Yesterday, flying buddy told me about a TV program she thought I would like ... Turns out there are ten episodes on Netflex. I watched the first two and I did like them. Flying Wild Alaska, now in it's second season of filming, is a "reality" tv show about bush pilots ... Marginal weather, off field landings, contaminated fuel ... survival, both sides of it.
It's TV and everything seems to be over, to way over,dramatized, but it is pretty wonderful to see the flying.
That thing yesterday with KTS verses MPH is bothering me this morning. It's just not good crew work to not agree on something as basic as what the numbers mean. I do not know why there is even an ongoing conversation about which to use.
At any given weight L/Dmax will correspond to a certain airspeed. In this airplane best glide at 1800# 65kts 75mph
full gross. 74kts 85mph
dirty stall speed is given as 50kts, 58mph
On the checklist kts are given in blue ink and mph are given in black ink and (inside). I like the non-flying pilot to read the checklists while the flying pilot executes ... challenge/response style ... I have only seven hours in this little airplane ... I really want the numbers to be consistent, and consistently in kts. Ummm ... The needle on the ASI is thick near the center of the dial and tapers towards the outside of the instrument case ... MPH are given in larger script and are on the outer ring, conversely, kts are on inside ring and given smaller. At first my eye didn't immediately go to the inner ring for speeds ... and tick mark disappear under that wide pointer, but ... I know what a climb attitude should look like anyway. Yesterday I really wanted to push the nose down a tad on someone else's climb out. Vx 66(76) ... Vy 76(87)***all numbers here in this post per the PA 28-151 checklist. These things must be resolved to every ones satisfaction. Or maybe I really mean to mine, when I am in the plane.
Best glide ... Best. Any deviation from best glide will reduce the gliding distance. Too fast = too short. Too slow = way too short. Drag will drag you down either way. Next thing you know you're really short and adding power and porpoising the landing and going around. I'm not having a problem with that. If I am working out anything, and I'm not convinced that I am, it may be a too flat approach. She wants a nose low short final ... She says the Cessna picture is different then the piper picture because of the cowling ... I tell her I am not looking at the cowling ... I am looking to hold my reference point on the runway from my eye view through a space on the window about the imaginary size of my iPhone screen ... Until I transition to a view down the runway ... The eyes are moving and it is truly delightful how much information one's eyes can receive. Her picture has the nose lower and the flare later. It feels like a dive to me. I may have been flaring a bit too high ... I'll be looking at the flare. It's a bit tricky to iron out differences with another pilot ... Especially when I can see my landings consistently working out well. It is her plane. I don't want to be snotty ... .
As I think back over this I see the exact thing that FI hammered on so consistently with me. Which is ... While I know what I think and why I think it, I feel uncomfortable with insisting. I will absolutely insist in an airplane, but it makes me feel uncomfortable. I want to make room for others. I want to be very easy on everyone's feelings. Yesterday, I kept on insisting on something and I don't even remember what it was ... Eventually my buddy said Oh ... That's right and I said sorry, I'm not trying to be right, I just know that is a fact.
No comments:
Post a Comment