The Aviation Thread

[steph2.0]

This software is pretty cool. I'm not sure how accurate it is. It looks like you crossed mid field at MGR, entering a right downwind for RW 22? But the app didn't show a base turn and final turn. Or maybe you entered on a right base for RW 4?

Anyway, I hope the business portion of the trip was successful.

Hi Donica,

We came in from the north and entered left downwind for 35. Base and final, then stretched the landing so I wouldn't have to taxi all the way down the runway that I only need 400 feet of.

If you look at the current radar for southern Georgia/northern Florida you'll see why we landed at Moultrie. We can't get any further south today, though we're only about two hours from home.



We got a room at the only place in the area that wasn't full up with hurricane Michael refugees. It's called the Sundown Farms Plantation, and it's an absolutely gorgeous hunting lodge with beautiful outdoor areas. It's a great solution to a bad situation.



Adventure!

Stephanie

[steph2.0]

Anyway, I hope the business portion of the trip was successful.

The initial reason for the trip is Cassie's story to tell, but I will say that it was wonderfully successful. Another aspect of the trip that affected us both was also wildly successful, and I'll post about that on my own thread. You'll have to wait a bit, though. Once I get home the rest of my week is booked solid, and I'm sure Cassie's is, too. I'll write when I get the chance...

Stephanie

[steph2.0]

Love the photos Stephanie. The two of you look like you are having a great time.

My scarfs are resting for the warmer months, but a word of warning, my wife and I are heading to the cold north to spend Christmas with her family, so I may have to break out one of my scarfs. I may even buy myself one or two new ones while over there. Does our scarf agreement allow for us to both be wearing them at the same time? [emoji12]

Fly safe!

Hugs,
Jayne

PS: do you have access to an open cockpit plane. I'd love to see a photo with your goggles on and your scarf flapping in the breeze!

Oh, I suppose we can both sport scarves at the same time, as long as they aren't the same one.

Actually, as I think about it, I would be proud to wear a similar scarf to one my sister from Oz was wearing!

I used to fly open cockpit ultralights, but they had pusher engines mounted behind me. Not a good scenario for a scarf!

Stephanie

[steph2.0]

I noticed you are wearing scarves. Wasn't the north bound scarf white? I'll be watching your track on Flighttracker. Have a safe flight.

Donica.

On the northbound trip, Stephanie was sporting a tan scarf with maroon patterns matched with her dark red top, and form fitting skinny jeans. A comfortable casual look appropriate for any aviatrix!

While heading homeward the outfit chosen by our intrepid heroine is a dark blue tunic enhanced by a blue patterned long scarf, wrapped once around with one end of the scarf left saucily longer than the other. Black tights with a reflective pattern inlay, and comfy white tennis shoes complete the ensemble. A classy, sporty look, Stephanie!

[emoji16]

[sarah1972]

Sweet! I set an alarm on my ADSB ground station in case you fly in my area of the woods. Usually I get planes up to 100 miles around my area. The US has pretty good coverage of ADSB ground stations. I hope to reposition the antenna in the next few weeks and add a few foot in height to get even better coverage...

Glad you made it home safe and it seems to have been an enjoyable adventure!

Hello sister aviatrices and brother aviators! Tomorrow @sassycassie and I will be leaving on a long XC in the plane I built a few years ago. Despite the owner buying out my share in the plane, he still considers me a partner in it, and I get temporary custody when he's too busy to fly it or out of town. We are doing this trip with his blessing.

We'll be leaving central Florida and flying north with two-hour legs, with stops in Adel, GA, and a field just west of ATL's airspace. Destination is east of Nashville and south of Lexington, KY. Cruise will be 80-85 knots and fuel burn is 5-5.5 gph. Capacity is 26 gallons. Estimated time in the air is about 7.5 hours.

When I built it I equipped it with ADSB out and in, which means if you want to track us, you can do it in real-time. Download the FlightAware app to your device, or go to FlightAware.com, and track N211R. We may or may not be visible all the time, since ADSB is partly dependent on ground stations, and we may not be flying high enough at times to be seen. So don't panic if we drop out of tracking occasionally. I'll be posting updates here when I can.

This is going to be an awesome adventure for Galaxy Girl and the Electric Diva in their Atmospheric Explorer!

Stephanie

[Donica]

Oops! The right traffic pattern was my mistake. I meant LEFT. Never the less, this software is not accurate. It showed you track about a half-mile off runway and the wrong runway to boot. I now know why they would never let me visit the tower. Right, Left? lol. Have a safe final leg home. Update your threads when you can ladies and thanks for sharing.

Donica.

[Leslie601]

Oh! I missed the whole thing - I would have been pestering you to take the east coast route and RON here in Charleston.
That tank feed issue is a bit worrisome, maybe some sort of obstruction in there. Good luck!

Leslie

[steph2.0]

Oh! I missed the whole thing - I would have been pestering you to take the east coast route and RON here in Charleston.
That tank feed issue is a bit worrisome, maybe some sort of obstruction in there. Good luck!

Leslie

Hi Leslie!

That would have been cool. As is, the trip is finally over. We left Moultrie about 11am after the obligatory trip to Starbucks as we waited for the fog to lift. We prepared to head for home with much assistance from the airport guys, who were extremely solicitous and attentive of the two women traveling across the country in their little plane, carrying our luggage, driving us back and forth in their golf cart, and treating us like ladies.



On takeoff I put on my best voice and called, "Moultrie traffic, experimental 211 Romeo, right turnout, southbound departure. Thank you for everything!" To which they replied, "Our pleasure, ma'am! Have a nice flight!" Cassie and I first-bumped and blew it up.

My copilot flew most of the way south to our first stop, to visit with our good friend Livia again. This time we had plenty of time to go to lunch, then hang out at her place and talk until later in the afternoon.





Another hour south with Cassie at the controls, and we landed at the airport near her house. We unpacked and waited for a cab to take her home.



Cassie was sad that it was all over, but we made some awesome memories.



When she was off in the cab, I took off solo for the last 20 minute leg to my house. On the way I circled her house as the cab pulled into her driveway, and waggled the wings. I made a passable landing landing landing (three bounces) at home with the gusty crosswind, but didn't bend anything, pulled up in front of the hangar, and shut down the engine for the last time of an incredibly epic trip.

Thanks for riding along!

Stephanie

[Donica]

The old rookie triple bounce. Did one once in a nasty cross wind with a 152. Just add a bit of throttle girl. Tame that bucking Bronco. Oh Cassie, don't be sad. This was a good trip for the books. Glad you two made it home safe.

Hugs,
Donica.

Hi Leslie!

That would have been cool. As is, the trip is finally over. We left Moultrie about 11am after the obligatory trip to Starbucks as we waited for the fog to lift. We prepared to head for home with much assistance from the airport guys, who were extremely solicitous and attentive of the two women traveling across the country in their little plane, carrying our luggage, driving us back and forth in their golf cart, and treating us like ladies.



On takeoff I put on my best voice and called, "Moultrie traffic, experimental 211 Romeo, right turnout, southbound departure. Thank you for everything!" To which they replied, "Our pleasure, ma'am! Have a nice flight!" Cassie and I first-bumped and blew it up.

My copilot flew most of the way south to our first stop, to visit with our good friend Livia again. This time we had plenty of time to go to lunch, then hang out at her place and talk until later in the afternoon.





Another hour south with Cassie at the controls, and we landed at the airport near her house. We unpacked and waited for a cab to take her home.



Cassie was sad that it was all over, but we made some awesome memories.



When she was off in the cab, I took off solo for the last 20 minute leg to my house. On the way I circled her house as the cab pulled into her driveway, and waggled the wings. I made a passable landing landing landing (three bounces) at home with the gusty crosswind, but didn't bend anything, pulled up in front of the hangar, and shut down the engine for the last time of an incredibly epic trip.

Thanks for riding along!

Stephanie

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[steph2.0]

The old rookie triple bounce. Did one once in a nasty cross wind with a 152. Just add a bit of throttle girl. Tame that bucking Bronco.

Yeehaw!

I was taught to treat every landing as a deadstick, good advice for when we were flying two-stroke engines. Adding power to change glideslope or save a botched landing was verboten unless you were in serious danger of bending something. We came in high and burned off any excess altitude with a forward slip. All but one of my planes have been taildraggers, and full-stall three-points were the golden standard, though nobody busted your chops for a well executed wheel landing, especially in bad crosswinds.

In this case, with the strong crosswind and rotors off the trees, I chose to use two notches of flaps, keep the speed up, and wheel land it (it's a taildragger). It was a bit too hot when the bottom dropped out and it touched while still above stall. The spring gear launched me again and I kept it in ground effect until the speed bled off, then did another little skip when a gust hit from in front. No harm done, and just another windy day in a taildragger.

By the way, in 22 years of flying two stroke engines I had only two failures, both of which I consider my own fault. First was when the spark plug cap failed and fell off the plug in an inverted single cylinder engine. I was in the pattern but didn't think I'd make the wires at the approach end, so I landed in the tomato field across the street. Fixed the problem and hopped it over the wires to put it away for the day. Cause: bad preflight. Fix: good cap and a safety strap.

The other was caused by leaving the plane parked for seven months without pickling the engine. The rings dried out and stuck in one cylinder, and blow-by expanded the skirt, causing a seizure. Because of the power to weight ratio of the plane I was flying, I was already at 800 ft by the end of the runway, so I had all kinds of time to turn it around and put it back down. It didn't hurt that I'd had plenty of recent practice with deadsticks while practicing for competitions. Cause: not flying enough. Fix: Fly more!!

Now I fly four-strokes but still adhere to what I was taught about landings. It couldn't hurt! [emoji16]

Stephanie

[Colleen_definitely]

I need a real job that gives me time to get my powered license.

Though now that I think of it every landing I've done was dead stick because one wheel and no engine, lol. Sailplane life.

I have to say you really are living the dream Steph.

[Dani]

Another glider pilot here.

All my landing are dead stick landings, but sailplanes have glide path controls. My sailplane has two very effective spoilers that can get me down at any glide path I want and if I am too low I just put the spoilers back on the wings until I am back on a proper glide path.

I have done forward slips in training, but with good spoilers, I have little need for that technique.

[Colleen_definitely]

Barrier landing training was FUN! 

Get over the flags, SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP, straighten out and pray you don't bend anything.

[Donica]

Speaking of side slips, I was taught how to side slip in flight school. But I learned the hard way just how steep you could slip a 172 with two people aboard.  I had to do a check ride with an FAA instructor because of my vision. (Scar tissue in one eye from birth). I flew from CMA to VNY earlier that morning to pick up the instructor. We headed west and he asked me to identify the type and heading of every aircraft around us.

Once he was satisfied that I could see just fine, we headed back to VNY. We were at 5500ft. I had forgotten about Burbank's and LAX 20 mile outer airport radar service area (ARSA) that also covered VNY. (I didn't forget about it earlier that morning) The floor of the ARSA was 3000ft. Well, just outside the 20 mile radius, the FAA instructor grabbed the controls and yelled "I GOT IT", and then put the 172 into the steepest side slip I've ever been in. I mean almost straight down. I thought I missed air traffic in our flight path, it was so intense.

Once we were below 3000ft, he gave control back to me and asked "why do you think I did that?". Once I realized what I had done, I was so embarrassed and nervous, I thought he was going to fail me for sure. I contacted VNY tower and dropped into a RIGHT downwind for 16R. A perfect landing and taxied back to Beechcraft West tiedowns. He could tell I was very upset with my performance. He looked at me with a big ear to ear grin and said "Don't worry. You passed. Just don't do that again". I would have hugged him but I was in guy mode and there was a lot of people looking lol.

I never forgot about Burbank's/LAX ARSA or any other designated airspace again.

[KathyLauren]

Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing.  If you can use the aircraft again, it is a great one.

Most of our jet approaches were flown with 65% power and speed brakes out, which simulates engine-out performance.  If you were a bit low, you'd just delay selecting full flaps a bit.  If you actually needed power to make the runway, it was a debriefing point.

Talking about doing a forward slip to lose altitude, you should read about the "Gimli Glider", a Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel and had to make a deadstick landing at an abandoned Air Force base.  They were coming in high and fast, with no hydraulic pressure for flaps, so the pilot did a fairly severe forward slip to lose altitude.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

Anyway, glad you made it home safely.

[Donica]

I didn't realize that there was a difference between side and forward slip. We definitely lost altitude quickly with out overspeeding the VNE. Lets call it a forward slip. It sounded like there was a tornado going by outside.

That must of been a hand full slipping a 767 with out hydraulics. I'm guessing both pilots and the flight engineer were yanking the controls around?

[KathyLauren]

That must of been a hand full slipping a 767 with out hydraulics. I'm guessing both pilots and the flight engineer were yanking the controls around?

They had hydraulics enough for flight controls, barely, thanks to the ram air turbine.  However, at approach speed, the RAT had a hard time supplying enough hydraulic pressure to operate the crossed controls.  The cabin crew felt the slip and heard the RAT slow way down and thought they were goners. 

They didn't have a flight engineer, a contributing factor according to the investigation.

[steph2.0]

I didn't realize that there was a difference between side and forward slip. We definitely lost altitude quickly with out overspeeding the VNE. Lets call it a forward slip. It sounded like there was a tornado going by outside.

That was always a topic of intense discussion around the field. As I understand it, a forward slip doesn't change your direction of flight, and is used for creating a higher drag profile for burning off altitude. A side slip is used to compensate for a crosswind, where the plane remains aligned with the runway and slips sideways just enough to compensate for being blown sideways by the crosswind.

Stephanie

[Leslie601]

I agree with Steph. Used all manner of slip to get down in a hurry when ATC left you high, used that in lots of aircraft with props - but the passengers never liked it much. In jets we'd often slip for crosswind and kick it out just before or when the upwind wheel touched down. Big jets today sometimes have castering maingear enabling a non aligned with the runway touchdown. I think 747s can do that. Glad you had fun!

Leslie

[KathyLauren]

Our crosswind landing technique was to crab on final to hold the centreline, then kick it straight in the flare for touchdown.  I guess technically, kicking the nose straight while dropping a wing to maintain the centreline is a slip. 

I am not sure I understand the difference between a forward slip and a side slip.  As far as I can tell, the aerodynamics are the same; the difference is whether there is a centreline under your track or not.  Shows how often we did slips!

[EDIT:]  Ah, thank you, Google.  A forward slip and a side slip are aerodymnamically the same.  In a forward slip, the fuselage is cockeyed to the centreline because you aren't doing it for a crosswind.  In a side slip, the fusealage remains aligned with the centreline because you are using it to counteract crosswind.  So our technique was to side slip in the flare for crosswind landings.