Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:51 pm
#894306
Summer skies
Frazer Nash tells us how Pilot X’s plan to make the most of a beautiful summer’s day, turned to disaster.
The thing – one of the things – about an MGB is that, despite its charm, a certain style (remember, some things are in the eye of the beholder) and relatively affordable open-top motoring, there’s little to hide the fact that the bodywork has a habit of developing lots of crusty, rust-rimmed holes. Pilot X loved his old MG. He’d picked up it from a fellow in Guildford a couple of years earlier for a good price, rebuilt the engine almost immediately and had been enjoying top-down motoring ever since.
But then the holes appeared and, not really being that keen on bodywork, a visit to someone who was, had resulted in a quote for the wrong side of a lot. This wasn’t the news he’d wanted. He’d bought the MG for the perfect summer’s day that he was currently enjoying, with the temperature above 30°, the air perfectly still and those sweet, cloudless skies that appeared to him to mock metal-topped hatchbacks and people carriers.
Fortunately for Pilot X, there was something else in his life that he loved just as much as his MG – flying. He wasn’t at a stage when he could claim hundreds of hours, or any more types logged than the 152 he’d trained on… but right now, depressed by the imminent demise of his first love, his car, at least he could book an aircraft.
A quick call to his local flying school confirmed that the club’s 152 would be available by the time his increasingly colander-like product of Leyland’s glory years could get him there.
By the time Pilot X had arrived at the airfield, if anything it was even hotter. Fortunately, however, he remembered to put the soft-top roof of the MG up. He’d experienced the extreme heat of vinyl-covered car seats left in the summer sun before and wasn’t about to make that mistake again.
Party talk
With the 152 booked out and preflighted, he was ready for a familiar jaunt around the local area, with perhaps the chance to overfly a private strip owned by a friend of a friend he once met at a party. Being such a hot day, and with Pilot X being recently qualified, he remembered his human factors training and made sure that he was suitably hydrated for the trip, even taking a bottle of water in the cabin with him for regular top-ups.
At the hold for Runway 27, Pilot X was cleared for take off and opened the throttle to full. While the engine sounded fine, and the Ts & Ps were all in the green, Pilot X was soon going past the usual point on the runway at which he would expect the tyres to depart from the concrete. The Cessna was still clinging to the ground. Checking the ASI again, and double-checking he had full power, the little 152 trundled on, only to finally get airborne a full 100 yards further down the runway. Even once free of the ground, the aircraft seemed sluggish and more reluctant than usual to climb, forcing Pilot X to accept a far gentler rate of progress up to his planned 3,000ft altitude. Still, he was in no real hurry and thought no more of it.
For the next 30 minutes or so, Pilot X enjoyed the local countryside. With the summer heat, the recently lush fields and hedgerows had become a shade of light brown, while the high, bright sun reflected off a river whose banks were dotted by anglers shielding from the UV under khaki umbrellas
Call of nature
While all that water Pilot X had glugged before and during the flight had certainly kept him hydrated, his bladder was now beginning to demand a little relief. If he’d been honest with himself, he would have accepted the call of nature when he’d first felt it 15 minutes or so ago, and returned in good time to his home airfield. But, Pilot X now had the idea of accepting his friend’s invitation to use his private strip. It was only a couple of minutes away and even if the owner wasn’t at home, a concealing bush was all he really needed! Pilot X had received training for grass strip landings and while this one wasn’t exactly long, there was plenty of space to land a little 152. In fact, his only concern was that his friend had mentioned that the strip, when coming in from the south, had a marked downward slope, but that was nothing to really worry about.
In no time, Pilot X had applied carb heat, reduced power, put in a couple of stages of flap and found himself on long final for a straight-in approach to the strip. Half-a-mile or so out, Pilot X realised that it looked as if he was coming in at far too shallow an angle, so he increased the power to gain a little extra height – but as he crossed the threshold, it was soon obvious that the opposite was in fact true… he was too high! To compensate, Pilot X took off the power and checked that he had full-flap selected, losing altitude rapidly and leaving him looking at landing long on a short strip. Then, with no other option open to him, he quickly selected full power with the aim of executing a go-around.
Unfortunately, the sluggish climb he’d experienced earlier hit him again, only this time worse. He was still trying to work out what had gone wrong when the undercarriage of the 152 collided with the low hedge at the end of the runway.
1. What had caused the sluggish climb?
2. Why did Pilot X initially think that his approach to the strip was too shallow?
3. What should he have done to have avoided the situation in the first place?
Frazer Nash tells us how Pilot X’s plan to make the most of a beautiful summer’s day, turned to disaster.
The thing – one of the things – about an MGB is that, despite its charm, a certain style (remember, some things are in the eye of the beholder) and relatively affordable open-top motoring, there’s little to hide the fact that the bodywork has a habit of developing lots of crusty, rust-rimmed holes. Pilot X loved his old MG. He’d picked up it from a fellow in Guildford a couple of years earlier for a good price, rebuilt the engine almost immediately and had been enjoying top-down motoring ever since.
But then the holes appeared and, not really being that keen on bodywork, a visit to someone who was, had resulted in a quote for the wrong side of a lot. This wasn’t the news he’d wanted. He’d bought the MG for the perfect summer’s day that he was currently enjoying, with the temperature above 30°, the air perfectly still and those sweet, cloudless skies that appeared to him to mock metal-topped hatchbacks and people carriers.
Fortunately for Pilot X, there was something else in his life that he loved just as much as his MG – flying. He wasn’t at a stage when he could claim hundreds of hours, or any more types logged than the 152 he’d trained on… but right now, depressed by the imminent demise of his first love, his car, at least he could book an aircraft.
A quick call to his local flying school confirmed that the club’s 152 would be available by the time his increasingly colander-like product of Leyland’s glory years could get him there.
By the time Pilot X had arrived at the airfield, if anything it was even hotter. Fortunately, however, he remembered to put the soft-top roof of the MG up. He’d experienced the extreme heat of vinyl-covered car seats left in the summer sun before and wasn’t about to make that mistake again.
Party talk
With the 152 booked out and preflighted, he was ready for a familiar jaunt around the local area, with perhaps the chance to overfly a private strip owned by a friend of a friend he once met at a party. Being such a hot day, and with Pilot X being recently qualified, he remembered his human factors training and made sure that he was suitably hydrated for the trip, even taking a bottle of water in the cabin with him for regular top-ups.
At the hold for Runway 27, Pilot X was cleared for take off and opened the throttle to full. While the engine sounded fine, and the Ts & Ps were all in the green, Pilot X was soon going past the usual point on the runway at which he would expect the tyres to depart from the concrete. The Cessna was still clinging to the ground. Checking the ASI again, and double-checking he had full power, the little 152 trundled on, only to finally get airborne a full 100 yards further down the runway. Even once free of the ground, the aircraft seemed sluggish and more reluctant than usual to climb, forcing Pilot X to accept a far gentler rate of progress up to his planned 3,000ft altitude. Still, he was in no real hurry and thought no more of it.
For the next 30 minutes or so, Pilot X enjoyed the local countryside. With the summer heat, the recently lush fields and hedgerows had become a shade of light brown, while the high, bright sun reflected off a river whose banks were dotted by anglers shielding from the UV under khaki umbrellas
Call of nature
While all that water Pilot X had glugged before and during the flight had certainly kept him hydrated, his bladder was now beginning to demand a little relief. If he’d been honest with himself, he would have accepted the call of nature when he’d first felt it 15 minutes or so ago, and returned in good time to his home airfield. But, Pilot X now had the idea of accepting his friend’s invitation to use his private strip. It was only a couple of minutes away and even if the owner wasn’t at home, a concealing bush was all he really needed! Pilot X had received training for grass strip landings and while this one wasn’t exactly long, there was plenty of space to land a little 152. In fact, his only concern was that his friend had mentioned that the strip, when coming in from the south, had a marked downward slope, but that was nothing to really worry about.
In no time, Pilot X had applied carb heat, reduced power, put in a couple of stages of flap and found himself on long final for a straight-in approach to the strip. Half-a-mile or so out, Pilot X realised that it looked as if he was coming in at far too shallow an angle, so he increased the power to gain a little extra height – but as he crossed the threshold, it was soon obvious that the opposite was in fact true… he was too high! To compensate, Pilot X took off the power and checked that he had full-flap selected, losing altitude rapidly and leaving him looking at landing long on a short strip. Then, with no other option open to him, he quickly selected full power with the aim of executing a go-around.
Unfortunately, the sluggish climb he’d experienced earlier hit him again, only this time worse. He was still trying to work out what had gone wrong when the undercarriage of the 152 collided with the low hedge at the end of the runway.
1. What had caused the sluggish climb?
2. Why did Pilot X initially think that his approach to the strip was too shallow?
3. What should he have done to have avoided the situation in the first place?
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