Embarrasing lesson

orange

orange

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Orange
Today, I did a few T&G's to get current because I had only done 2 landings within last 90 days. I learned what it feels like to try and climb out in a Cherokee with 40* of flaps.
1f44e.png


On the 2nd landing I forgot to retract the flaps. It was climbing like it was 1000 lbs overweight, about 100fpm. I thought the engine was about to die on me, but the RPM and temps/press all looked good, so I was puzzled. But I'm over the threshold on the departure end and I'm only at 350. Vy is 79, but I had to keep it at 70-75 to keep it in any kind of climb. I started looking where I would be crash landing since there are no open fields ahead. As I getting further and further away from the airport, and only at 500, I thought this was it.
1f64f.png


I called the tower and told them about my engine "problem" and they said the crossing runway (14, I took off 1) was available. I said ok. As I make the 230* "impossible turn" and with the runway ahead, I go to drop some flaps. That's when I realized that I already had 40 in. OOPS! Landed embarrassed. Lesson learned and won't be repeated.
 
Bet you'll never do that again! BTW, totally unrelated but do you know who the morons are that "meow" on the radio at FRG?
 
Lol that's funny
 
Related, but really not,:
- in my primary training in a C172, I was once ham fisted enough on a T &G to mistakenly change trim inadvertently with the yoke mounted electric switch - WTH! Could've ended badly but for muscling the attitude up - did take some substantial effort.
IMHO, the yoke is a really dumb place to put an electric trim.
 
wrbix said:
IMHO, the yoke is a really dumb place to put an electric trim.
Click to expand...

Where else would you put it? :)

The whole point of the thing is that you don't have to reach down on the floor and roll a little wheel while you're trying to stay heads up either flying by outside references, or trying not to tilt your head around much in IMC and giving yourself a horrendous case of "the leans" without any visual horizon reference.

The trick of course is, not to leave your thumb up there.

And interestingly related, if you use that trim correctly, you likely won't need more than one finger and a thumb around the yoke to control the aircraft. :)

Thumb only needs to go up there to push the PTT or run the trim. Otherwise, it doesn't belong up there! :)
 
.....agreed, but students can be ham handed - me.
 
denverpilot said:
Where else would you put it? :)

The whole point of the thing is that you don't have to reach down on the floor and roll a little wheel while you're trying to stay heads up either flying by outside references, or trying not to tilt your head around much in IMC and giving yourself a horrendous case of "the leans" without any visual horizon reference.

The trick of course is, not to leave your thumb up there.

And interestingly related, if you use that trim correctly, you likely won't need more than one finger and a thumb around the yoke to control the aircraft. :)

Thumb only needs to go up there to push the PTT or run the trim. Otherwise, it doesn't belong up there! :)
Click to expand...
I definitely like having the trim switch there. A couple months ago I had a rental plane with a KAP140 that failed the POST. I had to pull the circuit breaker and I definitely missed the electric trim.
 
wrbix said:
.....agreed, but students can be ham handed - me.
Click to expand...
The lesson is to not grab the control wheel that way. I get that students often have a death grip on the controls, but if you always wrap your hand around the side of the control wheel handle like it was designed for then you won't inadvertently hit a switch or button.
 
denverpilot said:
Where else would you put it? :)

The whole point of the thing is that you don't have to reach down on the floor and roll a little wheel while you're trying to stay heads up either flying by outside references, or trying not to tilt your head around much in IMC and giving yourself a horrendous case of "the leans" without any visual horizon reference.

The trick of course is, not to leave your thumb up there.

And interestingly related, if you use that trim correctly, you likely won't need more than one finger and a thumb around the yoke to control the aircraft. :)

Thumb only needs to go up there to push the PTT or run the trim. Otherwise, it doesn't belong up there! :)
Click to expand...

Agree 100% with Nate. Just not as long an agreement as his. See, I'm done already.
 
orange said:
Today, I did a few T&G's to get current because I had only done 2 landings within last 90 days. I learned what it feels like to try and climb out in a Cherokee with 40* of flaps.
1f44e.png


On the 2nd landing I forgot to retract the flaps. It was climbing like it was 1000 lbs overweight, about 100fpm. I thought the engine was about to die on me, but the RPM and temps/press all looked good, so I was puzzled. But I'm over the threshold on the departure end and I'm only at 350. Vy is 79, but I had to keep it at 70-75 to keep it in any kind of climb. I started looking where I would be crash landing since there are no open fields ahead. As I getting further and further away from the airport, and only at 500, I thought this was it.
1f64f.png


I called the tower and told them about my engine "problem" and they said the crossing runway (14, I took off 1) was available. I said ok. As I make the 230* "impossible turn" and with the runway ahead, I go to drop some flaps. That's when I realized that I already had 40 in. OOPS! Landed embarrassed. Lesson learned and won't be repeated.
Click to expand...

Don't think you are the only one to do that. And don't ask me how I know! :oops:

-Skip
 
BigBadLou said:
Cherokee has 40 degrees of flaps? (honest question)
Click to expand...

Yep. Think mine was 10,25,40.

Nice thing about the manual flaps are that they have a little "give". If you pull back all the way, you CAN get an extra 5 for 45 total.
 
Skip Miller said:
Don't think you are the only one to do that. And don't ask me how I know! :oops:

-Skip
Click to expand...

There is a farmer who cuts the grass around the runway at the home drone and round bales it. I was doing T&G's and landed really long on one and decided to taxi back. That messed up my flow and I just didn't run the checklist. Took of with 40' of flaps, it was mid day august, I was fixated on why the hell I wasn't climbing out of ground effect and let the airplane drift left, that's when I realized and started milking the flaps out, barely, and I mean barely missed a round bale off to the left of the runway. That is as scared as I have ever been in an airplane.
 
labbadabba said:
I guess the absurdity of putting a trim switch on the trim wheel wasn't a clear enough joke...
Click to expand...

I quoted the wrong person. Sorry!

This guy, unless he was joking too.

"IMHO, the yoke is a really dumb place to put an electric trim"
 
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