it right. Might be worth practicing that at altitude. Get slow and dirty and recover well. Check the seat locks. (a must).  Nev

[RFguy]

(180) Oh I did check the seat locks. OMG -  not even I can reach the pedals all the way back LOL.  locks on one side only . controls have beautiful balance and weight.

 

[facthunter]

Lot of forward trim change needed on go around. Talk to your instructor about anticipating rudder required with large power application.  I thought the seat locks on both sides.  Nev