A New Angle

Video Link: A New Angle

A new student and I sat in the runup area for RWY5. He was going through the checklist and I monitored the results as he tested the mags and carb heat. It was a busy day at KVDF. A lot of flight schools trainers were doing their circuits and my attention occasionally got diverted to watch them land.  I looked over my student's shoulder to make sure the canopy hooks were in place and then turned to check my own. Out on the runway, all was not well. A plane fouled the right side of the runway, tail sticking straight up in the air. I called on the CTAF to let the busy traffic pattern know that RWY5 was now closed. We went over to RWY36 and took off from there.

I spoke to the airport manager once we got back. A student on her first solo had porpoised and botched the landing. She is fine but the C150 was totaled. I hope she can "get back on the horse", but I doubt it.

In other events, my CFI insurance is up over 20% this year.

I started working with Jeff, a "snowbird" down for the winter trying to avoid the brutal Illinois weather. His Sting experienced an ADSB failure and I helped ferry his plane from SRQ to VDF. We did some testing, worked with the expert on the phone at Garmin and eventually decided to take to the great folks at Gulf Coast Avionics at LAL. We used the ADAPT flight plan app to fly in the Tampa airspace.  Josh took most of the afternoon readjusting the settings to correct the problem.

I'll work with Jeff to help him get his Sport Pilot license before his winter stay in Florida ends. Jeff just passed his Knowledge TEST!

One student has been practicing short field landings. The ACS states:

Touch down at a proper pitch attitude within 200 feet beyond or on the specified point, threshold markings, or runway numbers, with no side drift, minimum float, and with the airplane’s longitudinal axis aligned with and over runway centerline.

How do you measure that? I added a new camera mount to the bottom of the airplane and made a test flight. The video referenced above shows the results. Each centerline stripe has a standard length of 120'. Each space between the stripes is 80'. (The size of the painted runway designation numbers should be 60 feet tall and 20 feet wide.) Link

So, if your intended point of landing is the beginning of the stripe, you must touch down PRIOR to the beginning of the next stripe.

(Watch the video and tell me how I did.) I have gotten a bit busy. The school has seven students now, most are scheduled once a week. The winter weather has been good and Sally is holding up well. (Brakes and tires are keeping me busy.)

And most importantly, we are having fun.