Veetail88
Well Known Member
25 hours into phase 1, my landings have gotten to be consistently, “OK”. But generally speaking, every time I see an airplane holding short or within sight of my performance, the quality of the landings seem to be something quite less than pretty. In fact, they generally include a good bounce or three and a fair amount of swerving around.
Yesterday was a bit different though. Low ceilings kept me from the accelerated stalls I wanted to work on, but I decided to go flying for no other reason than “because I could”.
Following a quick hop over to Burlington for cheap fuel and an hour of strafing runs on the ice fishermen on the nearby lakes, (pretty sure my kill tally was pretty high) I returned to 57C for a few touch and gos.
After a few circuits in the pattern with an R44 and a light sport for which I had to lengthen my downwind considerably, I decided to call it a day and announced “East Troy traffic, silver RV turning left base for two six, full stop”.
With my typical rather high final coming to an end, I found myself with a pretty high sink rate, pulled back on the stick a bit too much, pushed forward a bit and gave her a little squirt of power.
That was it! The mains just rolled on! A little push to pin it and I found myself with maybe my best landing ever! No bounce, no bump, nothing but feeling the wheels spin up!
Two seconds later, I hear over the radio, “Nice wheel landing!” A turn of my head revealed a C180 taxiing the other way. I managed a quick “why thank you” in reply while concentrating on the task at hand; I wasn't quite done flying the airplane yet! Nice straight roll out and back to the hanger.
What a BLAST!
This airplane is more fun than I’d even imagined!
While I never doubted all the others that came before repeating the mantra, “Keep pounding those rivets, it’s all worth it”, I must admit, it certainly is!
With 15 hours left in phase 1, I still have to push the weight and balance out to the corners of the envelope and I’d also like to fly it to Vne (a knot or two at a time) before I’m done.
Can’t wait for phase 2 so I can share the fun!
Yesterday was a bit different though. Low ceilings kept me from the accelerated stalls I wanted to work on, but I decided to go flying for no other reason than “because I could”.
Following a quick hop over to Burlington for cheap fuel and an hour of strafing runs on the ice fishermen on the nearby lakes, (pretty sure my kill tally was pretty high) I returned to 57C for a few touch and gos.
After a few circuits in the pattern with an R44 and a light sport for which I had to lengthen my downwind considerably, I decided to call it a day and announced “East Troy traffic, silver RV turning left base for two six, full stop”.
With my typical rather high final coming to an end, I found myself with a pretty high sink rate, pulled back on the stick a bit too much, pushed forward a bit and gave her a little squirt of power.
That was it! The mains just rolled on! A little push to pin it and I found myself with maybe my best landing ever! No bounce, no bump, nothing but feeling the wheels spin up!
Two seconds later, I hear over the radio, “Nice wheel landing!” A turn of my head revealed a C180 taxiing the other way. I managed a quick “why thank you” in reply while concentrating on the task at hand; I wasn't quite done flying the airplane yet! Nice straight roll out and back to the hanger.
What a BLAST!
This airplane is more fun than I’d even imagined!
While I never doubted all the others that came before repeating the mantra, “Keep pounding those rivets, it’s all worth it”, I must admit, it certainly is!
With 15 hours left in phase 1, I still have to push the weight and balance out to the corners of the envelope and I’d also like to fly it to Vne (a knot or two at a time) before I’m done.
Can’t wait for phase 2 so I can share the fun!
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