07 September 2014

CLUB COMPETITIONS 2014

Club competition time again - how time flies!!

Saturday 6th September

Day one.  A bit cloudy but well flyable with a strengthening south-easterly breeze so Grass runway 07R was marked out for the landing grid.

Gentleman's Circuits: started fine with steady 80Kt in the climb, remembering lookout, downwind checks and nice and steady at 70Kt on base, two stages flap and then the turn to final close to 500' agl, full flap and trimming for nominated speed of 60Kt.  Looking good?  Well, not quite. I had seen one of the previous competitors get pretty low on short final and land short so I kept the power on a bit longer than usual and... I am still looking low.  Now, I am guessing (several hours later) that the wind at 3-400' up was somewhat stronger than on the ground (maybe shelter from buildings a factor, too) and that is why I am losing height as the wind has (effectively) dropped. I recovered OK to get over the threshold but still low. I had no height left to hold it off and the touchdown was well short of the "perfect" 50 point box (about a 10 I reckoned).
Next circuit, all well until short final where I looked high, pulled power to get down and ended up with a tad too much downward momentum and a bounce from a good position on the grid to a longish way down and, probably, another 10.  Not what I wanted at all and I doubt whether I will place in this event.

Senior landings: this wasn't a lot better.  At least this is only marked from base leg as I forgot we had QFE (aerodrome pressure; i.e: altimeter set at zero on the ground) and turned crosswind at 700' (usual height if QNH = ambient pressure is set). Ooops!! 
We had to extend downwind on tower's instructions and ended up on a longer final than ideal and my landing, although good and smooth was nowhere near the centre of the grid.  The second circuit was much the same.  All good in the air but a poor position on the landing. Grrr!!  A few others had similar problems so thinking it may be close between myself and flyinkiwi for that "double or quits" beer challenge!

Non-Instrument Circuits:  this was after lunch and maybe a few handfuls of chips (the hot type - the others, old chap, are crisps where I come from) helped because this felt the best of the competition exercises for me.  The idea is you fly two standard circuits with the flying instruments only visible to the air judge in the right hand seat.  The competitor nominates take-off and climb speeds, downwind engine RPM, base and finals speeds. Challenging, but it all went fine in the air and, probably because I was nice and relaxed, the landings were on, or very close to the centre of the grid but that doesn't matter for this exercise as all you have to do is make a good or safe landing to score points.  Of course, I have no idea how close I was to my nominated speeds or how accurate my height judgement was but was pleased enough with that performance.

Sunday 7th September

Day two and I was only doing the forced landing competition today.  Lovely sunny day with a decreasing wind from the South so 18R was marked out for the landing grid

Forced landing without power:  in this you take off, climb in the circuit pattern to 2500', the air judge pulls the throttle to simulate the engine failure and you have to go through a forced landing exercise in which you are marked for doing all the engine failure checks, mayday call (simulated), passenger briefing, glide speed control, height at 1000' point, general airmanship (lookouts, etc.), and then the "dead-stick" landing on the runway grid which is scored as for the spot landings.  After the first touch and go you do it all over again from a different engine failure height.
Well, it started OK climbing up to 2500' on late downwind but then a Dash-8 did a go-around so we were given an orbit at 2500' which felt odd at that altitude and once complete we crossed the downwind threshold of 18L to be West of the strip for the start of the exercise.
First throttle pull was at 2500' and I went through the checks pretty well, I thought (missed engine instruments and partial power check) but nailed the speed and check points and was feeling pretty good about it all until the turn to final where I was too high. I managed to sort it with flap and a bit of S-turning but touched down way too long and a zero for that landing! 
Second go was not that great: throttle pull at 2000' this time - no way going to make 1500' point so headed straight for 1000' point and nailed that. Again far too high on final and this time flap and S-turns weren't going to sort it. I was up to 80Kt+ trying to make the runway which wasn't going to happen so, power on, go around and a DQ for that half of the exercise. Grumble, grumble!!
Oh well, it was all good fun and educational and there is always next year.
Finally, a few photos (all from Saturday):


C-172R "WAM" waits to take off

"WAM" short final

Aerospool Dynamic "MLC" landing

Robin/Alpha R2160 "WCD" short final...

... and about to touch down

Ground hazard? Lots of plovers around the field at present - wonder why??