|
|
Post by Andrew Godden on Sept 6, 2011 3:11:43 GMT -5
Publishable comments from the PIREPs. Anonymous, of course, to protect the guilty.
|
|
|
|
Post by Andrew Godden on Sept 6, 2011 3:24:49 GMT -5
Well, hot d**n,.....I thought we had a perfect one, that time, but it wasn't to be. Close, but no cee-gar.....What I've had to do, with these events, is keep a sort-of "How-To" file......Otherwise, it's so easy to forget how we managed to streamline certain calculations, and so-forth.....So first.....there's the huge pre-flight planning session.....Then there's the various in-flight checks, using pencil, paper and E6B.....right on down to final approach, with.....clip board, mechanical pencil just a-flying.....watching Tom's Timer like a hawk.....In other words, bags of fun, and we'd miss it all terribly if you ever packed-in these events, so here's hoping.....
Wow.... difficult approach due to mountains, clouds.
My knees were still shaking from the approach.
Off to the races - acceleration is abysmal and I used about three quarters of the runway.....I made the thirty degree turn into the airport, reversed the turn too late and had to bank hard to get back on the RW centerline as the third notch of flaps went down. The touchdown was on the runway but not quite on the centerline and reasonably gentle, but not quite wings level. This was not the place for showboating by trying to hold the nosewheel off and I didn’t.....I had already burned up a lot of runway before touching down. BRAKES were called for at that point as the end of the runway was coming on fast.....I got it stopped with plenty of room to spare and stopped the timer.
There I was over Ocana, too early due in part to a little breeze in the tail feathers. Procrastination was rife.....then I figured it was time to go. Down the approach with some good numbers on the dials but then, d**n, I'm too high and too late!! So down with the nose, secure in the the knowledge that full flaps and the gear will keep things legal and there are no pax to complain. Leveled out with 15 or 20 knots too many but a greaser ensued and a giant heave on the brakes. Too transfixed on the end of the strip to worry about the Goodrick timer's progression. Whew ! We stopped with a good 300 feet of strip unused and then----There it was.....EeeeeeHawwwww, Ripper.....Amy eat your heart out!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Andrew Godden on Sept 6, 2011 11:46:29 GMT -5
Youse is a dirty, rotten scoundrel of the first water! That was one helluva sumpregnant dog of an approach!.....the only way.....to cut it was to come along over the mountains, then crank it right to turn down that valley, while entering a -2500 fpm descent to 8000. Then a hard-right crank to line-up and plonk it down on that itty-bitty strip on the tiny plateau.....I can honestly declare that we've never worked so hard to get a decent result, with any other leg of any other event! But we also probably enjoyed it more than any other leg.....
...tricky approach. I made it on the 1st attempt, but had to pay the laundry for my passengers...
...I really had to push "ole Betsy" really hard...
|
|
