R
Renter Unregistered
Guest
Doing this anonymously because I don't want to sound like I am condemning anyone.
I was out today keeping up my skills flying the Skylane. I fly at least five hours a month in two or three flights, and I fly with a CFI at least once every sixty days. I was kicking my own ass because I had some slop on the altitudes, at one point even 100 feet below. This is IFR and should be better.
In cruise I engaged the AP hold alt. Sagged down to 100 below again, so I had AP fly 100 FPM up, after which I was to hit ALT button. Meantime I was briefing the approach and I forgot the AP. Then I get ****ed at it becuase now we are 50 feet above altitude. What's wrong with this AP? Duh--I never pushed ALT.
So I shut off AP and hand fly the rest of the way. Tracking inbound to a VOR, the needle strayed two dots left. For some reason, I'm thinking, this can't be right, I'd have to fly 20 degrees correction to hold this. Was the VOR precessing that fast? No, I had checked it so, I had to yell at myself: "so fly the damn 20 degrees correction!" Got it back in the center.
Ended with a fair to good set of five short and soft landings--at least that's something to celebrate.
So here I am kicking my own ass--and I know exactly where the shortcomings were. But then I just decide to relax and watch others for awhile. Damn, I saw some bad landings. My problem is that I am ground shy, so I tend to flare to level a bit high (maybe 3 or 4 feet) and then wait for Bruce's butt sink while I slowly pull up. This works all the time, but it isn't as refined as one smooth, slow, pull from nose down through level to nose up.
But I kept seeing people do this: flare to level at about 8 or 9 feet (no joke), then when they started to sink, jerk the nose up, etc, until finally crashing (almost) down on the mains. Of course the nose comes slamming down after that. In 20 minutes I saw two 3-banger porpoises. God I couldn't believe it. I had to write down the N numbers so I don't accidentally rent them. Then again, it probably has happened to all the planes in the fleet. Even the Skylane I was flying had flat spots on the tires. Sigh.
Also while I was in the pattern, I was behind a C172 that was flying the longest widest patterns. Very bad--we have noise abatement rules he was busting. He also was flying to TPA before making X-wind turn (which put him over residences, busting noise abatement). It was a student, I found out later, but the CFI with him shoulda said something. Sigh, again.
I still think--no--I know I can do better, but it scares me to see what's out there.
I was out today keeping up my skills flying the Skylane. I fly at least five hours a month in two or three flights, and I fly with a CFI at least once every sixty days. I was kicking my own ass because I had some slop on the altitudes, at one point even 100 feet below. This is IFR and should be better.
In cruise I engaged the AP hold alt. Sagged down to 100 below again, so I had AP fly 100 FPM up, after which I was to hit ALT button. Meantime I was briefing the approach and I forgot the AP. Then I get ****ed at it becuase now we are 50 feet above altitude. What's wrong with this AP? Duh--I never pushed ALT.
So I shut off AP and hand fly the rest of the way. Tracking inbound to a VOR, the needle strayed two dots left. For some reason, I'm thinking, this can't be right, I'd have to fly 20 degrees correction to hold this. Was the VOR precessing that fast? No, I had checked it so, I had to yell at myself: "so fly the damn 20 degrees correction!" Got it back in the center.
Ended with a fair to good set of five short and soft landings--at least that's something to celebrate.
So here I am kicking my own ass--and I know exactly where the shortcomings were. But then I just decide to relax and watch others for awhile. Damn, I saw some bad landings. My problem is that I am ground shy, so I tend to flare to level a bit high (maybe 3 or 4 feet) and then wait for Bruce's butt sink while I slowly pull up. This works all the time, but it isn't as refined as one smooth, slow, pull from nose down through level to nose up.
But I kept seeing people do this: flare to level at about 8 or 9 feet (no joke), then when they started to sink, jerk the nose up, etc, until finally crashing (almost) down on the mains. Of course the nose comes slamming down after that. In 20 minutes I saw two 3-banger porpoises. God I couldn't believe it. I had to write down the N numbers so I don't accidentally rent them. Then again, it probably has happened to all the planes in the fleet. Even the Skylane I was flying had flat spots on the tires. Sigh.
Also while I was in the pattern, I was behind a C172 that was flying the longest widest patterns. Very bad--we have noise abatement rules he was busting. He also was flying to TPA before making X-wind turn (which put him over residences, busting noise abatement). It was a student, I found out later, but the CFI with him shoulda said something. Sigh, again.
I still think--no--I know I can do better, but it scares me to see what's out there.
