| Lesson 28:
Date: 4/6/2008 Where: UZA to LKR Aircraft: Cessna 172N N517DL Instruction: 1.8 hours (air) Dual Instruction with Derek Alter Soft Fields and Short Fields I was supposed to fly on Saturday, but the ceiling was only 400 feet. Yeah it was quite cloudy and wet. The weather wasn�t very conducive for a VFR flight. I spoke to Derek and we agreed to put off our flight until late Sunday. I arrived at the flight school and Derek pulled in right behind me. Derek briefed me on today�s lesson. We were going to be doing short field and soft field take offs and landings. I went out and completed my pre-flight, then jumped into the cockpit and waited for Derek. I checked the weather and taxied to runway 2 for takeoff. Derek explained how to do complete a soft field take off and he demonstrated on this takeoff. Once in the air, he gave the plane back to me. I asked Derek how we were going to depart. He said that just doing landings for two hours would be boring. I agreed, so we headed towards LKR (Lancaster airport). Once I had climbed to 2,500 feet I dialed in LKR on the GPS, with Derek�s help. On the way Derek had me enter slow flight, my sworn enemy. I pulled the power and pulled back on the yoke to maintain altitude. Unfortunately I climbed 200 feet. I am only supposed to climb or drop altitude by 100�. Once in slow flight, right at 35 knots, I noticed that I was now losing altitude, about 400�. Derek had me look outside. I did and it seemed to help. I was fine with turns during slow flight, but I need to practice maintaining altitude. Derek had me move directly into a power on stall. I increased my speed to 65 knots, then initiated the stall. I did well. Nice recovery. Now he wanted me to initiate a power off stall. I again, slowed the plane to 55 knots, pulled out the carb heat, and dumped in full flaps. Once I reached 55 knots I pulled back on the yoke until the plane stalled. Once it stall I eased the back pressure on the yoke, gave full power and pushed in carb heat, then went up one notch on the flaps. Another good recovery. I completed the maneuver and we continued on to LKR. We checked the weather and decided to land on runway 6. I maneuvered for the 45 to come in on the active runway and we listened for other traffic. As we approached I set us up for the downwind and then Derek took over to demonstrate a soft field landing. In a soft field landing, it is important to touch down as gently as possible, with the smallest possible vertical speed, and with the lowest possible groundspeed. Once we touched down, Derek gave me the controls so that I could do a soft field takeoff. I put in 10 degrees of flaps and at the beginning of the takeoff roll, I pulled the yoke fully backward. Early in the takeoff roll, the nose began to rise. We became airborne at a very low airspeed. I gradually lowered the nose, almost too much. Our goal was to fly parallel to the ground, remaining about one to two feet above the ground. As the plane accelerated in ground effect, the required angle of attack decreased. Once we reached normal takeoff speed, I raised the nose and climbed out while maintaining VX as if there were a 50 foot obstruction at the end of the field. Cool! Once in the air, I made a call and my crosswind turn. Derek reached down and pulled the power. This should be easy, I thought. I simply turned back towards the runway, in somewhat of a tear drop shape. We were really high, so I dumped in full flaps. Derek made a call that we were simulating engine out. With full flaps, the plane dropped pretty quickly. I continued to hold 65 knots, until the plane settled onto the runway with somewhat of thump. We were safe though. I taxied off of the runway and continued back to the start of runway 6. Derek wanted to demonstrate a short field takeoff. The point here is to use the entire available runway. Derek turned the plane just slightly so that the left wheel was almost in the grass, then he turned us straight down the centerline. Derek held the brakes, then applied full power. The engine and tach were normal or �green�. Derek released the brakes and accelerated down the runway and rotated as normal. He climbed out at obstacle clearance speed or best angle of climb speed, which is 59 knots in Delta Lima. After climbing 200 feet (very quickly), he lowered the nose slightly and accelerated to best rate of climb speed, 73 knots. With a positive rate of climb established, he retracted the flaps and continued the upwind climb as normal. After a positive exchange of controls, I made the crosswind and downwind turn. It was my turn to practice a soft field landing. As Derek mentioned all landings should be somewhat of a soft field landing. He was going to talk me through this one. For a soft field landing, the object is to land as gently as possible on the main gear and to keep the nose wheel off the ground as long as possible during the rollout to minimize the chances of getting bogged down or flipping the airplane over in severe situations where the nose wheel might dig in. Derek talked me through it and I performed the maneuver with ease. I gently settled the plane on the runway. �Perfect� said Derek. I cleaned up the plane and we were rolling once again. I wanted to try it again. As we were coming in this time I kept us floating in ground effect with slightly too much power so that when I flared we ballooned up slightly instead of flaring. I recovered and was able to settle back to the runway. After a quick clean up we were rolling once again. This time around Derek was going to perform a short field landing. Once we were abeam the numbers, Derek took the controls. He picked a touchdown point, on the numbers. The actual touchdown should be within 200 feet of the point you�ve selected and you should be as close to stall speed as possible. Once you�ve touched down, flaps should be retracted and the brakes should be applied to stop in as short a distance as possible. Derek started a steeper than usual descent with the flaps fully extended. He flared slightly higher than normal with just a bit of power to stop the excess descent rate. Once all three wheels were on the ground he applied the brakes to stop the plane. He had touched down just beyond the numbers. We taxied back around so that I could perform a short field takeoff. I wheeled the plane around to the started edge of runway 6. I held the brakes, then applied full power. I released the brakes and accelerated down the runway and rotated as normal. I climbed out at 59 knots. After climbing 200 feet, I lowered the nose slightly and accelerated to 73 knots. With a positive rate of climb established, I retracted the flaps and continued the upwind climb as normal. �Good job� Derek said. I made my crosswind turn and started thinking about performing a short field landing. I selected the numbers for my touchdown point as well. I started my descent with full flaps. I was slightly low, so just above the runway I gave the plane a bit of power and��.we hit the ground. We didn�t hit very hard and I retracted the flaps and to applied the brakes to stop us. Derek said that we should head back to UZA. I took off and when I made my crosswind turn we heard a Bonanza coming in that was entering the downwind leg. Derek and I started scanning the sky. We didn�t see the Bonanza, so I kept quickly climbing to make sure we weren�t in his way. I leveled off at 2,500 feet and we never saw the Bonanza. It was my turn to try the GPS. I tuned in UZA and switched the radio frequencies as required and we listened to the weather. The wind was variable so the preferred runway at UZA is 2. I decided that we should cross the runway for a midfield crosswind for landing on runway 2. Once I had the airport in sight, I made a radio call that I was on a midfield crosswind for runway 2. There was a bit of traffic in the area and we watched a plane takeoff just before we crossed the runway. We sped up to cross the runway. I made a downwind turn and announced our position. I made a normal landing, pretty smooth. Derek wanted to do one more landing. This was going to be a soft field landing. I was doing well coming in. My descent looked good. We were floating in ground effect and I felt the plane touch the ground. I pulled back on the yoke to keep the nose wheel up, but we still had to much power and we became airborne again. Wheee!! I was able to save the landing and we rolled to a stop. Derek told me what I did wrong, which was too much flare with too much power. Small corrections, small adjustments� We taxied back to the ramp so that I could secure the plane for the day. Great lesson. Conclusion: Make small adjustments. Don�t over correct. All landings should be close to being soft field landings. What I learned: Keep my eyes outside the plane and make small adjustments at all times. |