The Impossible Turn

The weather was good for Pennsylvania, winds were less then gale force and overcast high enough to get out of the landing pattern. It wouldn't stay that way very long. I wanted to start calibrating myself for the 'impossible turn' I mentioned in the last post. I like to have options, and Barry Schiff made it clear that understanding how plane and pilot perform could make this option possible. It requires doing it in the airplane.

Two tries. First on a north-south heading, the second on an east-west heading. The results (for me) appear to be this:

• Below 300 feet land straight ahead. RWY34 has some power lines, so I would probably make a slight deviation to the right where there is a nice farmer's field.
• 300 - 700 feet either straight ahead or pull the BRS. BRS should deploy safely at a minimum of 300', but unless it is catastrophic I'm still heading for the field.
• 700 feet and above I should be able to get her back on the runway.

I believe I shall practice this a bit more, but for now I'll use these numbers as my starting point. (By the way, it was raining by the time I had her strapped down and was putting the cover on.)

Another thought: I stated using Zululog.com for an online log book. It took some customization and a bit of help from the support guy, but now I have all of my hours entered. So far, I like it.