May 31, 2011 - Two Deadly "H's"
Arriving at CYTZ a little early from Windsor Tuesday afternoon, I decided to see if a plane was available at Island Air, in order to squeeze in a few circuits. Lari was busy with another student, but Tatiana was available, so up we went, with the intention of just doing a quick circuit check and then sending me solo. Haha!
I had not flown a 150 in nearly a month, so I was not expecting to be stellar in the left seat, however, I surprised even myself, when on take off, the plane seemed to be behaving a little wonky, and then on base, I WAAAAAAY overshot my final turn and had to do some crazy manoeuvringto line up the approach! The Atis had just informed us that the winds were 080 at 6 kts, so there really was no reason for my sloppy airmanship. Yet, something felt wierd...
Shortly after the second take off, we overheard tower letting Porter know that company traffic had reported windshear at 500 ft of 27 knots! Not long after, we could see from the wind sock that the winds had shifted from west to south. In addition to this, it was a hot, humid day. I suddenly remembered an ground brief from early on in my training where Korkka talked about the "Three deadly H's" that negative affect aircraft performance: Heigh, Heat and Humidity. To bastardize Meatloaf, "two out of three are bad"! I could definately feel the effects of the heat and humidity, especially on climb. This was a new experience for me, having done most of my training in the winter.
In addition to the weather, there was some construction on the ground, resulting in a modified procedure for runway 08, which involved crossing 15 and lining up at Taxiway B and/or the inverse. Lots of new and exciting radio instructions this day. We flew four circuits in total, including two unexpecteds on 06, before calling it a day.
So, although I didn't get to solo, I experienced a whole bunch of new things -- impact of weather on performance, radio calls with complicated instructions -- that added to the increasing mound of unrefined aviation experience I am amassing.
(Sigh... now if only there were time to sift through it all in my mind!!!!)
I had not flown a 150 in nearly a month, so I was not expecting to be stellar in the left seat, however, I surprised even myself, when on take off, the plane seemed to be behaving a little wonky, and then on base, I WAAAAAAY overshot my final turn and had to do some crazy manoeuvringto line up the approach! The Atis had just informed us that the winds were 080 at 6 kts, so there really was no reason for my sloppy airmanship. Yet, something felt wierd...
Shortly after the second take off, we overheard tower letting Porter know that company traffic had reported windshear at 500 ft of 27 knots! Not long after, we could see from the wind sock that the winds had shifted from west to south. In addition to this, it was a hot, humid day. I suddenly remembered an ground brief from early on in my training where Korkka talked about the "Three deadly H's" that negative affect aircraft performance: Heigh, Heat and Humidity. To bastardize Meatloaf, "two out of three are bad"! I could definately feel the effects of the heat and humidity, especially on climb. This was a new experience for me, having done most of my training in the winter.
In addition to the weather, there was some construction on the ground, resulting in a modified procedure for runway 08, which involved crossing 15 and lining up at Taxiway B and/or the inverse. Lots of new and exciting radio instructions this day. We flew four circuits in total, including two unexpecteds on 06, before calling it a day.
So, although I didn't get to solo, I experienced a whole bunch of new things -- impact of weather on performance, radio calls with complicated instructions -- that added to the increasing mound of unrefined aviation experience I am amassing.
(Sigh... now if only there were time to sift through it all in my mind!!!!)