I’m flying with Steve today on dual instruction. As we climbed out of Livermore, I noticed deteriorating visibility which I assumed was a cloud layer. Steve pointed out that it was actually smoke from a very large wildfire burning near Big Sur on the California coast. On the east side of the Livermore ridge the conditions were a little better, enough for us to continue with a training flight after having had thoughts along the way of possibly turning back.
At 3000′ the smoke layer wasn’t bad so I did steep turns on the right and left. Still not very comfortable doing steep turns. Steve demonstrated a turn which was fairly steep and he might have pulled up to keep the nose from dropping and I was not comfortable with the associated sensations.
Next we did slow flight and then a few different stalls – power off stall in the landing configuration, power-off stall on a right turn and then a power-on stall.
We went through a routine engine out simulation and at the end of it we spotted the pipeline and transitioned into S-turns. At that time I spotted another aircraft which was also flying at our low altitude seemingly also using the pipeline for making S-turns. We watched it for a while as it appeared they were leaving the area but then they really didn’t. After one turn we decided to leave the area and do turns about a point at a nearby location.
Lots of traffic everywhere today. As we were approaching Byron and announced our position over Discovery Bay, another aircraft was taking off and was going to do a 270 en route to Livermore. That would put it coming straight at us at comparable altitude. Radio communications helped save the day with each other knowing our locations.
There were gliders flying today at Byron and there was unexpected thermals as we approached the threshold for Rwy 30 that caused me to stay up longer even though I had pulled out the power on the engine. Two touch and go and we headed back to Livermore.
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. 🙂
We departed 25R on a left downwind departure towards New Jerusalem and just as we took off, Steve pulled the power without warning. Srinath did the right thing by “flying the plane” and landing it back on the runway. Steve then pushed the throttle in and we took off. This was a lesson in emergency procedures since the engine could quit just at takeoff. In that case, the best place to land is straight ahead. Never try to turn back to the runway because that effectively requires a 270 degree turn in one direction and then a 90 degree turn in the opposite direction to line back up with the runway. At low altitudes with engine out this turn is almost always impossible to make. In the heart-thumping moments, getting into a stall spin accident becomes likely and with grave consequences. No matter what is ahead, the best bet is to land it almost as straight ahead as possible with minor corrections.
Once at New Jerusalem, Srinath practiced soft field landings and takeoffs as well as a maximum performance takeoff. We next headed to Byron to fill up gas because the new gas station at Livermore isn’t fully functional yet. On approach to Byron, Srinath did a straight-in landing and this time a precision landing on the numbers.
After re-fueling, we taxied back to runway 30 and heard a heads-up that skydivers (jumpers) were heading down from 10,000’. It was incredible that they came down in no time at all, well before we completed the run-up checks and were at the hold short line for runway 30.
We waited for a tricycle geared Maule to land. Steve referred to this as a “quintessential bush plane”. Normally they are tail draggers so it was interesting to see one in a tricycle gear. There was a lesson in not hurrying to the threshold for takeoff because the Maule hadn’t yet turned off Rwy 30 on a taxiway. Just as we got ready to takeoff, more jumpers were getting ready to unload at 13,000’.
Just as we were over Brushy Peak heading in to Livermore, I noticed gas gushing out of the fuel vents like crazy. Never seen so much fuel come out in such volume continuously. Steve asked if the fuel caps were on, which they were. In measuring the fuel after the flight, we estimated about a gallon was lost! Not sure what caused this…
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 headed out of Livermore towards the hills, Steve pulled the power simulating an engine out. Srinath immediately banked left to get away from the rising terrain but he was a little slow to achieve glide path. Once he spotted a private runway which could be used for an emergency landing, he brought back the power and we turned 180 to head towards Tracy again.
Above Tracy, it was time for steep turns one in each direction. Next was slow flight followed by power off stall and approach to landing stall. Soon we were close to New Jerusalem and Steve spotted crop circles over which Srinath executed ground reference maneuvers – turns around a point – again once in each direction. At the end of this maneuver, we were less than 2mi from New J so we headed there for touch and go.
Srinath got practice with a straight-in landing and many soft field takeoffs and landings. It takes practice and experimentation to stay in ground effect upon takeoff to build up airspeed prior to climb out. It also takes practice to keep the nose just high enough at takeoff, without the tail striking the runway. Soft field landing is like a butterfly with sunburned feet trying to touch down.
On the way back to Livermore, Steve reminisced about N25ES and how much he misses it. He recounted how the club acquired the plane and how 857, the previous 172, was sold. Steve landed us at Livermore demonstrating a short field landing technique.
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.
The Flying Particles club has added a new 1976 Cessna 172N Skyhawk. Unlike N25ES which was owned, the club has leased N906MD from Pete Sandhu at Five Rivers Aviation, LLC who is going to soon open and operate a new FBO out of the Livermore airport. 6MD has the same 180hp Lycoming 0-320 Series engine as 25ES but it is equipped with Garmin GNS-430 GPS.
Srinath flew 6MD today and it has been almost 3 months since Srinath last flew. His last flight was the solo on May 28. So he went back to brushing up on air work – power off stalls, stalls in the landing configuration and power-on stalls. Then we did an engine out simulation and after a couple of landings at Byron, we returned to Livermore.
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.
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.
Crab Tales 