JEP FI-3B: More Takeoffs and Landings

Goals:

• Work on landings; in particular, learn to visually assess the height and speed situation on final and start taking over the flare
• Try dead reckoning

Flight:
388 was at PVG still (glideslope maintenance) so Chuck and I flew down with Jim (another owner of 388) in Jim's Cirrus SR22. Upon leaving JGG, we dodged helicopters from Ft. Eustis, dodged clouds and got down to PVG in, oh, I don't know, maybe 10-15 minutes. We did have to descend to about 1400' toward the end to stay under the clouds, and then we were flying between radio antennas like a football through goal posts. On the ground, Jim taxiied us over to Bay Avionics, dropped us off and was on his way.

Given that (1) we were expecting bad weather to move in and didn't know that we'd even make it back to JGG and (2) the next lesson will be at least a few days away since the weather is supposed to stick around all weekend, we decided to not move on to the next lesson in the syllabus. We had talked about calling it off altogether, but I really wanted to make more progress on landings, and having some time to focus on that without the introduction of new topics suited me just fine for this afternoon. We planned to go up the river back to JGG and do as much as we felt like doing there.

Preflight, pre-flight briefing, and a homework assignment while we were reviewing the airport diagram. This time I won't post the assignment until I know the answer! ;) It has to do with displaced runway threshholds, which PVG has.

It was neat to take off at a different airport for the very first time. My first non-JGG t/o! Runway 2 at PVG. It was bizarre to make radio calls that didn't start and end with "Williamsburg traffic;" I had to think about what I was saying a little more. Oh, and also had to think about the gajillion helicopters that were out and about. But of course the t/o process was the same, and it was nice to not have the noise abatement procedure and just go straight out.

We kept those tall towers in sight as we headed towards the James River, which we would follow on the south side until we were just SW of JGG and clear of the Ft. Eustis (KFAF) airspace and the nuclear station. We used the sectional to pick out landmarks and do some dead reckoning for our position and to confirm that our path would steer us clear of KFAF. We skimmed along the underside of the thick, pillowy clouds at ~1500'. When we visually picked out the nuclear station, which we know to be across the river from Jamestown Island, which is a landmark oft quoted in in-bound traffic calls, we headed up towards the airport and began our descent.

From there, it was all pattern work, landings and takeoffs. But these were no normal, pleasant, calm-winded, left-hand into 31 patterns with which I had started to grow comfortable. Noooooo. These were right-hand patterns into 13 with the noise abatement procedure on approach and 20 kt winds. Ha ha, just kidding about the winds; to our shock and surprise, it was almost still by the time we got back to JGG (the calm before the storm, no doubt). That was a bit more challenging. As we approached our turn to base for my very first landing onto 13, it struck me -- we're going to have a very short final over the dirt mounds! (I'll have to take a picture next time I'm out there... They're really of no consequence, but I thought (again with the melodrama) that an altitude of 200' going over them would be cutting it close!)

.... wondering what happened?

We did a go-around. Frankly, I don't recall why at this point. I have a mental image of the runway being way below us (so I probably gave the dirt mounds 500'), but am not certain that that was the problem. In any case, that was a learning experience by itself. I've never done a go-around. The process was to throttle up (from near-idle to full) and incrementally ease in the flaps so as to not change the flight characteristics they're providing (namely lift) too suddenly. (Chuck -- did we count this go-around as one of the 5 landings? The more I think about it, the more I think we did 5 patterns but only 4 landings.)

Oh, and did I tell you about our flaps? They're old-school. No notches or automatic motors to let you nonchalantly flip to a setting and casually glance to check that they extended. You have to depress the lever and hold it and watch them and/or the deployment gauge and release the lever when they're where you want them. I suppose the good thing about that is that it has taught me to not mess with the flaps during a turn!

Anyway, long story short, we did the pattern several more times. We started on flaring, too. Now that's the big item on the list to work on. I'm inching closer to doing it all myself, but I'm not there yet. On one landing I quite unwittingly muttered "Bonk" as we landed, er, safely and securely. Chuck says we'll shoot for rolling landings, with the stall warning going off just as we touch down instead of at 20'.

Discussion:
Several things settled into "understanding land" in my head during our landings and t/os this afternoon.

• I've been having trouble keeping the center line on t/o, especially right before lifting off. I realized that I always go way left first and then dampeningly (that's a word, right?) oscillate until we leave the ground. More right rudder as we pick up, so no left sway and no need to correct! Once that dawned on me, it got a lot better.
• The non-moving numbers on final just clicked since I was paying attention to them. It was so obvious on final for the first landing after the go-around. So obvious. For the ensuing landings I didn't even have to think about it.
• I had very, very bad use of reference points for landing. Since the base/final corner is cut to avoid flying over the school, I was using the school as my reference for when to turn instead of looking at the end of the runway. When we were landing on 31, that was not a problem; I'd look back over my shoulder and start my turn when it was at ~45 degrees. I didn't make that check for a single landing on 13. Slap my wrists and send me to bed without dinner! (But I get dessert -- I made an apple pie from scratch when I got home, another first!)
• The pattern airspeed is 80-85 MPH but landing speed should be closer to 70. On one of the landings I crossed the threshhold doing over 80 and we floated and floated and just couldn't seem to get down. We landed safely and had plenty of room to stop but couldn't make the mid-field turn-off and had to roll all the way to the far end.
• Pattern altitude is something I need to practice maintaining. The real problem is that after takeoff, I focus on sticking Vy and climbing and then suddenly I'm at 850' and can't level off while keeping my airspeed (Vy happens to be a good pattern airspeed for our plane, too). So I'm pulling back power and pulling out the carb heat and trimming all while trying to turn with no more than a standard-rate turn and (if I remember) then also looking around for traffic and calling out that we're turning back onto downwind, which we usually are doing by the time I get myself and the controls in order.

Self-Assessment: Overall, decent with the challenges so far; it felt good today. Flaring and only ascending to pattern altitude when staying in the pattern need work.

• Preflight: Good.
• Taxiing: Better.
• Take-off: Better. Still need more practice on maintaining the centerline, but I know what my problems are and what to do; need deliberate work on not breaking pattern altitude when the intention is to stay in the pattern.
• Maintaining airspeed: Better, more practice.
• Stalls: No practice this time.
• Slow flight: No practice this time.
• Maintain attitude by instruments: Actually, we had a little "scud" on the way up from PVG and Chuck told me to use the attitude indicator; I descended slightly, so more practice.
• Pattern: Generally good, except for the bad use of reference for turning base on 13!
• Landing: Still assisted by Chuck; better, need to work on the flare and getting airspeed down toward 70 at the end of final.
• Radio calls: Decent, need to work on brevity.

Next: Unknown - Between weather and John's intensive training sessions next week, we'll just have to see what we can fit in.

• More of the above!
• Accelerated and unbalanced stalls.
• Emergency procedures.

Hours logged this lesson: 1.5
Hours logged total: 5.7
Take-offs and landings this flight: 5
Take-offs and landings total: 12

Now for some warm apple pie!