Let’s do the time warp again! (flying lesson 24)

Everyone sing along! "Let's do the time warp again..."

I don’t know why I had the song “The Time Warp” from Rocky Horror stuck in my head today while flying, but I did.  Hopefully you’ll share in my joy and also find the tune hard to shake.

I did some solo pattern work today, though again it looked like it wouldn’t happen.  During run up the aircraft failed a mag check.  On the right mag the engine speed dropped too much and the engine ran very rough – it sounded like it was backfiring.  CFI Mike, having observed me taxi back, met me on the ramp and quickly diagnosed the problem: fouled plug.  The cure: burn off whatever is fouling the plug.

The problem and fix are described at the bottom of this page, but simply put I just ran the engine up, adjusted the mixture to lean of peak, and sat there for a minute.  That took care of it.  The aircraft seemed hastily put away by the previous pilot (radios on, throttle unlocked) so it’s likely he didn’t run the engine up before shutting down.

I taxied back out to the runway, tuned in the weather at the hold short line, and heard that the winds were gusting to 14 knots.  Club limit for students is 12 kts…including gusts.  Since there was no traffic behind me I whipped out my cell phone and called CFI Mike.

“What is it now, Paul?”

“The winds are gusting to 14 – I thought I should check in with you.”

“What?  They’re not gusting to 14!”

“They are…I’ve been sitting here for a minute listening to the AWOS.”

[pause]

“You’ll be fine – go ahead and fly.”

And down the runway I headed.

This next bit is probably the most interesting part of the story.  I get a couple hundred feet in the air and I swear I had a mini panic attack.

A no-fooling bout of terror, like when you’re in a dream and supposed to do something and you realize you don’t know how.

That’s the first time I’ve ever experienced that.  I’m chalking it up to lack of a good night’s sleep.

Now, it’s a bit embarrassing and part of me wants to just leave it out of my narrative.  Just present myself as hero pilot, fearless and true.  Heck, no one would know but my wife, my CFI…and me.

So here’s the story, unglossy just for you.  Maybe some student pilot will stumble across this some day and say, “hey, I thought I was the only one who had that happen, but here it happened to Paul…the greatest pilot in GA history!”

Where was I?  Oh yes, a few hundred feet in the air.  It strikes me…what am I doing up here?

“I don’t know how to fly a plane.  I am so going to end up in those trees down there.  How the hell am I supposed to land this thing?”

(I’m laughing now as I write this because it seems so silly, but for 10-15 seconds my heart was racing.)

“Man, I wish I was on the ground now.  Ok, one landing, that’s it.  I’ll get Mike to come up with me.”

(turn to crosswind)

“You know how to do this…you’ve done it at least 100 times before.  Watch your altitude, 1000 feet, reduce power.  There’s the pond that looks like a video game controller…”

(turn to downwind)

“Whoa, I’m wide.  Better head back closer to the field.  Radio call time.  ‘Tipton traffic, Skyhawk 7893N downwind runway 28 Tipton’  Hey, my GPS isn’t on.”

(I’d like to think my radio call came out sounding normal though my voice may have been a little higher than normal…that’s what happens when your gonads have retracted into your body.  If you look at my Google Earth track you’ll see it starts on the downwind farther out than any other pass, and it’s clear I was correcting an even larger deviation.)

“See, I know how to do this.  Abeam the numbers, reduce power.  Lower flaps when in the white arc.  Turn to base, more flaps, radio call.  Turn to final, more flaps, radio call.  Correct for crosswind, flare…”

And wouldn’t you know it, I was on the ground.  Not a bad landing either.  Not smooth like butter but no bounce – the plane just stuck to the runway.  Off at the midfield taxiway…and back to do it again.

Yes, I’d regained my senses somewhere on the downwind and ended up doing 9 landings.  The shape of my pattern is a little questionable, and I had a tendency to come in flat on my landings, but they were all pretty good landings (my 3rd one was like butter) and I made the midfield turnoff easily on each one (solo students are prohibited from touch and go landings).  The winds picked up and it got choppy and gusty but I never felt like I was anywhere close to the limit of what I could handle.

My last landing was the worst of the bunch, with a little bounce, but it was still far better than the three landings I made solo previously.

In the end I was extremely happy with my performance, the aforementioned interlude aside.  I was comfortable and I saw a big improvement in my landings…I picked up some confidence I’ve been missing due to lack of solo time.

Most importantly, though, my gonads eventually enjoyed the rest of the flight in a more relaxed posture allowing me to make my radio calls in my deeper, hero pilot voice.

Google Earth track

Total time: 36.0
PIC: 3.9
Cross country (dual): 1.9
Night: 2.0
Simulated instrument: 0.4
Landings: 125
Night landings: 9
Airports landed at: 54J-dirt, CGE, ESN, FME, HGR, VPS
Number of airports landed at: 6