Welcome to spring flying in the Midwest. But count your blessings, in west TX it's that windy all year round. But I can sympathize. I was supposed to fly my taildragger to a single runway airport and swap it with the Baron (annual time for both) yesterday but the steady state wind was close to the Porterfield's stall speed so I postponed to today which was supposed to be less windy. I even got up early to fly before the wind reached it's peak but when I landed the sock was straight out and perpendicular to the runway necessitating a lot of one sided braking and bursts of power to stay out of the weeds. The AWOS was giving the wind velocity as 10 Kt with no gusts but I could swear it was almost twice that.
I know, I don't think I'd like Texas much. We've had typically 22016G24KT for the last three days. The runway is 9/27 so that doesn't sound all that bad. I would do it in a fairly heavy plane like this IF I had more experience in it. I've been up exactly once since flying back home from dropping the seller off at KYIP. So it's still a very new bird to me, even though I have 100+ hours in make and model (but that was over 4 years ago).
BTW, if you can stomach the associated bumps, a windy day is a good time to go up with a good CFI and expand your envelope a bit. Beats sitting on the ground and could increase the "flyable" days for you.
Did that on Wednesday. Not so much to get used to the wind (it was pretty tame, 26011G15KT) but to be sure that I had the visibility to safely land the bird. The bottom 1/4 or 1/5 of the windshield is so badly warped that I nearly pranged the airplane on my first landing attempt. I hangar-flew it with the seat cranked all the way up and sitting on a thick cushion so that my headset was pressed against the ceiling. I was pretty sure I could do it -- but the CFI was there for insurance.
That said, the warp extends all the way across and the right seat height is not adjustable, so really without a stack of telephone books, even a CFI is good for little more than moral support and coaching.
This can be resolved by taking a friend along, preferably one with more leg strength. Alternatively you could spend some of your non-flying time at the gym and develop your own leg muscle, a 152 isn't really all that tough to push uphill (do the tires need air???).
Roger that. But I don't have a lot of (local) pilot friends and I really feel the need for some solo time to gain confidence in the bird before taking along non-pilot pax. There is usually someone around the T hangar rows during the day, but I'm strictly an after-work pilot during the week, and the place tends to be deserted by then.
And it's not a 152, Lance... read it again. It's a Cardinal, actually a Cardinal RG. My legs are pretty strong from hiking and cycling, but there's no way I could push a 2500 lb plane up that slope.
I've had pretty good success with a combination of what I call "Super-Hydrating" (drinking enough water that you need a bathroom break every hour) for a day or two) and Zicam. Might be worth a try.
I forgot about Zicam... some of the other club members swear by it. I'm off to the pharmacy to try it... can't hurt anyway. Thanks!
