Rod
November 13th 04, 05:06 AM
It happens with anything you are trying hard at your next flight will be
probably be a pearler
"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" <skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net> wrote in
message ...
> I'm going to put it very bluntly. I flew like crap today. Absolutely
> horrible. Couldn't hover, couldn't do approaches, couldn't stick my
> altitudes/airspeeds while in the pattern.. I sucked.
>
> It'd been 8 days since I last flew. Partially because of some
> personal commitments and partially because of the flight schedule
> getting jacked up earlier in the week. I was supposed to fly Wed, Thu
> and Saturday this week. Tuesday, I get a call from Q asking where I
> am and am I going to fly or not? I know I checked the schedule late
> Sunday night like I always do and entered the dates/times/ship numbers
> in my Palm Pilot.
>
> Evidently something changed between Sunday night and Tuesday morning
> because the "current" schedule didn't mesh with what I had recorded.
> I wasn't the only person who "missed" their block because of schedule
> "oddities" that day.
>
> So anyway, I'm on the schedule at 10 (as usual) in a ship that's just
> received a freshly rebuilt Lycoming 4-banger. I hadn't flown this
> ship in a couple months and wasn't sure if I was going to be solo or
> dual so I worked up weight and balance at home and promptly forgot to
> bring the worksheets to the field. (an omen perhaps??)
>
> Not a huge deal as I arrived at the hangar a little after 8 and had
> plenty of time to work up new W&B before I joined Q at the cafe' for a
> cup of coffee. ($1.66 for crappy airport coffee.. I should have hit
> 7-11 on my way in and got decent coffee for a buck twenty nine...
>
> Q tells me I'll be going solo today and I ponder my destination
> choices over the aforementioned lousy coffee and decide to just fly
> patterns locally. I need to work on my approaches and figure I'll get
> in a couple dozen of 'em in my 2 hour block.
>
> Halfway through my preflight my ground school instructor walks over to
> chat. He tells me I have a "fan" that's a friend of his who has been
> reading this stuff. Nifty. I either have a stalker, or someone who
> really needs to get out more. :)
>
> Q walks up as I'm getting ready to strap in and asks if I want to take
> the right door off. School policy is solo student must leave the left
> door on and I usually fly with the right door off. I thought I'd try
> with both doors on today so sent him on his way.
>
> I strapped in and started the ship up, keeping the right door ajar to
> get some air in the cockpit as I waited for the temps come up. Once
> the ship was warmed up and I got all my pre takeoff checks completed,
> I picked up very slowly and once hovering, checked the MAP gauge. A
> tick over 18 inches for a hover in ground effect. This new engine is
> putting out some power. I'm usually closer to 20 inches when I'm
> solo.
>
> I hover taxi the 20 yards to the hold short line and call the tower.
> I want to run patterns and I'm told to standby. Ok no biggy, I can
> hover for a bit. Yeah, right. I was all over the place. No major
> excursions, but I wasn't nearly as steady as I know I can be and the
> tail seemed to have a mind of it's own. I attributed it to "rust" and
> went ahead and took off once I'd received my clearance.
>
> To make a long story short, I think I forgot how to fly helicopters.
> Takeoff was ugly and I couldn't hit my numbers to save my life. The
> 1st approach I came down final at mach 3 and had to really steepen it
> up to hit my target. 2nd time around I was too low and too slow and
> the 3rd time around I was way too high. Just crappy flying all
> around.
>
> I was frustrated and sweaty. BAD idea to leave that right door on. I
> felt like I was in a sauna and decided to try a little hover work.
> Normally, I can hover with the wind coming from any direction and do a
> respectable job even with a tailwind. Not today. Even pointed in to
> the wind I couldn't stay in one place and my altitude went from 6
> inches to 3 feet.. Absolutely horrible.
>
> I went back to patterns and continued on my path to frustration. I
> think the only thing I did right the entire flight was a left 360 I
> had to do to allow a really nice looking RV8 to take off from the
> runway I was shooting approaches to. At least I stuck it at 700 feet
> and 60 knots all the way around. The approach following that was
> supposed to be a steep approach and I ended up well short of my
> intended landing point.
>
> I was getting annoyed with myself by then and took a few moments to
> collect myself, take a deep breath and mentally fly a pattern while I
> hovered. Once I went over it in my head, I told the tower I was on
> the go again and off I went. Still can't hit my airspeeds but I
> managed to almost nail the altitude. About halfway through the
> downwind leg, I smelled something funny in the cockpit (no, it wasn't
> me. hehe) just as the tower cleared me to land.
>
> I'd been smelling oil since I first started the sip, but expected that
> because of the new engine. This smelled electrical. I quickly
> scanned the panel and didn't see anything abnormal and called the
> tower and told them I was smelling something odd in the cockpit and
> would like to change my approach to land back at the ramp.
>
> I was approved immediately and made the one good approach of the
> entire flight, but once in the hover, I was back to flying like a
> 2-hour student instead of a 30 hour student. Set down at the pad was
> ugly as hell and I had to pick the ship back up and move it forward on
> the pad to get it positioned properly. I dialed up the school's
> frequency and reported the problem. Q, who was with another student,
> was monitoring the radio and asked what the problem was. I explained
> the smell and he had me defer to the A&P once I got the ship shut
> down.
>
> I couldn't find the A&P so had to leave a message with the front
> office to have him and/or Q check it out. Normally, I hang out at the
> field for a bit, but was so annoyed with my crappy performance, I
> filled out my logbook and took off. 1.1 on the books, but the way I
> was flying, it felt like 3 hours. I'm hoping this was just one of
> those bad days and not a bad slide like I had just before I soloed.
>
> Hopefully tomorrow's hop will be better otherwise I'm going to change
> my name to Hoover.
>
>
probably be a pearler
"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" <skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net> wrote in
message ...
> I'm going to put it very bluntly. I flew like crap today. Absolutely
> horrible. Couldn't hover, couldn't do approaches, couldn't stick my
> altitudes/airspeeds while in the pattern.. I sucked.
>
> It'd been 8 days since I last flew. Partially because of some
> personal commitments and partially because of the flight schedule
> getting jacked up earlier in the week. I was supposed to fly Wed, Thu
> and Saturday this week. Tuesday, I get a call from Q asking where I
> am and am I going to fly or not? I know I checked the schedule late
> Sunday night like I always do and entered the dates/times/ship numbers
> in my Palm Pilot.
>
> Evidently something changed between Sunday night and Tuesday morning
> because the "current" schedule didn't mesh with what I had recorded.
> I wasn't the only person who "missed" their block because of schedule
> "oddities" that day.
>
> So anyway, I'm on the schedule at 10 (as usual) in a ship that's just
> received a freshly rebuilt Lycoming 4-banger. I hadn't flown this
> ship in a couple months and wasn't sure if I was going to be solo or
> dual so I worked up weight and balance at home and promptly forgot to
> bring the worksheets to the field. (an omen perhaps??)
>
> Not a huge deal as I arrived at the hangar a little after 8 and had
> plenty of time to work up new W&B before I joined Q at the cafe' for a
> cup of coffee. ($1.66 for crappy airport coffee.. I should have hit
> 7-11 on my way in and got decent coffee for a buck twenty nine...
>
> Q tells me I'll be going solo today and I ponder my destination
> choices over the aforementioned lousy coffee and decide to just fly
> patterns locally. I need to work on my approaches and figure I'll get
> in a couple dozen of 'em in my 2 hour block.
>
> Halfway through my preflight my ground school instructor walks over to
> chat. He tells me I have a "fan" that's a friend of his who has been
> reading this stuff. Nifty. I either have a stalker, or someone who
> really needs to get out more. :)
>
> Q walks up as I'm getting ready to strap in and asks if I want to take
> the right door off. School policy is solo student must leave the left
> door on and I usually fly with the right door off. I thought I'd try
> with both doors on today so sent him on his way.
>
> I strapped in and started the ship up, keeping the right door ajar to
> get some air in the cockpit as I waited for the temps come up. Once
> the ship was warmed up and I got all my pre takeoff checks completed,
> I picked up very slowly and once hovering, checked the MAP gauge. A
> tick over 18 inches for a hover in ground effect. This new engine is
> putting out some power. I'm usually closer to 20 inches when I'm
> solo.
>
> I hover taxi the 20 yards to the hold short line and call the tower.
> I want to run patterns and I'm told to standby. Ok no biggy, I can
> hover for a bit. Yeah, right. I was all over the place. No major
> excursions, but I wasn't nearly as steady as I know I can be and the
> tail seemed to have a mind of it's own. I attributed it to "rust" and
> went ahead and took off once I'd received my clearance.
>
> To make a long story short, I think I forgot how to fly helicopters.
> Takeoff was ugly and I couldn't hit my numbers to save my life. The
> 1st approach I came down final at mach 3 and had to really steepen it
> up to hit my target. 2nd time around I was too low and too slow and
> the 3rd time around I was way too high. Just crappy flying all
> around.
>
> I was frustrated and sweaty. BAD idea to leave that right door on. I
> felt like I was in a sauna and decided to try a little hover work.
> Normally, I can hover with the wind coming from any direction and do a
> respectable job even with a tailwind. Not today. Even pointed in to
> the wind I couldn't stay in one place and my altitude went from 6
> inches to 3 feet.. Absolutely horrible.
>
> I went back to patterns and continued on my path to frustration. I
> think the only thing I did right the entire flight was a left 360 I
> had to do to allow a really nice looking RV8 to take off from the
> runway I was shooting approaches to. At least I stuck it at 700 feet
> and 60 knots all the way around. The approach following that was
> supposed to be a steep approach and I ended up well short of my
> intended landing point.
>
> I was getting annoyed with myself by then and took a few moments to
> collect myself, take a deep breath and mentally fly a pattern while I
> hovered. Once I went over it in my head, I told the tower I was on
> the go again and off I went. Still can't hit my airspeeds but I
> managed to almost nail the altitude. About halfway through the
> downwind leg, I smelled something funny in the cockpit (no, it wasn't
> me. hehe) just as the tower cleared me to land.
>
> I'd been smelling oil since I first started the sip, but expected that
> because of the new engine. This smelled electrical. I quickly
> scanned the panel and didn't see anything abnormal and called the
> tower and told them I was smelling something odd in the cockpit and
> would like to change my approach to land back at the ramp.
>
> I was approved immediately and made the one good approach of the
> entire flight, but once in the hover, I was back to flying like a
> 2-hour student instead of a 30 hour student. Set down at the pad was
> ugly as hell and I had to pick the ship back up and move it forward on
> the pad to get it positioned properly. I dialed up the school's
> frequency and reported the problem. Q, who was with another student,
> was monitoring the radio and asked what the problem was. I explained
> the smell and he had me defer to the A&P once I got the ship shut
> down.
>
> I couldn't find the A&P so had to leave a message with the front
> office to have him and/or Q check it out. Normally, I hang out at the
> field for a bit, but was so annoyed with my crappy performance, I
> filled out my logbook and took off. 1.1 on the books, but the way I
> was flying, it felt like 3 hours. I'm hoping this was just one of
> those bad days and not a bad slide like I had just before I soloed.
>
> Hopefully tomorrow's hop will be better otherwise I'm going to change
> my name to Hoover.
>
>