Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:26 pm
#968546
Hazy shade of Summer
Dave DeWitt recalls a hazy summer day when skimpy skirts, insects and a strong, low sun could all prove factors in Pilot X’s life...
Thanks to the dominant high pressure, recent flying had been good, although the last couple of days had seen deterioration in visibility. In fact, Pilot X was still embarrassed by last night’s heavy landing – watched by one special friend – caused, he reasoned, by landing into a low sun in hazy conditions. He’d do better this evening, using 09 instead. He reasoned that, although this would mean a 5kt tailwind, he’d get the chance to see out properly, and the grass runway was plenty long enough, albeit marginally downhill.
As X made his way to the airfield, he remembered that, in addition to bringing out the haze and skimpy skirts, the warm weather had introduced swarms of insects, most of whom were now glued to his windscreen.
As usual, X was running late, and he didn’t have anything readily available to clean the screen. He found a bucket with some brown water and an old sponge next to the pumps, but the thought of grit and scratches replacing the dead insects didn’t appeal.
Thanks to a fair amount of recent flying, X was feeling nicely current and very comfortable in the cockpit as his hands blurred their way through the checks. It had taken him a while to get used to aerial life at SR22 speeds, but his brain had now caught up, and even when tailwinds pushed the groundspeed to over 200kt, he felt he could stay ahead of the aeroplane. Had his closest flying buddies been around, they would have spotted a bit of complacency creeping in.
X found himself number three at the hold. The run-up area was occupied by a couple of C150 and a PA-28, all with yellow-jacketed and gold-bar-laden instructors, each watching over a student with a multi-page checklist. X’s impatience was tempered by the relatively fresh memory of his own training.
Hey, bad sender
To save time, X ran though the power checks on the taxiway. This earned him a long, unintelligible groan from the pilot of a flexwing microlight, unnoticed behind him. X had the engine data page selected on his aircraft’s MFD, where a bar representing cylinder number four’s CHT was considerably lower than the other five…
Hmmm… the engine felt fine, and X decided that it must be a bad sender. He’d mention it to the engineer when he took it for the next oil change. X used the rest of his time in the queue to set up the automatics, bugging his desired altitude and heading, and dialling in a rate of climb for the autopilot. This felt good, this felt grown-up. Eventually X was cleared for take-off.... less than ten minutes after rotating, he was in the cruise and sitting above the haze at 7,000ft. As the UK unfolded beneath him, X’s attention was once again drawn to cylinder number four, which instead of reading low, wasn’t reading anything at all! X thought the engine felt fine, although every now and then he wondered if he could feel a slight judder. It wasn’t strong enough or long enough to enable him to focus on... perhaps it was his imagination? He glanced at the MFD and saw that he was 10nm short of Blackpool. He could divert and get the reading checked – but in that case he’d almost certainly be spending the night there. X persuaded himself that all was well.
Twenty miles from home, X knew that it was time to start the descent. He pressed the autopilot disengage button and silenced the resulting alarm. He could have flown all the way to a (very) short final just by pressing buttons, but the smooth air spelled playtime. X threw the aeroplane around, pulling up into a chandelle before diving down and banking hard. He loved touring, but he also loved three-dimensional freedom. X looked around for an aeroplane that he could ‘bounce’ but the sky appeared empty, something confirmed by his traffic system. Approaching the now closed airfield, X made a blind call. There were no replies and X started to concentrate and orientate himself. There were no clouds to speak of and, although it was hazy, it didn’t look as bad as yesterday. Thanks to the GPS, X knew where the field should be and he thought he could make out a clearing in the distance.
“Cirrus 3CD, two miles to run to the overhead.”
X moved forward, as if the extra few inches would make it easier to spot the airfield… just as he started to worry, he spotted the airfield, immediately taking in the limp windsock.
“Cirrus 3CD overhead, positioning downwind right for 27.”
X swiftly closed the throttle and, as the engine popped and banged in protest, he pulled into a steep, descending turn to position downwind. Now he could see the airfield, he didn’t want it out of his sight. As the speed went through 119kt, he dropped some flap and turned base. As soon as he rolled out and looked towards the airfield, he knew that he was going to be fighting into-sun visibility again.
X decided that if it was bad, he’d go around, climb away and reposition for 09. He didn’t make a final call, he was too busy straining to see the runway, which had become lost in what looked like a tank of milky water. X went to full-flap and leant forward some more. The decaying speed went unnoticed as his eyes strained to see the runway through the strobing… X added power with his usual lack of finesse and only just held it together as the slow-flying airframe reacted to the sudden application of 310hp. As X climbed away he relaxed for a second, congratulated himself for making the right decision, even if it was a little late.
“Cirrus 3CD going around.”
He was still climbing into the sun when he looked at the big, twelve-inch screen to set up the extended runway depiction for 09. The light level dropped suddenly and X looked up. In less than a second, he saw a flash of yellow, heard a horrible crunch and felt a massive yaw, then everything
was quiet.
The screen filled with the fast-approaching ground. X reached for the CAPS handle, but he was out of time.
1 Why didn’t X’s traffic system pick up the aircraft he collided with?
2 Could X have done anything to reduce the chance of the accident? If so, what?
3 Why did X nearly lose it when he added the power for a go-around?
Dave DeWitt recalls a hazy summer day when skimpy skirts, insects and a strong, low sun could all prove factors in Pilot X’s life...
Thanks to the dominant high pressure, recent flying had been good, although the last couple of days had seen deterioration in visibility. In fact, Pilot X was still embarrassed by last night’s heavy landing – watched by one special friend – caused, he reasoned, by landing into a low sun in hazy conditions. He’d do better this evening, using 09 instead. He reasoned that, although this would mean a 5kt tailwind, he’d get the chance to see out properly, and the grass runway was plenty long enough, albeit marginally downhill.
As X made his way to the airfield, he remembered that, in addition to bringing out the haze and skimpy skirts, the warm weather had introduced swarms of insects, most of whom were now glued to his windscreen.
As usual, X was running late, and he didn’t have anything readily available to clean the screen. He found a bucket with some brown water and an old sponge next to the pumps, but the thought of grit and scratches replacing the dead insects didn’t appeal.
Thanks to a fair amount of recent flying, X was feeling nicely current and very comfortable in the cockpit as his hands blurred their way through the checks. It had taken him a while to get used to aerial life at SR22 speeds, but his brain had now caught up, and even when tailwinds pushed the groundspeed to over 200kt, he felt he could stay ahead of the aeroplane. Had his closest flying buddies been around, they would have spotted a bit of complacency creeping in.
X found himself number three at the hold. The run-up area was occupied by a couple of C150 and a PA-28, all with yellow-jacketed and gold-bar-laden instructors, each watching over a student with a multi-page checklist. X’s impatience was tempered by the relatively fresh memory of his own training.
Hey, bad sender
To save time, X ran though the power checks on the taxiway. This earned him a long, unintelligible groan from the pilot of a flexwing microlight, unnoticed behind him. X had the engine data page selected on his aircraft’s MFD, where a bar representing cylinder number four’s CHT was considerably lower than the other five…
Hmmm… the engine felt fine, and X decided that it must be a bad sender. He’d mention it to the engineer when he took it for the next oil change. X used the rest of his time in the queue to set up the automatics, bugging his desired altitude and heading, and dialling in a rate of climb for the autopilot. This felt good, this felt grown-up. Eventually X was cleared for take-off.... less than ten minutes after rotating, he was in the cruise and sitting above the haze at 7,000ft. As the UK unfolded beneath him, X’s attention was once again drawn to cylinder number four, which instead of reading low, wasn’t reading anything at all! X thought the engine felt fine, although every now and then he wondered if he could feel a slight judder. It wasn’t strong enough or long enough to enable him to focus on... perhaps it was his imagination? He glanced at the MFD and saw that he was 10nm short of Blackpool. He could divert and get the reading checked – but in that case he’d almost certainly be spending the night there. X persuaded himself that all was well.
Twenty miles from home, X knew that it was time to start the descent. He pressed the autopilot disengage button and silenced the resulting alarm. He could have flown all the way to a (very) short final just by pressing buttons, but the smooth air spelled playtime. X threw the aeroplane around, pulling up into a chandelle before diving down and banking hard. He loved touring, but he also loved three-dimensional freedom. X looked around for an aeroplane that he could ‘bounce’ but the sky appeared empty, something confirmed by his traffic system. Approaching the now closed airfield, X made a blind call. There were no replies and X started to concentrate and orientate himself. There were no clouds to speak of and, although it was hazy, it didn’t look as bad as yesterday. Thanks to the GPS, X knew where the field should be and he thought he could make out a clearing in the distance.
“Cirrus 3CD, two miles to run to the overhead.”
X moved forward, as if the extra few inches would make it easier to spot the airfield… just as he started to worry, he spotted the airfield, immediately taking in the limp windsock.
“Cirrus 3CD overhead, positioning downwind right for 27.”
X swiftly closed the throttle and, as the engine popped and banged in protest, he pulled into a steep, descending turn to position downwind. Now he could see the airfield, he didn’t want it out of his sight. As the speed went through 119kt, he dropped some flap and turned base. As soon as he rolled out and looked towards the airfield, he knew that he was going to be fighting into-sun visibility again.
X decided that if it was bad, he’d go around, climb away and reposition for 09. He didn’t make a final call, he was too busy straining to see the runway, which had become lost in what looked like a tank of milky water. X went to full-flap and leant forward some more. The decaying speed went unnoticed as his eyes strained to see the runway through the strobing… X added power with his usual lack of finesse and only just held it together as the slow-flying airframe reacted to the sudden application of 310hp. As X climbed away he relaxed for a second, congratulated himself for making the right decision, even if it was a little late.
“Cirrus 3CD going around.”
He was still climbing into the sun when he looked at the big, twelve-inch screen to set up the extended runway depiction for 09. The light level dropped suddenly and X looked up. In less than a second, he saw a flash of yellow, heard a horrible crunch and felt a massive yaw, then everything
was quiet.
The screen filled with the fast-approaching ground. X reached for the CAPS handle, but he was out of time.
1 Why didn’t X’s traffic system pick up the aircraft he collided with?
2 Could X have done anything to reduce the chance of the accident? If so, what?
3 Why did X nearly lose it when he added the power for a go-around?
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