Brian Austin
En-Route
I had the plane from 7am to noon and was really planning on a cross country somewhere. Winds being what they were, though, plus a first timer as a passenger led to different plans. I decided to stay around the valley, putz around and see what happened.
It turned out to be a great idea.
We took off around 7:30am with a stiff headwind. I noticed other planes "gettin' up there" quickly but was very surprised to see my VSI break ~1200fpm after liftoff. I guess a 10+kt headwind combined with a light load and cooler temps will do that.
My normal limit for first timers is 10 knots at the absolute outside. This was due to a bad experience back in November where I was questioning whether TWO barf bags would be enough. He filled them both and looked ready for another but (thankfully) didn't need it.
This guy didn't have those issues. The winds became a pretty steady 15kts after about 1000' AGL. With a little correction, I had no problems staying on course and keeping it straight and level. We flew along the west side of the valley (Glendale area) and went south, transitioning across Goodyear's airspace, and turning north over Buckeye. I let him take the controls for a while, showing him how to stay coordinated during turns, etc.. It's the first time I've given someone both yoke and rudders. I kept my feet close by and hands on my legs to grab if needed. Very unnecessary. Aside from some altitude reminders, it was almost like having an autopilot. He picked up on it right away.
It really surprised me when I started thinking back to when I first started. He was flying like I did during my discovery flight. A little tense, a little worried about banking too hard or using too much/little rudder, etc., but absolutely thrilled at the prospect of piloting a plane all by myself. We did some turns and I showed him how the rudder affects the flight. I showed him how the plane will return to level flight, given the opportunity, and not to worry too much about the occasional buffet of the wind. He picked up on that right away, too.
We went around South Mountain, came up over Chandler and orbited his office while he took a few photos. Then we went north around Scottsdale and I noticed the winds were picking up considerably. Rather than push it, I decided to go ahead and cut it short for the day.
Approaching Deer Valley, I heard the wind reports on ATIS: 12G18. Not terrible...but that was 25 minutes ago, too. Listening to tower as I approaced, I heard the controller announcing winds as planes were on short final. Whenever the controllers start doing that at DVT, the winds are higher than normal, usually in a strong crosswind. Sure enough: 14G22, almost direct 90 crosswind. Sigh. This was going to be fun.
On final, I had a heck of a time holding on to the centerline. As we got closer to the ground, the gusts kept increasing. I didn't anticipate soon enough and drifted left of centerline, coming too close to the runway edge for comfort. Go around, too late to save it. I floored it, felt the right main skip the runway and climbed out. My passenger was unfazed. Good sign. I explained what happened and why I did the go around. He understood and asked a few questions but kept quiet as we did our second approach.
This time I held more correction in and kept the plane to the right of centerline to give myself some leeway. It was crosscontrolled coming over the threshold but staying slightly to the right of center. Good so far. Gusting again. Great. Banked into it, left the throttle where it was until we were closer since I didn't want to drop like a brick if the gust died and I was too high. Sure enough, five feet off, it died. I put the right wheel down, pulled the throttle and felt the left come down almost at the same time as the nosewheel. No bounce, no side loads, ON CENTERLINE. Woohoo!
My passenger thought it was a good landing. If he gets more experience and continues on to a PPL himself, I think he'll understand just what was involved there. Then it will be a great landing.
Another 2.0 in the logbook.
It turned out to be a great idea.
We took off around 7:30am with a stiff headwind. I noticed other planes "gettin' up there" quickly but was very surprised to see my VSI break ~1200fpm after liftoff. I guess a 10+kt headwind combined with a light load and cooler temps will do that.
My normal limit for first timers is 10 knots at the absolute outside. This was due to a bad experience back in November where I was questioning whether TWO barf bags would be enough. He filled them both and looked ready for another but (thankfully) didn't need it.
This guy didn't have those issues. The winds became a pretty steady 15kts after about 1000' AGL. With a little correction, I had no problems staying on course and keeping it straight and level. We flew along the west side of the valley (Glendale area) and went south, transitioning across Goodyear's airspace, and turning north over Buckeye. I let him take the controls for a while, showing him how to stay coordinated during turns, etc.. It's the first time I've given someone both yoke and rudders. I kept my feet close by and hands on my legs to grab if needed. Very unnecessary. Aside from some altitude reminders, it was almost like having an autopilot. He picked up on it right away.
It really surprised me when I started thinking back to when I first started. He was flying like I did during my discovery flight. A little tense, a little worried about banking too hard or using too much/little rudder, etc., but absolutely thrilled at the prospect of piloting a plane all by myself. We did some turns and I showed him how the rudder affects the flight. I showed him how the plane will return to level flight, given the opportunity, and not to worry too much about the occasional buffet of the wind. He picked up on that right away, too.
We went around South Mountain, came up over Chandler and orbited his office while he took a few photos. Then we went north around Scottsdale and I noticed the winds were picking up considerably. Rather than push it, I decided to go ahead and cut it short for the day.
Approaching Deer Valley, I heard the wind reports on ATIS: 12G18. Not terrible...but that was 25 minutes ago, too. Listening to tower as I approaced, I heard the controller announcing winds as planes were on short final. Whenever the controllers start doing that at DVT, the winds are higher than normal, usually in a strong crosswind. Sure enough: 14G22, almost direct 90 crosswind. Sigh. This was going to be fun.
On final, I had a heck of a time holding on to the centerline. As we got closer to the ground, the gusts kept increasing. I didn't anticipate soon enough and drifted left of centerline, coming too close to the runway edge for comfort. Go around, too late to save it. I floored it, felt the right main skip the runway and climbed out. My passenger was unfazed. Good sign. I explained what happened and why I did the go around. He understood and asked a few questions but kept quiet as we did our second approach.
This time I held more correction in and kept the plane to the right of centerline to give myself some leeway. It was crosscontrolled coming over the threshold but staying slightly to the right of center. Good so far. Gusting again. Great. Banked into it, left the throttle where it was until we were closer since I didn't want to drop like a brick if the gust died and I was too high. Sure enough, five feet off, it died. I put the right wheel down, pulled the throttle and felt the left come down almost at the same time as the nosewheel. No bounce, no side loads, ON CENTERLINE. Woohoo!
My passenger thought it was a good landing. If he gets more experience and continues on to a PPL himself, I think he'll understand just what was involved there. Then it will be a great landing.
Another 2.0 in the logbook.