C
CowboyPilot
Guest
Took CJ, the instructor, up with me late this afternoon. Took the Cardinal and headed up to Gainesville (KGLE) which is on I-35. Grabbed a crew car and headed into town for a bite to eat. Got back to the airport at sunset, just dark enough for the runway lights to have come on.
Strapped in, fired up and took off.
CJ's idea was to fly from Gainesville south along I-35 to Denton (KDTO) and do several landings. Then took off and went from Denton to Fort Worth Alliance (KAFW), made a landing, then to Meacham (KFTW), made a landing, then to Spinks (KFWS), made a landing, then flew over Cleburne and then on to the home field.
Everything was over a major road (I-35, for the majority), everything was over terrain I know very well, everything was with tower personnel whose voices I'm familiar with once we got to Alliance and beyond.
There were several areas of definite uncomfortableness. Anytime I got away from the city lights and couldn't see good indications of terrain makeup/features, the sweats came on. Once I had the beacon in sight and especially the runway, I settled down quite well.
CJ wanted to take the Cardinal because it's a complex airplane, it's fast and I'm the most comfortable in it over the others. His idea was that I'd have to spend time doing the "mechanical" pilot things like fiddling with MP, prop, mixture, and trim (lots of trim fiddling in a CardinalRG), and then do a very thorough GUMPS check on each downwind or long-final.
In other words, keep my mind busy doing those "automatic" things and monitoring my checklists rather than musing over what was below. And it was damned dark tonight, so if it wasn't lit up, you couldn't see what was below.
On the return trip of some 85 - 100 nm from Gainesville, I logged eight night landings. All were very good landings except for the last one at the home field. I was tired, it's an uncontrolled field (good runway lights, thought), but not a lot of "city" lighting around it. It just kind of appears.
It was the controlled descent down into the darkness that almost had me shaking. Hard to see a horizon tonight, but I've got superb instrumentation and panel lighting in that airplane and one helluva pilot in the right seat. No leans, no spacial disorientation. . . just that freaking descent into a dark hole with runway lights nearby.
Sitting in the hangar with the wives and going over the night, I thought it pretty smart of the guy to insist on taking the complex/HP bird up--kept me a lot busier than the Skyhawk does. It also let a lot of the "automatic reaction" stuff take over that you get through sheer repetition from having done stuff over and over and over.
I'm still planning on looking up a few pilots who had to bail out and ask them what they did to get back in the game. I reckon stories and ideas and techniques are gonna vary, but I'll listen to 'em all.
It's not as bad having someone in the right seat with me. It was the other night, in the Skyhawk, solo, that just about had me in bad shape.
Dunno. We'll see what happens.
Regards.
-JD
Strapped in, fired up and took off.
CJ's idea was to fly from Gainesville south along I-35 to Denton (KDTO) and do several landings. Then took off and went from Denton to Fort Worth Alliance (KAFW), made a landing, then to Meacham (KFTW), made a landing, then to Spinks (KFWS), made a landing, then flew over Cleburne and then on to the home field.
Everything was over a major road (I-35, for the majority), everything was over terrain I know very well, everything was with tower personnel whose voices I'm familiar with once we got to Alliance and beyond.
There were several areas of definite uncomfortableness. Anytime I got away from the city lights and couldn't see good indications of terrain makeup/features, the sweats came on. Once I had the beacon in sight and especially the runway, I settled down quite well.
CJ wanted to take the Cardinal because it's a complex airplane, it's fast and I'm the most comfortable in it over the others. His idea was that I'd have to spend time doing the "mechanical" pilot things like fiddling with MP, prop, mixture, and trim (lots of trim fiddling in a CardinalRG), and then do a very thorough GUMPS check on each downwind or long-final.
In other words, keep my mind busy doing those "automatic" things and monitoring my checklists rather than musing over what was below. And it was damned dark tonight, so if it wasn't lit up, you couldn't see what was below.
On the return trip of some 85 - 100 nm from Gainesville, I logged eight night landings. All were very good landings except for the last one at the home field. I was tired, it's an uncontrolled field (good runway lights, thought), but not a lot of "city" lighting around it. It just kind of appears.
It was the controlled descent down into the darkness that almost had me shaking. Hard to see a horizon tonight, but I've got superb instrumentation and panel lighting in that airplane and one helluva pilot in the right seat. No leans, no spacial disorientation. . . just that freaking descent into a dark hole with runway lights nearby.
Sitting in the hangar with the wives and going over the night, I thought it pretty smart of the guy to insist on taking the complex/HP bird up--kept me a lot busier than the Skyhawk does. It also let a lot of the "automatic reaction" stuff take over that you get through sheer repetition from having done stuff over and over and over.
I'm still planning on looking up a few pilots who had to bail out and ask them what they did to get back in the game. I reckon stories and ideas and techniques are gonna vary, but I'll listen to 'em all.
It's not as bad having someone in the right seat with me. It was the other night, in the Skyhawk, solo, that just about had me in bad shape.
Dunno. We'll see what happens.
Regards.
-JD