Video: Bringing 2 Passengers To Duluth

Sinistar

Sinistar

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Brad
Another try at this video thing. In a different post I mentioned my wife's relatives from Norway were in town. Six of them were driving up to the North Shore and I offered to fly 2 of them up there in advance. We departed our home airport (KGYL) and I flew them to Superior (KSUW). It was a nice smooth flight. I didn't dare fly any farther over Lake Superior than I could safety glide back to land. Very pretty up there from above. I had a second camera out on the wing but it was vibrating too much to use it. The sim pilot flew about 90% of the flight :) His sister slept a fair amount in the back. As always open to comments/critiques.

Superior is a nice airport and has a great terminal. Uber times from the airport to Canal Park were about 16 minutes.

 
eman1200 said:
that mic was tough to listen to.
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Thanks for letting me know. Is it the amount of talk by the crazy pilot or the sound quality? If its sound quality/vox I have it set to break really hard since people always point the air vents right at their heads and causes it to xmt all the time.
 
Audio wasn’t awful on a small phone speaker. The pops might have been tougher on something with more bass, dunno. I fight with my squelch on my intercom too, and ours has separate left/right intercom squelch and passengers have no idea how that works so I just manage it. If they blast themselves with the air, on my intercom I can crank their squelch up and kill the noise without changing mine.

Thought the flight looked great. Was kinda surprised you don’t see a little higher MP at full throttle down there closer to sea level and the climb rate seemed a tad under what I usually see down that low in my Skylane, but I don’t know your fuel load or how much you and your passengers weighed. If you were full of fuel then it looked normal.

I was also surprised at the liftoff speed, but I’m probably way too used to my STOL kit. It flew off just fine, I just have a 55 knot rotation speed for a normal takeoff and the STOL kit will make it go flying at that point almost immediately. I forget the typical Skylane will take another ten knots to really start upward.

I got a chuckle out of the landing gust. It didn’t change your airspeed at all but it wouldn’t let you land. You did good just waiting it out and staying on the rudder.

Is yours limited to 30 degrees of flap or so you have 40? I was thinking if you have 40, when you were worried about slowing it down, you need not have worried. Ha. If you had actually pulled the nose just a hair UP at that point it would have sucked away 5-10 knots instantly. Drag is a wonderful thing. You said something about “slipping it in” and I don’t know if that was in reference to an actual forward slip or just slang for coming on down to the runway, but I don’t think you needed a slip there.

You can make a Skylane damn near stop in place on an approach with full flap just by holding the nose up and leveling off for a second. That’s just a tip to go try sometime, nothing at all wrong with that approach.

What’s funny is it was @flyingcheesehead who first pointed that trick out to me, and now he flies a Mooney and wouldn’t be slumming it with us Skylane pilots anymore. Kidding of course...

Liked the flight. Seems like your passengers did too!

That gust must have been annoying. You thought (as did I) that you were going to get a squeaker out of that, didn’t you! And then momma nature decided to make you work for it. Hahaha.
 
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By the way, I hear your strobes clicking in your intercom just like mine and the alternator whine too. Sound is nearly identical. :)
 
denverpilot said:
Audio wasn’t awful on a small phone speaker. The pops might have been tougher on something with more bass, dunno. I fight with my squelch on my intercom too, and ours has separate left/right intercom squelch and passengers have no idea how that works so I just manage it. If they blast themselves with the air, on my intercom I can crank their squelch up and kill the noise without changing mine.

Thought the flight looked great. Was kinda surprised you don’t see a little higher MP at full throttle down there closer to sea level and the climb rate seemed a tad under what I usually see down that low in my Skylane, but I don’t know your fuel load or how much you and your passengers weighed. If you were full of fuel then it looked normal.

I was also surprised at the liftoff speed, but I’m probably way too used to my STOL kit. :) It flew off just fine, I just have a 55 knot rotation speed for a normal takeoff and the STOP kit will make it go flying at that point almost immediately. I forget the typical Skylane will take another ten knots to really start upward. :)

I got a chuckle out of the landing gust. It didn’t change your airspeed at all but it wouldn’t let you land. You did good just waiting it out and staying on the rudder. :)

Is yours limited to 30 degrees of flap or so you have 40? I was thinking if you have 40, when you were worried about slowing it down, you need not have worried. Ha. If you had actually pulled the nose just a hair UP at that point it would have sucked away 5-10 knots instantly. Drag is a wonderful thing. You said something about “slipping it in” and I don’t know if that was in reference to an actual forward slip or just slang for coming on down to the runway, but I don’t think you needed a slip there.

You can make a Skylane damn near stop in place on an approach with full flap just by holding the nose up and leveling off for a second. That’s just a tip to go try sometime, nothing at all wrong with that approach.

What’s funny is it was @flyingcheesehead who first pointed that trick out to me, and now he flies a Mooney and wouldn’t be slumming it with us Skylane pilots anymore. :) :) Kidding of course...

Liked the flight. Seems like your passengers did too!

That gust must have been annoying. You thought (as did I) that you were going to get a squeaker out of that, didn’t you! And then momma nature decided to make you work for it. Hahaha.
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Audio: Our old intercom has a single VOX for all stations. In the winter I can almost set it wide open (except that wonderful Conti engine noise!) but in the summer those darned air vents foil my plans. After the passenger cools off a bit I usually ask them to rotate it way forward and the cool air blasts around the windshield and back. Plus it cools off the GDL on the dash. It also doesn't help that I lost the foamy thing on my Halo headset on like my 3rd flight. I actually like not having that thing but should really put another one on. And knowing me I have the mic direction opposite if ideal. That is so funny you mention the intercom click and alternator whine. My ears aren't that good. But when editing in Premier Pro I can see the perfect strobe frequency!!!

Engine: I think we departed around 8am. It was warm and muggy hence my pre-takeoff comment about getting some fresh air. I think the DA was pushing 2400 when I took off. I think the highest I've heard on ATIS/AWOS was 3400 one day this summer and we're 960msl. I looked a the video again and that MP seems normal. Us low landers do not lean for takeoff (yet, I still need a good tutorial with someone in the left seat). I usually rotate around 65(mph) and it seems to pop off nice and clean right at or just before 70(mph).

Climb: We were full fuel (78gal) but probably 250 under MTOW since the co-pilot was probably 185lbs and his 14yo sister was maybe 90lb. When I took off you probably noticed I leveled the nose off just for show and then rather than yank it back for a 80mph climb (and freak out the teenager!) I slowly pulled it back for a 1000ft/min climb. Usually, in a normal takeoff even in these conditions the 182 will easily hit 1000ft/min and if its a bit cooler I can easily peg the VSI.

Flaps: Yes, ours is a 40deg flaps Skylane. I am still learning all the tricks and techniques that go along with that much flaps and that big wing and all that drag!!!

Landing: Yes, I actually did a slip to kill off a bit of altitude thinking I was a bit high and fast. And you were so right...I thought I had this perfect greaser to end the flight and that little gust just held me up and caught me totally off guard.

I really, really enjoyed that flight. The hardest part was getting them out to the airport on time. I knew the ceilings would be coming in and down back at my return and so I was on the clock to turn around and get back. I told my wife I had two aborts picked out just in case but it went smooth all the way back. Was flying just above the 'few' layer with bases right at 4500 and tops around 6200 or so.

Thanks for input Nate!
 
I am curious as to why you tried to activate the lights at the field, given the time of the day and the visibility.
 
GreatLakesFlying said:
I am curious as to why you tried to activate the lights at the field, given the time of the day and the visibility.
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He was hoping for a VASI or PAPI I think. Someone taught him an interesting (and not that bad of an idea) habit somewhere where the VASI or PAPI aren’t just left on in daylight hours. Which is interesting because some places do that to save the bulbs, but usually they’re just left on all the time.

I bet there’s an airport he frequents that is the oddball way where the visual approach indicator lights are turned off during the day unless the entire runway lighting system is activated.

Actually that reminds me. On some VERY old systems on some airports you’ll need a full seven clicks (not five) to first turn the runway light system on, and then you can click five or three times to lower them. The newer controllers don’t seem to care and will come on with five or three. But the really old ones use a stepper motor and the logic locks out the motor until the initial seven clicks is done.

I’d have to go look at the Chart Supplement for Duluth to see if they even have a path guidance lighting system. But it caught my attention that he did it, too. :)

Not a bad habit, but not all that common to see those switched on and off with the approach light system either. More common in rural areas where the airport is trying to save money on electricity and bulb replacements. :)

Of course I fly out of a big city all weather 24/7 blah blah blah airport and the announcement “Runway X PAPI, Out of Service” is seemingly forever on the ATIS, so ... whatever. Ha. The place is crawling with people who can fix it, so who knows why they’re always broken. Ha.
 
@Sinistar I noticed you said 80 “MPH”. Are our Skylanes twins with that oddball ASI with MPH on the outer ring and Knots on the inner?

Ours also has a kollsman window covering the knots ring so you can only see a portion of it, but I put both the “legal” speeds in MPH and the speeds in Knots in parenthesis on my combined POH checklist and STOL checklist, and tend to memorize them in knots... because it creates less bad mental transfer problems to other Skylanes.

Of course once I moved over to the right seat, you can’t really read ours below about 80 knots from over there anyway, so I started memorizing angles instead. Ha. If the needle is pointed straight out toward me from what little I can see of it over there, the left seater has a reasonable and just slightly fast approach speed. :)

Watching your video on the tiny phone screen I couldn’t quite read your ASI but I could tell you landed it nice and slow and weren’t screaming down final with the flaps hanging out either, like some do. Heh. Mixture of the approach angle and the needle angle was all I had to go on. :)
 
GreatLakesFlying said:
I am curious as to why you tried to activate the lights at the field, given the time of the day and the visibility.
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Nate is right. Around here, many of the PAPI and VASI lights turn off during daylight and can be clicked on with 5 clicks. I never have looked yet to see if that runway at KSUW even had landing indication lighting. Also, I think I only clicked 4 times!

Actually I have never turned on the runway lights during daylight. I figure that will be bad karma and haunt me one night when I really need them!

I have never known uncontrolled airports that didn't need the VASI or PAPI turned on during the day so your question threw me at first! Are they always on in the rest of the country?
 
denverpilot said:
@Sinistar I noticed you said 80 “MPH”. Are our Skylanes twins with that oddball ASI with MPH on the outer ring and Knots on the inner?

Ours also has a kollsman window covering the knots ring so you can only see a portion of it, but I put both the “legal” speeds in MPH and the speeds in Knots in parenthesis on my combined POH checklist and STOL checklist, and tend to memorize them in knots... because it creates less bad mental transfer problems to other Skylanes.

Of course once I moved over to the right seat, you can’t really read ours below about 80 knots from over there anyway, so I started memorizing angles instead. Ha. If the needle is pointed straight out toward me from what little I can see of it over there, the left seater has a reasonable and just slightly fast approach speed. :)

Watching your video on the tiny phone screen I couldn’t quite read your ASI but I could tell you landed it nice and slow and weren’t screaming down final with the flaps hanging out either, like some do. Heh. Mixture of the approach angle and the needle angle was all I had to go on. :)
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Yep mph on the outer ring and kts on the inner ring inside that window. Since I've never flown another plane I guess I'm the oddball MPH guy :( When I get that TTX one day I will convert...after lots of re-training on landing way faster (dreaming!).
 
Sinistar said:
I have never known uncontrolled airports that didn't need the VASI or PAPI turned on during the day so your question threw me at first! Are they always on in the rest of the country?
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Can't speak for every uncontrolled airport in the country but the PAPIs at my home airport (06C) are always on. Couple other local uncontrolled fields I fly to, also seem to have their PAPIs on all the time.

That's why I was curious by your clicking.
 
GreatLakesFlying said:
Can't speak for every uncontrolled airport in the country but the PAPIs at my home airport (06C) are always on. Couple other local uncontrolled fields I fly to, also seem to have their PAPIs on all the time.

That's why I was curious by your clicking.
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I just looked, R22 at SUW does not have a PAPI but the other end does. So my clicking was for nothing! I think it's cool that yours are always on. Often I turn final and find myself clicking them on in the last 30sec.
 
Here's a tip from me. No matter what kind of landing you make, always say something like "WOW! Another great landing." I do that even when I drop it in hard because the passengers have no idea; they're only judging by how you react. I always applaud my landings and now my friends and family brag about my landing prowess. My pilot friends... not so much. :)
 
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