Fun in the pattern

[dmccormack]

I only had about an hour yesterday, so decided to take the C205 around the pattern a few times.

It was a nice -- though cloudy-- afternon to fly. Winds were light and temps were relatively cool for July.

I decided to focus on ultra-short takeoff and landings -- could I get better than book on this 46 year old airframe?

Flaps to 20, brakes on, power to full -- release, roll -- nose up, hold it, stall buzzer, speed builds -- climb out at 78 MPH -- wow.

Nice tight pattern, pull power abeam the numbers, 20 flaps, airspeed on 85, nice 180, keep the yaw and put it into a slip with 40 flaps, straighten out about 100' AGL, keep it at 78, stall buzzer, hold it, hold it -- hit the the 0 inside the 6 -- touch down. Missed it by 20 feet. Try again.

Did that a few times, each landing with 15' or so of the planned touchdown spot, Full stop, clean up, take off -- turn to crosswind by the opposite threshold -- life is good.

I heard a 172 call in entering downwind on 45. I was turning base so I told him I'd land and clear the runway.

I landed, cleared the runway -- still no 172.

I waited -- and waited. Then I heard base to final.

I looked --- far, far out on the horizon was a tiny speck.

I watched, and waited -- Pangea moved faster than this guy.

Then, about 100' over the trees on the far end of the valley before the threshold for 26 the 172 appeared, flying low and slow with lottsa flaps and lottsa power. He floated past the threshold, past the PAPIs, past the third taxiway. The wings dipped from side to side (winds were 5 knots from 240)

The C172 with two aboard landed about 2000' down the runway and consumed the rest of the 5,000' runway on rollout.

It was magnificent.

"They must be transporting a dozen anvils in the back..." I thought.

I re-commenced the fun and took off and landed in a larger airplane in half the distance the 172 required to land. They were parked in front of the airport restaurant and watched as I flew runway heading (yeah -- I looked).

I took my son up for a ride -- I had to practice go arounds since I was way too fast at 50' AGL.

Way too fast.

Of course it was a go-around. I had every intention to land!

Sometimes, you just can't beat having fun in the pattern.

 

[tonycondon]

I only had about an hour yesterday, so decided to take the C205 around the pattern a few times.

It was a nice -- though cloudy-- afternon to fly. Winds were light and temps were relatively cool for July.

I decided to focus on ultra-short takeoff and landings -- could I get better than book on this 46 year old airframe?

Flaps to 20, brakes on, power to full -- release, roll -- nose up, hold it, stall buzzer, speed builds -- climb out at 78 MPH -- wow.

Nice tight pattern, pull power abeam the numbers, 20 flaps, airspeed on 85, nice 180, keep the yaw and put it into a slip with 40 flaps, straighten out about 100' AGL, keep it at 78, stall buzzer, hold it, hold it -- hit the the 0 inside the 6 -- touch down. Missed it by 20 feet. Try again.

Did that a few times, each landing with 15' or so of the planned touchdown spot, Full stop, clean up, take off -- turn to crosswind by the opposite threshold -- life is good.

I heard a 172 call in entering downwind on 45. I was turning base so I told him I'd land and clear the runway.

I landed, cleared the runway -- still no 172.

I waited -- and waited. Then I heard base to final.

I looked --- far, far out on the horizon was a tiny speck.

I watched, and waited -- Pangea moved faster than this guy.

Then, about 100' over the trees on the far end of the valley before the threshold for 26 the 172 appeared, flying low and slow with lottsa flaps and lottsa power. He floated past the threshold, past the PAPIs, past the third taxiway. The wings dipped from side to side (winds were 5 knots from 240)

The C172 with two aboard landed about 2000' down the runway and consumed the rest of the 5,000' runway on rollout.

It was magnificent.

"They must be transporting a dozen anvils in the back..." I thought.

I re-commenced the fun and took off and landed in a larger airplane in half the distance the 172 required to land. They were parked in front of the airport restaurant and watched as I flew runway heading (yeah -- I looked).

I took my son up for a ride -- I had to practice go arounds since I was way too fast at 50' AGL.

Way too fast.

Of course it was a go-around. I had every intention to land!

Sometimes, you just can't beat having fun in the pattern.

days like that are fun. when i was building time in the supercub so that i could tow i had several evenings like that. short, tight patterns with the door open. 10 or 12 landings in an hour.

yesterday i was having fun getting to know the new to me 182 at the gliderclub. descending after tow release and doing some sort of teardrop whatever to get into the downwind at pattern altitude-ish, getting slowed down to the really low Vfe of 80 mph all while trying to be smooth to the poor engine that was getting a good workout tugging gliders along.

 

[dmccormack]

days like that are fun. when i was building time in the supercub so that i could tow i had several evenings like that. short, tight patterns with the door open. 10 or 12 landings in an hour.

yesterday i was having fun getting to know the new to me 182 at the gliderclub. descending after tow release and doing some sort of teardrop whatever to get into the downwind at pattern altitude-ish, getting slowed down to the really low Vfe of 80 mph all while trying to be smooth to the poor engine that was getting a good workout tugging gliders along.

It certainly is a good way to learn a new airplane! Or re-acquaint yourself with one you already knew...

I sure wish all GA airplanes had 40 degrees of flaps, though....

 

[SCCutler]

I did a little flying yesterday- the current book for Bonanzas says nothing about flaps on takeoff, but I have been told that they can and should be used for substantially reduced distances to lift off and clear obstacles. It certainly does work, too!

It was too freakin' hot to do too much of it- potential of damage to the pilot as well as the engine- but fun, nonetheless.

 

[AdamZ]

Sounds like a great Day Dan. Makes one appreciate it even more when there have been days that were just the opposite.

 

[wsuffa]

I did a little flying yesterday- the current book for Bonanzas says nothing about flaps on takeoff, but I have been told that they can and should be used for substantially reduced distances to lift off and clear obstacles. It certainly does work, too!

It was too freakin' hot to do too much of it- potential of damage to the pilot as well as the engine- but fun, nonetheless.

On the other hand, we had perfect weather here. I took the plane up - off to XSA for fuel, then over to HSP, and finally back to Manassas. Had to shut the air vents because it was +3 c at 10,000 ft.

Flying IFR, spotted a glider rising about a mile starboard and 1000' below. Not called as traffic.... but I was outta there pretty quick w/140 kt ground speed.

I use 10 degrees of flaps for takeoff on a regular basis - book calls for 0 on "normal" and 20 for short field.... that and the VGs work very well.

 

[Dean]

This weekend was great flying weather here as well, highs in the mid 80's, low humidity, little to no wind and clear skies. I flew over to Twin Oaks on Sunday morning and was going to drop in and see Tom and Diana. Their hangar door was open but I didn't see the Citabria, so I headed back to Stockton. Made a few passes around the lake watching the sailboats. Then Sunday afternoon went to the lake myself and got a nice sunburn, best weekend I have had all summer.

 

[jesse]

Flaps to 20, brakes on, power to full -- release, roll -- nose up, hold it, stall buzzer, speed builds -- climb out at 78 MPH -- wow.

It's always fun to play with this stuff. Keep in mind that pulling the nose up before the aircraft is capable of climbing creates excess drag which extends your takeoff roll.

 

[dmccormack]

It's always fun to play with this stuff. Keep in mind that pulling the nose up before the aircraft is capable of climbing creates excess drag which extends your takeoff roll.

This airplane is fairly nose-heavy and since the book rotation speed (provided in this 1963 vintage "Owners Manual") is 55 MPH IAS, it doesn't take long before the nose is up and the airplane is flying!

 

[dmccormack]

Sounds like a great Day Dan. Makes one appreciate it even more when there have been days that were just the opposite.

So true!!!

 

[jesse]

This airplane is fairly nose-heavy and since the book rotation speed (provided in this 1963 vintage "Owners Manual") is 55 MPH IAS, it doesn't take long before the nose is up and the airplane is flying!

Gotcha. What is scary is watching someone that is used to the airplane just flying when they pull the nose up -- not fly. They increase their AoA to some ridiculous angle and create a ****-ton of drag. So much drag that they match their thrust and don't accelerate. The airplane will never fly. I've seen this happen several times now on grass strips when people get antsy. Fortunately--they figured out the problem and reduced the AoA before going off the end.

 

[dmccormack]

Gotcha. What is scary is watching someone that is used to the airplane just flying when they pull the nose up -- not fly. They increase their AoA to some ridiculous angle and create a ****-ton of drag. So much drag that they match their thrust and don't accelerate. The airplane will never fly. I've seen this happen several times now on grass strips when people get antsy. Fortunately--they figured out the problem and reduced the AoA before going off the end.

Right -- there is a min and max and the sweet spot in between.

My casual observation of airplanes flying in the pattern lead me to conclude most GA pilots don't pull back enough -- preferring (it seems) to let the airplane roll along at some ridiculous speed until lifts itself off.

For soft field takeoffs, the airplane should get airborne before it can effecitively fly -- but should accelerate in ground effect. It takes some coaxing to get pilots to push forward after they seem to be flying.

You can sorta get away without doing this in most high performance airplanes -- not so much in a 90hp trainer with 2 aboard.

 

[EppyGA]

Great story, killing me though. It was absolutely gorgeous here in Georgia this weekend. Tied the record for low temperature Saturday and Sunday night. My money had to be spent on a new air conditioning system

 

[brcase]

<snip>

For soft field takeoffs, the airplane should get airborne before it can effecitively fly -- but should accelerate in ground effect. It takes some coaxing to get pilots to push forward after they seem to be flying.

You can sorta get away without doing this in most high performance airplanes -- not so much in a 90hp trainer with 2 aboard.

That fully loaded High Performance airplane might actually do worse than the 90hp trainer.

Just my observation, but I suspect that the normal procedure that is often taught for soft field take-offs is not quite appropriate for real Soft Field T-O’s. My 1st clue was the day I tried to take off in about 5 inches of Snow. I did my best keep the tail low take off attitude and accelerated to 30 MPH at which point I stopped accelerating and basically was driving down the runway at 30MPH with the tail down. Basically I was in the high drag situation describe in the early posts along that help of the Snow to slow me down. With lots of runway remaining and realizing what I was doing wasn't working I gently lowered the nose and the airplane accelerated and lift up out of the snow.

Brian

 

[jesse]

That fully loaded High Performance airplane might actually do worse than the 90hp trainer.

I've seen it happen to high performance airplanes just as often as something under-powered...actually...more often now that I think about it. Often because they're capable of shoving a lot of weight in. Then they get to a high DA or short runway situation and don't recognize that there is a critical difference and their weight hauling ability has decreased dramatically.

 

[dmccormack]

I've seen it happen to high performance airplanes just as often as something under-powered...actually...more often now that I think about it. Often because they're capable of shoving a lot of weight in. Then they get to a high DA or short runway situation and don't recognize that there is a critical difference and their weight hauling ability has decreased dramatically.

"High performance" loaded to the gills = "Low performance"