Happy Landings
Yesterday we focused completely on landings. This was a three-step process. Step 1 was to be able to get near the runway and fly over it. This was hard enough, as it turns out. The approach to landing is not the most comfortable thing at first. It's so much easier to fly a plane when you don't have to worry about the ground! But the same principles apply; as long as you have airspeed, you have lift, and as long as you have lift, the plane stays in the air.
So we took off from Palo Alto in 6521J, which seems to have come down with a case of a bad radio jack. This was a factor later, when my radio completely cut out, and the tower was repeating "Cleared For Takeoff" getting more and more impatient, not that I blame them. We stayed in a pattern around PAO the entire time, taking off, turning right over the bay, coming back, and at first, overflying the runway. Kevin helped me a lot with the first few approaches, but gradually let me do my thing.
Overflying the runway was no easy task. You come in facing into the wind, which in this case was a 17 knot crosswind, so while you're moving along the runway, you're facing off to the right. A little disconcerting, but you get used to it. Then, to align the plane, we kicked in the downstream rudder. This aligns the plane to the runway, which is important, 'cause if you try to land while going sideways, you'll destroy your tires and possibly your landing gear. Not good. The problem is, once you align, the wind is still blowing and you start to drift, so you need to kick the ailerons in, into the wind. Kevin described this process like "trying to put kittens in a basket" -- completely accurate, not only in the fact that there are a million things to think about, but also just in that you can't stuff the kittens in there, you have to be gentle. Play the violin, don't chop wood.
The fourth time, we landed. By the fifth time, I landed almost myself -- the actual touch down was performed by me, alone, as demonstrated by Kevin waving his hands in my face as I was touching down and saying, "Look, I'm not helping you!" It was cool! But boy do I need more practice.
The nice thing was getting more familiar with takeoffs in the process, and with pattern work and tower comm -- still is difficult, but getting easier. The fancy noise cancelling headset helps!
So we're going again today, and hopefully we'll get to fly to Livermore or Hayward and do similar pattern work there. Fun way to spend a Friday!
So we took off from Palo Alto in 6521J, which seems to have come down with a case of a bad radio jack. This was a factor later, when my radio completely cut out, and the tower was repeating "Cleared For Takeoff" getting more and more impatient, not that I blame them. We stayed in a pattern around PAO the entire time, taking off, turning right over the bay, coming back, and at first, overflying the runway. Kevin helped me a lot with the first few approaches, but gradually let me do my thing.
Overflying the runway was no easy task. You come in facing into the wind, which in this case was a 17 knot crosswind, so while you're moving along the runway, you're facing off to the right. A little disconcerting, but you get used to it. Then, to align the plane, we kicked in the downstream rudder. This aligns the plane to the runway, which is important, 'cause if you try to land while going sideways, you'll destroy your tires and possibly your landing gear. Not good. The problem is, once you align, the wind is still blowing and you start to drift, so you need to kick the ailerons in, into the wind. Kevin described this process like "trying to put kittens in a basket" -- completely accurate, not only in the fact that there are a million things to think about, but also just in that you can't stuff the kittens in there, you have to be gentle. Play the violin, don't chop wood.
The fourth time, we landed. By the fifth time, I landed almost myself -- the actual touch down was performed by me, alone, as demonstrated by Kevin waving his hands in my face as I was touching down and saying, "Look, I'm not helping you!" It was cool! But boy do I need more practice.
The nice thing was getting more familiar with takeoffs in the process, and with pattern work and tower comm -- still is difficult, but getting easier. The fancy noise cancelling headset helps!
So we're going again today, and hopefully we'll get to fly to Livermore or Hayward and do similar pattern work there. Fun way to spend a Friday!
posted by MKT at 1:25 PM
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