c'mon horse, run!

I got to do my 150+nm trip today.

The weather was perfect. As with other good days, it's just in advance of a storm we're supposed to get tonight. Barnstable/Hyannis (KHYA) had winds at 17 gusting to 23, but forecast to drop to 10 before I got there. That's good enough for me.

I took off a few minutes late out of KLWM, but with about a 14 knot tailwind. I called Bridgeport over the RCO and opened my flight plan, then, after leveling off at 2700 feet, called Boston Approach. The northern part wasn't busy, but they warned me of traffic near Norwood. A good part of the trip was spent just telling Boson that I had their traffic in sight.

I flew my heading towards the Cape and was handed off to Cape Approach. Both the ATIS and the RCO are out at KHYA and have been for a while, so I picked up Otis (KFMH) ATIS instead. The winds were still up around 15 knots, but pretty close to the runway heading at KHYA, so I pressed on. I flew over the northern coast of Cape Code until I had the airport in sight. They gave me an extended left base into runway 6 as expected.

I descended to pattern altitude and headed in towards the airport. I was a little low in the pattern, probably because I was having trouble judging the distance from looking at an unfamiliar field. I touched down at about the right speed, but with tough winds holding one wing up. I rode it out and eventually got all the way down, but it felt sloppy on the ground. I taxied off to Griffin to stop, close my flight plan, and make a few calls.

The guys at Griffin Aviation are great. When I eventually get my license and we go out there for vacation, I'll likely want to stop there -- though the security procedures at that airport are a bit strange and annoying.

I then took off from KHYA and headed out to Mansfield (K1B9). It was tough holding any kind of heading out of there, and a bit bumpy over land, but better at the coast. Cape Approach handed me off to Boston Approach, who eventually told me he had no radar contacts out that direction, and to have a nice day. About five miles from K1B9, I started to hear traffic, and a lot of it. There had to be at least five planes taking off at once out of that one small airport, along with several planes in the pattern doing touch-and-goes. I slowed myself up to match the rest of the traffic, then I flew the upwind, crosswind, downwind, and base rather than attempting a straight-in. I figured it was more polite that way.

My final stank. I was a bit too high, but speed was ok, so I tried to slip it in. When I took the slip out, I let the nose drop, and now I was too fast. I should have gone around right there, because this is a short and narrow runway. I didn't. I tried to hold it off and set down, but I bounced. Twice. I realized I was in trouble and I put in the power and slowly climbed above the trees at the other end of the runway as I took out flaps -- maybe a little too fast. That had to be the slowest, most intense climb I've ever had. And I'm sure it looked just as great to the other pilots watching.

I got back up in the pattern with several other planes. I went around and did a longer final, noting that the winds were much less than expected, and got in ok. I still didn't feel right about the landing. I found a place to stop (it's a very busy little airport), made some calls, and then went right back out.

The trip back was mostly uneventful. I was in touch with Boston Approach the whole way, and KLWM was busy but at least landing on my favorite runway (5), and as I was coming from over KBED, that made it a straight-in approach.

I talked with both Sean and Tim afterwards, especially about the trouble in Mansfield. After discussing other ways I could have handled the problem (just about anything would have been better), I asked Tim to give me some more dual time with complicated landings. I know I need a lot more practice with those, and the cross-country time just stresses the things I can already do fairly well -- plan and talk.

The total trip was about 2.6, so I have another 0.7 left to do on cross-country. Maybe after practicing landing (and unlearning as many bad habits as I can), I'll head up to KEEN.

Posted at 11:16PM Mar 18, 2008 by carlson in Aviation  |