Alphabet Challenge Leg 15 KONT - KPOC
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 4:17 pm
Pilots,
Sheesh. Why put such a silly short flight into this challenge at all? I mean peace of cake what could go wrong in 9NM fllight! Yes, you guessed it. Plenty.
http://peaware.pilotedge.net/flight.cfm?id=87152
Lessons Learned:
Flying short isn't flying easy: Ok, so I told myself that this was really a short hop so don't get too high. What did I do? I got too high. I had a plan to fly at 2500 - which is plenty high, but I envisioned my King Air brushing over the tops of McDonald's below so I said, ok 3000. Mistake. What I neglected was how much time I would spend visually ZOOOOMING in to see the airport (again) in increasing anxiety. (It was hiding behind the captains window "panel"! at 10 o'clock). That and the brain power it takes to coordinate talking to the controllers etc on an Up-Down flight. And KONT tower was very helpful by not sending me to approach to then have to switch to KPOC tower. Still I had issues.
Anyway I finally SAW the darn field at 3000MSL and probably 2 miles. So of course I did the right thing and went around...of course I didn't, I dropped gear and flaps and entered a Slip and came crashing down. Even that wasn't enough and I conceded at 50 ft agl midfield and then did what I should have done and went around for a nice easy landing.
You might even consider NOT raising your gear on departure. Seriously. Especially if you are in a C172.
Todd
Sheesh. Why put such a silly short flight into this challenge at all? I mean peace of cake what could go wrong in 9NM fllight! Yes, you guessed it. Plenty.
http://peaware.pilotedge.net/flight.cfm?id=87152
Lessons Learned:
Flying short isn't flying easy: Ok, so I told myself that this was really a short hop so don't get too high. What did I do? I got too high. I had a plan to fly at 2500 - which is plenty high, but I envisioned my King Air brushing over the tops of McDonald's below so I said, ok 3000. Mistake. What I neglected was how much time I would spend visually ZOOOOMING in to see the airport (again) in increasing anxiety. (It was hiding behind the captains window "panel"! at 10 o'clock). That and the brain power it takes to coordinate talking to the controllers etc on an Up-Down flight. And KONT tower was very helpful by not sending me to approach to then have to switch to KPOC tower. Still I had issues.
Anyway I finally SAW the darn field at 3000MSL and probably 2 miles. So of course I did the right thing and went around...of course I didn't, I dropped gear and flaps and entered a Slip and came crashing down. Even that wasn't enough and I conceded at 50 ft agl midfield and then did what I should have done and went around for a nice easy landing.
You might even consider NOT raising your gear on departure. Seriously. Especially if you are in a C172.
Todd