Matthew Bourguignon
Filing Flight Plan
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2023
- Messages
- 18
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Display name:
Matthew
Greetings, all!
We recently acquired a 1979 Cessna 172N with the Air Plains 180hp conversion and a Horton STOL kit including gates, tips and cuffs. It's the third addition to our rental fleet and despite being in pretty serious need of a paint job, it's proved popular with our students! I'm not sure what about it exactly, but I have also become pretty fond of it when I'm taking an aircraft from the fleet on a nonrev flight. What I'm wondering though is: what changes, if any, should I be making to my short and/or soft field takeoffs? I'm still using my usual technique: stick full aft until the nose wheel comes up, then hang out on the bleeding edge of the wheelie until the mains lift off, avoiding over-rotating while also avoiding re-settling the nose. Once she's up, pitch down to accelerate to Vx, then "follow Vx up", pitching up to hold Vx as she climbs out of ground effect and over the trees.
I took my family to lunch in this airplane two weeks ago. We went to one of our two favorite spots: GA2, a 2,400ft grass strip just south of ATL. As always, I did my W&B and performance calculations carefully. It was a hot day, with high DA, but everything was within the limits with which I'm comfortable and know I can fly, so we made the trip. We used a good bit more runway than I am used to, but that didn't surprise me since I flew the approach at normal speed instead of reducing it for the STOL kit. However, I couldn't tell if we had a shorter takeoff than what I'm used to. In any case, takeoff and landing were uneventful, but it did leave me wondering if I should be adjusting my technique.
Anybody who has STOL kit experience or similar setup experience, can you share your thoughts on technique?
Thank you!
We recently acquired a 1979 Cessna 172N with the Air Plains 180hp conversion and a Horton STOL kit including gates, tips and cuffs. It's the third addition to our rental fleet and despite being in pretty serious need of a paint job, it's proved popular with our students! I'm not sure what about it exactly, but I have also become pretty fond of it when I'm taking an aircraft from the fleet on a nonrev flight. What I'm wondering though is: what changes, if any, should I be making to my short and/or soft field takeoffs? I'm still using my usual technique: stick full aft until the nose wheel comes up, then hang out on the bleeding edge of the wheelie until the mains lift off, avoiding over-rotating while also avoiding re-settling the nose. Once she's up, pitch down to accelerate to Vx, then "follow Vx up", pitching up to hold Vx as she climbs out of ground effect and over the trees.
I took my family to lunch in this airplane two weeks ago. We went to one of our two favorite spots: GA2, a 2,400ft grass strip just south of ATL. As always, I did my W&B and performance calculations carefully. It was a hot day, with high DA, but everything was within the limits with which I'm comfortable and know I can fly, so we made the trip. We used a good bit more runway than I am used to, but that didn't surprise me since I flew the approach at normal speed instead of reducing it for the STOL kit. However, I couldn't tell if we had a shorter takeoff than what I'm used to. In any case, takeoff and landing were uneventful, but it did leave me wondering if I should be adjusting my technique.
Anybody who has STOL kit experience or similar setup experience, can you share your thoughts on technique?
Thank you!