Lesson 42 - It's About Bloomin' Time (and Coyote on the Runway)

 

I was ready for a shot at redemption. My frustrations with my previous lesson (two weeks prior due to yet another maintenance cancelation last week) were still festering in the back of my head and I was ready to shake those demons. I knew I was better than that last flight, and dammit, I needed to prove it today. 

I was with my primary instructor today, so when I got to the field, we talked about the last lesson and the frustrations I encountered. We talked about things I knew I was doing wrong, and about things I thought I was doing correctly, but perhaps not quick enough for my other instructor and the tensions that created. He offered his perspective on things (which helped), then we moved onto today's lesson. That was then, after all. Pilots, like professional athletes, need to develop a sense of on-demand short-term memory loss so we can put our last screw-up behind us and move on. We decided that we'd spend the day in the pattern again working on landings either here at Centennial if we could get it or fly out to Spaceport if not. We went out to the plane, noticed that it seemed everyone and their brother was already out prepping their planes and heading out, got ours ready and headed out ourselves. 

I called ground traffic control, who is usually very good about telling us if pattern work is going to be a possibility or not. If it's not, we're right there at the end of runway 10, and can easily jump on that and fly east to Spaceport. Today ground control did not seem to indicate there would be any issue with doing pattern work at Centennial, so I accepted runway 35R and headed down the taxiway--along with what seemed like every other plane on the field. I think I was something like 6th or 7th in line, and in the 30 minutes it took to get to the runway to take off, another 8 to 10 planes had come in line behind me. With that much traffic, pattern work at Centennial was not going to happen. 

We flew out to Spaceport, and with the exception of me picking the wrong line of trees to make my turn to the north, the flight up went very smoothly. Spaceport had room for us in the pattern, and told us to enter downwind for runway 17. I noticed on the weather report that the winds were out of the north at 6 knots or so. This meant a tailwind landing, but--hey--that's the runway they're using, so today's lesson would include tailwind landings, I guess. I flew the pattern well, maintained my speed fairly well, and sat us down without much difficulty at all. First landing, all me. My shot at redemption seemed to be taking shape. 

Second approach, ATC had us following another plane in the pattern. I don't know what happened, but I turned from my downwind leg in the wrong spot, I don't think I lost a foot of elevation on the base leg, and with the tailwind, I was still 300' above the ground near the threshold of the runway. Go around. My instructor teaches the "Three C's" in a Go-around. "Cram" (full throttle) "Climb" (reduce flaps, gain speed and altitude), and "Clean" (once gaining altitude and airspeed, take flaps all the way out). I pushed the throttle full, gave a little right rudder to counter the left-turning tendencies when you do that, and began to climb. I only had 20 degrees of flaps in when I called the go-around, so I didn't reduce flaps right away. I began to climb, and really felt like I had to pull back on the yoke to gain altitude. Speed was fine (75 knots, normal climb-out speed) but boy was I fighting the elevator. Oh, wait... "Clean." Crap. Okay, reduce flaps. That's better! Brief discussion ensued about what got us into that predicament while turning back to the downwind leg. That's the nice thing about the downwind leg. It gives you a chance to quickly regroup and chat about what just happened. 

Air traffic control decided to change the runway direction, since--after all--we had been dealing with a tailwind. When Centennial changes runway directions, the just have traffic hold to clear things out, then have everyone land the opposite direction. Spaceport? Nah. They decided to have everyone in the pattern fly east, line up for landing on runway 26 (crosswind), then once back up in the air fly south and line up for runway 35. Curious way of doing business, but I got a crosswind landing in. Not the cleanest, but nothing bent. 

We flew south to line up for 35. Base, final, touch down. Fairly smooth! By this point I'm feeling a whole lot more confident. Back up, and head south. ATC has us extend our downwind for additional traffic. They extended us nearly 5 miles south to the edge of the airspace. When we turned back north, I hear ATC clear another plane into land, apparently ahead of us. I'm not sure what was going on, but my instructor and I are watching this other plane cut in front of us to land. I slow down a bit by raising my nose, and I add a bit of power so not to loose too much altitude. We're still watching this plane in front of us that's just crossing the threshold. I'm still flying the approach to land, but my hand is on the throttle ready to slam it forward just in case. Just as my instructor and I were ready to declare a go-around ourselves because the plane was still on the runway ahead of us, ATC told us to go around. This time, I got all three Cs, and the go-around was smooth. Back around, extended 5 miles south again (why, this time, I don't know), and back for one last landing at Spaceport. My flare was a bit high on this one, but I corrected and sat us down just a bit further down the runway than anticipated. We departed to the south.

Coyote on the Runway

Approaching Centennial, I get the weather info. Winds 330 at 10 knots. They were landing on runway 35, so 10 knots pretty much straight down the pipe. I'm good with that. I'm still a ways out from the field, but I take a southwest heading that would put me on final for 35L or 35R, depending on which one ATC gave me. While en route, A plane waiting to depart 35R reports a coyote on the runway. This is not that unusual at Centennial, in fact one had met an untimely end just the previous day. As he's taxiing towards said coyote, he reports that the coyote is taking a dump on the runway. I mean, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go, I guess. Now, of course, we have "Foreign Object Debris" (FOD) on the runway, which even though it's likely soft and squishy, is not something ATC wants being kicked up into oncoming traffic. So ATC begins to divert traffic away from 35R while they figure out how much of a risk this steaming pile of fresh coyote droppings presents (to say nothing of the coyote).

I contact ATC to ask to land, and they offer me runway 28 since 35R is currently in, I have to say it, "shitty" condition. With the winds coming from 330, that would mean a crosswind landing. I asked for an updated wind check, they said 330 at 6 knots. I had dealt with a 6-knot crosswind at Spaceport, so I figured I could handle it here. It was either that or wait until they figured out what to do with the coyote droppings. I accepted 28, they cleared me to land, and I made my turn towards the airport. As luck would have it, I was set up about 5 miles out, pretty much straight in. A little right aileron into the wind, a little left rudder (okay a lot more left rudder than I thought I'd need) to keep the nose in line with the runway, flaps, airspeed, and touchdown. And for the first time in 42 lessons, my instructor applauded! He told me of the 5 landings I did, three were all me, and the other two required only very minor inputs on his part. I said after 60+ hours of flying, it's about friggin' time I finally got it together. 

And the coyote droppings were apparently safely blown off the runway by a taxiing plane.

Another day of landings like this, and it'll be time to start looking at stage check and solo. While my landings felt very consistent today, I'm still not 100% happy with my altitude control on my base leg. That second landing when I was 300' too high, I need to be better than that. I was off my game. I know why I was off my game, though. And my crosswind control felt natural. I wasn't fighting anything, I was just doing what I needed to do to keep the plane on centerline. (And I think I was closer to centerline than I have been in the past, but honestly don't remember.) But overall, easily my best day of landing practice yet. I was never rattled and I think that helped. 

Here, also, is the LiveATC recording of the troublesome coyote. (Edited for time)

And I've decided that Wile E. Coyote is now my unofficial mascot. I found a Lego Wile E. Coyote at Comic Con over the weekend. He will become a keychain and be attached to my flight bag.