grantr
Joined: 12 Sep 2007
Posts: 217
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 Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject: Flight report |
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I had a great flight Sunday afternoon! This was my 1st flight since March 22nd in my Kolb. Yikes it’s been a while! The air was a little choppy but not too bad. I flew mostly around 400 to 800 feet over some corn, wheat, cotton and peanut fields. The temp was 85 degrees and it felt much hotter! My clothes were drenched in sweat a few times setting up and tearing down my plane and taxiing. Humidity was 59% 68 degrees dew point.
I arrived at the airport at bit after 2pm and the wind was picking up. During this time I set up my plane which takes about 45 minutes to do. 30 to fold and 15 to fuel up and preflight. After I set it up the wind was still bad, so I fueled it up and waited to preflight. It would be calm then it would blow full force. The flags on the FBO would be straight out at times. Also the buzzards and a hawk were being bounced around side to side in an abrupt manner as they gained altitude in the thermals. These were good indicators to wait unless I wanted to get hammered around. So I waited. Around 4 the wind started to calm down. It would blow slightly then the flags would be dead still. By 4:30, I had completed my preflight strapped in and taxied to runway 5.
Once I taxied to the hold line I did my final checks on my checklist then made my call departing runway 5 and then 400 feet later I was in the air climbing out. I climbed up to 800 feet and flew straight out over a big irrigation field and flew around it and entered a left down wind for runway 5 at 1000 feet I continued on the downwind and the turn base and continued to fly over the airport at 1000 feet and headed for the hobby shop.
I continued on at 1000 feet over a patch of wood toward the hobby shop. Once I passed the woods, I descended down to 700 to get a closer look at the fields I was flying over. I gradually descended to 400 as I flew over the private strip. I continued to head out over a big corn field and made a climbing 180 climbing from 400 to 700 feet and followed a wood line along a few fields. At this point I decided I wanted to land at the private strip. This would be my 1st landing on another airstrip other than my 6000 foot home runway since I finished training in September 08. Since it had been a while since I flew my plane, nearly 3 months, I decided to head back to my airport and do one landing to make sure I was not too rusty. The landing was great!
I taxied back to runway 5 made my radio call and broke ground in 400 feet and climbed to 800 feet. I made my way to the private strip at 800 feet and lined up with the grass strip. As I approached I backed off the throttle and slowed my airspeed and started descending. Once I had the field made I pulled back to idle. As I passed the trees on the end I hit a pretty good bump. This did not affect my approach to much so I didn’t have to add power. I maintained idle all the way in and made another soft landing. The grass field is a bit easier than the pavement. The owner was out there mowing the grass. The field was like a golf course. It was very smooth and the grass was just freshly cut with a reel (spelling?) mower. I talked to the owner a bit and he checked out my plane. He liked it and told me to come back when there were more people out there.
After talking with him it was time to head back to the home field. I climbed in and taxied to the end of his grass strip and proceeded to take off. 400 feet later I was airborne and climbing. As I passed the shed around 200 feet where the owner was I gave him a big wave good bye as I ascended. I continued climbing and began making a 180 turn and flew back over his airstrip on my way back to my airport. I had reached 1000 feet in a short time and maintained it as I approached the airport and entered left downwind for runway 5. Then I turned base and final resulting in another great soft landing to end the days flying. After taxing back to my trailer, I started to fold my airplane and put it away in the trailer. 30 minutes later the airplane is secured in it’s enclosed trailer safely tucked away from the elements. I am drenched in sweat feeling like I am going to have a heat stroke.
All in all the waiting, sweating and hard work to get the plane ready was well worth the exhilarating feeling of leaving the earth and soaring over it at 60 mph!
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