I Can See The finish Line

I'll try to make this a 2 for 1 deal. I needed to post something about my flying last Sunday (Aug 24) but I have been too busy to sit down and type something out but here goes.

I went out and did more pattern work hoping for some cross wind but all I got was about 2 knots 10 degrees off of center. Not very challenging. It did start out interesting though. I did my usual pre-flight, started my taxi and held short on the ramp while I called ground control and asked for permission to taxi and stay in the pattern. I got my clearance to taxi to runway 17. So I set out down the Alpha taxiway to do my run-up. As I got there, they turned the airport around to use runway 35. The guys in the tower asked if I had received the message and I acknowledged that I had. I asked if they wanted me to taxi all of the way down to runway 35 and they said no that he would get me up and fix everything while I was in the air. The wind was so light that taking off with a 2 knot tailwind was not a big deal.

They had me take off from 17 and make a right hand turn then make a big sweeping left hand turn to land back on the 35 end of the runway. The pattern was getting full (this was strange for early Sunday morning) with one plane from Addison in front of me and my instructor and another student behind me. The guys from Addison are always irritating the controllers because they like to extend their patterns a lot longer than our controllers like. So I'm following this guy from Addison and he tries to go too far on his climb out and gets a verbal lashing from the controller. He tightens up his pattern afterward. Meanwhile I get more and more confident with my landings, even though the wind is light. It finally shifts a little more toward crosswind but never too much. I greased every one of them. I knew my instructor could see what I was doing because they were on my tail, but a lot slower in a C152. His student asked me why I was flying so high in the pattern. He though that I had gone up to 2000 ft (the TPA is 1600 ft). I did go up to 1700 feet because I kept getting in the wake turbulence of the guy in front of me.

All in all, a good day.

The next item on the agenda is another cross country. I needed another 1.5 hours so I set up a cross country to go from KTKI - F46 - KDUA - KPRX - SLR - KTKI on Aug 31. Round trip was about 210 nm. For a cross country to be "legal" for a student, at least one leg on each flight (I had 2. I stopped in Paris) must be over 50 nm. The leg from F46 - KDUA was 60.7 nm and the leg from KPRX to KTKI was 63.4 nm. I have to count this as a trip from Paris to McKinney because I didn't land at another airport in between, I just overflew the Sulphur Springs VOR, then headed to McKinney.

It was very interesting weather conditions. It was very hazy and winds out of the east. Every one of the airports I was going to had a 17/35 runway. This meant that I had a direct crosswind at every landing. Durant was the worst. The winds there were 110@11k. The maximum demonstrated crosswind component for a C172 is 15 knots. I was close to it and it was a little gusty to boot. At one point I thought I had run out of rudder but was eventually able to get down. By the time I got to Paris, it was only 8 knots.

Of course when I get to Paris, I get anther challenge. I am entering the pattern in a "normal"manner because I wanted to be safe and courteous. I joined the left downwind for runway 17. I had announced myself 8 miles out with my intentions. As I am turning to the downwind leg, I hear another airplane say the he is 5 miles out for a straight in final. At an untowered airport, this is a no no. This is where accidents come from. I do my last GUMPS check and announce myself as I turn base. By now, the other guy (who is in a Saratoga) is 3 miles out. I announce and turn to base. The guy behind me acknowledges that he has me in sight. For being a jerk, I am going to make his day. I grab every bit of flaps that I can and slow down to 60 knots knowing that the speed demon behind me has to get slow quickly too. I finally got on the ground and slowly taxied to the next exit where I announced I was clear of the active runway. When Mr Saratoga pulls up and gets tied down, he asks me if I am from around here. I tell him no. He then asks if I am familiar with the area and I once again tell him no. He then asks if I know where the jail is. I couldn't stop laughing for a good 20 minutes. I closed my flight plan, got some water and then filed another flight plan to get home.

Once in the air for the leg home, I made it much quicker as I finally had a tail wind. I hit all of my checkpoints and finally touched down in McKinney with a 5 knot crosswind. I was tired as I got up at 6 AM and it was now 11:45. Through all of the haze, I didn't see any clouds form until I was on my final leg home. An hour after I landed, there were clouds everywhere. It is truly amazing to see the soupy mixture in the morning that will become the afternoon thunderstorm.

Today's video is of a picture perfect gear up landing. This guy did an amazing job keeping down the center line, shutting down his engines and getting everyone out safely.



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