Sunday, June 24, 2007

Proficiency flying

Due to schedules and trying to wrap things up at work, it has been nearly two months since my last flight. Since it had been a while, and since I will have to do a proficiency check at the new FBO in Virginia to get renting privileges, I decided to do a basic Private Pilot proficiency flight.

Although I prefer flying the Pipers, I decided to do my flight in a 172 since that is what I will be flying in VA. I grabbed a 172 from KMYF and launched yesterday afternoon. Right downwind departure from 28R, overhead KSEE, then down into the southeast practice area for some maneuevers. I started by getting the plane trimmed out and flying well at 90kts. A set of clearing turns while I positioned the plane to make sure I was well clear of the Class B, then right into a set of steep turns. The steep turns went much better than I was expecting (it's been a while), with 45deg AOB, airspeed within 5kts, altitude within 50ft. Two sets of steep turns, then it was time for slow flight. Clean slow flight, turns in slow flight, transition to dirty slow flight, another set of clearing turns, pitch to a 60kt power off glide, then right into a power off stall. I recovered within 100ft, then did some basic maneuvering while I got the plane cleaned up and flying right. With some good maneuvers under my belt, I decided to head to SDM for some landing practice.

Winds at SDM were shifting +/- 40 degrees of runway heading at 10G14, so I was going to get some good crosswind practice. My first landing I ballooned a bit, but a touch of power and the right landing configuration and I set it down softly. The second had no balloon, but I landed a bit flat. Three, four, and five were good.

I was on downwind for number six when tower asked me to make a left 360 for spacing because a G5 was on the straight in. No problem, start a slow left turn out towards PGY. As I'm halfway through my turn, the G5 tells tower that, instead of straight in, he wants to overfly and fly the pattern because he's too high. Tower clears him for that and asks me to do another circle. No problem, circle again. As I'm finishing my second circle, tower clears me touch and go #2 following the G5, caution wake turbulence, maintain visual separation. I acknowledge the clearance and set back up on downwind. I get to the point where I would normally turn base, and the G5 is still on downwind way ahead of me flying a pattern that would make a 747 proud. A few S-turns, and the guy still hasn't turned base. Tower finally asks him to turn and I slow down to 70kts flaps 20, still doing S-turns on downwind. After the G5 passes me on final, I turn base (very far out from my normal base), then turn final and slow to 60kts flaps 30, still doing S-turns to give this guy space. I see his tires chirp, then tell tower I'm going to land a bit long for wake turbulence. No sweat, 26R is 8000ft. The G5 is taxiing all the way to the end of the runway, and man is he going slow. At 100 AGL, just as I'm about to call my own go around, tower tells me to go around because the G5 still hasn't cleared the runway.

Cram, clean, climb, xwind, downwind, GUMPS, base, final, touch and go number six (pretty good), and I'm outta there. As tower is clearing me for frequency change and thanking me for my help, I thank them for the practice and tell them to thank the guys in the G5 for me. Tower was doing their best, but the G5 managed to screw up the whole pattern.

Back to MYF, looking for the runway in haze, cleared to land 28L, change clearance to 28R, runway in sight, wheels down, taxi and shutdown. Another 1.8hours in the book and some proficiency regained.

Two notes from today:
Just because you fly a G5, you don't own the world. I think he flew the oversize pattern because he was still too high even after overflying the airport. If you're too high, advise the controllers early and figure out a way to lose your altitude (such as a hold over PGY) and let the rest of us keep flying. Instead, he hogged the whole airport for a good five minutes while the rest of us sat on the sidelines.
Piece of advice: Know where the Class B is and understand why it exists. During this 1.8hr flight, I heard two separate aircraft get scolded by the tower controllers for surrounding Class B violations. Although it is a serious issue, everyone including me makes mistakes and I'm not going to throw any stones about that. However, one of the guys started talking back to the controller on the radio and giving him a lot of grief while making improper acknowledgements about the Class B violation, his landing clearance and sequence, and his instructions after landing. The other pilot just knicked the edge of a low shelf (probably due to wind drift), took immediate corrective actions when informed, and apologized profusely. Guess which one got told to call the number?

Cheers,
BC

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