Sunday, November 4, 2012

Sucky steep turns

Plane: Cub, 65 hp 
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Broken clouds, 43 degrees, wind 330 degrees at 7 knots

It's been a few weeks since I had a chance to fly. So long, in fact, that I'm extremely glad Gina and I took the opportunity to go up and photograph the foliage in mid-October. All the colorful leaves are long gone at this point. Between cruddy fall weather and living in The Only State That Matters this election cycle (i.e. we've got TFRs all over the place!) the opportunities for aviating have been quite limited as of late.

Gina was working this afternoon (she works part-time in the office at Stewart these days - not sure if I've mentioned that on here yet) so I took the little Cub up solo. I figured it would be nice to get in some practice. With a moderate wind out of the north, I'd also be able to get in some crosswind takeoffs and landings.

Cold temperatures and flying solo made for some quick climbs today

I headed out over the lake to knock off a few steep turns. At least that was the plan. Usually I can polish off a couple with good precision in no time flat. I have no clue what was up today; I was all over the place. Not rolling out on heading, altitude fluctuating ± 200 feet, airspeed increasing... it was a mess. Determined to get it right, I probably did 15 or 20 before I got everything in check and hit my wake on the roll-out  Normally I make sure to do it one more time to confirm it's not a fluke but that one success was good enough for me this afternoon!

After pulling the carb heat for a power-off stall / falling leaf series, a steep spiral brought me down to 1,800 feet and I re-entered the pattern. The local skydive outfit was doing their thing so it was a typical day at Stewart - avoiding the human missiles plus seeing and avoiding a few other NORDO taildraggers. In the end, I did five circuits; three regular takeoffs and landings followed by two power-off 180 approaches. I flared about six inches too high on nearly every landing but, all in all, it was a decent afternoon behind the stick.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.1 hours
Total Time: 247.9 hours

1 comment:

  1. Always good to get some stick time. I have to make it a point to go practice vs 08Romeo just for transportation.

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