Thursday, July 28, 2005
Cross Country Solo
The final event of IFS is the cross country solo. In this one flight you are going to apply all the training that you have been given up to this point in order to safely make your way to an airfield 70 nautical miles away, land, and return home. After all the training flights I've done and all the check flights, I was ready to get it done. I've always flown better by myself anyway.
I took off late because my instructor's power went out and he didn't wake up on time, so my 1000 departure didn't happen, I didn't get off the ground until 1049. No sweat, I was glad to just get going at any time after all the delays we've had.
When you don't have a second pair of eyes scrutinizing everything that is going on with the plane, you begin to suffer a bit of obsessive compulsive disorder. You check your airspeed compulsively, keep checking your climb out angle, check your course, etc. Little things that just don't feel like they did in the last flight start to worry you and you go through your checklists again. Then, about ten minutes after takeoff you begin to calm down and things are normal.
The flight out to West Point Regional Airfield was uneventful, I hit all my checkpoints on time and landed without incident. I taxied back to the hold short line for runway 9 and went through my checklists. Guess I forgot that part about set trim for take off. Oops.
When you are taking off in a Cessna 172M, you accelerate until you hit 60mph and pull back on the yoke. What normally happens is that the aircraft springs into the air, you actually have to push forward a bit to keep it from climbing at such a steep angle that it stalls. When I pulled back about 1/3 of the way down the runway at West Point, something was wrong. The plane just didn't want to rotate (pilot slang for take-off). I looked again at my airspeed indicator - 65mph, I should be flying, what the hell? I looked down the runway, not much runway left; about five seconds before I am going to have to decide to shut it down if I want to have enough runway to stop. I pulled back harder, not wanting to pull back too hard, but really needing to get that plane off the ground. Finally she left the runway, reluctantly at first, then she sprang into the air. The six knot crosswind started to shove me to the left of the runway centerline and I began to fight that. This was not shaping up to be a good takeoff.
I began to apply gentle backward pressure to attain my climb-out speed (91mph) but once again the plane wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing. The nose just wasn't high enough and the speed was climbing too fast. I pulled back harder and then it hit me - the trim! I reached down and took out the one or two turns of nose down trim that I had been using for cruising flight. During straight and level flight, you adjust a small tab on the right elevator, about six inches wide and 24 inches wide, to keep the plane level without you having to fight the yoke the whole flight. With that much nose down trim in, the nose was being pushed down pretty hard during the takeoff roll. I felt kinda sheepish, I was glad that there was no one there to see my mistake.
The flight back from West Point was as uneventful as the flight down until I got back to Quantico. There were three helicopters in the pattern; a CH-53, a CH-46, and one of The President's VH-3s as well as another Cessna piloted (as I found out later) by a Marine Lieutenant Colonel. This just screwed my mojo all up. The extended my downwind leg so that when I finally got permission to turn final I was about three miles from the runway. This isn't what I am used to doing so I came in pretty low, well below glide path. Not a big deal, I just gave it some power and straightened things out. The crosswind was pretty stiff and it made for an exciting landing, but I did manage to bring the plane down in one piece.
Now I just have one more local flight of 1.5 hours or so and I'm out of here! Next plane I fly will be the T-34C Mentor. Not the most intimidating nickname; doesn't strike fear into the hearts of our enemies like the Warthog, Hornet, or Spooky. Just for shits and giggles I've included the stats of the F-18C Hornet, my ride in about a year and a half.
Engine
C-172- 150 horsepower horizontally opposed
T-34C- 400 horsepower turboprop
F/A-18C- 35,400lbs of thrust from two turbofans
Top Speed
C-172- 146 mph
T-34C- 257 mph
F/A-18C- 1,350mph (1.8 times the speed of sound)
Ceiling
C-172- It would take you so long to get there, why bother?
T-34C- 25,000ft
F/A-18C- 50,000ft
Empty Weight
C-172- 1,400lbs
T-34C- 2,970lbs
F/A-18C- 12,500lbs
Unit Cost
C-172- $100,000
T-34C- $1,000,000
F/A-18C- $39,500,000
God I love my job.
I took off late because my instructor's power went out and he didn't wake up on time, so my 1000 departure didn't happen, I didn't get off the ground until 1049. No sweat, I was glad to just get going at any time after all the delays we've had.
When you don't have a second pair of eyes scrutinizing everything that is going on with the plane, you begin to suffer a bit of obsessive compulsive disorder. You check your airspeed compulsively, keep checking your climb out angle, check your course, etc. Little things that just don't feel like they did in the last flight start to worry you and you go through your checklists again. Then, about ten minutes after takeoff you begin to calm down and things are normal.
The flight out to West Point Regional Airfield was uneventful, I hit all my checkpoints on time and landed without incident. I taxied back to the hold short line for runway 9 and went through my checklists. Guess I forgot that part about set trim for take off. Oops.
When you are taking off in a Cessna 172M, you accelerate until you hit 60mph and pull back on the yoke. What normally happens is that the aircraft springs into the air, you actually have to push forward a bit to keep it from climbing at such a steep angle that it stalls. When I pulled back about 1/3 of the way down the runway at West Point, something was wrong. The plane just didn't want to rotate (pilot slang for take-off). I looked again at my airspeed indicator - 65mph, I should be flying, what the hell? I looked down the runway, not much runway left; about five seconds before I am going to have to decide to shut it down if I want to have enough runway to stop. I pulled back harder, not wanting to pull back too hard, but really needing to get that plane off the ground. Finally she left the runway, reluctantly at first, then she sprang into the air. The six knot crosswind started to shove me to the left of the runway centerline and I began to fight that. This was not shaping up to be a good takeoff.
I began to apply gentle backward pressure to attain my climb-out speed (91mph) but once again the plane wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing. The nose just wasn't high enough and the speed was climbing too fast. I pulled back harder and then it hit me - the trim! I reached down and took out the one or two turns of nose down trim that I had been using for cruising flight. During straight and level flight, you adjust a small tab on the right elevator, about six inches wide and 24 inches wide, to keep the plane level without you having to fight the yoke the whole flight. With that much nose down trim in, the nose was being pushed down pretty hard during the takeoff roll. I felt kinda sheepish, I was glad that there was no one there to see my mistake.
The flight back from West Point was as uneventful as the flight down until I got back to Quantico. There were three helicopters in the pattern; a CH-53, a CH-46, and one of The President's VH-3s as well as another Cessna piloted (as I found out later) by a Marine Lieutenant Colonel. This just screwed my mojo all up. The extended my downwind leg so that when I finally got permission to turn final I was about three miles from the runway. This isn't what I am used to doing so I came in pretty low, well below glide path. Not a big deal, I just gave it some power and straightened things out. The crosswind was pretty stiff and it made for an exciting landing, but I did manage to bring the plane down in one piece.
Now I just have one more local flight of 1.5 hours or so and I'm out of here! Next plane I fly will be the T-34C Mentor. Not the most intimidating nickname; doesn't strike fear into the hearts of our enemies like the Warthog, Hornet, or Spooky. Just for shits and giggles I've included the stats of the F-18C Hornet, my ride in about a year and a half.
Engine
C-172- 150 horsepower horizontally opposed
T-34C- 400 horsepower turboprop
F/A-18C- 35,400lbs of thrust from two turbofans
Top Speed
C-172- 146 mph
T-34C- 257 mph
F/A-18C- 1,350mph (1.8 times the speed of sound)
Ceiling
C-172- It would take you so long to get there, why bother?
T-34C- 25,000ft
F/A-18C- 50,000ft
Empty Weight
C-172- 1,400lbs
T-34C- 2,970lbs
F/A-18C- 12,500lbs
Unit Cost
C-172- $100,000
T-34C- $1,000,000
F/A-18C- $39,500,000
God I love my job.
// posted by Josh @ 7/28/2005 05:52:00 PM 
