First time in Whiskey Mike
Saturday, March 21st, 2009Time flown today: 1h 35m
Total time flown: 71h 05m
Saturday was my first flight as P1 in WM, with Alan, a CRI-rated group member - and knowledgeable and pleasant chap. I’d brought the checklists from the PoH, from which the A-check was pretty straightforward, but on getting in and preparing to start, I realised that they omitted quite a lot of useful and necessary items that I’m used to in the AFE checklists. Must get a proper one: maybe I should make my own. Taxi and power-check were OK, except that Alan had to prompt me for the full-and-free movement check before departing! Not good.
Takeoff was straightforward, although WM does require quite a heave to lift it off at 65 kts. Climb is 76 kts, very much like a Cherokee 140, and departing from runway 24 it’s necessary to turn about 10 degrees left to avoid upsetting local residents. Alan pointed out the local features of the circuit, and the turn crosswind is down the valley towards the windmill at Turville, circuit height 1000ft QFE. We continued climbing and proceeded north-west, passing just north of Stokenchurch mast to keep clear of the Lewknor gliding site, and headed past Thame towards the disused airfield at Westcott, which we used as a navigational “anchor” while doing general handling. Westcott is a convenient landmark, being distinctive and visible whilst avoiding built-up areas, but being an NDB there’s also a hell of a lot of other aircraft in the area, either en route or doing handling too. We had to look out like hawks, and at times it felt like using the middle of the M25 to practice reverse parking!
The aircraft basically handles in a nice, balanced, predictable and benign way. At cruise power (110kts level), it requires a fair bit more rudder turning right than left, though in the cruise the rudder trim would help there. At first, the aircraft was getting away from me a bit, trying to trim it for straight and level while following Alan’s instructions, so we slowed it down to 90 kts (2100rpm) and I got it back under control. I then brought it back to slow flight, and fairly soon had it stable and trimmed at 70 kts. It needed quite a bit of right rudder, but wasn’t unduly mushy or unresponsive. With that done, time for stalls. I had some confusion about the HASELL check, since I was feeling the workload a bit: height, airframe, security, engine, location, lookout! Brought the speed back, pulled back to maintain altitude… stall warned blares out, and recover! Which was all well and good, except that the stall warner sounding does not a stall make! I must have been at least five knots above the stall. Alan took control, and demonstrated: stall warner goes off, slight buffet and wobble… “and now we’re stalled”, he said. Really? There was almost no change in attitude - you’d never know we were stalled, except that we were descending at nearly 1000ft/min with indicated airspeed about 40 kts. Very benign. Full throttle, release of back pressure, and we were recovered. Easier than in the Cherokee 140, if anything.
Now for approach configurations. 75 kts, 1400rpm, second stage of flap - pretty straightforward. It’s usual to put in full flap on short final: Alan’s short-final procedure is clearance received, reds (mixture rich) blues (prop fine, he’s used to wobbly ones) greens (he’s used to retractable gear, too), full flap, carb heat off (ready for go-around). The go-around procedure is full throttle, pitch up for level flight, retract full flap one stage if full flap deployed, and look for a positive rate of climb before putting more flap away. I was a bit overloaded with the workload and making silly mistakes, but in retrospect it’s all pretty simple stuff.
Alan showed me a simple way to find my way home to Wycombe. Find Westcott, and from there, follow the railway south-west. After a couple of miles it joins the main line heading south-east, and follow that, keeping well to the right of the railway to avoid infringing the winch-launch gliding site at Haddenham. The railway line continues south-east to Princes Risborough, and from there a pair of parallel valleys are seen leading on south-east towards High Wycombe. Call the field inbound over Princes Risborough, and if it’s runway 24 you’ll probably be given a right-base join. So select the right-hand valley, and aim to be 1000ft QFE by the “golden ball” building at the far end of the ridge between the valleys. Do the downwind checks, and at this point High Wycombe and the Cressex Business Park are visible in front, with the airfield off in the 1-2 o’clock position: it’s right base. Look out carefully for any conflicting traffic in the circuit coming downwind, then established on base, slow down, put out flap and start descent soon after the golden ball, keeping eyes open for the turn to final. Keep your nerve on final, not to be distracted by the M40 just before the threshold! And land. Which generally should be all well and good, but when you’ve got a 20-degree crab angle on final approach and a horizontal windsock at 90 degrees to the runway, it’s definitely more interesting!
The first approach, I got completely wrong, far too high, and threw it away at a couple of hundred feet. Which was an opportunity to do a full circuit. From the crosswind leg at 1000ft QFE, aiming for the Turville windmill, there’s a short side-valley on the right. Fly down that, aiming for the western edge ofHigh Wycombe, check position downwind relative to the runway, and call downwind. Pass just to the left of a small square industrial park, and that’s the base turn. Round we went again: a bit high again, swinging all over the place in the wind, and I got it down to about 50ft before deciding again that it wasn’t going to work - go around.
Next time, Alan decided to do one, to show me how it’s done and give me a break. He did a neat job of it too, with hefty control inputs in the flare as we bounced in the gusting wind, to bring it down positively. Around we went one more time… Alan said I was going to get it down the next time, which would be the last. I countered that if it was going wrong, I’d go around - but I knew what he was getting at. This time, he directed me to extend downwind, and set up for a final twice as long as before. The approach went much better this time, with more time to prepare and get it lined up. With the wind 90 degrees across the runway at about 15kts, I concentrated on trying to make sure I didn’t drift downwind. Cut power and flared, then focussed on straightening it, and giving it into-wind aileron to keep it level… I didn’t quite get it right, I think I didn’t flare enough, and Alan had to make a couple of timely inputs just before we bumped down onto the tarmac.
In retrospect, I think that what I got wrong was the simultaneous co-ordination of flare, straightening with rudder, and using aileron to compensate for the roll induced by the rudder input. In the absence of crosswind, there’s really only a one-axis dynamic sequence to get right (the flare), but in a crosswind, there are three largely-independent dynamic sequences on different axes to execute simultaneously (flare, straighten and counteract roll). I’m not sufficiently practiced to successfully co-ordinate these. The straightening manoeuvre may also be making me look in the wrong place: I have a feeling it’s making me look at the centreline of the runway fairly close-up, instead of further down the runway where I can better judge the flare.
Bottom line: I need more practice!
