Marc Olson
GONE WEST
Seattle, WA
Two weeks ago I did a two day 'Advanced Bush Flying' course at Andover Flight Academy. Damien Delgaizo was my host and instructor. Their web site is http://www.andoverflight.com. They are also a sponsor on this site.
The flying was amazing. The more time that passes the more I think the learning will set me down a new path for a while with my flying.
Getting there was a hassle as the roads through Newark were under construction and largely devoid of street signs. That combined with my GPS ?losing? the maps I?d loaded meant that I had to rely on a route I emailed to myself along with some vague help from the GPS. The airport is way out in the country; I chose to stay at a local motel. Colorful. The first non-smoking room that they put me in featured an ashtray. The second was better, with only a faint smell of mold and funk that you get from a 40 year old drive up motel.
The airport (Aeroflex-Andover) we flew from is perched between two lakes, with both ends approaching over water. The flight school is the only business on the airport, built in the 50?s by a local land baron. It even featured a small tower, more for effect than actual ?control?. Apparently it was designed to look like an aircraft carrier.
Damien showed up right on time (he?s the owner of the school) and we spent an hour reviewing concepts and talking about my experience before firing up the plane. The plane we flew is a 160 HP PA-18 with 29" Goodyears, VGs , no other mods (though it was recently rebuilt/recovered, so it looks new). The panel layout was different than mine, more like the J-3 I'd flown with mixture on the left, mag controls in the side panel along with trim and cabin heat. No key, just two mag switches and a ?start? button on the panel. I guess this is the standard -18 layout as well. We didn?t use radios or transponder (or strobes). There?s not much traffic in this area on a weekday, though apparently on weekends it?s a zoo.
After takeoff I was hammered immediately for sloppy use of the rudder. It was a bit puzzling, as I?m normally very conscientious about keeping coordinated. Could also be just the differences between the planes; I?ll know more once I can fly again in my -12. We spent a bunch of time on basic flight maneuvers refining my rudder control to his satisfaction, did stalls, slow flight, etc.
Then it was off to a local grass strip with a 100 ft wall of trees at the approach end. The first few landings were really rough?this -18 required a much faster approach speed (I?ve been using 45 mph, we were flying at 60), and that combined with a different view over the nose (more nose down) made me feel like I was falling downhill towards the runway *way* too fast. But, it turned out that with a bigger prop the plane just dropped like a rock once slow, so there was a quick transition from flying to landing, much more pronounced than in my plane (with all the mods on mine, not surprising).
He taught me a cool short field takeoff technique, one I?d never seen. You park on the left side of the strip, at right angles to the runway. One notch of flaps, full right stick, full back, brakes on. Power up, ease the brakes, relax the backpressure on the stick (but keep it full right). The right stick causes the left aileron to match the flaps, creating a long, extended ?high lift? wing. The L allows you to be rolling before you?re aligned with the runway, which gets your speed up quicker. Hold that position down the runway until the left wing starts to lift, then pull full flaps and back stick at the same time. POP?you?re airborne.
We did a number of ?stall down? landings where we powered off at tree height, cut power, leveled off and then pitched up slightly and waited for the plane to start to drop like a rock. Then we practiced the same, but added a slip at the trees to bring it down even quicker. It all happened so fast it was difficult to tease apart the various elements of the landing, but those got easier.
After that we practiced seaplane landings, where we slowed our approach over the trees, cut power and leveled off, and then pitched up about 5 degrees and waited for the bottom to drop out. Just before we started a rapid descent, power back in, just enough to slow the descent to about 100 fpm. And then we waited?and waited?the goal being to just fly it on under power, then cut power and brake. I sucked at this, adding too much power or getting anxious about running out of runway. Eventually it got better, but I still wasn?t comfortable.
After lunch and a break we went back out and started working on landings without obstacles. The approach was similar to the above, except we created an ?obstacle? to clear, essentially, by picking a spot on the lake about 300 feet from the threshold of the runway. The goal was to fly to that spot, be 10 feet above the runway (not the water, which was 2-4 feet lower), cut power and level off and let the plane settle into ground effect. A slight pitch up of the nose to further bleed off speed in ground effect, and then slight power to carry the plane just to the threshold for a wheel landing (with power on). I sucked at these, too, pumping the stick instead of just being patient, giving too much power to avoid (IMO) getting wet in the lake. Still managed to get a few good landings before I ran out of gas and started doing stupid things. Damien wisely terminated our lesson at that point. 4 hours of solid flying for the day.
The next morning we continued the lesson from the evening before, and after a night?s sleep and being better acquainted with the plane things went much better. Consistent wheel landings, stopped in under 300 feet (and that without using any aggressive braking). We took a short break from that and flew over to a nearby short strip that he setup by having me fly down in a riverbed, below treeline, following the bends in the river. Then we powered up suddenly, went over the trees and on the other side was a strip RIGHT THERE. He pulled power and said ?land it.? Not much time to think, but he?d done his job well and I got it down and landed easily.
Then, back to the home strip to do the same basic approach, but instead of wheel landings we did three point. Contrary to prior experience, I found the 3-point landings to be much easier and was able to land even shorter. Did a bunch of these, then broke for lunch.
After lunch and a discussion about landing on steep strips and mountain flying, we headed out for the last session before I left for DC. First we flew to a strip located on a hill in the middle of farmland, a strip owned by a crop duster. The steepness of the slope wasn?t apparent when we flew by on downwind, but as we got closer it was apparent that there was a significant rise to the slope, making my home strip on Stuart Island look flat. We flew a stable approach to the threshold, then matched the slope of the slope, added power, and waited, just like in a seaplane landing, for the wheels to touch. Pretty cool.
Then we went out to the Delaware Water Gap and practiced canyon turns (low power, full flap). Beautiful scenery, though the rock climbers that we buzzed at 100 feet above while we flew 10 feet from the canyon wall might have been a bit surprised.
Back to the barn and then off to Newark.
Some pictures of the area (taken not by me, but by a photographer mentioned frequently on this site, Jezzica):
http://jezzica.com/pilotgetaways/andover/index.htm
After returning to Seattle I've only had one chance to fly due to weather. Flying in my -12 again after the -18 was interesting. The biggest area of improvement for me was in using a slip to get down fast. I'd been holding my nose too high in a hard slip, which consistently resulted in a float. Damien worked me through 'lower the nose' in the slip, which turned my plane to an express elevator down. I was only comfortable with the increased sensation of crashing having done it a bunch with him and realizing that I had been uncomfortable going 'fast' towards the ground.
I went over to a strip on Whidbey Island (Langley), and with a south wind finally got the hang of clearing those super tall trees to the North and still get down in half the strip. The key was to stabilize level over the trees, and then cut power and aggressively forward slip to a point well ahead of the threshold. Because there's a hill that slopes up towards the trees away from the approach end, you can't fully utilize the displaced threshold/ground effect technique. Still, it was dramatically better than before.
If you're in the area (and even if you're not), I'd highly recommend a visit to Andover Flight Academy and some instruction with Damien. With winter approaching, it's important to note that they also offer ski training (conditions permitting).
Next instructional trip will likely be to Alaska!
Marc
The flying was amazing. The more time that passes the more I think the learning will set me down a new path for a while with my flying.
Getting there was a hassle as the roads through Newark were under construction and largely devoid of street signs. That combined with my GPS ?losing? the maps I?d loaded meant that I had to rely on a route I emailed to myself along with some vague help from the GPS. The airport is way out in the country; I chose to stay at a local motel. Colorful. The first non-smoking room that they put me in featured an ashtray. The second was better, with only a faint smell of mold and funk that you get from a 40 year old drive up motel.
The airport (Aeroflex-Andover) we flew from is perched between two lakes, with both ends approaching over water. The flight school is the only business on the airport, built in the 50?s by a local land baron. It even featured a small tower, more for effect than actual ?control?. Apparently it was designed to look like an aircraft carrier.
Damien showed up right on time (he?s the owner of the school) and we spent an hour reviewing concepts and talking about my experience before firing up the plane. The plane we flew is a 160 HP PA-18 with 29" Goodyears, VGs , no other mods (though it was recently rebuilt/recovered, so it looks new). The panel layout was different than mine, more like the J-3 I'd flown with mixture on the left, mag controls in the side panel along with trim and cabin heat. No key, just two mag switches and a ?start? button on the panel. I guess this is the standard -18 layout as well. We didn?t use radios or transponder (or strobes). There?s not much traffic in this area on a weekday, though apparently on weekends it?s a zoo.
After takeoff I was hammered immediately for sloppy use of the rudder. It was a bit puzzling, as I?m normally very conscientious about keeping coordinated. Could also be just the differences between the planes; I?ll know more once I can fly again in my -12. We spent a bunch of time on basic flight maneuvers refining my rudder control to his satisfaction, did stalls, slow flight, etc.
Then it was off to a local grass strip with a 100 ft wall of trees at the approach end. The first few landings were really rough?this -18 required a much faster approach speed (I?ve been using 45 mph, we were flying at 60), and that combined with a different view over the nose (more nose down) made me feel like I was falling downhill towards the runway *way* too fast. But, it turned out that with a bigger prop the plane just dropped like a rock once slow, so there was a quick transition from flying to landing, much more pronounced than in my plane (with all the mods on mine, not surprising).
He taught me a cool short field takeoff technique, one I?d never seen. You park on the left side of the strip, at right angles to the runway. One notch of flaps, full right stick, full back, brakes on. Power up, ease the brakes, relax the backpressure on the stick (but keep it full right). The right stick causes the left aileron to match the flaps, creating a long, extended ?high lift? wing. The L allows you to be rolling before you?re aligned with the runway, which gets your speed up quicker. Hold that position down the runway until the left wing starts to lift, then pull full flaps and back stick at the same time. POP?you?re airborne.
We did a number of ?stall down? landings where we powered off at tree height, cut power, leveled off and then pitched up slightly and waited for the plane to start to drop like a rock. Then we practiced the same, but added a slip at the trees to bring it down even quicker. It all happened so fast it was difficult to tease apart the various elements of the landing, but those got easier.
After that we practiced seaplane landings, where we slowed our approach over the trees, cut power and leveled off, and then pitched up about 5 degrees and waited for the bottom to drop out. Just before we started a rapid descent, power back in, just enough to slow the descent to about 100 fpm. And then we waited?and waited?the goal being to just fly it on under power, then cut power and brake. I sucked at this, adding too much power or getting anxious about running out of runway. Eventually it got better, but I still wasn?t comfortable.
After lunch and a break we went back out and started working on landings without obstacles. The approach was similar to the above, except we created an ?obstacle? to clear, essentially, by picking a spot on the lake about 300 feet from the threshold of the runway. The goal was to fly to that spot, be 10 feet above the runway (not the water, which was 2-4 feet lower), cut power and level off and let the plane settle into ground effect. A slight pitch up of the nose to further bleed off speed in ground effect, and then slight power to carry the plane just to the threshold for a wheel landing (with power on). I sucked at these, too, pumping the stick instead of just being patient, giving too much power to avoid (IMO) getting wet in the lake. Still managed to get a few good landings before I ran out of gas and started doing stupid things. Damien wisely terminated our lesson at that point. 4 hours of solid flying for the day.
The next morning we continued the lesson from the evening before, and after a night?s sleep and being better acquainted with the plane things went much better. Consistent wheel landings, stopped in under 300 feet (and that without using any aggressive braking). We took a short break from that and flew over to a nearby short strip that he setup by having me fly down in a riverbed, below treeline, following the bends in the river. Then we powered up suddenly, went over the trees and on the other side was a strip RIGHT THERE. He pulled power and said ?land it.? Not much time to think, but he?d done his job well and I got it down and landed easily.
Then, back to the home strip to do the same basic approach, but instead of wheel landings we did three point. Contrary to prior experience, I found the 3-point landings to be much easier and was able to land even shorter. Did a bunch of these, then broke for lunch.
After lunch and a discussion about landing on steep strips and mountain flying, we headed out for the last session before I left for DC. First we flew to a strip located on a hill in the middle of farmland, a strip owned by a crop duster. The steepness of the slope wasn?t apparent when we flew by on downwind, but as we got closer it was apparent that there was a significant rise to the slope, making my home strip on Stuart Island look flat. We flew a stable approach to the threshold, then matched the slope of the slope, added power, and waited, just like in a seaplane landing, for the wheels to touch. Pretty cool.
Then we went out to the Delaware Water Gap and practiced canyon turns (low power, full flap). Beautiful scenery, though the rock climbers that we buzzed at 100 feet above while we flew 10 feet from the canyon wall might have been a bit surprised.
Back to the barn and then off to Newark.
Some pictures of the area (taken not by me, but by a photographer mentioned frequently on this site, Jezzica):
http://jezzica.com/pilotgetaways/andover/index.htm
After returning to Seattle I've only had one chance to fly due to weather. Flying in my -12 again after the -18 was interesting. The biggest area of improvement for me was in using a slip to get down fast. I'd been holding my nose too high in a hard slip, which consistently resulted in a float. Damien worked me through 'lower the nose' in the slip, which turned my plane to an express elevator down. I was only comfortable with the increased sensation of crashing having done it a bunch with him and realizing that I had been uncomfortable going 'fast' towards the ground.
I went over to a strip on Whidbey Island (Langley), and with a south wind finally got the hang of clearing those super tall trees to the North and still get down in half the strip. The key was to stabilize level over the trees, and then cut power and aggressively forward slip to a point well ahead of the threshold. Because there's a hill that slopes up towards the trees away from the approach end, you can't fully utilize the displaced threshold/ground effect technique. Still, it was dramatically better than before.
If you're in the area (and even if you're not), I'd highly recommend a visit to Andover Flight Academy and some instruction with Damien. With winter approaching, it's important to note that they also offer ski training (conditions permitting).
Next instructional trip will likely be to Alaska!
Marc