Mother's Day Flight

[Jay Honeck]

Mary flew the four of us over to the "Black Angus" restaurant in Prairie du
Chien, Wisconsin for a wonderful Mother's Day brunch today. The winds were
light, the sun was warm, and Midwest and Mississippi valley was bathed in an
intense spring green that almost hurts your eyes.

Her flight, approach, and landing into the sometimes tricky winds at PDC
were appropriately perfect. (The airport is surrounded by 500 foot bluffs
that can make for some interesting winds...)

The Black Angus is renowned for their terrific steaks, and we had some that
could be cut with a fork. It is right across the street from the FBO, so
you don't even need to hassle with a courtesy car.

Mary says it was her best Mother's Day ever! Anyone else go flying for
Mother's Day?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Flyin'8]

Yup. Just out for some VOR practice, and then some brush up on the
landings. Still stinking on my landings, will it ever get perfect?!?!

On Mon, 10 May 2004 02:19:48 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
> wrote:

>Mary flew the four of us over to the "Black Angus" restaurant in Prairie du
>Chien, Wisconsin for a wonderful Mother's Day brunch today. The winds were
>light, the sun was warm, and Midwest and Mississippi valley was bathed in an
>intense spring green that almost hurts your eyes.
>
>Her flight, approach, and landing into the sometimes tricky winds at PDC
>were appropriately perfect. (The airport is surrounded by 500 foot bluffs
>that can make for some interesting winds...)
>
>The Black Angus is renowned for their terrific steaks, and we had some that
>could be cut with a fork. It is right across the street from the FBO, so
>you don't even need to hassle with a courtesy car.
>
>Mary says it was her best Mother's Day ever! Anyone else go flying for
>Mother's Day?

[BTIZ]

> Yup. Just out for some VOR practice, and then some brush up on the
> landings. Still stinking on my landings, will it ever get perfect?!?!

Just when you think they are perfect.. the God of Perfect Landings will
introduce something new.. like a sudden shift in wind direction, speed, or
from all wind to none...

remember the decreasing performance wind shear.

BT

[BTIZ]

I flew yesterday Jay... in a friends brand new single seat glider.. spent
about an hour zipping around the valley at 8000MSL with 600-1000-fpm climbs.

Just needed that first 2000ft tow to the first thermal that registered
1200fpm at times.. but the averager did get up to about 800fpm UP

BT

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:8FBnc.59474$0H1.5923804@attbi_s54...
> Mary flew the four of us over to the "Black Angus" restaurant in Prairie
du
> Chien, Wisconsin for a wonderful Mother's Day brunch today. The winds
were
> light, the sun was warm, and Midwest and Mississippi valley was bathed in
an
> intense spring green that almost hurts your eyes.
>
> Her flight, approach, and landing into the sometimes tricky winds at PDC
> were appropriately perfect. (The airport is surrounded by 500 foot
bluffs
> that can make for some interesting winds...)
>
> The Black Angus is renowned for their terrific steaks, and we had some
that
> could be cut with a fork. It is right across the street from the FBO, so
> you don't even need to hassle with a courtesy car.
>
> Mary says it was her best Mother's Day ever! Anyone else go flying for
> Mother's Day?
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>
>

[Jay Honeck]

> Just when you think they are perfect.. the God of Perfect Landings will
> introduce something new.. like a sudden shift in wind direction, speed, or
> from all wind to none...

Boy, ain't it the truth?

Every landing is different.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Peter R.]

Jay Honeck wrote:

> Mary says it was her best Mother's Day ever! Anyone else go flying for
> Mother's Day?

Planned on it, but the best plans do not always work out. The previous
year I flew my wife and two boys to a Mother's Day breakfast at a nearby
greasy spoon and I wanted to reinforce this new annual tradition by
going somewhere this year.

Last year we couldn't go to our number one choice, the Ithaca Airport
(KITH, located in central NY) Mother's Day pancake breakfast, due to
thunderstorms, so this year I opted to fly there for breakfast. I woke
up early and, during flight planning, learned there were scattered t-
storms around the area. Strike one.

I then realized that I never actually read an announcement about the
pancake breakfast at the airport this year, so I called. Nope, this
year the flying club at Ithaca decided to host a Father's day breakfast
instead (in June). Strike 2.

The final whiff happened when I realized that my wife was still asleep.
Since she normally does not have this luxury, I concluded she would
enjoy her day by sleeping in. So, my boys and I made pancakes at home
while the line of storms moved out of our area.

--
Peter

[Flyin'8]

It gets irritating. CFI in the plane, all goes well... He sends me
off for some practice and I am certain the ATC guys/gals were laughing
at me. I think I got credit for 4 landings on one approach. Out of 4
attempts, only one was decent (landing #3.) I am getting extremely
frustrated with the whole landing thing. I think I just need to take
the plane for a few hours and learn to tame the beast. Today, it
showed me who is the true master. I do not know what I am doing
different when I am alone as opposed to with the CFI.

I do the standard procedure, 1500 RPM abeam point, bleed speed to 80,
10 degrees flaps, turn base, 20 degrees flaps, trim for 70 knots, turn
final drop to 30 degrees flaps. All is well until it is short final,
speed drops, nose goes down a bit, speed increases, time for flare and
BOING.... bounce... OR I pull back too much (to avert the bounce) and
the plane rises and floats then stalls out about 2 feet off the runway
then bounces a couple of times.

Any tips for me?


On Sun, 9 May 2004 19:32:11 -0700, "BTIZ" >
wrote:

>
>> Yup. Just out for some VOR practice, and then some brush up on the
>> landings. Still stinking on my landings, will it ever get perfect?!?!
>
>Just when you think they are perfect.. the God of Perfect Landings will
>introduce something new.. like a sudden shift in wind direction, speed, or
>from all wind to none...
>
>remember the decreasing performance wind shear.
>
>BT
>

[Jay Honeck]

> Any tips for me?

Get used to it? ;-)

Seriously, landing is like having a problem with Windows XP -- you can do
the exact same thing ten times in a row, and get ten different results. It
makes trouble-shooting difficult, to say the least, but it does get better
over time. Eventually you get more consistent, and have more greasers.

Try to keep your eyes focused on the far end of the runway as you round out
your flare, and don't get discouraged. In 9 years, almost 900 hours, and
over 1400 landings, I can count the number of truly "perfect" landings on
one hand. All the rest have been "salvaged" -- although (so far) I've
always been able to use the plane again!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[G.R. Patterson III]

Flyin'8 wrote:
>
> Any tips for me?

Perhaps it's because the plane behaves differently without the CFI's 180 pounds or so
in there with you. If so, you'll get it with practice.

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

[Flyin'8]

Maybe... My CFI is a big dude. 6'4 and about 240+ Maybe that is the
difference. I need to boot him out and go practice.

On Mon, 10 May 2004 04:17:57 GMT, "G.R. Patterson III"
> wrote:

>
>
>Flyin'8 wrote:
>>
>> Any tips for me?
>
>Perhaps it's because the plane behaves differently without the CFI's 180 pounds or so
>in there with you. If so, you'll get it with practice.
>
>George Patterson
> If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

[Flyin'8]

>> Any tips for me?
>
>Get used to it? ;-)
>
Haha, I am about used to it now, but it is helluv ugly. I always
pictured myself landing gracefully. My landings are anything but
graceful.


>Seriously, landing is like having a problem with Windows XP -- you can do
>the exact same thing ten times in a row, and get ten different results. It
>makes trouble-shooting difficult, to say the least, but it does get better
>over time. Eventually you get more consistent, and have more greasers.
A day or two of solo practice landings should help me then. I stopped
today before I killed myself trying. Every landing I was getting more
and more frustrated. I knew it was time to park it and go home.


>Try to keep your eyes focused on the far end of the runway as you round out
>your flare, and don't get discouraged. In 9 years, almost 900 hours, and
>over 1400 landings, I can count the number of truly "perfect" landings on
>one hand. All the rest have been "salvaged" -- although (so far) I've
>always been able to use the plane again!

This may be my problem. I tend to focus just off the nose of the
plane, for fear of flaring to late and plowing the nose wheel into the
ground. Next time out, I will focus at the end of the runway and see
if it improves this landing mess I have gotten myself into.

>
>:-)

[EDR]

In article >, Flyin'8
> wrote:

> Maybe... My CFI is a big dude. 6'4 and about 240+ Maybe that is the
> difference. I need to boot him out and go practice.

There's the rub, as the saying goes.
you are flying too fast for your landing weight.

Recalculated the final approach airspeed.
1 - divide the actual landing weight by the gross weight
2 - take the square root of that number
3 - multiply by the max gross aft cg stall speed
4 - multiply by 1.3
this is you actual final approach speed

[Teacherjh]

>>
I do not know what I am doing
different when I am alone as opposed to with the CFI.
<<

The weight distribution is different. Try putting a hundred pound sack of
potatos in the front seat. When you master your landings with that, tell your
fl ight instructor that he can be replaced by a sack of potatos.

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

[David Brooks]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:8FBnc.59474$0H1.5923804@attbi_s54...

> Mary says it was her best Mother's Day ever! Anyone else go flying for
> Mother's Day?

Of course. Since my wife and daughter were off for a spa treatment, I took
advantage of the "loose end" time to hitch a ride in a friend's Cub, doors
open and everything. Or maybe that's not what you meant.

My own mother's Mother's Day was weeks ago anyway.

-- David Brooks

[Stan Prevost]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:8FBnc.59474$0H1.5923804@attbi_s54...
>
> Mary says it was her best Mother's Day ever! Anyone else go flying for
> Mother's Day?

Yes, I took my daughter-in-law and her family up in the Saratoga for her
mother's day gift. Two grandchildren, 2 and 6. They had a ball. Only
problem is, she was airsick. It must be because she is pregnant, because
she has flown long XC trips with me before and was fine. The little unborn
guy wiggled a lot.

First time I have ever had 7 people in the Saratoga!

Stan