rocking in the steep?

After a two-week layoff, I flew up to Maine yesterday in an old
friend, Zero Six Hotel. Almost as soon as I got to altitude (2900 feet
AGL) I noticed that the plane was gently rocking its wings. This
persisted, off and on, until I came home again. I've never noticed
this before. Could it be a function of air currents? It was a fairly
calm day, no more than 10 mph wind at 3000 feet, direction generally
west, but variable. Warm but not hot. I suppose humid, since we had
thunderstorms in the night following.

What a lovely plane is 06H! Leaps off the ground. The carb heat knob
tends to creep out while in flight, but that is her only eccentricity,
58 years on.

The rental fee took a jump this summer, from $65 to $75 wet. Inflation
is back! (You read it here first.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! weblog www.vivabush.org

On Fri, 02 Jul 2004 04:57:14 -0400, Cub Driver
wrote:

After a two-week layoff, I flew up to Maine yesterday in an old
friend, Zero Six Hotel. Almost as soon as I got to altitude (2900 feet
AGL) I noticed that the plane was gently rocking its wings. This
persisted, off and on, until I came home again. I've never noticed
this before. Could it be a function of air currents?

Could depend on where you were flying Dan, but isn't most of Maine
hilly or mountainous? ANY wind, even 10mph is enough to ricochet off
the slopes and cause turbulence, especially at lower altitudes and
most especially for the Cub you fly which has the wing loading of a
butterfly ;-).

Since the ocean tends to have little thermal activity and the normal
daytime breeze is onshore, the air over a shoreline where there are no
hills tends to be relatively calm. At least that's been my
experience.

Corky Scott

nice to know 06H is still flying.. I have time in that bird over 20 years
ago.. from the same grass strip... I always enjoyed a flight up the coast to
Maine... back then you had to stay low over the coast to avoid the ILS
traffic into Pease AFB..

I stopped by the field almost 2 years ago and saw that not to much has
changed..

as for the rocking.. did someone do any work on it while you were off.??
perhaps some of the rigging needs tuning..

BT

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

After a two-week layoff, I flew up to Maine yesterday in an old
friend, Zero Six Hotel. Almost as soon as I got to altitude (2900 feet
AGL) I noticed that the plane was gently rocking its wings. This
persisted, off and on, until I came home again. I've never noticed
this before. Could it be a function of air currents? It was a fairly
calm day, no more than 10 mph wind at 3000 feet, direction generally
west, but variable. Warm but not hot. I suppose humid, since we had
thunderstorms in the night following.

What a lovely plane is 06H! Leaps off the ground. The carb heat knob
tends to creep out while in flight, but that is her only eccentricity,
58 years on.

The rental fee took a jump this summer, from $65 to $75 wet. Inflation
is back! (You read it here first.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! weblog www.vivabush.org

Since the ocean tends to have little thermal activity and the normal
daytime breeze is onshore, the air over a shoreline where there are no
hills tends to be relatively calm. At least that's been my
experience.

Curiously enough, I haven't flown in an east wind yet this summer.
(The airport is located about three miles inland.) When there was a
wind on Thursday, it was NW as is usually the case in summer, absent
the onshore breeze.

It wasn't really mountainous or even hilly along my route, and in any
event I noticed the rocking as soon as I got up to 2900 feet to pass
over the delta airspace at Pease PSM, which is practically surrounded
by water. (I never realized, before I began to fly, that the
Portsmouth NH area is actually an archipelago.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! weblog www.vivabush.org

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 06:00:53 -0400, Cub Driver
wrote:

It wasn't really mountainous or even hilly along my route, and in any
event I noticed the rocking as soon as I got up to 2900 feet to pass
over the delta airspace at Pease PSM, which is practically surrounded
by water. (I never realized, before I began to fly, that the
Portsmouth NH area is actually an archipelago.)

I frequently make the trip EPM-ASH. And I'm usually 5000-9000'. I have
not noted the rocking you mention, although I frequently note smooth
up/down drafts when east of PWM. I will often see variations of 15-20 KIAS
to maintain altitude. I figured it had something to do with the winds and
the Appalachian range to the west.




Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)