Brought down a peg or two
I had a real eye opener the other day, I have been reading on here about engine failures and the need to practice and prepare for them, I had a somewhat dismissive view of this as it pertains to myself for the following reasons,
1. I know my plane and its performance inside and out.
2. I fly 150 hours or more a year in this plane.
3. I had just finished up some intensive training at the beginning of the year where power off 180 was part of the training and I aced it several times in an unfamiliar plane at an unfamiliar strip .
4. A lot of my flying is in and out of unprepared strips, pastures, cropped fields and rural dirt roads with a lot of STOL type operations.
So I figured there was no point practicing at my home field as I had built the damn thing from scratch ploughing , leveling and sowing it and knew every dimension and contour on the field and the entire surrounding area and all the landmarks for judging a glide approach making it so easy it would be pointless.
But I gave it ago last week, the results:
1st Attempt: Not even close, would have been in the pond 400 feet before the threshold
2nd Attempt: See number 1. ( now I'm getting pissed off with myself and change from L to R pattern.
3rd Attempt: Too high and no amount of slipping would have prevented overshoot.
4th Attempt: See number 1 Again !!!
5Th Attempt : Acceptable safe approach and landing.
Take away from the experience ? Humbled , in fact extremely humbled and realized familiarity really does breed contempt. Never ever pass up a chance to practice emergencies.
Last edited by piperboy84; 11th Jul 2015 at 02:23.