Tag Archives: ballooned

Flaps + Power = Flower

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A couple of days ago on June 30 we did a bunch of landings at Livermore. All them were decent or better, with one of them very good that Steve didn’t feel compelled to give me any instructions.

We started today with steep turns, power-off stall and then a simulated engine-out landing at Byron. On this approach we had quite a bit of altitude to lose. We tried a slip but that didn’t bring us down much because of headwinds. Then we tried S-turns to lose altitude. After 4 landings, we decided to head to New Jerusalem. It was a warm and cloudy day. The density altitude at Tracy was reported as 1600′. Reflecting on the landings at Byron I suggested that maybe extending downwind would have made it easier to land. Steve was emphatic (7:34 into the video) that that was not only necessary but it will provide more opportunities to botch a landing.

On the first landing at New Jerusalem, I came down hard and bounced up quite a bit. I didn’t react quickly so Steve shoved in the throttle (8:24) and did a go around. Rightfully he gave me an earful. The second landing was ok – flared up a little too much but was able to bring the plane down just fine. After two more good landings, Steve endorsed me to fly solo.

It was unnerving to hear Steve ask me to fly solo but once I got into the cockpit and started the preparations, all such nervousness dissipated. During the flight there was so much to mentally manage that there was no time to feel nervous. I felt ready to handle it with all the training I’d received. The first landing was alright but on the second landing I bounced. And bounced high. Thankfully Steve’s words must have stuck in the back of my mind because I immediately pushed the throttle forward and did a go-around. The nose wanted to point way high up with full flaps deployed for the landing and I remember pushing forward hard on the yoke to fly nearly level and build up airspeed before climbing and slowly retracting the flaps a notch at a time. Perhaps I came in too fast and too flat causing the serious bounce. Since I did a go-around, I decided to do two more landings for a total of 4. They were not great but I managed to make them stick. The rest of the flight back home was uneventful.

This unfortunately ended up being my last flight on N25ES. In the following week another member of my flying club flew the plane and while practicing touch-and-go at Livermore bounced hard on a landing. The plane porpoised but the pilot did not attempt a go-around expecting to salvage the landing. The nose gear touched down first and the prop stuck the tarmac. The pilot was fortunately alright. He was a low-time pilot (having recently earned his private pilot’s license on the Cessna 152 and only a couple of hours of experience on the 172) and didn’t realize the seriousness of what had just happened. He did a few more touch-and-go before calling it quits. Later inspection revealed that the tip of one prop had broken off and the firewall had buckled. The plane ended up as a total loss and an insurance claim. The club has started a search for a replacement 172.

PS: In case you are wondering about the title of this blog, check out (9:37) into the pre-solo video.

More landings

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I’m finally starting to get the hang of landings.

Today the winds were from 280 @ 6kts and the controller cleared us for right closed traffic on runway 25R. We were #2 behind another inbound aircraft and I started off being too flat on the landings. On one of the early landings, I ballooned up due to too much flare too soon and Steve pushed the power in to do a go-around. We were then #2 behind a Beechcraft Baron and the tower changed us from 25R to 25L and left closed traffic. After a landing, the tower gave us the option to switch back to 25R which we gladly took.

After a few landings and one real greaser, Steve took the plane just to give me a breather. He did a short approach to hand the plane back to me quickly for more touch and go’s. I did another greaser landing and the controller switched me to 25L promising to switch me back to 25R after one pattern. But soon the controller came back on the radio and asked us to follow a LearJet to 25R. We called it quits after that final landing.

Touch-and-go at Livermore

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We started a right closed traffic pattern at Livermore around 5:45pm and there was quite a bit of air traffic in the area. The landings were all below average but it was good to get some experience dealing with the traffic. I’m still trying to figure out the flare just before touchdown. By the time I came around for the fifth landing, the traffic was pretty much gone. My radio work was quite shabby. In fact, I could chalk this video up as Radio Bloopers.

One time we were cleared to land but on final the tower asked us to go around – presumably the traffic behind turned out to be faster than the controller initially thought. On the next approach, I flared a little too much and I ballooned up a little too much just above the runway. So I immediately did a go-around without prompting from my instructor.

Just before we ended for the night, Steve asked the tower controller to show me light gun signals. We saw a Green flash and then a Red flash. Technically, this means “Exercise Extreme Caution“. A steady Green would have cleared us to land instead. We landed anyway because our radios were still working and we got clearance from the controller who showed us the light gun signals.

Crosswind landings, stall recovery under instruments

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We started off with Steve handing me stylish eyewear i.e. flying under the hood. After maintaining a heading and then tracking a VOR, I practiced two stalls in the clean configuration and recovery. Using only instruments under the hood. Then I practiced an approach to landing stall. First by initiating a descent, slowing down to 1500rpm and deploying flaps. The idea is to simulate a landing approach. Then pulling up the plane in this configuration and initiating a stall the plane. Recovery is similar to a stall in the call configuration with the exception that we have flaps deployed. So slowly retract flaps step by step when a climb has been achieved.

Next, I practiced slow flight with shallow turns. And then Steve pulled the power out simulating an engine out situation. We scouted a field and when we got pretty low, Steve pushed the throttle and we headed over Byron.

The winds were really strong at 20kts but fortunately it was a headwind on Rwy 23. Still the ride was really bumpy, perhaps the bumpiest of all our flights thus far. We practiced a couple of touch-and-go and then headed to Livermore for a couple more.

On the second touch and go at Livermore, we ballooned after touchdown due to the wind so Steve immediately did a go-around. I wasn’t quick enough to react and this was a good learning experience. After one more landing, we called it quits for the day.