Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Safety piloting and short field landings

Plane: Cessna 172
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Partly cloudy, 70 degrees, wind 010 degrees at 4 knots

Jamie needed to shoot some approaches again and it was a gorgeous day out. As if I ever need any extra incentives to hop into the left - or rear, as it may be - seat of an airplane! We met at Stewart after work and I took off on Runway 26 as he donned the stylish IFR hood.

Today's work - approaches at Greene County and Wright Brothers

He shot the first approach into Green County (I19) and then we continued northeast towards Springfield Municipal (SGH) intending to hold over the VOR. We weren't the only folks with that idea. I spotted a C-17 behind us leaving WPAFB's airspace and there was a student down below in the pattern... and then we heard another 172 call entering the hold. Head on a swivel and I spotted them a mile or two away. Jamie wisely decided we'd be safer to bug out than try and coordinate all that so we headed back towards I19 for approach number two.

After Jamie shot his third and final approach at Wright Brothers I flew us back to Stewart. We decided to have a little short field landing contest. I maintained the airspeed pretty slow, around 60 knots, on final but touched down a bit long - it's amazing how much stall/landing speeds are reduced by being a few hundred pounds under gross. Jamie had a go the next time around. With the stall horn blaring, he touched down, uh, firmly, although still a tad long. I don't think we left any parts on the runway. I brought the plane around for the third and final landing, chopping the power over the trees and dropping the 172 in with all 40 degrees of flaps, and was turning off abeam the end of the hangars - or in about 650 feet. Good times.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.0 hours
Total Time: 289.6 hours

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