WOW!! Density Altitude & Heavy Is No Fun!

M

MusketeerMan

Well-Known Member
Took my wife, brother and sister-in-law up today in my BE19 from KSAC to KAUN for a quick breakfast. They told me they wanted to go flying and I said we could go but we'd have to go early because it was forecasted to be 103 here today. We were within CG limits and near the top of the useful load and I knew it would be "interesting" coming back from Auburn. It was over 90 when we left Auburn and the field elevation is 1500'. Density altitude was 4000' when we left. I did a short field take off and when we finally lifted off, I was getting about 100'-150' fpm on the climb out with the stall horn screaming at me. First time I've truly felt really uncomfortable in a plane. I can see how people can get into stalls near the ground and up in aftermath articles.
 
the ride back was so rough because yall ate so damn much!!


yeah its definately killer. I was looking at some pics i took of flying in the winter... Rate of climb was 1200/min. summer im gettin 200 if im lucky
 
Sounds like you just barely made it out of ground effect. A lot of 4 place singles really should be 3 place. Three adults or 2 adults and maybe 2 children you'd be close to gross. Glad you came out OK. How much horse power you got? I've thought about buying a Musketeer I like the panel layout and a Beech is a pretty good plane.
 
I'll have to go to Auburn sometime. Check out this picture I took at Pine Mountain a few weeks ago!
 
Grim Reaper said:
Sounds like you just barely made it out of ground effect. A lot of 4 place singles really should be 3 place. Three adults or 2 adults and maybe 2 children you'd be close to gross. Glad you came out OK. How much horse power you got? I've thought about buying a Musketeer I like the panel layout and a Beech is a pretty good plane.
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Ground effect was interesting, but add that runway 7 also has a dropoff to a valley at the end.

My plane is a very comfortable 2 place... Mine only has 150 HP and I'm not sure why at the overhaul they didn't do the 10 HP upgrade, but oh well. It's cheap to run and a great time builder.
 
Nick said:
I'll have to go to Auburn sometime. Check out this picture I took at Pine Mountain a few weeks ago!
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WOW...I've been meaning to go to Pine Mountain sometime. Do they have a restaurant or anything located there?? Auburn has a great restaurant, Wings, but only open until 2 p.m.. The weekends are great because there is plenty of "eye candy" working there serving your food.
 
MusketeerMan said:
WOW...I've been meaning to go to Pine Mountain sometime. Do they have a restaurant or anything located there??
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Yes, there is a restaurant. It's closed two days a week but I forget which days. I know it's open on Friday through Sunday though.
 
Oh, and Musketeerman, definitely do go to Pine Mountain. Take a walk around the houses (it's a residential airpark). Some great house/hangar setups on the north side of the runway. Lots of retired airline folks in there.
 
Weren't they wondering what that sound was?(Stall horn I mean)

"What the he!! is that sound?"

"Uhhhhhh, that would be the stall horn..."

"What does that mean?"

"uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....."


:)
 
deserteaglle said:
Weren't they wondering what that sound was?(Stall horn I mean)

"What the he!! is that sound?"

"Uhhhhhh, that would be the stall horn..."

"What does that mean?"

"uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....."


:)
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My brother asked me and I told him not to talk to me right now...I was more concerned about monitoring the climb rate & speed than answering his question...
 
MusketeerMan said:
My brother asked me and I told him not to talk to me right now...I was more concerned about monitoring the climb rate & speed than answering his question...
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good call. He ask you again later? What was his reaction?
 
deserteaglle said:
good call. He ask you again later? What was his reaction?
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When I leveled off a whopping 500' above the airport elevation (also 500' below the TPA) and felt more at ease, I tried to explain to him what was happening. We then got into the whole "you mean the engine almost stalled" bit...I explained it as best as I could to him and moved on.
 
You're all lightweights... We had about 10,000' density altitude today here in Denver. I don't even want to think about what Leadville's DA was... Had to be up around 14.
 
Timbuff10 said:
You're all lightweights... We had about 10,000' density altitude today here in Denver. I don't even want to think about what Leadville's DA was... Had to be up around 14.
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Hey come on now...the field elevation here at KSAC is 24'...isn't that impressive?
 
Nick said:
I'll have to go to Auburn sometime. Check out this picture I took at Pine Mountain a few weeks ago!
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It's good to know Pine Mtn can get DA right, now they need to work on the letter "N"
 
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