Stalling a Cessna 172

Posted on 21 May, 2014 by Stan | 6 Comments

We were flying with my friend around the island, he is a commercial pilot and instructor as well; and it seems that the flight was a bit “boring” for him without making any manouvers, stall recoveries, etc.

So he just asked me during the flight: “Can you make at least some stall or something to make it a bit more entertaining”?

My response was pulling back the throttle maintaining the altitude with the yoke and centering the plane with the pedals until the Cessna stalled, followed by the recovery. It is pretty amazing, how difficult it is to stall a Cessna, it stays simply hanging in the air… If I compare it to the P28A which I use to fly more often, the Piper would be a piece of a brick falling from the sky 😀😀😀 comparing to the Cessna. Somehowe after this couple of flights I am starting to like the Cessna as well.

I have recorded the stall recovery with the Gopro mounted in the cockpit; unfortunately forgot to delete the files from the Gopro hanging outside on the wing, so I was only able to take 2-3 pictures (grrr) with it. It was hanging outside for nothing (creating more drag). I will have to create my personal “gopro checklist” haha before going out for flying to avoid bad surprises like this one. However, I like those 2 pictures i’ve taken… Quality before quantity (a good excuse), haha.

Somewhere over La Victoria, North Tenerife

It seemed that stalling Cessna was not enough so we have said: “engine failure”! Why not? First set the best gliding speed (around 70 kts) and searched for a field to land. Pretty difficult on a hilly volcanic island like Tenerife…

Searching for a field to land

The first and probably best option to avoid ditching in the sea was a golf course. We were gliding from 4’500 feet for a while and were trying to calculate the approach taking in consideration the weather conditions, etc. (we had a tailwind, so after the final turn we could be short of the field and…. do not think about the worse…).

When on the final of the golf field (almost with the golf players in sight), we have performed a go around and continued with the island tour. It was a very good excersise; sometimes it is necessary to go back to the basics and train the emergency procedures.

The funny thing is that a couple of days later a friend of mine who was playing on the course that day asked me: “Were you flying on saturday?” I answered, yes, it was me 😀😀😀. “I was thinking to hit you with the ball”, he said… I thought probably he recognized my flying technique ;-).

Enjoy the 20 sec short video…

Safe landings!

200 Euro Paella

Posted on 16 March, 2014 by Stan | 2 Comments

The most of us are flying to enjoy the 100$ hamburgers. In Spain we could speak about something similar, as for example “100$ paella”.

My last flight went to La Palma, together with my friend Daldo and his wife Virginia as passenger.

Today’s crew

I was flying the inbound leg and we were cruising at 8,500-9,000 feet. Pretty nice views over the Atlantic Ocean, the sea was very calm, but we were having some headwinds of 20 kts which made this flight a bit longer and of course a bit more expensive ;-), that is why I speak about 200€ paella ;-).

Some different views of Tenerife

Actually I enjoy flying high(er), as there is normaly less turbulence and you can enjoy better views. Also, in the case of an engine failure, the range of possibities of gliding or trying to restart it, are better, as you gain time. And also, you feel like you are flying a real arliner ;-). So there are only a advantages of flying at higher altitudes.

Cruising at 8,600 feet (Sorry for the bad quality)

The icing was forecasted for this day at 9,000 feetm the OAT was around 2 degrees, but no ice was forming on the wings. We were cheching it constantly, for just in case, however we were not flying in the clouds and the day was pretty sunny as well.

Passing La Gomera island

Cruising over the Atlantic ocean at 9,500″

Reaching La Palma island we have maintained 9,000 feet and made some cloudsurfing. The weather forecast for today was some rain and also a front was comming from NW. We have decided to do this flight anyway, as the visibility was ok, no clouds were in sight, and in the case the weather would starting to change, we would return back to our base airport.

Flying over the clouds, reaching La Palma island

Cloudsurfing over La Palma and the rainbow

After this short cloudsurfing, we have started our descent to the visual point Sierra, in the south of the island. Being so high took as a while to descent and make some nice manouvers between the clouds.

Descending through the clouds

Finaly after 1,30 hour long flight we have landed at the La Palma’s “El Mazo Airport”. This airport is considered one of the world’s most complicated approaches, however with its 2,2 km long runway it is nothing special for our Piper ;-).

Seconds before landing at La Palma

Our Piper was parked as it should on a nice place, where even an Airbus 330/340 could be parked. A realy big honor for this plane ;-).

Just a quick selfie to prove that it was parked there and I was there as well ;-)

Just a quick selfie to prove that the Piper was parked on the A330 stand and that I was there as well 😉

We knew, that we had not much time, as the storm was comming sooner or later, so we have decided to go quickly to the restaurant Casa Goyo, situated under the extended centerline of the runway, just between the extended centerline´s lights. They have a lot of specialities, good quality-price relationship and also very good seafood. This restaurant is situated in a walking distance from the airport, some 10 minutes.

Restaurante Casa Goyo La Palma

It consists of small wooden houses, where you can sit, or small rooms, where you can enjoy some privacy as well. We had some paella, which was already ready and we didn’t had to wait, as we had to be pretty quick. So to come over to La Palma to eat this small plate of paella costs around 200€ ;-); not to shabby 😉

Inside the restuarant (bad qualiry foto, grrr)

This one is better 😉 Waiting for the paella.

After the lunch we took a taxi (6€) and we hurried up back to the airport to pay the taxes (18€), made our new flight plane and departed direction Tenerife. There were pretty much clouds than earlier this day, so Daldo had to climb up to 10,000 feet and fly around the clouds to avoid them. The views were even more spectacular.

Cruising at 9,700″ Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

Flying between the clouds

Flying over clouds at 9,700″

The north coast of Tenerife can be seen through the clouds

Anaga

On final RWY 30 at Tenerife North Airport

Only a couple of minutes later after our landing, when the plane was parked outside the hangar, it started to rain and the visibility dropped down significantly. This was a perfect planning, in the other case we would have had diverted to the alternative Tenerife south airport.

The Piper is parked outside the hangar and the rain is comming

A short video of the descent, cloudsurfing, approach and landing at the La Palma Airport. The Gopro has been mounted on tail of the plane.

We have returned a washed and clean airplane 😉

Safe landings!

Glider flight

Posted on 30 July, 2013 by Stan | 2 Comments

The advantage of a glider is that you can’t experience an engine failure. So it seems, you avoid any bad surprises, and there is no safer way to fly than on a glider.

Flying a single engine airplane gives you the freedom, but there is always a risk of engine failure. In this case your plane turns into a glider with not the best performance, as it is heavier and it has not the same glide ratio as a glider.

Glider “Blaník”, reg. OM-2709

In my opinion, having some experience on a glider makes you a safer pilot, in the case you experience some problems with your engine, you are used to handle this situation with less stress (the engine failure is a part of a PPL training as well).

I took a couple of lessons on a glider and I really enjoyed them. This particular flight was made on Blanik, registration OM-2709, and the first difference you note is the silence. There is no engine, so you hear only the air soaring. Second advantage: the views… You feel like a F-16 pilot enjoying the views through the big canopy. 🙂

The views through the canopy are realy great!

There are some small differences between flying an plane and a glider, if you turn, you have to add some rudder. If you are sitted in the front, and you stall it, it feels different, as the nose is much shorter that in the plane. You also can’t apply the usual throttle, but the recovery is pretty fast.

If the thermal is sufficient, you can stay airborne for hours (in my case there was no thermal, so we went down pretty fast…), so don’t pay the fuel and the flight is cheaper!

Flying a glider, you can enjoy the views like this:

Getting towed into the skies, other Blaník in front of us (above the towing aircraft)

Letisko Očová – Očová Airfield

The units of measures are meters instead of feet and km/h instead of knots, but as the numbers serve as a reference, this is not a big problem.

Cockpit of Blaník

Here you have a short video as well of soaring in the skies.

Fly with Stan – Sharing (not only my) flying experiences…

Sharing (not only) my flying advetures

Tag Archives: Gopro hero3

Stalling a Cessna 172

200 Euro Paella

Glider flight