spiderweb
Final Approach
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2005
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Ben
Gettin' there, and real partial panel
Today's instrument lesson was a bit atypical.
First of all, I had some real good bumps which made my ILS at Easton very interesting. I was very happy with how "stuck" the needles were (thanks, Ron, for posting the METHOD), but at the last 50 feet, I got an amazing gusting updraft. To keep the needle from dropping out the bottom of the gauge, I had to push the nose down. Suddenly the gust was gone, and I was adding power and pulling up to maintain altitude, now at DH. It was fun (really)!
Then, we started the missed and requested another go at the ILS. For some reason, I didn't do as well this time, but I still stayed within a 1/3 deflection. Close enough. Circle around to land on 33. I was as stabilized as I could be, but the left, gusting crosswind (22 kts) didn't help. I touched down pretty well, but came up again a foot or two. No biggie--just add a drop of power and level out again. Second time 'round was a charm! (For those of you who are analysts, I was carrying extra speed for the gusts. I was flying 80 on final where this bird, at that weight really ought to be flown at 75.)
Lunch at Easton. Afterwards, we got a nice close look at their BRAND NEW EXECUTIVE OASIS CESSNA CARAVAN. Oh, dribble, dribble, slobber, slobber. Mmmmmm--so pretty. The pilot says the Caravan is as easy to fly as a 206; it is just that you've got more to memorize in terms of the systems. (Was it Marty who said, "the hardest thing about flying the Caravan is starting the engine?")
Trip home was fine, and we did the circle to land dance we always do there. Oh, yeah--I had REAL partial panel on that leg. It turns out I hadn't fully switched the flight instrument switches on. Since it was VMC, my CFII made me do penance by flying without covering the precessing instruments. Wow. Flying partial panel with covers is so much easier. What a big distraction! The good thing about this, though, was that I have always wondered whether or not I would notice if the instruments became unreliable, and I did. It isn't hard to miss, though, because they are electric, and you get a very obvious flag.
Great day.
http://www.mdair.com/aircharters.html
Today's instrument lesson was a bit atypical.
First of all, I had some real good bumps which made my ILS at Easton very interesting. I was very happy with how "stuck" the needles were (thanks, Ron, for posting the METHOD), but at the last 50 feet, I got an amazing gusting updraft. To keep the needle from dropping out the bottom of the gauge, I had to push the nose down. Suddenly the gust was gone, and I was adding power and pulling up to maintain altitude, now at DH. It was fun (really)!
Then, we started the missed and requested another go at the ILS. For some reason, I didn't do as well this time, but I still stayed within a 1/3 deflection. Close enough. Circle around to land on 33. I was as stabilized as I could be, but the left, gusting crosswind (22 kts) didn't help. I touched down pretty well, but came up again a foot or two. No biggie--just add a drop of power and level out again. Second time 'round was a charm! (For those of you who are analysts, I was carrying extra speed for the gusts. I was flying 80 on final where this bird, at that weight really ought to be flown at 75.)
Lunch at Easton. Afterwards, we got a nice close look at their BRAND NEW EXECUTIVE OASIS CESSNA CARAVAN. Oh, dribble, dribble, slobber, slobber. Mmmmmm--so pretty. The pilot says the Caravan is as easy to fly as a 206; it is just that you've got more to memorize in terms of the systems. (Was it Marty who said, "the hardest thing about flying the Caravan is starting the engine?")
Trip home was fine, and we did the circle to land dance we always do there. Oh, yeah--I had REAL partial panel on that leg. It turns out I hadn't fully switched the flight instrument switches on. Since it was VMC, my CFII made me do penance by flying without covering the precessing instruments. Wow. Flying partial panel with covers is so much easier. What a big distraction! The good thing about this, though, was that I have always wondered whether or not I would notice if the instruments became unreliable, and I did. It isn't hard to miss, though, because they are electric, and you get a very obvious flag.
Great day.
http://www.mdair.com/aircharters.html
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