As an early New Year's resolution, I am vowing to do two things ... first, to fly more ... Ooo, I know, big sacrifice there, bucko. But also, to do a better job of debriefing and learning from my flights. And so, I bring you, The Rusty Pilot Club!
My latest logbook entry reads:
Fllight Number: 131
Day/Month: 4/12
Type: C172
Registration: GIGU
Place of Launch: CYRO
Pilot: Self
P1 Time : 1.1
I was up yesterday, in a new (to me, anyway) 172, C-GIGU (Or Gee-Gew, Goo-Goo, Glue-Glue ... take your pic). It's a new addition to the RFC fleet and has an .... interesting paint scheme. Picture a Cessna 172 painted as a Canadian flag, with the maple leaf smack in the middle of the top of the engine cowling and that, basically is GIGU.
Sunday was the coldest day I'd been up in quite some time ... the daytime temperature hovering around freezing, but the skies were clear, and the winds light and mostly straight down runway 27. So excellent day to go and bang out a few quality circuits ... or at least try to!
I preflighted, checked the fuel, and hopped in. Gee-Gew fired up no problem, but as soon as I tried to verify my radio was working, something was amiss. I could transmit, and hear others, but nobody apparently could hear me. "Rockcliffe Unicom, Cessna India Golf Uniform radio check ... " was received with absolutely no answer. Argh! As I sat with my enging idling, and time ticking away, I figured that I likely had my headset connected to the wrong plugs. As a rental pilot, one thing that becomes very obvious, is that every aircraft seems to have a slightly different arrangement for the microphone and audio jacks. IGU was no different, and it turned out I had my audio jack in the correct socket (marked, appropriately enough with a big 'PILOT' sticker), but had my microphone jack in the right-seat passenger connector. I could transmit with the right-side transmit button, but not my own. A minute of head-scratching and searching revealed a well-hidden socket on my side of the console, which it turned out, was the microphone input for my seat. A quick unplug-fumble-plug fixed my audio problem, and off I trundled down the taxiway.
A quick runup later and I made my way to the end of Runway 27. After a quick look around and listening on frequency, the approach end of 27 was clear, and off I went.
Feet on the floor, full throttle, Engine is good (tach, gas and oil all where they should be), keep the nosewheel light, and let the plane fly off at or around 60 knots. Pitch for climb speed (I usually use 70 knots as a target) ... climb to 700 feet along the shore of the river, turn out over the river for crosswind, and level off at 1200'.
First lesson ... On a couple of circuits, I had the plane level and trimmed after climbing to 1200, but found myself either climbing or descending shortly after. After three or four circuits, I finally clued into why ...
Climbing ... I had reduced power, but hadn't trimmed, and as I began my pre-landing checks, I had reduced forward pressure, and the aircraft floated up.
Descending ... I had reduced power, trimmed and was level on downwind. All was gravy. However as soon as I applied carb heat, I lost about 300 rpm, which set up a gradual descent.
So ... best practice would be ... Pitch for level, allow speed to build, reduce power and trim. Once this is stable, *then* apply carb heat and apply a bit of power to maintain level. Going forward, I'll probably do this prior to doing the pre-landing checks, so the aircraft is trimmed for level flight.
Right, then ... 45 degrees past my touchdown point ... power back to 1500 RPM, or so ... hold level, and as soon as the airspeed is in the white arc, drop 1 notch of flaps and turn.
Once stable on base, drop two notches of flap and pitch for 65 knots. Maintiain 65 on base, and look for 600-700 ASL in altitude to turn base. Turn final, drop the last notch of flaps and stabilize at 60 knots, and then, hit the centreline, and keep the aim point steady in the windscreen all the way down to touchdown.
Easy, right?
Well, for the most part, I think I have it figured out ... but what I've found is while the circuit and approach are generally fine, the last 50 feet or so are still not where I would like them to be .. though yesterday offered a bit of insight as to why.
First ... ground effect! It's useful! On one landing, while I had the correct attitude, I thumped the plane down on the right main, and actually felt it lean slightly to the right on rollout. Not a good feeling. In hindsight, I suspect I flared a bit too late, and flew right through my nice, comfy ground effect cushion and plonked directly onto the runway. For my last landing of the afternoon, far and away the best, I began the transition to landing attitude a second or so earlier, and actually felt the plane enter and ride ground effect for a few seconds. By the time I touched down, it was a gentle, and much more controlled landing than the previous attempt.
Second ... the four second rule. If I've done everything right ... lined up with the centreline, have my speed stable, and my aiming point steady, then from the moment I reduce power and begin to pitch to my landing attitude, there should be about a four-second interval. For the landings that worked out the best, I explicitly counted 'one ... two .... three ... four ... ' and somewhere between four and five, I felt the mains squeak onto the pavement. For those landings that were more arrivals than touchdowns, I barely got beyond two before clunking down on to the runway.
I have to remind myself to check my logbook from time to time ... at present my total time *just* exeeeds 110 hours, with 82 of them as dual ... my total P1 time just barely exceeds 37 hours, which really, in aviation terms is still pretty much a newborn.
But ... I am working to stay current, and to keep learning ... it'll get there.
