In honor of what is supposed to be the last weekend with 100+ F (38+ C) weather for the summer, I got up a little early to beat the heat. Which wasn’t really a thing, but it’s been about a month so I had to get up there.
Flight misison
Several of my flight instructors told me that the difference between flying any airplane is like driving a different car. I remember all of the 152s and the few 172s I switched between during training and it really wasn’t much difference between them. They each had some quirks, but the same V speeds applied, the same checklists work, it’s really all the same.
I’ve been flying the same 172 in the fleet since N5076N left, so I decided it was time to try a different one. So N35628 was the plane for the day. I prepped a simple mission this time: just fly to one of the nearby untowered fields and do a short-field landing and takeoff and head home.
A little indecisiveness
When I was looking around the area for smaller fields, I found a lot of them were 60ft runways. The narrowest I’ve landed at so far is 75ft. Thinking about how the wind is likely to change at any moment, I went back and forth with myself on if I could land on a 60ft runway safely.
That’s when I thought about how much I pay attention to landing and staying on the centerline. Not enough. My home base at KRVS is 100ft so in a 172, it doesn’t matter that much and I realized how I’ve taken that for granted.
So I decided to go to a 75ft field instead and actively work on my centerline alignment.
Along with the usual things I aim for:
- Stay within 50 ft on altitude
- Stay within 5 degrees on heading
- Stay within 5 kts on airspeed
A little surprise
When I went out to preflight the plane, I noticed that the flaps had been placarded as INOP and considered scrapping the flight for the day. Everything else was fine, it was even a day with calm winds and we only get 7 of those a year!
It was still early in the morning and a few CFIs and students were around. I heard one CFI mention something about bad mags and I brought up the INOP flaps. She very casually said, “Oh that’s nothing. You can still get a 172 down in 700ft without flaps.” And that was it. I decided to go even though I’ve never landed without flaps.
A quick search and I saw I needed to come in around 70-75kts to avoid stalling and then I went to the small field to practice. So I finished my preflight and actually didn’t call for a top off for once. I measured what was in the tanks and it came out to 3 hours of fuel for a 1.5 hour flight.
That was more than enough, so leaving parking was a lot faster and for once there wasn’t a lot of other traffic.
Another, bigger surprise
The plane performed beautifully on climb out. It didn’t yaw as hard as the other plane I’m used to flying. This was a moment that taking off really clicked. I finally understand that you only lightly pull back on the yoke to get the wheels off the ground and then trim for the climb. That realization came back to help later on.
The flight over to the small field was perfect. Even the winds at altitude were calm. There wasn’t much traffic in the area, the tops of the trees are still that lush green and you can see the hills and lakes all around. The skies were totally clear without that morning haze that tends to linger and it was serene.
There’s a blue water tower on the horizon I always look for to know when I’m close to that airport. At about 10nm NE of the field I make my first call on the CTAF. The surrounding fields had the most traffic, but as I made my 5nm call, a helicopter and two planes appear at my field.
And then they were all gone except the helicopter which landed on top of a semi-truck and took off shortly after I entered the left downwind. With everybody gone, I set up my pattern like I normally would and really felt the difference without flaps. The first attempt was eye opening.
Even though I set up exactly the same way, I came in at 80kts and I was still 300ft above the runway when I crossed the threshold. That was an immediate go around and the understanding of what I was trying to do. All that talk about power management is real.
I had to figure out how to descend without picking up too much speed and without getting into a stall while trying to slow down. The second attempt I went power idle as soon as I entered the downwind to try and lose some speed while losing altitude too. This was much better, but I still came in too high even though I was at about 70kts.
So that was another go around. The third time I had it figured out. I went power idle on the downwind, finally remembered I was trimmed nose up and let that out, then let myself sink lower on the base turn and on final. My focus was on maintaining ~70kts and making my aiming point the numbers to account for the extra float I’d have with that speed.
My sight picture was a little flatter on approach and a lot more nose up over the runway. The stall horn sounded faintly as I flared, but went off just before touching down. The landing wasn’t as greasy as I usually get them, but the extra speed made that make sense.
As I taxiied off the runway and headed back to the start of it, I thought through what had happened and flew through it again before taking off. It was good to have that extra confidence before heading back home.
Not a surprise
I got transfer from approach to tower and I was ready. I had run through my downwind and modified steps on the way back and had a plan. It was immediately disrupted by the widest 5nm downwind I’ve ever been asked to fly. This taught me a very quick lesson on the importance of power management.
Usually I’d put in full power and continue on the long downwind, but I didn’t have flaps to help me slow down later. So I kept just enough power to hold my altitude without picking up speed. It was a slow 70kt, 7nm final, but I actually greased that landing.
Hazardous attitude?
Part of me thinks this might have been over-confident for not having flown in a month and never having done that type of landing, while in a different plane for the first time.
At the same time, I felt I needed to push myself a little and conditions were still safe. I wouldn’t have done that with a passenger, but it felt less risky with just myself.
This was the flight I needed. The perfect weather, the great plane performance, and my ability to make that no flap landing for the first time made it a great day. I’m starting to “feel” the plane and feel more comfortable flying cross-country and doing maneuvers without overthinking it.