Planned to fly at 8am but ceiling was quite low – Marginal VFR. Pushed it out to 9am but weather was no better according to METAR. Steve said it was good enough to fly on the other side of the ridge. The METAR said ceiling was 1500′ but we saw other planes fly the pattern altitude around the Livermore airport and there was plenty of clearance. The METAR only looks at the sky above the tower where they typically take the readings. After takeoff, we stayed just about 2000′ flying to the right of brushy peak but not that much higher than its summit. On the other side in the valley, ceiling was greater.
Lots of workout today. We did slow flight, approach to landing stall, power off stall in the clean configuration, power on stall, turns around a point, 8’s around pylons and two touch-and-go at Tracy before heading back home.
After refueling, I didn’t go through the checklist and couldn’t figure out why the engine would just not start. Turned out I had not enriched the mixture. Steve shouted it out simply based on how the engine sounded from the outside. 🙂
Today the winds were calm and clouds were 4900′ scattered. As we taxied out, we noticed that the construction of Three Rivers FBO is making good progress and they are getting ready to open by Super Bowl. The new fuel station has been opened and the old one removed. Miraculously, the intercom in the back seat of N906MD has been fixed! We no longer need an intercom extender and people in the front seats can hear the person in the back.
We headed to Byron and made steep turns in the vicinity of the airport. Upon rolling out of the steep turn, use opposite rudder to stop the turn. Then Srinath practiced slow flight followed by three kinds of stall. First, power-on (departure) stall. Upon reaching stall, just relax the back pressure on the yoke. Because it is a power-on stall, the engine is already running pretty hard so relaxing the yoke should cause it to recover quickly. If you shove the power in, more altitude will be lost before recovery. It is only in a power-off stall that once recovery is achieved with relaxing the yoke that the power should be shoved in.
Power-off stall was next, followed by an approach to landing stall. Start with a pre-landing checklist, then come back on the power to extend full flaps while within the white arc. Achieve a descent as if we are coming in for landing. Then pull back to stall. Recovery is the same as a power-off stall – relax the yoke to drop the nose and build up airspeed then shove full throttle. So we went through all varieties of stalls today.
Steve pulled back the throttle to simulate an engine out situation. The ABC checklist comes in handy here – Airspeed, Best place to land, Checklist to attempt restarting the engine. It is important to achieve and maintain the airspeed for best glide. On the 172 that is 65kts. Then you determine the direction of wind and scout for the best place to land. Preferably you land into the wind. In our case we found a restricted runway which of course would have been fair game in the event of an emergency. Keep the runway in view all the time as you weave around and descend. If there was no runway, look for a hard field or green field but certainly not one that is wet or just recently plowed. Land along the furrows if there are any.
We proceeded to a long pipe in the vicinity, descended to 800′ AGL and made S-turns by entering downwind. The first maneuver was intended to watch for the wind and the right turn ended up being too shallow because the wind pushed us into the turn. On the next attempt Srinath proceed a little further ahead before attempting the turn. He could also have tried a shallower right turn so the wind pushing us back would have made it a fine semicircular turn.
Finally Steve asked Srinath to use the GPS to take us directly to Byron. He landed by making a right base turn and after touchdown Srinath tried maneuvering the plane to get on the centerline which Steve reminded him never to do so for the risk of getting into a ground loop. Just staying parallel to the runway is sufficient. Srinath took off with a soft-field technique. Once the nose comes up off the “dirt”, shove in full power to maintain the nose slightly off the runway until the plane lifts off. Then push the yoke forward to stay in ground effect to build up airspeed before climbing out.
Finally, maximum performance takeoff. Stand on the brakes and shove the throttle fully in. Watch the RPM come up to 2200 and then release the brakes. Plane will race forward rapidly. Maintain control and at 60kts, pull back on the yoke to climb at Vx until a “50-foot obstacle” has been cleared. Then relax the back pressure to build up airspeed and climb at Vy. After a pattern, Srinath did a precision landing on the numbers. One more maximum performance takeoff followed by a 270 turn to overfly midfield before heading back to Livermore.
A bit of drama on the way back to Livermore. Our radio didn’t connect well and we barely heard the tower transmission after we reported our position over Brushy Peak. Tower asked another aircraft in the vicinity to check if we could hear them. In the meantime, because of this, Steve took us on a 360 right turn to maintain position over Brushy Peak while we re-established connection. A mooney was taking off from Livermore and heading in our general direction, which is probably why Steve did the turn. We were soon cleared in to land on runway 7L.
As we flew over the Tracy airport, we noticed that it has now been re-opened after the runways were resurfaced and painted. Srinath started off by performing steep turns near Tracy. Next was slow flight, stall in the clean configuration and an approach to landing stall. Here is a sequence of steps for an approach to landing stall – first establish a steady descent, lower RPM to the airport pattern rate, full flaps and then trigger the stall. For recovery, drop the nose to break the stall, turn off carburetor heat, full power and minimize altitude loss.
Steve pulled off power simulating an engine out situation. Then a few landings at New Jerusalem followed by ground reference maneuver – turns around a crop circle, then turns around a point.
Upon landing at Livermore, we saw a very rare aircraft taxiing past us. It was a Bellanca Aries (N250DJ) – only one of 2 still flying out of the 4 aircraft ever made. This one was owned by Jim Rhoades of Livermore. See more details on this blog.
After reviewing audio from the previous flight’s recording, we determined that the intercom was not working on the rear inputs. We can only hear the radio come through so unfortunately none of the cockpit chatter was recorded. While I squawked about this issue, since the plane is owned by Five Rivers Aviation it is really up to them to fix it.
Departed Livermore in the evening into a headwind. We flew our regular course towards Byron but the ASOS reported winds were too strong from 220 at 15 gusting to 21. Steve decided we should head towards New Jerusalem instead so we banked right over Fore Bay and did two sets of steep turns to the left then to the right. Followed by slow flight with shallow turns, power-off stall, a stall on right turn and a power-on stall. Then we did an engine out simulation.
By now the Byron area winds have increased to 20kts@220. We shot a straight in landing on Rwy 23. It was really bumpy over Fore Bay and more so as we approached the runway. We ended up being too high so the first approach and a landing wasn’t salvageable. We did a go-around and gave it one more try (good landing this time) before heading back to Livermore.
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.
Today we turn left downwind towards our usual practice area. Winds 300@15. As soon as we turned downwind, the controller asked us if our transponder was working. It turned out that we had not turned on the transponder! Note to self: add this to the checklist when we check if the radios are set.
Steve handed Srinath stylish eyewear and Srinath flew under the hood, maintaining 3000′ on heading 095. Later he navigated using a couple of VOR stations that Steve tuned in. After reaching our practice area, Srinath was asked to stall the plane in a clean configuration under the hood (using instruments only) for the very first time. Next, Steve asked Srinath to forward slip the plane in order to lose altitude since we were pretty close to crop circles and Steve was planning a ground reference maneuver for turns around a point (maintaining 600′-1000′ AGL typically). After turning around a crop circle, Srinath turned around a lone tree nearby for another ground reference maneuver.
At this point, Steve pulled the power and simulated an engine out. Srinath had to react quickly to establish a glide slope and scout a place to land. New Jerusalem was close by but with the engine out, we could not make it that far. Steve spotted a road nearby and as we got pretty low, it was time to gun the engines and make a go for New J.
Srinath did three landings at New J. On one of the approaches, Steve said there is a cow on the runway, prompting Srinath to react quickly and do a go-around. On the third landing, Steve took over the plane and declared that Srinath was going to fly solo. It came as a surprise to both Srinath and I, neither of whom were mentally prepared for this occasion. Later, Steve would tell me that he solo’ed Srinath because his landings were consistently good.
While Steve signed Srinath’s logbook and his student certificate (3rd class medical) with the solo endorsements, I reminded Srinath that Steve would not have solo’ed him unless he felt Srinath could handle it. But that Srinath had to be very mindful of maintaining airspeed especially on the turns to base and final and not hesitate to do a go-around if he didn’t feel things were going well on the approach. Even more importantly, never to get over confident especially when things are going well.
Soon Srinath was on his way and Steve and I watched him like grounded hawks, listening to the engine drone and running a commentary guessing his actions based on auditory and visual inputs. There he pulls back to 1500rpm and there he pulls the first notch of flaps etc. His first landing was great and Steve was so excited that he jubilantly pumped his fists in the air, shrieked and and danced in joy. I was excited too, but more importantly I was videotaping his landing. Seeing the plane on a steady approach gave me confidence. His next two landings were good too and he turned around on the runway to taxi back towards us.
Later while viewing the in-cockpit video, I could tell that Srinath’s voice and tone got more and more confident with each go-around. Clearly he was understandably excited after completing his solo. My only worry again was that he shouldn’t get over confident. It was a proud moment for a father to see his son complete this milestone.
After a few minutes, Steve and I get into the plane to head back home. Srinath cranked the engine. The prop turned once then seized. No luck even after pumping the throttle and retrying. Steve got off the plan to hand crank the prop the old fashioned way. Three tries and still no luck. The prevailing theory was that the battery was dead and a spare battery was in our hangar at Livermore. We were stuck at the New Jerusalem airport. In the middle of nowhere (which is the reason Steve likes to solo his students here). Nobody in sight.
We unload the plane and scouted around for decent sized rocks to secure the wheels. It was dusk and pretty soon it would be pitch dark. Steve called a couple of club members and got hold of Doug who was once Steve’s student. We hoped that Doug would drive up to Livermore from his home in Pleasanton and fly the Cessna 182 to New J to pick us up. Tomorrow, Steve would haul the spare battery and drive up to New Jerusalem with somebody else to start the engine and fly the 172 back to Livermore. However, given how late in the evening it was, Doug was not comfortable flying the 182 knowing it would be nearly dark by the time he arrived at New J. The runway is not lit so it would be a challenge for somebody flying solo to locate the airport at all. Doug made a good call of driving over in his truck. And he had the presence of mind to call one of his friends who lived in Tracy to head over to New J to meet us, since it would take a while for him to drive over. His friend showed up within 10 minutes.
In the meantime, we secured the plane, carried all our gear and walked towards the gate. Unfortunately the gate was locked from the outside and we couldn’t find an opening to get out. Doug’s friend drive along the fence and came back to report that there was no exit! As if Srinath’s solo wasn’t exciting enough for the day, Escape from New Jerusalem was going to keep our adrenaline pumping for a bit longer.
Steve had worked for Caltrans and was hoping that Doug or his friend would have a shovel in their truck. This was an old trick Steve had employed in his past life. Stick the shovel’s handle through the chain link fence, halfway to the top. Once person would hold the shovel on the other side of the fence while we stepped on the protruding part inside the fence to hop over. Unfortunately, neither Doug nor his friend had a shovel. We tried improvising but nothing worked. By now it was dark so they had to turn on the headlights towards us so we could plan an exit strategy.
Doug had two large water drums on his flatbed truck. So we planned to toss one inside the fence and pull up the flatbed truck all the way to the fence. That way we could step over the drum, jump over the fence and land on his flatbed on the other side. Everything seemed to be going well until it was my turn. Since I wasn’t tall enough, I was barely able to kick one leg over the fence and land on the flatbed on the other side. Unfortunately the other leg was still on the drum and I was stuck straddling the fence at the top. The chain link caught my jeans at an unspeakable location and it wouldn’t free itself. Neither could I force it off. After much struggle and with help, we were able to tear the jeans off the fence so I could cross it.
So now the drum was still inside and all of us were outside. We couldn’t leave it this way so were stuck again, trying to find a way to haul the drum over. Miraculously, Doug had a shovel in his flatbed unbeknownst to him. So finally we had a chance to try Steve’s trick. Doug hopped over the fence onto the protruding shovel handle, tossed the drum over and then jumped off the shovel safely onto the truck. We were all clear. Finally! What a surreal night.
Using the maps app on our smartphone we navigate our way out of New Jerusalem’s backroads in the darkness to Tracy and then to I-580. It was almost 10pm by the time we got back to our hangar in Livermore. After filling out our logbooks we were back home around 10:45pm. Hopefully N25ES would be safe in New J for the night.
Three power off stalls straight ahead attempted. Second one didn’t really stall. On the first one, the wing dropped to the right while entering the stall and I inadvertently corrected through left rudder while also relaxing back pressure to break the stall. Steve formalized this and showed me stalls on a turn on both right and left turns. Stall on a left turn could lead to a spin if one is not careful. I tried a couple of stalls on a right turn before we moved to engine out simulation.
First, trim for a 65kts glide speed. Next, check the usual suspects for why the engine might be out – fuel selector, mixture, magnetos. If you have ruled these out as probable causes, find out the wind direction and quickly scout for a place to land. Preferably land into the wind. We picked out a field that had stubble and eliminated other fields that were green, or had been plowed recently. Since the field was pretty close to where we were, we did a 360 degree turn and after confirming that we would land there comfortably, we pushed the throttle. The track log below ends right after we started climbing out.
Finally, a few touch-and-go’s at Livermore. We were given 25L and left closed traffic after the first landing. I didn’t remember the controller’s instructions and inadvertently turned final for 25R. Steve hurried my turn and fortunately there was nobody else at that time on approach to 25R. On another pattern, the controller asked us to turn crosswind and when I hesitated, Steve banked quickly left. Why we got that instruction is irrelevant but that is exactly what I was analyzing. These were two good lessons in staying vigilant and reacting quickly.
Slow flight and shallow turns to the right and left. Power off stall and recovery. Then simulating an engine out emergency. First, trim for a glide attitude for a speed of 65kts. Then attempt an engine restart by (1) checking that the fuel selector valve is on both, (2) mixture is rich, (3) carburetor heat is ON, (4) throttle is cracked open, (5) ignition switch is on BOTH, (6) primer is IN and locked in place. Start the engine if the propeller is stopped. If all of that fails…
Quickly scout for a place to land with wind direction in mind. In this case we were in the vicinity of New Jerusalem airport so we are going to try to land there. No wind today so we aim for Rwy 30. We were high so Srinath used a slip to get down quickly. In the case of an electrical failure the flaps won’t work so slips are a good technique to learn. After a couple of landings, Steve said there was a cow on the runway so Srinath did a go-around. A few more landings at New Jerusalem and then back to Livermore for a straight in landing.
This morning the winds were from 050 at 9kts. So runway 7L and 7R were in operation. This meant a long taxi from our hangar and a good time to lean the mixture. Carburetors are calibrated to properly mix fuel with air at sea level. During normal engine operation, a proper air-fuel mixture is fully burned in the engine for optimal performance. When the engine runs at a low RPM (for instance while taxiing), the rich air-fuel mixture isn’t fully burned due to a cooler engine. This causes carbon buildup in the spark plugs and the fouling can result in lower engine performance. The carbon buildup can also occur if the mixture is too rich e.g. at higher altitudes where the air density is lower but unadjusted fuel density remains higher. For better engine performance, less likelihood of spark plugs fouling up and to warm the engine sooner, leaning the mixture is recommended when a long taxi is anticipated.
We start off by performing power-off stall recovery in the clean configuration. I was very slow in powering up the engine to recover from stalls and as a result dropped over 500′ on the first couple of attempts attempt. After many tries, ended up with between 50′-75′ of altitude loss.
Then Steve demonstrated a power-on stall with 2200 rpm on the engine i.e. not fully powered up. Power-on stalls typically occur during takeoff or a go-around. Listen for the stall horn and drop the nose. Steve demonstrated a tendency to spin to the left if the stall is not recognized quickly. If that happens, the first thing to do is to pull back the power and relax the back pressure to increase air speed over the wings to produce lift. Then power up and pull back.
Next was engine out simulation. First trim for a glide speed of 65kts. Then run through a checklist
Was the fuel selector accidentally kicked around or is the selector still on both?
Is the mixture rich?
Is the carburetor heat off?
Check the throttle
Check mag switch positions and whether that revives the engine
Check the primer if it is IN i.e. off.
Once the usual suspects have been eliminated, observe the wind and look for a place to land into the wind. Brown fields better than green (wet). Smooth fields better than plowed fields. If plowed, along the furrows better than across. No railroad tracks. Since we identified a place to land and it was pretty much beneath us, we had to lose altitude quickly. One could either perform 360 turns to lose altitude. Or, in this case Steve demonstrated a forward slip.
Time for a ground reference maneuver – turns around a point. It is important to enter the maneuver downwind and maintain about 800′ AGL. On the first orbit observe the effects of the wind and remember mental landmarks where the turns should occur. Subsequent turns are expected to be more accurate. At one point, Steve suddenly took over controls and performed an evasive action by banking the plane to the right. This was upon spotting another plane in the vicinity. Then back to the ground reference maneuver this time turns to the right.
Finally, time for some touch-and-go’s at Byron. Steve talking on the radio for each leg of the approach to Byron is quite informative. The first landing was pretty hard, second was good and the third was below average.
On the way back to Livermore, we had a close call with a Skycatcher coming towards us. Tower told us that the Skycatcher was 3 miles out at 2000′ and we were at 3100′. A couple of minutes later, the tower informed the Skycatcher (which was now at 2400′) that an inbound Cessna was 1.5 miles in front and suggested that he turn right. As I was commenting to Steve that 3100′ was about our altitude, he gestured me to turn right. While I was trying to process the information, the tower asked us to turn right because of the Skycatcher and Steve jumped on it right away to avoid the oncoming aircraft.
My brother-in-law was visiting us and I had asked Steve if we could take him on the next training flight. He had never been on a GA aircraft before. Steve’s first concern was that we may be close to the weight and balance limits and that the aircraft wouldn’t perform well with the load, making training a bit challenging. We decided to take him along for the next flight at 7:30am with the plan of one of us sitting out when he went on the flight. The weather was cool that morning, my brother-in-law wasn’t very heavy and Steve felt we could all ride along. He did let us know of emergency procedures and that he would take over the plane if such a situation occurred. We also checked to make sure that there were air sickness bags, if our guest needed it for his maiden flight in a small airplane. There were two at the ready but we never ended up using them. Normally we would climb at around 80kts but today with the load we couldn’t climb at more than 70kts.
First Srinath flew under the instrument hood.
Then he was introduced to steep turns (advanced performance maneuver). Steve demonstrated the first turn after he made clearing turns. We felt a bump at the 360° rollout of the turn. Steve explained this was our plane crossing our own wake turbulence (or is it wingtip vortex?). Srinath was looking at the instruments rather than outside to judge the angle. So Steve put a patch on the attitude indicator. Then Srinath did a turn on the left and one on the right. Here is a good cover story on slow speed flying as well as steep turns from AOPA’s Flight Training magazine.
Next was full stalls and recovery in the clean config. Power idle, pull back yoke, right rudder to maintain heading. Soon the stall warning horn goes off and there is the incipient stall when the plane buffets. Then the stall occurs when the nose drops. Relax the back pressure to allow airspeed to increase over the wings and produce enough light to break the stall. Wings level flight and then power to produce more lift back to straight and level flight.
Later, Steve introduced us to an approach to landing stall (at 2:27 in the video). At altitude, do clearing turns. Then run through a landing checklist as if you are going in for a landing. Lower airspeed and then flaps in standard increments. Then pitch up to enter the stall. Stall recovery is identical to the clean configuration. Once the power goes back up, turn off carburetor heat, raise the flaps gradually a notch at a time as if you are executing a go around. Raising the flaps too soon will cause the plane to lose lift too soon. Steve demonstrates this at 5:05 in the video. Losing lift too soon after recovering from a landing stall can be disastrous.
Wind was gusting from 220 up to 22kts at the Byron airport, coming down over the Livermore hills. So we decided to land at Tracy instead. Another pilot was landing at runway 8 just ahead of us. We ran into her at the airport terminal and she was getting endorsed to go on her first solo. Srinath and I exchanged places on the left seat. We decided to take off quickly to clear the area for her and after takeoff, wished her well with the solo. I did a couple of steep turns with Steve demonstrating what happens to the nose if it is not coordinated (4:09 in the video).
Finally for the day, we headed to New Jerusalem for three touch and go’s before heading back to Livermore.
Crab Tales 