Flying sideways is always fun

Flyboy

Flyboy

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Feb 23, 2005
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Charlotte NC
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Display name:
Ron Kinney
I went up Saturday evening in a skyhawk to do some pattern work and get night current. Winds were 22+ knots, but right down the runway.

This skyhawk has a fairly new engine (maybe 200 hours on it I think) and power flow exhaust so It's got a little more umph at the moment.

Started with a short field take off. That stready wind really made it short. LOL. Climb out was over 1000 fpm:eek: .

Of course down wind was really quick. And the base legs were down right funny. Had to hold at least a 45 degree angle to track straight. There wasn't really a turn to final, just more of an "add power and fly that-a-way now" .

Got in 6 landings total and did some slow flight as well. When flying slow flight into the wind I really wished the bird had a gps to check the ground speed.
 
Flyboy said:
Had to hold at least a 45 degree angle to track straight.
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Always fun! A few months ago I flew the R22 south from Pottstown, PA via pilotage along PA Rt. 100. Before turning south, I had been flying west and estimated the winds aloft at 1000 agl were out of the west at 30-35 kt using the GPS groundspeed. I had slowed down to about 70 KIAS because of turbulance.

When I turned south I felt like I had to maintain a 40-45 degree crab! The doors were off and I could see the road below me over the left seat. Very strange at that kind of crab angle.
 
With the wind howling down the runway it just gives you more time to do stuff at your leisure.

The ones that always get me is when you have the crosswind from the right pushing you to the runway on downwind. The base leg goes so fast you end up with one continuous turn to final. Besides you may have to turn through 150 degrees base to final to get the nose pointed into the crosswind. I've ended up going around and trying it again more times than I'd care to mention. I've developed a wariness of trying to correct back when the runway ends up far left inside of the turn.
 
Also interesting(to a newbie) is flying a C-150 backwards. During my early, perhaps the 4th or 5th, lesson we were over the community of smelt shacks on the iced river adjacent to Merrymeeting Field 08B. Slow-flight was the genre and at one point my CFI commented, "Look, we're flying backwards." I, naturally, figured that was impossible, but then he said to look at the fishing shacks on the ice below us. Sure enough, the whole community was passing me on my left. ?????????

Then he explained that there was a very strong wind blowing right down the river. As we were flying right into it in a slow-flight mode we were making negative headway. Weird, I thought. "Yup; even more so for those ice fishermen down there. They probably don't have the same wind down there that we have up here, and they're probably saying, 'Look at that airplane up there; it's flying backwards.'"

HR
 
I found out it "weirds out" some passengers when you have to do a heavy crab close to the ground. I gave someone her first "little airplane" ride- the air was smooth, but very windy about 1000' AGL.
 
mikea said:
. The base leg goes so fast you end up with one continuous turn to final. Besides you may have to turn through 150 degrees base to final to get the nose pointed into the crosswind. I've ended up going around and trying it again more times than I'd care to mention. I've developed a wariness of trying to correct back when the runway ends up far left inside of the turn.
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Combine that turn with a flip of the wings where the corners of the pattern would be for visibility clearing checks and it's even wilder.
 
Ground reference maneuvers with a 25- or 30-knot wind are fun too. :)
 
skyflyer8 said:
Ground reference maneuvers with a 25- or 30-knot wind are fun too. :)
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And with the Lidle crash we now have a high profile reason to remind students why they are important as well as fun.
 
tonycondon said:
And with the Lidle crash we now have a high profile reason to remind students why they are important as well as fun.
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Good point.

It's been a common practice of mine to link certain practice maneuvers with aviation accidents that students already know about. As often as not, they will ask questions about individual accident scenarios that have been in the news too so, we'll then practice whatever flight maneuver that is part of the solution to the accident scenario in question.

It makes the whole experience much more productive.
 
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