My first solo cross country in a Cessna 152 was quite....adventurous and too long to detail here. However, upon return to the airport from which I launched, the wind was 360 at about 40 knots. Right down the runway center line. I could have gradually pulled the power back and gently set it down vertically right on the numbers. Although doing such at a controlled airport is not generally looked upon as a good idea.
in 72 or 73 my dad was in Oklahoma city in his 172 and got to watch a poor soul in a J3 Cub make a landing backwards because the windspeed was higher than his cruising speed...
The day I did my first solo (Cessna 152), the instructor got out after a landing and said, "Take it around!" Here in WV the terrain is all hills, mountains and valleys so the wind can change in an instant. Just a second or two before my first solo touchdown a lovely gust of wind blew me 30 yards off the runway to the left, nearly into a forest. I applied full power and headed up and out. I proceeded to then do a half an hour of touch-n-gos. During my vehicle ride home I noticed intense pain in my right thumb. I looked at it and discovered that I had gripped the throttle so tightly that I had literally bent my thumbnail!!
Those big tundra tires can land on open water and ski up to the sandbar to stop. Unbelievable until you see it done. It's not clear how much, if any, headwind this guy has, but anything more than stall speed and he could land in reverse. I have landed with a near vertical descent in a C-152 with a 40kt wind straight down the runway. This lil' Supercub has twice the horsepower and half the weight of said C-152.
Remember hearing about a guy who did a full circuit and never changed heading. Took off into wind, put in left aileron and right rudder to slide left, throttled back so the wind pushed him back to the approach end, slid right, and the throttled up to get back to the runway. May be apocryphal, but so what?
Perfectly feasible. One of the handiest features of GPS navigation is no longer having to compute wind drift. Just follow the magenta line and your crab angle is automatic.
STOL King!
ReplyDeleteMy first solo cross country in a Cessna 152 was quite....adventurous and too long to detail here. However, upon return to the airport from which I launched, the wind was 360 at about 40 knots. Right down the runway center line. I could have gradually pulled the power back and gently set it down vertically right on the numbers. Although doing such at a controlled airport is not generally looked upon as a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI love those STOL competitions.
sorta sounds like what I did on my first "long" x-country outta Grand Forks back in '67 landing at CYS
Deletein 72 or 73 my dad was in Oklahoma city in his 172 and got to watch a poor soul in a J3 Cub make a landing backwards because the windspeed was higher than his cruising speed...
DeleteThe day I did my first solo (Cessna 152), the instructor got out after a landing and said, "Take it around!" Here in WV the terrain is all hills, mountains and valleys so the wind can change in an instant. Just a second or two before my first solo touchdown a lovely gust of wind blew me 30 yards off the runway to the left, nearly into a forest. I applied full power and headed up and out. I proceeded to then do a half an hour of touch-n-gos. During my vehicle ride home I noticed intense pain in my right thumb. I looked at it and discovered that I had gripped the throttle so tightly that I had literally bent my thumbnail!!
DeleteDoes that little puddle jumper have airbrakes?
ReplyDeleteThose big tundra tires can land on open water and ski up to the sandbar to stop. Unbelievable until you see it done.
ReplyDeleteIt's not clear how much, if any, headwind this guy has, but anything more than stall speed and he could land in reverse. I have landed with a near vertical descent in a C-152 with a 40kt wind straight down the runway. This lil' Supercub has twice the horsepower and half the weight of said C-152.
I could beat that in my Huey
ReplyDeleteRemember hearing about a guy who did a full circuit and never changed heading. Took off into wind, put in left aileron and right rudder to slide left, throttled back so the wind pushed him back to the approach end, slid right, and the throttled up to get back to the runway. May be apocryphal, but so what?
ReplyDeletePerfectly feasible. One of the handiest features of GPS navigation is no longer having to compute wind drift. Just follow the magenta line and your crab angle is automatic.
Delete