Lesson Seventeen, Short Field and Soft Field Landings, and Clouds

Saturday morning was nice and cool, I arrived at Riverside airport just before my scheduled lesson time of 8am.  The Cessna 152 was a little low on fuel, and someone had tightened the oil dipstick until we needed a wrench to get it out, but everything else checked out, so after getting about five gallons from the fuel truck, Bob and I went inside to discuss the days lesson plan.

I had a choice, the syllabus we are using called for more stall and ground reference maneuver practice, followed by short field and soft field takeoff and landings.  Bob told me that we would probably only have time to do one or the other this time, and finish up later, so I chose to do the takeoff and landing work.

We got in the plane to fly to Tulsa International, they have a longer runway so we can do full-stop landings without having to taxi off and back to the end of the runway.  

Bob explained the theory behind the short and soft field operations, and said we would be doing a short field takeoff first.  A short field takeoff assumes that you have to get off the ground quickly, and get above an object past the end of the runway.  Once we got the clearance to taxi onto the runway, we headed right for the edge of the tarmac, so as to have the most possible runway ahead of us, got the plane lined up on the runway center line and dropped down one notch of flaps.

Holding the plane in place with the wheel brakes, I pushed in the throttle and waited for the revs to climb to maximum, while checking the oil pressure at the same time.  Once the engine had stabilized at about 2300 rpm, I released the wheel brakes, and started the takeoff roll.  As soon as we hit 50 knots, our rotate speed, I pulled back on the controls, but brought the nose up to maintain 54 knots, instead of the usual 67.  54 knots is this planes "Vx" or best angle of climb speed, whereas 67 knots is "Vy" our best rate of climb speed.  The "V" section of my Pilots Handbook of Aviation Knowledge glossary is very crowded with all these V-whatever speed definitions.

Once we had cleared our imaginary fifty foot obstacle, I lowered the nose for 67 knots, raised the flaps, and we climbed up to 2000 feet, headed north east.

We were given clearance to land straight in on runway 36L at Tulsa International, and Bob told me we would do a short field landing.  It's the same as a normal landing, but assumes a short runway, so you have to get stopped fast once you are down.  I got lined up on the runway and brought the plane down for a passable landing.  As soon as the wheels had fully settled onto the tarmac, we raised the flaps completely, stood on the brakes and pulled back hard on the controls.  This brought the plane to a not-quite screeching halt, as locking up the brakes on a wheel is to be avoided.  Pulling the control yoke back raises the elevator, which takes a bit of pressure off of the nose gear, but also acts as an air brake at the lower speed after landing.

We got everything reset, dropped down 10 degrees of flaps, and did a Soft Field takeoff.  Soft field takeoffs are just what they sound like, if you are operating off a grass or dirt runway, you have to do things a little differently to avoid digging the nose gear into the turf.

I gave the engine full power, and immediately pulled back on the controls, the idea is to keep as much weight off of the nose gear as possible.  We took off at 50 knots, then leveled off ten or twenty feet above the ground, still in the Ground Effect area of increased lift.  Once we reached 67 knots, we started a normal climb, raised the flaps, and turned for a left traffic pattern.

Next up was a Soft Field landing.  Again, it's a normal landing approach, but once the main gear tires touch down, as gently as possible, you keep the pressure back on the controls to keep weight off of the nose gear for as long as possible, and just let the plane roll to a stop without using the brakes.

The next few laps around the pattern were alternating soft and short field operations. 

However, the fun for the day was just starting!  The temperature and dew point on the ground were within a degree of each other, so as the air rose and cooled, small wispy clouds were starting to form at about 1500 feet.  Our pattern altitude is 1700 feet.

As the 152 is not certified for "Instrument Flight Rules" or IFR flight, and I am certainly not rated for IFR, we are not allowed to fly through any "visible moisture", but Bob explained that flying around the clouds is fine, as long as we give them some leeway.  There was a light breeze from the west, which was blowing more clouds over Tulsa from Keystone lake.  This meant that on each lap of the pattern, we had to move in closer and closer to the airport to stay out of the clouds, until on the downwind leg, we had to fly around one, at which point we decided to call it a day and head back to Riverside.

We climbed up through a gap between a few clouds, until we were above them at 2500 feet.  This was my first time seeing clouds from above in a small plane, and they are a beautiful sight.  As a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) student pilot, I am allowed to fly above clouds, as long as there are gaps between so I can still see the ground.

We flew back to Riverside at 2400RPM, as we were just ahead of another student and instructor in a faster Cessna 172, and wanted to beat them home for bragging rights, although it later turned out that they had had to reduce power to keep from running us over.

With the wind behind us on the base leg of the pattern, we were still fairly high on the turn to the final approach.  Bob said we could probably land somewhere in the middle of the runway, and suggested a forward slip.  I pushed in full right rudder, counteracted with left ailerons, and held the slip almost all the way to the ground.  We touched down just past the runway number markings.

I will be starting on Ground School this week, it's 6-9PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday until October 8th, so I will probably only being flying on Saturdays.

Talk to you soon!

Gareth