A little more safety piloting

Plane: Cessna 182 RG
Route: MGY, Local (Approaches at RID, DAY)
Weather: Overcast, 62 degrees, wind 010 degrees at 8 knots

Mike grabbed me again for a little hood work this evening. A weak front moved through earlier in the afternoon and took with it the low ceilings and rain. By the time we met at Wright Brothers around 6:00 the weather was great for flying. Mike took off on Runway 02 at MGY and we were soon heading towards Richmond, IN.

Short final for Runway 06L at Dayton Int'l Airport

Looking down on the control tower and terminals at DAY

Final for Runway 24 at Richmond Municipal Airport

He practiced a hold at RID and then shot three approaches; the VOR 33 into RID, the ILS 06L over at DAY, and finally the ILS 24 back at RID. It was a little bumpy at times since we were right at the edge of the front but visibility was great. Mike did a good job with the flying - riding along as Safety Pilot is definitely helping me learn this instrument stuff bit by bit!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.2 hours (SIC)
Total Time: 238.8 hours

Shooting approaches with Mike

Plane: Cessna 182 RG
Route: MGY, Local (Approaches at ILN)
Weather: Clear, 73 degrees, wind calm

It was a gorgeous night out and my friend Mike, who's finishing up his Instrument training, wanted to shoot some approaches. We decided to meet at Wright Brothers around 6:30 - I beat him there by a few minutes and opened up the hangar. After a quick preflight, we launched into the sky. That plane's got some nice get up and go with half-full tanks, two people, and cool air!

Looking back at Wright Brothers Airport after takeoff

Flying past by a bunch of hot air balloons

Final approach for Runway 4L at Wilmington Air Park

He ended up shooting two approaches at Wilmington Air Park; an NDB and a GPS for Runway 4L. It's interesting to see just how non-precise a non-precision NDB approach really is! I kept my eyes peeled for traffic but the sky was ours, save for a CareFlight helicopter that passed through at one point. We flew over Stewart on our way home then landed just past sunset.

Today's Flight: 0.7 hours (SIC)
Total Time: 237.6 hours

Stalls, slips, and spirals while solo

Plane: Cub, 65 hp 
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Broken clouds, 70 degrees, wind 260 degrees at 10 knots

Since yesterday's Cub flight was cut short by incoming storms, I decided to head up again tonight for a bunch more practice. I've really been trying to push myself to do maneuvers that I'm slightly apprehensive about doing solo - namely, stalls. I want to get my CFI (I'd love to instruct part-time) eventually and there's no way I'm ever going to be comfortable doing things with students if I'm not 100% comfortable doing them over and over on my own. Might as well start now.

I don't follow NASCAR but I bet Dale Earnhardt, Jr would like my steep turns...

I took off and climbed up to about 3,500 feet and did a bunch of steep turns. If you look at the GPS track above, it's really cool to see how my left-360-into-right-360 turns formed near-perfect figure-eights. I hit my wake on the second turn; I was really feeling it tonight.

After all the turns, I pulled the carb heat on and throttled back to idle. I did a series of power-off stalls and held the stick back into my stomach while doing some falling leafs. Then it was time for power-on stalls, which I'm slightly more apprehensive about. I think I ended up doing three or five, and they were all pretty good. Not much roll at the break even though the nose was pointed way, way, way up. Cubs stall at around 35 MPH with one pilot and a half-empty fuel tank, so you end up with quite a bit of pitch before you get that slow. Definitely a good practice session.

I eventually steep-spiraled back down to pattern altitude and made five laps around the airport. The winds were blowing straight down the runway so it made for a ton of short-field fun. Every time, I was off the ground (or touchdown to turnoff) in the length of one set of cones, which is about 300 feet. Like I always say, you just can't beat a Piper Cub for simple flying fun!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 0.8 hours
Total Time: 236.9 hours

Squeezing in some flying before the storm

Plane: Cub, 65 hp 
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Partly cloudy, 81 degrees, wind calm

I'd originally had the Cub scheduled for 5:00 tonight but it was nice out, weather was moving in, and I decided to move it up a little bit. As I was checking the radar before leaving the house, I suddenly wasn't sure if I'd even make it into the sky. Still, I figured it was worth a shot and quickly hopped in the car and drove down to Stewart.

The radar about an hour before I took off...

You could certainly see the storms moving in from the West but I knew they were at least a half-hour away. That's plenty of time to make a couple laps around the pattern! I figured that I could quickly get the airplane parked and pushed into the hangar if the weather seemed imminent after any of my landings. Still, my goal was three to reset my tailwheel currency another 90 days.

I was the only plane in the pattern (not surprising) so I was able to make quick work of those landings. Rain was visible in the distance, falling from the clouds, but I had plenty of room. Takeoff, crosswind, downwind, base, final, landing... each sequence only took a couple minutes. The air was actually smooth and the landings were even pretty good!

...and right when I landed - zoom in to see the marker over the airport

It was just a simple few minutes of flying. Three quick laps around the pattern and I had the J-3 pushed back into the hangar with time to spare. Ten minutes later, however, there was seriously impressive cloud-to-ground lightning all over the place. The clouds soon opened up - extremely heavy rain, some small hail, and 40-knot gusts. It was quite the show! And I enjoyed it the best way - inside the office, watching out the windows. Good times.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 0.4 hours
Total Time: 236.1 hours

MERFI 2012, a precautionary landing, and carb ice

Plane: Cessna 150
Route: 40I-I74-40I
Weather: Scattered clouds, 80-90 degrees, wind variable at 5 knots

Unable to attend for the past two years, I marked MERFI 2012 on my calendar many months ago. Somehow time has flown by and it was already three years ago that I last landed in Urbana during the regional EAA fly-in. Gina made the trip with me this year. We took off from Stewart around 9:30 in the morning and were in the pattern at Grimes Field just over 30 minutes later. The place was hopping, the pattern full, and the CTAF clogged, but we sequenced in nicely and I made a safe landing.

2012 or 1942? Just your average summer morning in Waynesville... 

First on the agenda was breakfast. It's not a proper fly-in without pancakes and sausage, now is it? Both of us scarfed down everything on our plates and then wandered around for a while.

The entrance, a nice homage to the infamous Brown Arch

Quite the tasty spread, especially for five bucks!

I went to an FAA Safety Team seminar at 11:00 about runway incursions that counted towards my WINGS credit. Gina wasn't very interested in the merits of proper phraseology on our taxiways so she continued to roam around the airport. After the seminar, which was pretty good, I had the chance to meet up with Samuel. He's another pilot who flies at Stewart who I'd only spoken with electronically up to this point. It's always enjoyable to meet folks who fly there and read the blog!

Gina wandered back over and I said goodbye to Samuel. My bride and I then headed over to the Champaign Aviation Museum for a few minutes to escape the heat and look at their B-25 and B-17. Eventually it was time to head home so we walked back over to the 150 around 1:00.

Here's where the day got interesting...

We took off and I noticed a weird sound shortly after leaving the ground, but beyond the point when I would have landed back on the runway. It quickly became an extremely loud banging noise. At first, I thought it might be an engine problem but all the gauges were in the green and I didn't see anything odd outside. Then I figured it was probably something hanging out the door, but we both checked our seatbelts and headsets and it felt like everything was inside the airplane.

Still, something wasn't right and the noise was really loud. I immediately decided it was best to sort this out on the ground and made a quick lap around the pattern, returning to land on Runway 20. In the end, it was my seatbelt; the very end of it, only an inch or so, had gotten stuck in the door when I pulled it closed. It was so small that I couldn't tell it was caught when I tugged on the belt to check it. But it was certainly big enough to make a heck of a racket banging against the airplane in the wind.

Unedited (other than some added commentary) video of the takeoff and precautionary landing

Problem solved, I started the airplane back up and we again taxied down to the end of the runway for departure. There were about four planes in front of us so we were sitting there at idle for a few minutes before it was our turn. Onto the runway, full power, and...

Well, just watch the video below.

Our second attempt to leave resulted in an aborted takeoff - here's the unedited footage

My best guess, as narrated in the video, is that we were in that magical temperature/humidity range and carburetor ice formed while we were waiting in line for takeoff. I had done a run-up and checked the carb heat; everything performed normally. However, it was a few minutes later that we finally rolled onto the runway for takeoff. Thankfully, it happened within seconds of pushing the throttle in and we were still on the ground.

You may be wondering if I felt we were doomed at this point. Honestly, I wasn't. Although at the time I was thought it was an issue with the carburetor accelerator pump (the carb ice idea didn't cross my mind until discussing it with other pilots later) everything else appeared normal. I did two extended, full-power run-ups and had no issues so I felt confident that everything checked out mechanically. We took off and - finally - headed home on an uneventful, 30-minute flight. Third time's the charm, eh?

More of Stewart's unique normalcy - all these planes were preparing for a stadium flyover

As you can imagine, this was a great learning experience. I feel as though I did the right thing in both instances. Diagnosing a problem on the ground and flying the airplane first (aviate, navigate, communicate!) is always the best option. I'm also a bit surprised that carb ice didn't cross my mind when the engine lost power and ultimately died. Still, I checked everything I could check prior to deciding to fly home and it all checked out. I also know that I'll likely never forget to consider carb ice in the future if I experience anything similar.

And lest I forget, the fly-in was a lot of fun too! :)

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.7 hours
Total Time: 235.7 hours