Today I flew N1806G (see aircraft) again with Dave. I was glad to see the weather clear up early today so that we could get some flying in late this afternoon.
There was a bit of wind blowing today. It was roughly 13 knots out of 270 through 310. Since we were flying off runway 31, that meant a bit of a left crosswind to contend with on some of the landings.
Dave had me fly about 5 touch-and-go patterns and then told me to let him out of the plane so that I could go do two more. The first of those landings was very good--almost a three point landing. The second one was a bit more interesting.
On final, I noticed the windsock indicating a nearly 90 degree left crosswind. I setup to correct for it but noticed something funny happening. The closer I got to the windsock (and the runway, for that matter) the more the wind shifted to being right down the runway. In other words, my approach started with a 90 degree left crosswind but ended up with almost a headwind as I touched down. That meant I was slowly trying to undo my side slip the closer I got to the ground.
But I didn't completely undo it. And I didn't pull the stick far enough back after touchdown, so the plane got a bit anxious to go elsewhere. Once I got control of that situation, I taxied off the runway and back to the tie-downs.
I hope to somehow squeeze in two more lessons next week. One will be to practice some ground reference stuff again. Then we may or may not try an introduction to wheel landings.
Fun stuff. :-)
Posted by jzawodn at December 02, 2005 07:04 PM
"Almost" a 3-point landing? Ha!
3-pointers in a tandem taildragger with *nobody in the back* can be difficult (impossible if you're light enough, or the fuel load is biased toward nose-heavy, because you run out of elevator authority before the tailwheel is lower than the mains).
Wheel-landings: Nifty fun, and easy if oleo-gear. If your Citabria is spring-gear... WooHoo! A new dimension!
Someday when "the other guys" are commenting on your piloting skills, it will be due to your mastering conventional gear.
Me? I fly a Blanik (taildragger) with a *castering* tailwheel and *no interconnect rudder/tailwheel*. Believe me I'm-still-learning and our strip (Crystalaire) is E/W where the wind tend to blow N/S.
Confession: I love Blaniks! Not something to admit in a room of glass-guys (note I fly a DG-500 sometimes but --honest I'm not making this up-- enjoy the Blanik more). Oh yeah... DG=$65/hr, Blanik=$18!
Cool!
I flew my 304C down at Crystalaire a year or so ago for a few days. I decided to drive down for a business trip with my glider in tow. :-)
Checked out with Dale in a G103 and then flew my glider two days. You have some great conditions down there.
Fact: Crystalaire has shut down this week, so the owners/operators could have a Business Think (ie "how to actually make profit").
Opinion: What's killing gliders is the tow-cost, and motorgliders do not solve the problem. The second-worst problem is designated examiners (if trying to run an FBO w/o a designated examiner, IMHO you're dead).
My .02 was that todays gliderports *must* find a way to make winch-tow work ($30 to 3,000').
