Skip to main content

The heat is on

As I noted in my previous post, I went flying this past Saturday. What I neglected to include is that it was the hottest temperature that I've ever flown in. It was already 90 degrees Fahrenheit when I got to the airport. That's 32 Celsius for my metric-inclined readers.

I actually opened the POH and checked the performance numbers before I started my preflight inspection. I was already pretty confident that Ariel could do it with no problems, but I wanted to make extra sure. The book said it was okay, though the takeoff roll would be a hundred or so feet longer than in past flights, but Harvey Field has a long enough runway. In addition, I knew that I'd be about 350 lbs. below maximum weight, and the chart assumes you're at the max.

When I did take off, the plane performed just fine, and I had no problems clearing obstacles and making the noise-abatement turn that is requested when taking off from runway 33. In fact, the plane seemed to perform more or less normally, and I didn't notice much performance degradation. I'm sure it was there, and I always kept it in mind, but I didn't have any issues.

As I flew around, I was tuning in to various airports' automated weather systems to get altimeter settings. With it being as hot as it was, they were including the density altitude in the report. For the most part, it was about 2200' above field elevation. Not too bad, but it still makes a difference.

When I came in for landing, I knew that everything was going to be just a bit faster. When flying in the pattern, you want to be flying at specific airspeeds at different points in the pattern. That airspeed, however, is the indicated airspeed. It's determined essentially by the pressure of the air in the pitot tube. However, since the air is less dense when it's hot, that pressure is less for a given true airspeed. This means that the true airspeed will be higher when it's hot than when it's not.

Keeping that in mind, I did what I think was a better than normal (for me) job at managing my airspeed. This led to a rather nice landing, if I do say so myself. I've been working on making my landings more consistent, and "prettier", for lack of a better word. I think I've figured a couple of refinements to my technique, mainly around throttle control, that I think will improve them. If last Saturday was any indication, I'm on the right track.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Approaching the annual

I know I haven't been posting much, but that's mainly because nothing much of note has been happening. I've been flying, but not really going anywhere in particular. The engine continues to run very well, and the plane is still solid. I was hoping to do more "destination" flying this year but, for whatever reason(s), it didn't really happen. Next year, hopefully.... On the horizon, though, is the annual inspection. It's already scheduled for mid-December, since the last annual is good to the end of that month. I've also arranged for it to be an owner-assisted annual. I'm told that every airplane owner should do this at least once and I can certainly understand why that is the case, even before I do it. I will be learning about my airplane in a way that nothing else will match and, incidentally, save some money at the same time. I'm looking forward to it. Leading up to the annual, I have been compiling a list of squawks that I want to take care ...
Post a Comment
Read more

First Oil Change

It's been a while since my last post here. I've been flying, but the flights have been intended simply to put time on the plane and most have been pretty uneventful. However, the last two flight have been particularly nice because my wife came with me. I had enough hours on the engine that I felt I could trust it enough to take a passenger. I've now put over 25 hours on the engine since the overhaul and it's time for its first oil change. That was just completed, and the Aeroshell mineral oil used for break-in has been replaced with Phillips XC ashless-dispersant oil. The plan is to run it another 25 hours, at which point we'll change the oil again. At that time, we'll send a sample to Blackstone for analysis, and I will also resume adding Camguard. I also had the shop take care of a few other squawks while they had it in. The biggest of these is its tendency to pull to the left in the air and on the ground. I suspected that it was due to the nosewheel centering...
Post a Comment
Read more

Precipitation

The weather was rather nice yesterday and I was able to get up in the air in the afternoon. The flight was pretty uneventful, essentially another jaunt up to the north and back. There were two things that were a bit different from the norm. First, on the way back to Harvey Field, I ran at full power. I've done full power runs before; it's a part of the break-in process for an overhauled engine. And I did another good long one yesterday. I was doing a bit better than 110 knots on the airspeed indicator, and that's with the built-in calibrator for true airspeed set for the temperature and altitude so it should be pretty close to what I was actually doing. Yep, still not a fast plane, but I still think the roomy cabin and large fuel capacity make up for that. Second, as I was flying back to Harvey, I decided not to straight back but rather to take a quick detour off to the east to prolong my full-power run. I turned east, then headed back north for a bit. I saw a couple of clo...
Post a Comment
Read more