DutchessFlier
Line Up and Wait
As you may recall, my last post was about what I thought was a really bad lesson that turned out to be a very good lesson. Today, Sunday, May 31st, those who live in the northeast, especially around the metro NYC area can realate to this posting.
I managed to burn in some of my soft and short field work since I last posted. The WX has been basically miserable around here. Got in my night dual and moved on to the cross country phase. Last night was absolutely beautiful, calm, and one of those nights when you can literally see for a hundred miles around. Where I fly in the Mid Hudson Valley, we could see Albany to the north and NYC to the south it was that clear. The Best!
Today, we had a late afternoon x-c flight scheduled from my home base, go about 75 miles north, land and turn around. Spent most of the late morning and afternoon following the metars and tafs and briefs to see when the convection was gonna move east ahead of a surprisingly healthy coldfront..which it finally did. Wrote the flight plans, hassled with the flight computer, more WX check, and saw that the rain had passed out to the east. But man did it leave behind some wicked winds. Sky cleared, crosswind components way above my personals, reports of LLWS, turbulence and the like, preflight in progress, one final chat with my instructor. I was hesitant to go, I didn't say no to the flight, but was willing if he was. We met again in the hangar, and I said, perhaps we should call it off. He said lets go, it was gonna be a turbulent flight, but not unsafe. We flew the flight plan north, stayed pretty much on course and had our moments in the plane with winds and shear. My instructor handled to final phase of the landing due to crosswinds and gusts (some gusts were forcast to be between 22 and 31 kts this afternoon). We landed, closed out the flight plan, got right back in the plane and flew home. Return trip was direct to our VOR fix then into the pattern and landing. Was this a useful lesson? I learned alot about pilotage, RNAV and how tough it is to deal with sectionals and flight plans in a cockpit that would not stay still, nor a plane that you could trim out and fly hands off.
How and when does one learn about his or her own personal minimums? Is pushing an envelope inherently unsafe? Does pushing your envelope imply that you are willing to take unsafe risks and do harm, damage or worse to yourself and others? We talked about this in the plane during the flight back home. I realized without a doubt where my personal limit is, ( I always knew this, but to feel it and sense it in the flight environment is very, very eye opening) and that to risk pushing through it, would be foolish and dangerous. But I also learned what a small plane is like in rough conditions, that should I get myself into a fix due to poor planning or making stupid decisions to fly in conditions above my minimums, this is what I would be in store for, or worse. I learned that I did push the envelope today, and that I needed to step back a couple of good paces from the edge to remain safe and alive. My instructor worried that, although I had used all available resources to make the decision to fly today, I was not always going to have a CFI in the plane to fly through the difficulties and he truly worries that I would fly in these conditions when I get my license.
I managed to burn in some of my soft and short field work since I last posted. The WX has been basically miserable around here. Got in my night dual and moved on to the cross country phase. Last night was absolutely beautiful, calm, and one of those nights when you can literally see for a hundred miles around. Where I fly in the Mid Hudson Valley, we could see Albany to the north and NYC to the south it was that clear. The Best!
Today, we had a late afternoon x-c flight scheduled from my home base, go about 75 miles north, land and turn around. Spent most of the late morning and afternoon following the metars and tafs and briefs to see when the convection was gonna move east ahead of a surprisingly healthy coldfront..which it finally did. Wrote the flight plans, hassled with the flight computer, more WX check, and saw that the rain had passed out to the east. But man did it leave behind some wicked winds. Sky cleared, crosswind components way above my personals, reports of LLWS, turbulence and the like, preflight in progress, one final chat with my instructor. I was hesitant to go, I didn't say no to the flight, but was willing if he was. We met again in the hangar, and I said, perhaps we should call it off. He said lets go, it was gonna be a turbulent flight, but not unsafe. We flew the flight plan north, stayed pretty much on course and had our moments in the plane with winds and shear. My instructor handled to final phase of the landing due to crosswinds and gusts (some gusts were forcast to be between 22 and 31 kts this afternoon). We landed, closed out the flight plan, got right back in the plane and flew home. Return trip was direct to our VOR fix then into the pattern and landing. Was this a useful lesson? I learned alot about pilotage, RNAV and how tough it is to deal with sectionals and flight plans in a cockpit that would not stay still, nor a plane that you could trim out and fly hands off.
How and when does one learn about his or her own personal minimums? Is pushing an envelope inherently unsafe? Does pushing your envelope imply that you are willing to take unsafe risks and do harm, damage or worse to yourself and others? We talked about this in the plane during the flight back home. I realized without a doubt where my personal limit is, ( I always knew this, but to feel it and sense it in the flight environment is very, very eye opening) and that to risk pushing through it, would be foolish and dangerous. But I also learned what a small plane is like in rough conditions, that should I get myself into a fix due to poor planning or making stupid decisions to fly in conditions above my minimums, this is what I would be in store for, or worse. I learned that I did push the envelope today, and that I needed to step back a couple of good paces from the edge to remain safe and alive. My instructor worried that, although I had used all available resources to make the decision to fly today, I was not always going to have a CFI in the plane to fly through the difficulties and he truly worries that I would fly in these conditions when I get my license.
