Let's say its a nice calm day at the airport, and you're out doing touch n goes. For the sake of argument, let's do them in the 150 -- cheap flying if there was ever such a thing. :)
Let's say you "touch" your landing, add power for the go around, and the plane won't climb out of ground effect? You're at midfield and 60mph or so.
Do you:
1. Stop, land, sort it out?
2. Attempt to accelerate in ground effect and hope it climbs out?
3. Pull back on the yoke and MAKE it fly.
Some of you may already see where I am going with this. :)
Two very lucky pilots, one a commercially-rated one, learned that #3 is no choice at all, but rather a recipe for disaster. (pro tip: #2 is lame also) Particularly if the flaps were not retracted on-the-go. Yikes.
Both are fine and recovering from what was certainly a wild ride and tour of the midfield hangars. Suffice it to say, Cessna 630 will not be rejoining us for the summer flying season, and we have two smarter pilots in the airman ranks. It's all about energy management, and planes do not fly on willpower. :)
Let's extract some lessons from our friends:
1. If the plane is not making the power or performance you expect, STOP, or if you are airborne, LAND and sort it out. You have a bonafide emergency that needs sorting.
2. Touch n Goes are critical maneuvers. Failing to do the required steps (power in, carb heat off, flaps up, airspeed, Vy, climbout) can result in consequences, and you have limited time to execute in. A stop with a taxi-back does indeed cost you about 15% more time on the meter. Loggable time. Long runways await you at CNO and RAL if you're doing anything unusual.
3. Aircraft are very good at absorbing crash forces. Use the seat belts and shoulder harnesses -- you never know when you might need them.
4. Fly the airplane, never let it fly you.
We are supremely happy that the two pilots are relatively unharmed after their adventure. Please don't think I'm making light of an incident here -- I think everything that we can learn from is a benefit to the entire pilot community -- and dwelling on "what could have been" is macabre -- instead, let's analyze, improve, and do better as a group -- to improve General Aviation as a whole.
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Some other news I know about...
We are in the market for a C150!
Cessna 526 is down for an oil pump replacement. She will return this week.
Cessna 739 is cruising
Cessna 63B is not offending anyone
Cessna 17J is down for a repair to her firewall. It appears someone has also been learning about touch-n-goes lately. Downtime TBD. Great timing, Julie. :) If the downtime will be more than a week, we will probably refurb her interior while we're in there. We will know more tomorrow.
Bonanza 11N is running great.
We are still in the market for a C172.
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The schedule crunch continues. We have turned down a few dogs out there. We have even increased our hunt to include Piper Warrior/Archer, Beech Skipper, and Cessna 152. (we are not fans of the C152 by the way, but only from a maintenance perspective -- we can stretch a point under the circumstances) -- while I love the Sundowner intensely, its landing characteristics are not "forgiving", and we won't be hunting for one -- even though it pains me as a Beech snob. :)
As gas prices continue to go bonkers, we are considering moving the entire fleet to a DRY rental model. This means we would remove the fuel cost (and surcharge) from the rental rates completely, and ask pilots to purchase their own fuel after a flight.
Some Pros:
Rental rates for pilots who actually use the mixture knob can drop by $10-$20/hr :)
Landing practice (including touch n goes) probably saves $5-$10/hr
Basically, a fairer model, since you pay for what you use.
Cons:
You need to fuel the plane when you return from a flight -- and if it was a bad one, you may not want to spend the time.
If the last guy didn't fuel you, it becomes a boondoggle to sort out the billing.
We've been running the club planes on a dry basis, and generally, it has worked pretty well. We have had to de-fuel planes a few times, but overall, it seems to be working pretty well. We are open to ideas. :)
More as I know it!
(whew -- we're not bored!)
Blue Skies,
- Mike
