88 MPH!
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:06 pm
So I'm driving to the airport yesterday, and guess what I see
on a trailer in the right lane?
[img width=500 height=374][/img]
Cameras in phones are pretty good, these days. Not much
of a car, mechanically speaking, but I'd still like to have one,
perhaps with a transverse-mounted aluminum V-8?
At the airport, driving past the rows of hangars, I see that
someone else's airplane is an X-wing fighter:
[img width=500 height=375][/img]
Cute. So I call the fuel truck, check the oil, blow the dust
off - slightly annoying, but better than having the cam lobes
and lifters spall - and everyone is jammed onto the "big
runway" which is 25R with 3 or 5 knots from the west.
[img width=500 height=375][/img]
So I ask for 25L for closed pattern. Hardly anyone, even
people with stall speed half of mine, will use the "short runway"
which is 2700 feet long.
So I do a bunch of circuits - sorry, "pattern work". Get
"cleared for the option" as soon as I turn downwind, which
is nice. Sort of my runway, everyone else trying to use the
big one.
After a few times around, I figure my landings are as good
as they're going to get, and the oil is up to temperature and
I tell tower I'm planning on a full stop. Note the word "planning".
Remember, a go-around - if shit goes south - isn't the end
of the world. I wish more people would remember that.
Anyways, I let the speed drop below 100 mph on slant final,
the nose comes up - no flaps - the little runway completely
disappears (if you see it, you're not going to land on it), chop
the power and roll out, and here's the neat thing - I cleared
on Q taxiway.
Looking at the airport diagram, that means I was able to get
a full-stop landing in 1350 feet, with a 100 mph Vref.
And the guys in Cessnas and Pipers are all on 25R. Sigh.
on a trailer in the right lane?
[img width=500 height=374][/img]
Cameras in phones are pretty good, these days. Not much
of a car, mechanically speaking, but I'd still like to have one,
perhaps with a transverse-mounted aluminum V-8?
At the airport, driving past the rows of hangars, I see that
someone else's airplane is an X-wing fighter:
[img width=500 height=375][/img]
Cute. So I call the fuel truck, check the oil, blow the dust
off - slightly annoying, but better than having the cam lobes
and lifters spall - and everyone is jammed onto the "big
runway" which is 25R with 3 or 5 knots from the west.
[img width=500 height=375][/img]
So I ask for 25L for closed pattern. Hardly anyone, even
people with stall speed half of mine, will use the "short runway"
which is 2700 feet long.
So I do a bunch of circuits - sorry, "pattern work". Get
"cleared for the option" as soon as I turn downwind, which
is nice. Sort of my runway, everyone else trying to use the
big one.
After a few times around, I figure my landings are as good
as they're going to get, and the oil is up to temperature and
I tell tower I'm planning on a full stop. Note the word "planning".
Remember, a go-around - if shit goes south - isn't the end
of the world. I wish more people would remember that.
Anyways, I let the speed drop below 100 mph on slant final,
the nose comes up - no flaps - the little runway completely
disappears (if you see it, you're not going to land on it), chop
the power and roll out, and here's the neat thing - I cleared
on Q taxiway.
Looking at the airport diagram, that means I was able to get
a full-stop landing in 1350 feet, with a 100 mph Vref.
And the guys in Cessnas and Pipers are all on 25R. Sigh.