In Flight

Learning to fly: August 2001 - ?

Thursday, October 17, 2002

Went to visit the new diner at Brenham (11R) airport today, with JohnR and Pat Castenson.

The food was very good, even if the service was crazy slow...they've only been open for four days, so I expect that the logisitics of running a restaurant will get worked out soon.

John flew there, so it was left to me to do the return trip.

Well, that was some of the poorest flying I've done. It was a fairly clear day, with a little convection by the time we left the diner. Taxiing back to 16, my stomach was feeling a little unsettled, but I dismissed it, did the runup, and took the active.

A slight crosswind from 020 started blowing me to the left as I accelerated, and I rotated early, at 40 kt, mainly to avoid jerking the plane to the right on the ground. Strike #1. As John exclaims "Holy Sh#t!" from the back seat, I nosed down and accelerated to about 70 before climbing out, but still felt pretty lousy about the auspicious start.

We flew high, 5000', back to CLL to take advantage of the view and remain clear of CLL's Class D airspace, as Pat wanted to fly by Don Adam's castle in east Bryan. It was indeed a beautiful afternoon. I descended to about 2500' as we neared Bryan and flew betwixt CFD and CLL to afford everyone a decent view out the right side.

ATC set me up for a left base to runway 10, a first time for me, and it was a pleasant diversion to do a little mental game setting up my "new" approach. I must have 16-34 on the brain at CLL by now!

The landing was nearly as poor as my takeoff...I pulled power at over 1000' and dumped full flaps. We flared high (I wanted to be sure not to lose the flare with the flaps) and as I settled I started drifting left. Ruddered it right but put a side load on the mains at landing, which was disappointing. Plus, everyone's stomachs were a little queasy from the lunch, high flight and rapid descent, so it wouldn't do any good to chime in about mine being upset too. If we were all sick and all flew together, then it stands to reason that the flight (and pilot) contributed to the malaise.

Anyway, I vowed to keep in a little better practice in the future, and manhandle the plane a little more on the ground. We live and learn...

Pictures are here, and the flight path is here.