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12 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

On the way home from Japan in an Qantas A330 last night. Waited till the moon set behind the winglet at 4am est. Phone did a good job to get the shot. Might have to fly the thruster tomorrow. 

 

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Now your photo brings back memories👍Over the Tasman a few years ago, Eastbound.

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Edited by Flightrite
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Today was goign to be a skill  build / challenge Short field TO practice in Xwind.

Cowra departure, 2pm flight. PA28, 20 gallons on board and me. OAT 24. windy up high.

Short field TO practice with pure X wind at Young. Young (YYNG) is known for its swirling challenging winds. 

It's something I need to work on, only done a couple in the past year.

Flaps 25 , get it up to full smoke and let the brakes go.

TO roll, into wind at Cowra, gusting to 10 kts on the nose . Woops ! she wants to fly at 35 to 40 knots (instead of the usual 65) . lifts off unexpectidly  with big roll wobble -    I  hold it in ground affect until it accelerates then off we go. lesson #1 refreshed.

It's thermal bumpy down low,  windy mountain bumpy up high. Not much fun.  NOT a 'never flown before ' passenger day/  .... I nav myself  the 31nm   down to Young on the VNC , go into circuit, bumpy, 10 kts pure crosswind on AWIS, not much for the PA28 but holding off the drift feels like about 15 kts on final. Ditch full flap (40).. I want to land a bit airspeed faster with a bit less drag so the decay is not as quick...., so   back to flaps 25 . I hold the approach nicely stabilized.  uneventful landing bit fast not all that pretty but OK...but needs work...would get about 5/10 from judges on the fence .....  backtrack for the departure. 

maybe some trim change for this TO. .... Normal 0 flaps TO, generally trim a fair way back. I usualy set the trim so   It will fly off when its ready, consistently and well behaved.  IE it just flys off, hands off around the TOSS (60-70 kts  weight dependent ) when its good and ready.

But this time, after being caught a bit unaware, trim the nose down a bit more. Short field TO...   a bit of left roll in  with the X wind.  bit gusty. But this time I am ready for a bit of excitment when its time to fly....... again it jumps off the ground before I am really on top of it,  woh boy  !

If I had not anticipated to unruley behaviour, then I could have  put a windtip on the ground ......careful with that roll you have in - needs to be moderated and be ready for the leap off the ground ...  and replaced with some rudder  to hold centreline on departure a bit earlier

Land back at Cowra, perfect greaser into 5 kts down the runway.

 

Takeaways  :The flaps 25 TO is more like a leap off the ground rather than a nice steady rotation and liftoff.  That probably reflects my incorrect pitch / trim  input during the TO roll . TO with pure crosswind with LOTS of lift dialed in , (with  lift off speed about 40% below usual)  in needs LOTS of attention. The roll (wing a bit down into the wind) needs to come out early and rudder in as soon as the aircraft is flying ....and held close to the ground in ground effect under we reach TOSS (65-70 kts) .

 

Edited by RFguy
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9 minutes ago, RFguy said:

Today was goign to be a skill  build / challenge Short field TO practice in Xwind.

Cowra departure, 2pm flight. PA28

Which P28 model?

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37 minutes ago, RFguy said:

Archer, 180hp, non-tapered constant chord wing.

Piper Archer, 180 hp, non-tapered constant chord wing is a PA-28-180

(PA-28-181 - the 1 denotes taper)

 

The PA-28 family is a big one and they fly differently: https://www.pilotmall.com/blogs/news/piper-archer-the-reliable-family-flyer#:~:text=The family of aircraft which,and PA-28-160 Cherokee

 

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Been out enjoying this fantastic flying weather. 😃 Only downside around NE Vic and Southern Riverina is all the smoke from farmers burning off in their paddocks or fuel reduction burning in the bush. All necessary stuff but a bit of a pain some days when visibility is reduced. Anyhow, still getting some quality time in. Here's a video from last Friday when the young fulla and I flew up to Porepunkah for an fun day together. PS - yes he out fished me! 🥲 

https://youtu.be/gOzmMPj8OZc?si=SIyGDPpa3ZiaMcDW

 

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