U
Unregistered
Guest
I don't believe in bashing people online. In fact, I don't believe in speaking negatively about poeple if they're not around. So this isn't meant to do that. In my short time on this forun I 've learned quite a abit from you guys and it's time for me to give back.
Yesterday I went to do a x-country to practice some good old pilotage with a fellow student who would spilt the cost. He flew the outbound leg and I flew the return leg. As I leveled out in cruise and leaned out the mixture I realized the engine was running kinda rugged. I looked at the egt and it was pinned on the high side so I richened the mixture and saw the needle was comming back down. Fine. About 20 minutes later the engine sputtered. I asked him if he felt it and he said it was turbulence. Last I checked turbulence never made an engine sputter. Slight variances in r.p.m. from gusts yes, but never sputter. Especially when the air is as smooth as glass. I realized the guy was in denial so I started looking for a place to put it down if things really went south which wasn't a problem because we were in very engine faiure friendly territory. Lots and lots of open fields. A few minutes later it damn near stopped and reved up to the red line. I had an airstrip in sight and decided to go for it so I cancelled my flight following and diverted. In these situations you come up with a quick plan and execute it. I had mine and he and his but they were 2 different ideas. Neither were bad, just different. We were at 3500' so we had plenty of altitude in case the engine failed so I switched over the field's frequency and told them what we were doing. At this point the yelling began. I did the only thing could at the moment which was to block him out and execute what I had intended. A slip on right base, a steep spiral down to right above pattern altitude and a 2 mile final. It all came together and I got us down safely despite all of his yelling and questioning. Then came the flare...I crab in and slip in the flare in a crosswind whereas he slips all the way in. When he started yelling about the rudder I got distracted and at this point pretty angry and kangaroo hopped walf way down the runway.
The reason im writing this is to show how important communication is. WHen that breaks down thing can start to suck really fast. Instead of carrying on he could have helped somehow. Take the radios, go thru the checklist, etc. I could have made things go a lot more smoothly.
Stay alive
Yesterday I went to do a x-country to practice some good old pilotage with a fellow student who would spilt the cost. He flew the outbound leg and I flew the return leg. As I leveled out in cruise and leaned out the mixture I realized the engine was running kinda rugged. I looked at the egt and it was pinned on the high side so I richened the mixture and saw the needle was comming back down. Fine. About 20 minutes later the engine sputtered. I asked him if he felt it and he said it was turbulence. Last I checked turbulence never made an engine sputter. Slight variances in r.p.m. from gusts yes, but never sputter. Especially when the air is as smooth as glass. I realized the guy was in denial so I started looking for a place to put it down if things really went south which wasn't a problem because we were in very engine faiure friendly territory. Lots and lots of open fields. A few minutes later it damn near stopped and reved up to the red line. I had an airstrip in sight and decided to go for it so I cancelled my flight following and diverted. In these situations you come up with a quick plan and execute it. I had mine and he and his but they were 2 different ideas. Neither were bad, just different. We were at 3500' so we had plenty of altitude in case the engine failed so I switched over the field's frequency and told them what we were doing. At this point the yelling began. I did the only thing could at the moment which was to block him out and execute what I had intended. A slip on right base, a steep spiral down to right above pattern altitude and a 2 mile final. It all came together and I got us down safely despite all of his yelling and questioning. Then came the flare...I crab in and slip in the flare in a crosswind whereas he slips all the way in. When he started yelling about the rudder I got distracted and at this point pretty angry and kangaroo hopped walf way down the runway.
The reason im writing this is to show how important communication is. WHen that breaks down thing can start to suck really fast. Instead of carrying on he could have helped somehow. Take the radios, go thru the checklist, etc. I could have made things go a lot more smoothly.
Stay alive
) then what I like to establish is that my job is to fly the aircraft, and the left seat pilot (assuming I trust them!) does navigation and works the radios. The controls are mine unless I explicity ask the other pilot to temporarily take them, he acknowledges, and I repeat that he has the controls. Reverse that for when I take them back.
