Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:14 pm
#1548462
... and back but I forgot to turn the GoPro on!
Despite the rather flat landscape of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, a really nice flight there and back. A bit more eventful going than coming home however...!
The dog-leg around Newmarket was due to spotting traffic above and to the right, perhaps a little later than I'd have liked, but no real conflict. It turned out to be a C152 from Stapleford, also to Old Buckenham. He was "On the right, in the right", but as I was the faster aircraft, I repositioned to their right to overtake. Despite a longer routing, I still beat them to Old Buck, although they made it to parking first.
As the video will show, my first landing was, well, awful. A nice bouncer, promptly followed by a go around. The downside of videoing "under the wing" is that you can't really critique your videos as much when you have a shocker of a landing. I suspect my vertical speed was a little too high, and the approach not as stable as it could have been. This is one thing I've found in the C172, compared to its smaller sister on which I learnt, if the speed isn't nailed to within a kt or two on approach it's not going to end well. I suspect part of the problem was having flown mainly from Sywell lately, with its 30m wide runway, getting a bit spooked by Old Buck being almost half the width...
Oh well, better to be safe than sorry. Take two at landing - much more stable approach, a little flatter maybe. However in the near nil-wind conditions the plane floated, and floated, and floated some more! Those who have landed on Runway 25 at Old Buck will note the significant downslope towards the 07 end of the runway. In my position in the flare I saw what I thought was the runway end approaching, so just as the mains kissed the runway I initiated go around number two, thinking I had insufficient runway to stop. Turns out, speaking to the very friendly A/G operators I was fine, but got fooled by the downslope. They did warn that once you go past the intersection if you're not down you're unlikely to stop. I was before the intersection at the point of go around.
Attempt number 3 was much better, annoyingly a nice greaser, almost on the numbers!
All in all, a very nice and friendly airfield to visit, and one I will hopefully return to. A shame the cafe had closed by the time I'd got there (aerobatics competitions at Sywell delaying departure a bit).
All comments on how to reliably and repeatably land a 172 greatly appreciated! Sometimes they're perfect, other times they're real bone shakers, and sometimes it floats like it's a Piper!
Despite the rather flat landscape of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, a really nice flight there and back. A bit more eventful going than coming home however...!
The dog-leg around Newmarket was due to spotting traffic above and to the right, perhaps a little later than I'd have liked, but no real conflict. It turned out to be a C152 from Stapleford, also to Old Buckenham. He was "On the right, in the right", but as I was the faster aircraft, I repositioned to their right to overtake. Despite a longer routing, I still beat them to Old Buck, although they made it to parking first.
As the video will show, my first landing was, well, awful. A nice bouncer, promptly followed by a go around. The downside of videoing "under the wing" is that you can't really critique your videos as much when you have a shocker of a landing. I suspect my vertical speed was a little too high, and the approach not as stable as it could have been. This is one thing I've found in the C172, compared to its smaller sister on which I learnt, if the speed isn't nailed to within a kt or two on approach it's not going to end well. I suspect part of the problem was having flown mainly from Sywell lately, with its 30m wide runway, getting a bit spooked by Old Buck being almost half the width...
Oh well, better to be safe than sorry. Take two at landing - much more stable approach, a little flatter maybe. However in the near nil-wind conditions the plane floated, and floated, and floated some more! Those who have landed on Runway 25 at Old Buck will note the significant downslope towards the 07 end of the runway. In my position in the flare I saw what I thought was the runway end approaching, so just as the mains kissed the runway I initiated go around number two, thinking I had insufficient runway to stop. Turns out, speaking to the very friendly A/G operators I was fine, but got fooled by the downslope. They did warn that once you go past the intersection if you're not down you're unlikely to stop. I was before the intersection at the point of go around.
Attempt number 3 was much better, annoyingly a nice greaser, almost on the numbers!
All in all, a very nice and friendly airfield to visit, and one I will hopefully return to. A shame the cafe had closed by the time I'd got there (aerobatics competitions at Sywell delaying departure a bit).
All comments on how to reliably and repeatably land a 172 greatly appreciated! Sometimes they're perfect, other times they're real bone shakers, and sometimes it floats like it's a Piper!
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