{"id":2421,"date":"2018-10-11T12:49:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T18:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/?p=2421"},"modified":"2018-10-16T16:21:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T22:21:32","slug":"first-cool-fall-flight-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/?p=2421","title":{"rendered":"First Cool Fall Flight 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 11, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

Fall (in the sense of cooler weather) doesn’t hit SE Texas until early-to-mid October, but it finally arrived and I was raring to go.\u00a0 Keep in mind that if the high temperature for the day is below 90\u00b0F\/32\u00b0C, then we in SE Texas think that is “cool”.\u00a0 When I woke up this morning, it was a blissful 65\u00b0F\/18\u00b0C, but by the time I arrived at the airport, it was a bit warmer at 75\u00b0F\/24\u00b0C.\u00a0 Combined with the much lower humidity than normal, it was heaven!<\/p>\n

My goal for this flight wasn’t just to enjoy the clear blue and cool skies, but I wanted to get an aerial shot of an airport:\u00a0 Pearland Regional (KLVJ).\u00a0 Pearland is often busy, especially with helicopter traffic, but the trick to photographing an airport is simply to fly much higher than the pattern altitude.\u00a0 (You can also, of courses, take pictures while you’re in the pattern,\u00a0 but that means distracted flying in a potentially busy, close-to-the-ground situation and not something I wanted to do today.)\u00a0 In the case of Pearland, though, flying higher than the pattern is easier said than done.\u00a0 Sitting oppressively above the Pearland runways at 2,000 feet is the Class Bravo airspace for Hobby Airport, one of Houston’s two large and busy commercial airports.\u00a0 Combined with that, I know that Pearland sometimes has small-jet traffic.<\/p>\n

Normal pattern altitude specified in the A\/FD info (sorry, I’m dating myself with that reference, but that’s the FAA official data, formerly in a handbook called the Airport Facility Directory, or A\/FD) is 644 feet, or, 600 feet above the runway (which is at 44 feet).\u00a0 But jet traffic often flies a wider pattern 500 feet above that, or 1,144.\u00a0 That left me with exactly 856 feet to work with before I violated Class Bravo airport, a definite no-no.\u00a0 Consequently, when I was closest to the airport, I kept my altitude between 1800 and 1900 feet.\u00a0 But I’ll admit that I’m a bit timid when it comes to being around a lot of traffic.\u00a0 Too many faster planes, not all of them (yet!) have ADS-B, and it doesn’t take much distraction to miss the target pattern altitude.\u00a0 \u00a0So I got as close as I was comfortable with.<\/p>\n

Here is the overall map of the flight, with my home airport in Anahuac TX in the upper-right corner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What brought all this cooler, dryer air was a cold-front which also brings winds from the north.\u00a0 Our normal wind direction is from the south and, because of the promity of Trinity Bay and on-shore winds, from the south-west.\u00a0 When there is a cross-wind on the asphalt runway (12-30), I’m used to it coming from my right (if I’m taking off to the south, which is “normal”).\u00a0 Today, the windsock showed a cross-wind but it was from the north.\u00a0 Unfortunately, complacency and “what is usual” almost bit me in the butt.<\/p>\n

I was about to learn a valuable lesson.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite a part of me knowing the wind was from the north (hitting the left side), my “sight picture” of the wind-sock didn’t look all that different from what I’m used to and since the vast majority of the time I’m dealing with a right-crosswind, for this take-off I did not think hard enough about the wind coming from the left.\u00a0 So, because I wasn’t thinking, the “automatic” muscle memory kicked it and as I started my roll down the runway, I un-thinkingly adjusted my controls to counter a right-crosswind.\u00a0 That was a bad move.<\/p>\n

As my front wheel lifted off, I was expecting to hold it in place just above the ground like I always do, but that’s not what happened.\u00a0 The plane started pitching\/rolling\/yawing to the right.\u00a0 If that is what I wanted to do, then that behavior would makes sense since I’m subtly adjusting my controls to the right with a crosswind from the left.\u00a0 When the left-crosswind started pushing on the front of the plane without the proper countering adjustments, it was easy for it to tilt the plane somewhat to the right.\u00a0 I, of course, knew immediately that something was wrong, but I hadn’t quite figured it out.\u00a0 From moment-to-moment, things weren’t happening as I thought they should have been. \u00a0We’re talking fractions-of-a-second.<\/p>\n

The engine was at full throttle and since the nose-wheel was up, that means the plane was getting ready to fly.\u00a0 What I did know was that the plane was in a very poor configuration\/attitude for landing.\u00a0 I knew that the worst thing I could do would be to pull back on the power.\u00a0 I left it at full power and continued trying to correct the unusual attitude.\u00a0 I was very lucky.\u00a0 I managed to straighten things out and as soon as I did and my two rear wheels lifted off, I saw the plane’s nose yawing to the left, I only then fully realized the wind was coming from my left.\u00a0 Duh!<\/p>\n

All the things I had done wrong suddenly became clear and I felt foolish.\u00a0 And I felt very lucky that I recovered.\u00a0 I had not ever done that before — improper setting of controls for a take-off — so I wasn’t at all familiar with what it would look like\/feel like.\u00a0 I learned a valuable lesson and was lucky to have gotten away without any serious consequences.\u00a0 Whew!<\/p>\n

I did start to wonder if I should go do a few touch-n-go’s with the left-crosswind, but I was too rattled to do it just then.\u00a0 I continued on with my flight.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, I was calmed down and now over Trinity Bay.\u00a0 The air was cool and smooth.\u00a0 Maybe a bit too cool… I had not put my doors back on.\u00a0 I guess I wasn’t convinced it would stay cool.\u00a0 At 1800 feet, it was about 69\u00b0F\/21\u00b0C but felt even cooler with the wind whipping around.\u00a0 Looking to my right (north), I could see the Baytown Bridge…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… and the view to my left, I could just barely make out some buildings on Galveston Island, at the southern end of Galveston Bay…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… finally across Trinity Bay, the first notable thing I see as I cross over land is this gigantic house…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… then ahead and below me is the small airport community of Polly Ranch…<\/p>\n

\"Polly <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Polly <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

This means I’m quite close to Pearland Regional.\u00a0 I had already switched my radio to its frequency, and I could hear a couple of planes in the pattern.\u00a0 They are landing to the north and making left traffic, so they would be west of the airport… I was south-east, so well away from them.\u00a0 Still, I wasn’t anxious to get too close, approaching to within 2 miles before making a sharp 180-degree turn.<\/p>\n

\"Pearland <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pearland <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pearland <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pearland <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The angle that I was at wasn’t perfect… I would have much preferred being at the end of the runway, but I was close enough for some good shots.<\/p>\n

Keeping in mind the Ellington Field airspace immediately to my east, I steered around it then ended up following the coast back to my home airport.\u00a0 The track I selected was a bit further north than my normal track back to Anahuac so I saw a few things that had previously been further away.<\/p>\n

\"Looking <\/a>
Looking at Polly Ranch from its NE corner. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ellington <\/a>
Ellington Field, 5 miles away. <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Top Golf in Webster TX <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A cool lighthouse in front of the South Shore Harbor Marina <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ususally <\/a>
Ususally I see the Kemah Boardwalk from the bay-side, so this was a different look. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Heavily <\/a>
Heavily laden ship coming out of Boggy Bayou. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bayport <\/a>
Bayport Container Terminal <\/div> <\/div>
\"Colorful <\/a>
Colorful containers <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ships <\/a>
Ships passing on the Houston Ship Channel <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Another, <\/a>
Another, closer, look at the Baytown Bridge <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Containers <\/a>
Containers being barged around. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Maybe this wasn’t a great Texas-Flyer story, but I accomplished my mission, got to fly on a great flying day and saw some new things.\u00a0 For me, it was good!\u00a0 Oh, and I got a valuable lesson at the beginning of the flight….\u00a0 and luckily I survived the lesson.<\/p>\n

1.42 hrs on the Hobbs, 1:23 in the air, and 83.8 miles covered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 11, 2018 Fall (in the sense of cooler weather) doesn’t hit SE Texas until early-to-mid October, but it finally arrived and I was raring to go.\u00a0 Keep in mind that if the high temperature for the day is below 90\u00b0F\/32\u00b0C, then we in SE Texas think that is “cool”.\u00a0 When I woke up this … Continue reading First Cool Fall Flight 2018<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavalon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/4N1A4441.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2421"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2453,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421\/revisions\/2453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}