killbilly
Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
Thought this might benefit some of the newbie pilots like m'self about there. I'm sitting at about 110TT, fyi...this is a bit long, but might be worth reading.
Had a meeting to be at in Dallas yesterday, and didn't feel like driving. Weather was great, so I signed out the 172 I've been flying and flew up to Dallas. The meeting was in Addison, so landing at ADS would have been a good idea, however, with the amount of traffic going in and out of DFW, I decided to play it cautious and went into TKI instead. It was busier yesterday than I had ever experienced even on the edges of the Class B. I mean - there were planes EVERYWHERE, even skirting under the east side of the Class B shelf. I was really glad of regional approach control giving me traffic advisories.
So I did my meeting, went back to the airport, topped off the tanks and departed. Much bumpier going out, but I picked up regional approach, and they moved me around, again, under the outside shelf of the Class B, until I made it south and they handed me off to Waco. Again, tons of traffic. Had a Citation pass over me about a thousand feet going the opposite direction - looked much closer, and the whole time I was head-on-a-swivel. It was also a lot bumpier going back, and between that, and the traffic, the stress level was higher than anything else I'd experienced to date. Still, I could hear Larry sitting next to me, (in my head) going, "Bill, just fly the plane. Aviate, navigate, communicate."
Getting back into Austin was even busier - Approach drops me from 4500 to 2500 ..."immediately," so I comply with that and drop the airplane like a rock. Coming in for a right downwind to 35R, there are airplanes all over the place, more and more people checking in on freq...as I get downwind, they start having me do 360s for a bit to get some others in. Again - this was new for me, but we'd practiced it before, and I wasn't worried.
Finally they clear me, with the instruction "make short approach." Now - this is compounded by the fact that 35R is 4,000 feet shorter than normal right now, which is not a big deal for a 172, but it does change things a bit.
I start getting in a hurry, trying to slow down, get the flaps down, get slowed down. I felt additional pressure because a Bonanza was already on a 4 mile final and they asked him to slow down for me.
So a whole lot of stuff was happening and I was outside my normal routine of when to set things up, etc...bottom line was that when I turned final, I was WAY too high and fast...like...I was about 400 feet over the numbers and still doing about 75-80kts...didn't lose enough altitude although I didn't try a full-slip because I had full flaps down. I need to learn more about blocking the rudder before I try that. In a 152, I wouldn't have even blinked.
Anyway, I know I can't land this....
"Tower, Skyhawk 1234, unable to land, going around." Put in the power, pitched up, retracted flaps...
Now at this point I was SURE I had screwed everything up for everyone, that the tower was going to be pissed, that I was going to get rattled more than I already was. But they simply told me to make a mid-field crosswind and set up again. It was a non-event.
I got it lower this time around although I was still a little high. I floated it, but got slow enough to get it down - touched down right on the stall horn, and make taxiway Kilo (which was the one I wanted anyway.) And I was a little rattled, but it worked. The touchdown wasn't even that bad considering the crosswind I was dealing with, too. All was well. Usable airplane.
Here's the moral of the story for you other newbies:
Sometimes it's gonna get busy, and things you learned in your PPL training WILL come back when you need them. I need to practice shorter approaches simply because I didn't have enough familiarity with a slam-dunk in that airplane.
But above all, just remember to fly the plane. Always. Fly the plane. And it's perfectly okay to go around. Always. They drill it into our heads in training, but once you've been flying on your own a while, things build up and you get a little complacent. You don't WANT to go around. You WANT to save the landing. Don't.
Tower and Approach are there to help get you down safely, but no one is going to question a go-around if you hose up the approach, which I did.
Good lesson yesterday. Biggest thing I learned was that I need to practice "outside the box" for things that might pop up...like having to fly a tight approach to a short(er) runway.
Hope this is beneficial.
Had a meeting to be at in Dallas yesterday, and didn't feel like driving. Weather was great, so I signed out the 172 I've been flying and flew up to Dallas. The meeting was in Addison, so landing at ADS would have been a good idea, however, with the amount of traffic going in and out of DFW, I decided to play it cautious and went into TKI instead. It was busier yesterday than I had ever experienced even on the edges of the Class B. I mean - there were planes EVERYWHERE, even skirting under the east side of the Class B shelf. I was really glad of regional approach control giving me traffic advisories.
So I did my meeting, went back to the airport, topped off the tanks and departed. Much bumpier going out, but I picked up regional approach, and they moved me around, again, under the outside shelf of the Class B, until I made it south and they handed me off to Waco. Again, tons of traffic. Had a Citation pass over me about a thousand feet going the opposite direction - looked much closer, and the whole time I was head-on-a-swivel. It was also a lot bumpier going back, and between that, and the traffic, the stress level was higher than anything else I'd experienced to date. Still, I could hear Larry sitting next to me, (in my head) going, "Bill, just fly the plane. Aviate, navigate, communicate."
Getting back into Austin was even busier - Approach drops me from 4500 to 2500 ..."immediately," so I comply with that and drop the airplane like a rock. Coming in for a right downwind to 35R, there are airplanes all over the place, more and more people checking in on freq...as I get downwind, they start having me do 360s for a bit to get some others in. Again - this was new for me, but we'd practiced it before, and I wasn't worried.
Finally they clear me, with the instruction "make short approach." Now - this is compounded by the fact that 35R is 4,000 feet shorter than normal right now, which is not a big deal for a 172, but it does change things a bit.
I start getting in a hurry, trying to slow down, get the flaps down, get slowed down. I felt additional pressure because a Bonanza was already on a 4 mile final and they asked him to slow down for me.
So a whole lot of stuff was happening and I was outside my normal routine of when to set things up, etc...bottom line was that when I turned final, I was WAY too high and fast...like...I was about 400 feet over the numbers and still doing about 75-80kts...didn't lose enough altitude although I didn't try a full-slip because I had full flaps down. I need to learn more about blocking the rudder before I try that. In a 152, I wouldn't have even blinked.
Anyway, I know I can't land this....
"Tower, Skyhawk 1234, unable to land, going around." Put in the power, pitched up, retracted flaps...
Now at this point I was SURE I had screwed everything up for everyone, that the tower was going to be pissed, that I was going to get rattled more than I already was. But they simply told me to make a mid-field crosswind and set up again. It was a non-event.
I got it lower this time around although I was still a little high. I floated it, but got slow enough to get it down - touched down right on the stall horn, and make taxiway Kilo (which was the one I wanted anyway.) And I was a little rattled, but it worked. The touchdown wasn't even that bad considering the crosswind I was dealing with, too. All was well. Usable airplane.
Here's the moral of the story for you other newbies:
Sometimes it's gonna get busy, and things you learned in your PPL training WILL come back when you need them. I need to practice shorter approaches simply because I didn't have enough familiarity with a slam-dunk in that airplane.
But above all, just remember to fly the plane. Always. Fly the plane. And it's perfectly okay to go around. Always. They drill it into our heads in training, but once you've been flying on your own a while, things build up and you get a little complacent. You don't WANT to go around. You WANT to save the landing. Don't.
Tower and Approach are there to help get you down safely, but no one is going to question a go-around if you hose up the approach, which I did.
Good lesson yesterday. Biggest thing I learned was that I need to practice "outside the box" for things that might pop up...like having to fly a tight approach to a short(er) runway.
Hope this is beneficial.