So I did pass my checkride! I have been flying since February of 2012. My dear wife will fly with me when she is able. We have had some notable adventures!
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Flying in the mountains!
Well today, July 17, 2013 I went flying. My flight was in the early morning (getting very hot by 10 a.m.). I was going to fly up to Wildhorse but decided to only go out over the valley next to Tuscarora and then fly over to Willow Creek Reservoir. A beautiful morning to be up. I flew somewhat parallel to Mountain City Highway as I headed toward the Independence Mountain range and then into the beautiful valley next to Tuscarora. Circled around a couple of times and then followed the GPS toward Willow Creek res. Keeping an eye on my timer and fuel. Flew next to but not over the small lake. Nobody fishing, boating. Touched the direct icon on the Garmin program and headed back to Elko. Climbed up to 10,000 ft. Msl to be sure I would clear the tall range as I flew to Elko. Two or three other planes readying to land, everyone communicated adequately. A good landing on 23. It had warmed up to at least 80-85 on the ground. Taxi Alpha and park in hanger. No noticeable oil leak. (Just finished annual and replaced all the push rod sleeves). Soon I will include photos and movie clips, gotta get that GoPro camera. Until we fly again. ;-)
Sunday, May 26, 2013
What a day to Fly! Oh My!
I am writing this on Sunday afternoon. Julie and I flew to Wendover from Elko yesterday morning. Our plan was to fly direct, approx. 80 miles and over approx 3 mountain ranges. The air was cool and smooth. Very little wind. WE carried 20.5 gallons of fuel. The flight was beautiful, peaceful, just the way it is meant to be! We flew over Spring Creek, then over Secret Pass at 8,500 msl. On to the East/Northeast toward Wendover. Eventually we were on our exact tract, following our line to Wendover. As we got within about 15 miles, even at 9,000 msl we were not comfortable flying direct due to the high range and our limited airplane performance. So we flew in a northeasterly direction and ended up near the lowest part of the range. Into the valley near Wendover and then to the south of the runway to drop some elevation. I practiced some S turns in order to extend my distance to the left downwind. Hey, it worked and we entered the downwind at 5,100 msl. Turned base with flaps and carb heat. Lined up on final, making all the necessary radio calls and then had a nice stable landing. Turned onto taxi way and putted over to the FBO. Used the supplied tie down chains and our yoke lock inside the plane. Wooden chokes. Everything shut down inside plane. Inside for restrooms and then walked up the Subway. It was about 9:40 a.m. Beautiful outside. Easy walk for us both. We split a breakfast sandwich and enjoyed a nice drink and a cookie. Soon it was time to walk back to the FBO/Museum. Nice walk back. The wind was just beginning to pick up a bit. Back at FBO we made preps to climb aboard and take off for Elko. I checked the fuel and we were at fourteen gallons. That would be 10.5 usable. We had used about 6.5 on our flight to Wendover. I felt confident we would have plenty to return to KEKO. We checked the wind, set our altimeter and taxied to 26. The wind was about 4 kts. from 100.
Our takeoff went fine. We climbed out in a Northwest direction in order to avoid the mountain range nearby that we would climb over if flying direct. The temperature had increased and we knew our little plane would not climb quick enough so hence the reason for flying over the freeway initially. We turned southward after we had gained adequate elevation. Met up with our direct track midway out in the large valley in the MOA area. Right over the RRNA tracks. Some ongoing up drafts permitted us to climb up above 8,000 ft. It had become bumpy since our initial climb out from Wendover. We had a brief conversation with a pilot that was approaching Wendover to land. He said it was quite bumpy just south of Elko. I expect it had been bumpy all the way for him. He wished us well. We double clicked him hack. We continued on. Our 150 was moving along at about 75 kts. We were bouncing around quite a bit. Julie was hanging in there well. She was glad to have a strap to reach up and hold tightly. She learned a bit more about our portable GPS unit. As we approached the last range of mountains, just east of Secret Pass. we decided to avoid going directly over the top and flew to the south instead to go over a section that was much lower. Prior to that range we had many up drafts but also had several DOWNDRAFTS that kept me concerned. A couple of times I had to nose down and pick up some speed and full throttle it to get into level flight or into a mild climb.
We made it over Secret Pass and began our descent. Dropped down to 7,000 feet as we flew over Spring Creek and over LaMoille summit, continuing our descent to 6, 100 to enter L Base for landing 23. It was working out nicely, entered final for 23. Our speed was at about 80 mph. Flaps slowed the plane to magic number 65. We noticed we were getting the red and white light indicating glide path on target for touchdown. Most of the wind had calmed. Both Julie and I were feeling confident that we would have a normal, uneventful landing. We were a bit weary of the bumpy ride back but of course had persevered and were just happy to be back. Our descent continued and we were lined up on the line, we had become a bit low but nothing to prevent a normal landing.
I had gone to 20 degrees of flaps and carb heat was on. Speed was right at 65-68. We were right over the slash markings, all going well. At about 10 feet off the ground with speed slowing and flair starting all "HELL" broke loose. The plane moved substantially, not sure what exact direction, but I had to do something quick or we would just fall to the runway fast and hard! Julie became frantic and I was told later expressed her desires to God several times. I gave the plane full throttle, kept the nose up enough to stay in the air, noticing our air speed had dropped to 45, I managed to keep it in the air and reduce flaps at about 5 percent, then staying off the runway and gaining enough speed to begin to stablize, called out a go around and took about 10 degrees more flaps off, still maintaining control to some degree! Took off the rest of flap and the damn plane would not climb! I was at a loss! We had to climb! As we flew beyond the end of the runway and had only climbed about 300 feet,( maybe), I realized that I had never pushed the carb heat back in to cold. After doing so, we had a new lease on life!! Climbed through the bumpy sky up to about 5,800 ft. For our current needs that was high enough to turn base and then final. Still gusty and bumpy but felt like I had the plane under control. Lined up for final still making ongoing adjustments to pitch and power. Used 20 degrees of flaps again and did pull the carb heat as always. I cut the throttle back to 1500 in order to descend enough to land on the first third of the runway. We came in feeling stable. Once agian wind gust hit and we became (at least felt like) a rag doll being tossed about not far from the ground. I managed to get the tires on the ground a bit to the Left but thanks to a very wide runway I let it ride out till we slowed with using some rudder and aileron as well as a gentle foot on the braking.
Taxi to hanger and shut that bird down! Whew!
After discussing and thinking about the whole landing situation, some thoughts: I should have kept my speed up a bit more, used less flaps, and REMEBER TO PUSH CARB HEAT BACK IN.
I also learned to always expect the unexpected when setting up to land!
Our takeoff went fine. We climbed out in a Northwest direction in order to avoid the mountain range nearby that we would climb over if flying direct. The temperature had increased and we knew our little plane would not climb quick enough so hence the reason for flying over the freeway initially. We turned southward after we had gained adequate elevation. Met up with our direct track midway out in the large valley in the MOA area. Right over the RRNA tracks. Some ongoing up drafts permitted us to climb up above 8,000 ft. It had become bumpy since our initial climb out from Wendover. We had a brief conversation with a pilot that was approaching Wendover to land. He said it was quite bumpy just south of Elko. I expect it had been bumpy all the way for him. He wished us well. We double clicked him hack. We continued on. Our 150 was moving along at about 75 kts. We were bouncing around quite a bit. Julie was hanging in there well. She was glad to have a strap to reach up and hold tightly. She learned a bit more about our portable GPS unit. As we approached the last range of mountains, just east of Secret Pass. we decided to avoid going directly over the top and flew to the south instead to go over a section that was much lower. Prior to that range we had many up drafts but also had several DOWNDRAFTS that kept me concerned. A couple of times I had to nose down and pick up some speed and full throttle it to get into level flight or into a mild climb.
We made it over Secret Pass and began our descent. Dropped down to 7,000 feet as we flew over Spring Creek and over LaMoille summit, continuing our descent to 6, 100 to enter L Base for landing 23. It was working out nicely, entered final for 23. Our speed was at about 80 mph. Flaps slowed the plane to magic number 65. We noticed we were getting the red and white light indicating glide path on target for touchdown. Most of the wind had calmed. Both Julie and I were feeling confident that we would have a normal, uneventful landing. We were a bit weary of the bumpy ride back but of course had persevered and were just happy to be back. Our descent continued and we were lined up on the line, we had become a bit low but nothing to prevent a normal landing.
I had gone to 20 degrees of flaps and carb heat was on. Speed was right at 65-68. We were right over the slash markings, all going well. At about 10 feet off the ground with speed slowing and flair starting all "HELL" broke loose. The plane moved substantially, not sure what exact direction, but I had to do something quick or we would just fall to the runway fast and hard! Julie became frantic and I was told later expressed her desires to God several times. I gave the plane full throttle, kept the nose up enough to stay in the air, noticing our air speed had dropped to 45, I managed to keep it in the air and reduce flaps at about 5 percent, then staying off the runway and gaining enough speed to begin to stablize, called out a go around and took about 10 degrees more flaps off, still maintaining control to some degree! Took off the rest of flap and the damn plane would not climb! I was at a loss! We had to climb! As we flew beyond the end of the runway and had only climbed about 300 feet,( maybe), I realized that I had never pushed the carb heat back in to cold. After doing so, we had a new lease on life!! Climbed through the bumpy sky up to about 5,800 ft. For our current needs that was high enough to turn base and then final. Still gusty and bumpy but felt like I had the plane under control. Lined up for final still making ongoing adjustments to pitch and power. Used 20 degrees of flaps again and did pull the carb heat as always. I cut the throttle back to 1500 in order to descend enough to land on the first third of the runway. We came in feeling stable. Once agian wind gust hit and we became (at least felt like) a rag doll being tossed about not far from the ground. I managed to get the tires on the ground a bit to the Left but thanks to a very wide runway I let it ride out till we slowed with using some rudder and aileron as well as a gentle foot on the braking.
Taxi to hanger and shut that bird down! Whew!
After discussing and thinking about the whole landing situation, some thoughts: I should have kept my speed up a bit more, used less flaps, and REMEBER TO PUSH CARB HEAT BACK IN.
I also learned to always expect the unexpected when setting up to land!
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