I dropped thousands of feet on downwind!

steingar

steingar

Taxi to Parking
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steingar
Flew up to Cleveland today so see my mother (Mothers Day and all). Flew at 3000 feet, but there was a great deal of turbulence. Mrs. Steingar got very green in the gills, and I had to stay low because of the Class Bravo airspace at my destination. Coming back, once I got past the Class Bravo I went up to smooth air, and went higher to get over the Class Charlie near my home airport. That put me several thousand feet on downwind, which I lost without doing any detours, S turns, or circles. Hit the down button, and boy did it work! Pulled off the gas on the engine (started here and there just in case I wound up needing it), hit the flaps, and with forward slips got right to where I wanted to be in controlled fashion with a surprisingly smooth landing despite the turbulent crosswinds (up in Cleveland I almost got blown in the next county!).
 
Everskyward said:
Was Mrs. Steingar impressed? :D
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Mrs. S. was quite unwell, and was not paying attention. We're both a bit flummoxed at her air sickness, as the ride back was smooth (I stayed up high to keep out of the bumps and keep her tummy happy) and she's never gotten this airsick before, ever. We've had far hotter, bumpier, and longer rides.

AdamZ said:
What was the wind Michael?
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Screaming out of the northwest, teens to twenties on the ground, much higher at altitude.

I'll remember this little trick for coming in during the summer, when it gets hot and bumpy nearer the ground.
 
Maybe I'm misreading what you did and how you did it, but I've always thought losing significant altitude should be done prior to pattern entry, especially in a low wing, out of fear of descending upon someone in the pattern.
 
Trapper John said:
Maybe I'm misreading what you did and how you did it, but I've always thought losing significant altitude should be done prior to pattern entry, especially in a low wing, out of fear of descending upon someone in the pattern.
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You are not misreading. My home drome is just outside of the local class Charlie. Normally, I descend well to the north and come in under the outer shell of the class Charlie, or transit though with a transponder code. My transponder has been having some recurrent issues, so I wanted to stay clear of the controlled airspace. My passenger was ill, so I didn't want to go under it with the accompanying turbulence. Moreover, because my passenger was ill I didn't want to divert out of the class delta of my home airport to loose altitude.

Instead, on the way in I informed the controller of the situation. Since it's controlled airspace everyone has to be in communication with the tower, making it very unlikely that I would descend on top of anyone. There was no one else around (not uncommon these days) so as I got on downwind I put in the control inputs to shed altitude without building up a lot of air speed, cognizant of the fact that I might have to do S turns or a 360 to get down to where I needed to be (and in communication with the controller). However, I was able to shed an astounding amount of altitude in a normal pattern with everything well under control.
 
When I was cleared to land at Eglin last month they had me at 5000' on downwind.

"Eglin Tower, 9GC is gonna have to extend just a little...".

A C-130 I am not. ;)
 
So, is she feeling better now? Maybe she was just getting sick before the flight and it got to her?
 
Jeanie said:
So, is she feeling better now? Maybe she was just getting sick before the flight and it got to her?
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Thanks for asking, she's fine today. Possibly she was just getting sick, but I doubt it. She's been going through some adjustments to her visual aids lately, and had only one contact lens. Given the role of vision in motion sickness (you get it when your eyes don't agree with your vestibular/cochlear system) I would be surprised if that weren't the culprit.

I'm just glad this didn't crop up en route to Philadelphia. That flight is likely to be quite difficult as it is without the added complication of a sickened passenger.
 
steingar said:
Thanks for asking, she's fine today. Possibly she was just getting sick, but I doubt it. She's been going through some adjustments to her visual aids lately, and had only one contact lens. Given the role of vision in motion sickness (you get it when your eyes don't agree with your vestibular/cochlear system) I would be surprised if that weren't the culprit.
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Just not having the right glasses stuff can mess you up on solid ground. I broke a pair of glasses a while ago and grabbed what I thought was my last pair - turns out they were an old pre-bifocal pair. Ended up with a huge headache. And it drove me nuts trying to walk - the ground was in the wrong place...
 
Hey Mike & Merida - I wasn't sure if ya'll were going to Philly or not for the FlyBQ. Beth and I are in Columbus and thinking about heading out to the bark park today near the big airport (We brought along our newly rescue'd French Bulldog, Ella).

Hope Merida feels better. Really though, you Should keep the air mochine right-side up whilst flying with the better half! Bad Mike! :)
 
I've startled CFI's when they ask me to do a slip. If you do a full cross controlled slip in a Cherokee it is falling at pretty much the top of the up down gauge.

I can't remember an exact number but I am thinking it as 2000'+. I tend to not do them more than about 30-45 seconds at a time then reenter them again if I need too.
 
Tony_Scarpelli said:
I've startled CFI's when they ask me to do a slip. If you do a full cross controlled slip in a Cherokee it is falling at pretty much the top of the up down gauge.

I can't remember an exact number but I am thinking it as 2000'+. I tend to not do them more than about 30-45 seconds at a time then reenter them again if I need too.
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Some CFI's are absolute Nancy's when it comes to slips.
 
Tony_Scarpelli said:
I've startled CFI's when they ask me to do a slip. If you do a full cross controlled slip in a Cherokee it is falling at pretty much the top of the up down gauge.

I can't remember an exact number but I am thinking it as 2000'+. I tend to not do them more than about 30-45 seconds at a time then reenter them again if I need too.
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Combine that 2,000 FPM descent with your forward (80 mph assumed) speed, and you've got a 17 degree descent angle. Still way off from the 58 degrees that Steingar is dreaming of.
 
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