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Cajon Pass fire, French Valley landing

rightrudder

Well Known Member
Man, it felt great to get out and fly again! I had a terrible flu/head cold that lasted a week and a half, and yesterday I finally felt flight-worthy again. So I beat traffic out to the airport and made a breakfast run flight to French Valley (F70).

That nasty Blue Cut fire is raging in the Cajon Pass, so I flew near the edge of the TFR to get a little footage. It didn't look too spectacular from the south, and my camera mount does NOT like the buffeting brought on by a steeper bank.

Lake Mathews footage proves the existence of water on the surface of SoCal!! Heard a pundit the other day describe a certain presidential candidate as "having the depth of a California reservoir."

Much better when powered down on approach to French Valley (try the cinnamon French toast!). Kinda hard to see in the video, but when I'm well established on final (and making all my position calls), some dude in a fancy twin turboprop pulls on to the runway for takeoff (see him pull on at 2:04, and airborne between the white marks at 2:19). I was crawling in at 65 KIAS and briefly thought of going around, but he took off quickly. Uncomfortable spacing? No harm no foul, but I did think he could've waited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcVuYMaL9RA
 
Hi Bret,

Thanks!

It's iMovie, standard on the Mac. The music that I used on the video is already in the software. Lots of fun sound effects too!
 
Landing technique

Thanks for posting the cool videos. Sorry to be "that guy " that critiques other people's landings, but I've watched a couple of your landings and they worry me abit. The one in this video was essentially flat and probably 10 knots faster than would be "normal". The problem with that is the nose gear is hitting the ground at high speed and that can cause it oscillate vertically or to shimmy sideways. In an extreme case it can tuck under and fail especially on rough pavement or turf/gravel. Landings like that also have a much longer ground roll and are hard on the brakes. I'm sure you are capable of better landings and may just not be aware of the potential problems with fast landings in an A model RV.

Thanks again for the videos.

-Andy Simpkinson
 
Thanks for posting the cool videos. Sorry to be "that guy " that critiques other people's landings, but I've watched a couple of your landings and they worry me abit. The one in this video was essentially flat and probably 10 knots faster than would be "normal". The problem with that is the nose gear is hitting the ground at high speed and that can cause it oscillate vertically or to shimmy sideways. In an extreme case it can tuck under and fail especially on rough pavement or turf/gravel. Landings like that also have a much longer ground roll and are hard on the brakes. I'm sure you are capable of better landings and may just not be aware of the potential problems with fast landings in an A model RV.

Thanks again for the videos.

-Andy Simpkinson

This probably was not intended to be a landing discussion. My normal approach speed is 60 knots down final with touch down at around 50 knots with nose high. Keep stick all the way back until nose comes down on it's own. Easy on brakes.
 
This particular camera view is a little deceiving...I thought the same thing when I watched them for the first time. But I am nose high and sufficiently slow on touchdown.

Maybe one reason they appear too fast is that I do let 'er roll as long as possible to go easy on the brakes...an advantage of a nice long runway. :)
 
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