From highflyer@alt.net Tue Apr 30 13:25:06 2002 Path: cygnus.com!enews.sgi.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!paloalto-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!news.alt.net!usenet From: highflyer Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military,rec.aviation.student Subject: Re: jet jock can't handle Cessna 152; crashes Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 08:03:23 -0500 Organization: Highflight Aviation Services Lines: 69 Message-ID: <3CCE961B.FFBC707A@alt.net> References: <3CC8430F.55A31B5B@earthlin.net> <3CC9A8B3.7D442A47@mailbag.com> <3CCD6711.BD58BF65@alt.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (X11; U; SunOS 5.7 sun4m) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: cygnus.com rec.aviation.military:501445 rec.aviation.student:211060 Dylan Smith wrote: > > On Mon, 29 Apr 2002 10:30:25 -0500, highflyer wrote: > >I used to fly out of Sedalia, Colorado. It was, as I recall, about a > >2700 foot strip. They wouldn't use Cessna 150's in the summer. My 65hp > >Taylorcraft never used much of the runway though. I admit, on a hot > >summer day, with 10,000 foot DA's the rate of climb was not real > >impressive! :-) > > You know, you really discover the utility of glider experience when flying > a plane with a small engine (and cruise prop) in the mountains. A bit of > slope soaring makes my C140 climb quite nicely :-) > Indeed you do. You small airplane is just a glider with a bit of "tin thermal." I was flying up in the mountains with my first wife in the Taylorcraft once. There was an upslope wind that day and we were up playing around way higher than the T-Cart should have been able to go! :-) We were around on the back side of Mt. Estes, about 300 feet AGL when the carb iced up and the engine quit. It was a tandem T'Craft and Bobbi was in the back seat. It got suddenly quieter, and Bobbi leaned forward and asked "Did the engine just quit?" I said "Yes." I had just overhauled it, and it had a wood prop and with the tight engine and low prop inertia the prop STOPPED. No electrical system, so no starter. I didn't see any convenient way to get out and prop it at the time. :-) She said "What are you going to do now?" I answered "Land, I guess." She looked around and said "WHERE?" I said "I dunno. I haven't decided yet." After all, there was nothing down there except mountainsides and cliffs! I came around the shoulder of the mountain and caught some good ridge lift in the upslope wind. I rode that wind back and forth a while and worked my way up to almost fifteen thousand feet. I thought I would move away from the slope and dive a bit to get the prop turning and get a restart. I dove as long as I dared at right AT Vne! The darn prop didn't BUDGE! I went back to the slope and worked my way back up to about the altitude I had before I tried the restart. I could see my airport, about seven or eight miles away. I had about eight thousand feet over the airport at the time. I thought, why not? Go for it. I cut away from the slope and made a beeline for the airport. I got to my key position opposite the numbers on downwind with just about exactly eight hundred feet AGL. Shucks, this is easy. Just a regular power off landing. I flew the rest of downwind, a base, and final. Touched down right on the numbers and coasted off the active at the first turnoff. When I stopped, I climbed out, flipped the darn prop, and the engine immediately restarted. The ice had all melted while I was fooling around. I taxied back to our parking place and parked the airplane. We touched down at our home airport just forty five minutes after the engine quit! Bobbi never got nervous about "engine failures" again! :-) -- Highflyer Highflight Aviation Services