sbonek
Pre-takeoff checklist
- Joined
- May 24, 2006
- Messages
- 232
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Steve Bonek
had an interesting day at the airport on Father's day. My family was in town, and this was the third time I've tried to take my mom and my nephew up in the air. The previous 2 times were scrubbed due to Wx. This looked to be the best opportunity with only a slight chance of convective activity.
As I was pre-flighting the a/c, it sprinkled for a few minutes. No big deal, everything I was seeing with my eyes and on radar was saying any precip would be short-lived, so I waited a few minutes and sure enough it stopped. Took a quick trip around the pattern to make sure it wasn't too bumpy for any pax, and all was good.
The wind was doing weird things. It was out of the North around 12 as I was pre-flighting, but by time I took off on my quick trip around the pattern, it changed to being out of the south at about 8. As I was taxi-ing back to pick up my nephews (one is 14 and the other is 3), the wind was reported as being calm. After picking them up and taxi-ing out, the wind was now coming out of the south.
Did I mention it was hot? Really hot? The AWOS was reporting a DA of around 2800 (field elev is 862). The B-17 (more on that later) was using 7, so instead of trying to get in it's way, I elected to use 16 since the wind was still out of the south - south-east around 7 - 8. The takeoff roll was noticeably longer than I'm used to, and even longer than my solo trip around the pattern. I checked the windsock one last time before crossing the hold-short line, but I'm wondering if it shifted as we barrelled down the runway b/c it seemed like the airspeed indicator basically stopped around 40. I was about to pull the power and abort the takeoff and then it finally budged and got up to Vr, so I did.... and the stall warning horning was yelling at me. Usually by time I'm crossing the departure end threshold, I'm usually at least 500 AGL, but we were only about 200 AGL. DA and a possible tailwind definately got my attention.
As we turned to go to the North-East, at about our 2 o'clock, I saw a streak of lighting. I decided it was time to get on the ground, so I circled around to cross mid-field and get setup to land on 25, since once again the wind shifted and it was calm. As I was setting up to cross mid-field, I checked the AWOS again, and now the wind was out of the north. WTF is going on I thought.
So I called out that I was changing to land on 34 and continued on the Downwind for 34. Made a relatively good landing... it must have been pretty good because my 3 year old nephew was sound asleep. We weren't in the air for 5 or 6 minutes, and he was already out
At that point I made the PIC decision that it was best to call it a day and take my mom up some other time.
Suffice to say a very interesting day.
Also got to see the Liberty Belle (http://www.libertyfoundation.org/). Convective activity didn't scare them any, they were in a constant state of un-loading and loading up new pax for a trip around the Indianapolis area. Here are a couple pics I snapped as it was taxi-ing to pick up some more pax. Very cool.
As I was pre-flighting the a/c, it sprinkled for a few minutes. No big deal, everything I was seeing with my eyes and on radar was saying any precip would be short-lived, so I waited a few minutes and sure enough it stopped. Took a quick trip around the pattern to make sure it wasn't too bumpy for any pax, and all was good.
The wind was doing weird things. It was out of the North around 12 as I was pre-flighting, but by time I took off on my quick trip around the pattern, it changed to being out of the south at about 8. As I was taxi-ing back to pick up my nephews (one is 14 and the other is 3), the wind was reported as being calm. After picking them up and taxi-ing out, the wind was now coming out of the south.
Did I mention it was hot? Really hot? The AWOS was reporting a DA of around 2800 (field elev is 862). The B-17 (more on that later) was using 7, so instead of trying to get in it's way, I elected to use 16 since the wind was still out of the south - south-east around 7 - 8. The takeoff roll was noticeably longer than I'm used to, and even longer than my solo trip around the pattern. I checked the windsock one last time before crossing the hold-short line, but I'm wondering if it shifted as we barrelled down the runway b/c it seemed like the airspeed indicator basically stopped around 40. I was about to pull the power and abort the takeoff and then it finally budged and got up to Vr, so I did.... and the stall warning horning was yelling at me. Usually by time I'm crossing the departure end threshold, I'm usually at least 500 AGL, but we were only about 200 AGL. DA and a possible tailwind definately got my attention.
As we turned to go to the North-East, at about our 2 o'clock, I saw a streak of lighting. I decided it was time to get on the ground, so I circled around to cross mid-field and get setup to land on 25, since once again the wind shifted and it was calm. As I was setting up to cross mid-field, I checked the AWOS again, and now the wind was out of the north. WTF is going on I thought.
So I called out that I was changing to land on 34 and continued on the Downwind for 34. Made a relatively good landing... it must have been pretty good because my 3 year old nephew was sound asleep. We weren't in the air for 5 or 6 minutes, and he was already out
At that point I made the PIC decision that it was best to call it a day and take my mom up some other time.
Suffice to say a very interesting day.
Also got to see the Liberty Belle (http://www.libertyfoundation.org/). Convective activity didn't scare them any, they were in a constant state of un-loading and loading up new pax for a trip around the Indianapolis area. Here are a couple pics I snapped as it was taxi-ing to pick up some more pax. Very cool.
