Lesson Nineteen

I have managed to fall behind in keeping this up to date, so this entry is for November 20th.

I had scheduled a lesson from 8 to 10 am, as the Flight School was hosting an Open House from 10 to whenever, which I had volunteered to help with.  I got to the airport a few minutes before 8, and chatted with some pilots who were also going to volunteer, but they were going to be working with the EAA's (Experimental Aircraft Association) touring B-17 bomber "Aluminum Overcast".

Michael arrived and let me into the flight school office to get the Pilots Handbook for 69212 so I could start the pre-flight inspections.  The previous Wednesdays lesson had been called off due to a weather front coming through the area, which had produced winds gusting past 30 knots.  I got the Cessna checked out as Bob arrived, it had been parked across a slope, with one wing slightly lower that the other, which allowed fuel to run from the uphill tank to the downhill tank, so we had 10 gallons in one and 4 in the other.  As the engine fuel is supplied from the tanks by gravity, it would naturally drain more from the heavier tank at first, so we would be fine.

I got clearance from Riverside tower and taxied past the parked B-17 to the run-up area, then we were cleared for a takeoff to the southeast.

We flew up through the bumpy air, which smoothed a little by the time we reached 2,500 feet.  The wind was still too strong for our planned ground reference maneuvers, so we did some stalls and slow flight.

As I dropped the flaps down for the "dirty" slow-flight I noticed Bob peering down out of the window.  I had the plane pointed 180 degrees South, almost straight into the wind, with the airspeed indicator right at 35 knots.  Bob asked me to adjust course to the right by 20 degrees to 200, then after a minute, asked me to go back left a little to 190 degrees.

He had been trying to gauge our ground speed, he decided that we were definitely hovering, or flying at an indicated 35 knots straight into a 35 knot headwind, he had been hoping we could actually go backward, but the wind just wasn't quite strong enough.

We got the fresh weather information and turned back around to the airport when he pulled the throttle out and told me the engine had stopped.  I ran through the checklist, determined that the engine was windmilling in this simulation, and picked a field to land in.  Down we went.  The wind closer to the ground had picked up so we were really getting bumped around.  I would have successfully landed, so we performed a go-around, full power and flaps retracted as we went back up.  At this point I decided that maybe McDonalds breakfast and orange juice aren't the best combination for rough weather flying.  I wasn't nauseous, but I was more aware of my stomach than usual and was glad to reach the relatively smoother air above.

We returned to Riverside with no further incident, when we landed we had to taxi through a parking area, as the B-17 had started its 4 huge radial engines, and we didn't want to risk taxiing too closely behind it.

We got the plane tied down and I tracked down Michael to see where I would be needed for the fly-in.
The flight school had recently purchased a Diamond DA-20 Katana as a low-wing trainer, so I was fed some pertinent facts and posted next to it to answer any questions that prospective students might have.  Fortunately the DA-20 was parked out in the main fly-in area, so I got to see the B-17 start its engines and take off, as well as a P51 Mustang and F4F Wildcat that were doing some low level formation fly-by's.

After they had landed we walked back to the Flight School building where Michael was grilling some hamburgers and hot-dogs, so I helped out there where I could, got something to eat, and called it a day.

Here are some videos of the B-17 Aluminum Overcast that I shot while at the open house:


Engines Starting, with a cameo by the P51 Miracle Maker.



Take Off with the Wildcat taxiing in the foreground.


Landing and taxiing back to parking.