Playing in the Pattern

Posted on Jan 1, 2011

Approach into Palo Alto runway 31.

Since my last flight back in November, the weather in the SF Bay Area has been less than ideal. It seemed like it rained nearly every weekend over the last six weeks. Once the holiday period came and I saw some decent flying weather in the forecast, I hurried to get myself on the schedule to get in some quality flying time. Ironically, in all that I’d done this year, I hadn’t spent anytime just hanging out in the pattern and practicing some of the basics. My last flight that involved just doing pattern work was more than a year ago on Dec 20, 2009. Luckily, the weather this week was decent enough to spend some time in the local area refining the basics.

What’s that Smell?
Monday, I headed out to Palo Alto (PAO) in the late afternoon with the intention of flying N209J; the same Piper Warrior that I’d flown to Napa a couple of times in 2010. As normal, I performed my quick walk around before taking off the cover and conducting the full preflight. I always like to check the tires, gas, and oil even before I take off the cover or open the doors. Everything seemed fine initiality, but when I began preflighting the plane, I soon realized that it wouldn’t be a good day to fly it.

As I mentioned, it had been raining literallly even weekend and practically 4-5 times a week for the last few weeks. The plane had last been flown on Dec 15th and unfortunately, the last pilot failed to shut the storm window. So for the last 12 days, though the plane was covered, there had been moisture accumulating in the aircraft. The entire windshield was covered with enough water to cause dripping and there was noticable moisture on the radios. That alone made me a bit uncomfortable. I wiped the windshield and checked the radios while I debated whether I’d feel comfortable taking the plane around the pattern. The radios checked out fine but the smell in the aircraft just would not air out and that, coupled with the possibility of radio problems once airborne, was more than enough to change my mind. I decided to cover it up and check out a different plane.

Jason, a fellow pilot in the flying club, had just returned from an hour’s worth of pattern work in another Piper Warrior (N4352G) when I made my decision to scrub my flight in N209J. I’d flown N4352G quite a few times earlier in the year and had recently flown it on my last flight in November. Though I was comfortable switching aircraft, I wasn’t so comfortable performing the full preflight in chilly weather. After completing the preflight, I hung out in the aircraft for about 15 minutes while my fingers tried to turn from pale white back to bloody red. Just as the tingle returned, I started the aircraft and headed out for the run-up.

The traffic at PAO was pretty heavy that day; so much that after takeoff, I was immediately asked to depart to San Carlos (SQL) to perform my pattern work. Traffic at PAO is typically heavy in the late afternoon on clear days after it’s been raining for awhile. It seems everyone is either practicing in the pattern or returning from a cross-country. The traffic was so hectic that as I departed the patten to the north, the Tower gave a blanket command to all pilots on approach or in the pattern to perform full stop landings only.

Right Rudder Riddle

During my last flight in N4352G, I noticed that I had a tendency veer to the left of the runway centerline as I gained speed and began my takeoff roll. So my primary focus on Monday was to practice my rudder skills on takeoff. Though I held right rudder pretty well on my first rollout on Monday, I still veered a bit to the left. The winds were light so that wasn’t a contributing factor. I didn’t eventually realize the issue until I after I completed a couple of landings at SQL and began to head back to PAO.

On the way back to PAO, I took a moment to center the yoke and that’s when it all became clear – the yoke was calibrated off center. Ironically, I am all too familiar with this issue. During a visit home to Chicago this past summer, I flew a bit with my father in his plane (N8885M) out of his airport in Lansing, IL. He’d had the same issue with his plane a couple of weeks before I arrived and had the plane looked at by maintenance prior to my visit. Yet, when we flew the plane that afternoon, the issue was still noticeable. Given the moderate winds that late spring day and the off-centered yoke, I didn’t feel comfortable attempting any landings in N8885M. Yet, on Monday, I didn’t have a choice and I had already completed a couple of takeoffs and landings prior to my return to PAO.

Yet beautiful Bay Area sunset as seen on final approach.

I made my final landing just as the sun set over the Santa Cruz mountains without any major issues, and when I returned the aircraft book, I made a note of the issue for maintenance to review. As I walked away from the aircraft on Monday, I wondered if that would be my last flight of the year.

31 Year Old Little Kid

The next day, my girlfriend, Kaitlyn, and I took a quick 1 hour flight down the coast to San Diego to spend a three day vacation. I always enjoy flights down the California coast – it’s a beautiful way to spend an hour in the skies. It’s pretty funny to think that I can spend an hour in the pattern at PAO going nowhere, or spend an hour flying from San Jose to San Diego on a commerical airliner traveling at over 500 miles an hour.

Approach into SAN along the Southern California coast.

After spending the morning and half the flight in cloudy, dreary skies, we landed in sunny San Diego (SAN) and took a quick walk across the street to our hotel – Sheraton Hotel & Marina. When we booked the room we asked for a high-floor room with a bay view, and when we entered the room, we were amazed! We had a ninth floor room complete with a gorgeous view of the bay, downtown skyline, and airport runway. I spent many a moment during our trip simply sitting on the balcony with my iPhone listening to the SAN tower and watching the planes approach and land. I felt like such a little kid everytime I saw a plane land or takeoff.

The view from our hotel balcony...priceless for a pilot!

Prior to leaving San Diego we took an expedited tour on the deck of the USS Midway and received briefings by former pilots and navy shipment on carrier takeoffs and landings. The entire experience was thrilling and I hoped that by the time we returned to San Jose at the end of the week, that I’d be able to book a plane for one more flight before the end of the year.

Walking the deck of the USS Midway Naval Carrier.

Friday – Fiddling with the Flaps

Fortunately, the weather on Friday (Dec 31st) was decent – few clouds at 5,000 with a broken ceiling at 12,000 and practically no wind. I booked N209J again once I read the squawk sheet and realized that maintenance had “ok’ed” the plane to fly. The aircraft was okay to fly, yet the smell still had not left the interior. Though it was strong enough to perk the senses, it was the type of smell that one could adjust to after a few minutes. By the time I reached the runup area, I had forgotten all about it.

After completing my runup, I decided to continue my rudder work from Monday and also try a few landings that I hadn’t done in awhile. (I always figure if I’m going to stay in the pattern, I may as well make it interesting). Generally, I land using full flaps though a couple of times this past year I do recall landing a bit faster with 25 degrees of flaps rather than the full 40 degrees. Wind was always the deciding factor. Yet on Friday the winds were calm, so I thought it’d be a good time to practice landings at multiple flap settings – full, 25 degrees, and no flap.

Short Approach – Sure!

During my first takeoff run, I applied hard right rudder and the plane tracked straight down the runway – leading me to believe that the issue in N4352G must be influenced by the off-centered yoke as the ailerons became effective. While heading downwind on my first approach, PAO Tower asked me if I was able to complete a short approach due to landing traffic about five miles out. I thought about it for a second and radioed back, “Sure! N209J able to complete short approach runway 31 Palo Alto.” I don’t think I’ve ever done a short approach into PAO and the last one I may have done may have been during my flight exam back in 2008 at Lansing Municipal Airport in Illinois. Yet, the approach was smooth and stable. I completed this first approach using full flaps and then taxied back on the parallel to take off again. As I waited for my next takeoff, I witnessed a beautiful approach and landing by the Cessna Cardinal who was on the 5 mile final.

Taming the Touch and Go

My next couple of approaches would be quite the challenge. As I turned base on my second approach, I decided to do something else I’d never done at PAO – a touch and go landing. PAO Tower almost always clears me for “the option,” but given the short length of the runway (2,600 ft), I rarely feel comfortable performing a touch and go. I see pilots do it all the time, yet I still feel like, “if I don’t have to, but I’m not going to.” But today, I thought I should test my skills and at least overcome this mental block. On final, I approached this time with 25 degrees of flaps and landed within the first third of the runway. I quickly put the flaps down and applied full power. I was still applying back pressure, so I forced myself to release the pressure so that the aircraft didn’t become airborne before it was ready for stable flight. While all this occured, I failed to do one thing – adjust the trim.

The trim setting in the Piper Warrior is located to the right of the captain’s seat on the base of the floor. That said, I didn’t feel comfortable putting my head down to see where the setting was located, yet I knew I hadn’t adjusted it. So as the runway end became closer and closer, and my heartrate a bit faster and faster, I applied stronger than normal back pressure to get N209J airborne again. I also noticed that in all this commotion (which lasted probably a total of 5-7 seconds) I did veer slightly left of the centerline. I must have lessened my focus on my rudder skills during the touch and go. As I cleared the runway threshold and began my climb out, I thought to myself, “this is exactly why I don’t like to do touch and gos here.”

Three Times a Charm

Even though I’d struggled a bit on the touch and go, I was comfortable with my full flap and 25 degree flap approaches. Now it was time to work on my no flap landing, something I hadn’t done in over a year since my last biannual flight review. No flap landings in a Warrior require an approach in the 75-80 kts range, which is about 10-15 kts above the full flap approach speed. While on downwind and base, I attempted to adjust my power settings for that range. In all those adjustments and the increased speed on approach, I overshot the runway centerline on my turn to final and ended up having to setup and readjust my power settings. In the end, it didn’t matter since the aircraft in front of me landed long and caused me to perform a go-around.

The next time I came around I was in the pattern by myself and was able to establish a stable speed on approach. I could tell I was fast and knew that I’d need to float down the runway to lose energy. When I crossed the runway threshold, I was still traveling at 80 kts with the power pulled back. I settled into a nice flare but ended up flying down the middle of the runway inches off the ground. After a few seconds, I realized that I was nearing the middle of the runway and the aircraft wasn’t settling down, so I applied full power and went around for another try. It was a pretty cool feeling, though, to buzz the field in groundeffect halfway down the runway.

During my final downwind approach, I realized something basic that ended up making a big difference. On each of my previous approaches, I flew at a glideslope consistent with landings using flaps. Here I was attempting to maintain a stable descent at a constant speed, yet I was flying a fairly steep approach. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I completed my base turn and made a slight adjustment to my trim setting. That slight adjustment made a world of difference, as I was now able to fly a more shallow approach at 75kts without any issues. I can remember thinking on my last approach that everything seemed in balance and the approach felt much smoother. I was so overjoyed when my wheels touched the ground that I pumped my fist and exclaimed,”Yes!” as I taxied off the runway.

The sun sets on another fun year of flying (sunset as seen from the deck of the USS Midway).

I debated briefly about going up and trying it again, but saw the Hobbs meter ticking past 0.5 hours and decided to end on a good note. In all, the flight lasted 36 minutes but one would be hard pressed to guess that all that occured in such a short period of time. Needless to say, I did make it interesting and it’s always great to end a flight and a year on a good note. Until the next adventure…”keep the dirty side down.”