The perfect approach

"Capt.Doug" wrote in message
...
It was a beautiful day in land that Mickey built- 76 degrees with full sun
while the northern folks got their first freezing blast of winter. We
headed
off-shore over the islands of the Caribbean. I was on the second radio
talking to old friends and catching up on news from all the islands that I
don't get to visit much anymore. Caught up with some old friends on the
air-to-air frequencies as well. The flight levels were smooth and the
visibilty was excellent.

Then it came time for top of descent. This time was going to be sweet.
There
was no complicated arrival procedure and there was no traffic in front of
us. We were number one. The center controller cleared us to decend from
FL330 to 11,000' at pilot's discretion.

One of the keys to good fuel economy in a jet is to stay high as long as
you
can and then descend at idle thrust. I looked at our weight, and tailwind.
As I slowly pulled the throttles back to idle, the nose slowly dropped to
maintain airspeed. I switched from Mach airspeed to indicated airspeed
around FL240. I monitored the DME's ratio to the altimeter. It was holding
constant. I leveled off at 11,000' and let the airspeed bleed off to 250
KIAS. We switched to the approach controller who cleared us down to 3000'
and direct to the outer marker. The power was still at idle, the
speedbreaks
were still stowed, and the approach was looking good.

I called the field in sight from 20 miles out and was cleared for the
visual. I pulled the nose up slightly to bleed the speed down to 200 KIAS
for the airport traffic area. At 1500' the slats and flaps were extended.
Then the gear and the rest of the flaps. The old-timers taught me to carry
an extra 20 knots into the flare when doing an idle-thrust landing. That
prevents you from developing an excessive sink-rate which prevents the
gear
from going through the wing.

I bled off the extra airspeed and more in the flare. The touchdown was
sweet. There was just a hint of a bunny-hop before the ground-spoilers
popped, but the runway is so bumpy that the passengers probably didn't
notice. Without moving the throttles from idle, I popped the reversers and
let it roll to the end of the runway. We rolled onto the taxiway without
using the brakes. It was a perfect idle-thrust approach from
top-of-descent
to the gate.

I spent the rest of the day sitting with my crew at a bar on the beach
enjoying the little things in life. Over the bar was a television. The
folks
on the television were surrounded by snow. I bet their day wasn't near as
perfect as mine.

D.



I dragged myself out of bed after hitting snooze a few times, crawled into
the shower, and sat back in the bath as the shower slowly filled the tub and
gradually recovered. Washed the sleep out of my eyes and after pulling the
plug, blew out all those nasties I didn't want to take flying!

Noticing all the dew on the grass, I did a fifteen point turn to get around
the bloody truck with the flat batteries that I'd left behind my second (but
working!) car. Would have been easier if my broken drott wasn't in the
bloody road as well in the shed!

Anyhow I cruised down the road feeling every bump due to the stuffed rear
shockies, thinking that this is pretty good turbulence! And it felt like a
good tailwind while cruising the dirt stretch at a speed that was more like
a touchdown than how you should drive a car. Maybe I should start to steer
with my feet and see how well I go down a dirt road! Unlocked the gate to
the field and yelled to my instructor to get out of bed and chatted to his
wife watering the garden.

Unlock, and drag the Gemini Thruster T500 out of the shed, a quick check of
fuel and a bit of a look around the bird to make sure the mice haven't given
birth yet! Jump in and do the first check, and taxi out though the trees,
across the bridge and up the end of the strip, turn round and stop to do a
couple of checks. Fire up and do the worst run down the strip with the tail
up I have ever done! Speed all over the place and my bum up in the air and
falling down again as I tried to keep it all together!

Ten minutes later and a few more runs up and down it's all back together and
then we go for a few balloon rides as I struggle with a few strip hops, but
at least the rudder is finally coming naturally without having to think
about it! Then off for a couple of circuits to fly down the strip at ten
feet, which is where I found the bunny that was so sweet for you!!!!!

Third P circuit (the beauty of having your own strip is doing P turns at 200
feet over the trees and coming back on short final through them!) and the
wind gusts up so wildly that the cranky old bugger in the right hand seat
takes over and we do a couple of turns watching the sock and came in on the
200 foot cross strip and run round the corner onto the main strip
intentionally on one wheel. The years of experience in this old bush pilot
is a joy to learn from!

Taking advantage of the gusting cross to head to tailwinds, we did another
half an hour of running up and down the strip, with each one feeling more
and more natural. I reckon I can pin the speed right on the numbers, dance
on the pedals without the pushbike and feel every change in airspeed through
the seat of my pants now!

I've had a couple of cuppa's with him and his wife, checked my engineering
work on my new home made tailwheel to replace the shopping trolley wheel
that is on my little toy (Hovey Delta Bird ultralight biplane with a 503),
helped shift a couple of trailer loads of rocks into the washed out drain on
the side of his strip, and done a little bit of irrigation parts shopping in
town on my way home and I'm about to wander out the back yard and spray a
few weeds on my runway to be.

The spring sun is shining over the freshly watered bush and it's green as
far as the eye can see up in my little valley. My day's been pretty good
too! Might even go for a couple more really good days over the weekend!

All the best,
Peter