- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 18,391
- Location
- Santa Maria, California
- Aircraft
- Givens Predator
- Total Flight Time
- 2600+ in rotorcraft
It was a beautiful day to fly with a blue cloudless sky.
I checked the weather and the Santa Ana Wind was blowing but not too bad at Santa Maria (SMX) or San Luis Obispo (SBP). It was over my limits at Camarillo (CMA).
I made my way across the fields with the top down imagining I was already airborne.
It was one of our few hot days in Nipomo so I looked forward to cooler skies.
I worked on the ANR fruitlessly for almost two hours until the call of the sky overcame my desire to hear the radio well.
I worked my way through preflight hesitating to put on my flight suit because of the warmth.
She started up at the first touch of the button and seemed eager to leave the ground behind.
I checked ATIS and heard the sound of silence. It was time for it to change so I sat with the engine idling waiting for the new ATIS. After almost five minutes I called groud.
“Santa Maria Ground, Experimental Gyroplane 142 Mike Golf without the weather at Alpha 9, taxi to runway 30.”
“Our ATIS is not working Vance, wind 280 at 11 altimeter 30.16, runway 30 taxi via Alpha.”
Run up went well and I asked for a straight out with a slight right.
We were off quickly and pulling the power back at the half way point.
We had about a 15kt head wind as we worked our way across the valley.
As we crossed the river the wind began shifting around
At the water tower I checked the ATIS at San Luis Obispo (SBP).
“Wind 010 degrees 11kts gusting to 23kts, winds variable from 310 degrees to 050 degrees. Landing and departing runway 29.”
I checked SMX ATIS and it was out of service so back to SBP ATIS.
I listened to SBP ATIS three times before I called ATC for inbound from the South West through the Avilla Pass.
This is over my gust spread but well below my wind limit so I decided to give it a try.
As I listened to SBP tower a nervous sounding student in a Cessna went around several times sounding more panicked each time.
Our descent to 500 feet at Pismo Beach was a little bumpy and I had more trouble than usual maintaining altitude as I passed the hills near Shell Beach.
The ocean air felt great and the ocean appeared unusually blue and calm. There was not a whitecap in sight.
We started rocking and rolling as we entered the Avilla pass and climbed a little to get out of the turbulence.
The climb didn’t work but it kept us further from hitting something with our somewhat divergent flight path.
I called the tower inbound on the 45 and was to report established on the downwind.
There were five aircraft in the pattern and three had gone around, one had gone around three times.
The nervous student was still in the pattern and I had lost count of he go arounds.
I was to extend my downwind and she would call my base.
I put my camera away and watched the show.
Most of the high wing planes were steady until they crossed the threshold and then they would dip noticeably and their wings would rock. They were not maintaining the centerline and things would get ugly as they passed the tower. Three were successful as I watched the student went around again.
A piper seemed to have more trouble at the end. He was well off the centerline and seemed to float midfield. He touched down on the last third of the 6,100 foot runway.
She called my base and told me to head straight to the numbers.
As we crossed the threshold at 60kts I saw the indicated air speed drop to 40 and then jump to 70.
We lost around 70 feet of altitude and gained most of it back.
The wind sock was twitching through around 80 degrees.
She touched down as nice as could be at taxi way Foxtrot with a slight left twist but she resisted my efforts to keep the disk flat.
I suspect I was just lucky.
I was glad to be flying a gyroplane.
The student landed long as I was securing the rotor and fitting the gust lock. He taxied all the way to the end of the runway.
The hangar flying on the patio was more boisterous than usual and the time passed quickly. We graded each landing with few getting more than a 7.
I was number three for takeoff and it was interesting to watch the different techniques for managing the unruly wind.
The Predator was off quickly climbing out in an unsteady way as we made our left downwind departure to the east.
We rocked and rolled all the way to the water tower and ATIS was still not working at SMX.
ATC gave me a wind check at 250 degrees at 8kts gusting to 18kts and gave me my choice of runways.
I picked runway 30 and when I reported mid field downwind for 30 each of the four wind socks I could see pointed in a different direction and was twitching around a lot.
On short final I hit the stops on the rudder and she couldn’t make up her mind which way she wanted to turn.
She planted herself nicely and I taxied to parking.
I almost went up to practice some stop and gos because I was having so much fun but thinking about the recent gyroplane accidents caused me to put her away.
3031 Juliet was moaning and banging as though she was trying to tell me something as I worked through my post flight check list. I left before I was able to get the message.
I find gusts a bigger challenge than a steady wind and the challenge is compounded with large sudden shifts in wind direction.
Thank you, Vance
I checked the weather and the Santa Ana Wind was blowing but not too bad at Santa Maria (SMX) or San Luis Obispo (SBP). It was over my limits at Camarillo (CMA).
I made my way across the fields with the top down imagining I was already airborne.
It was one of our few hot days in Nipomo so I looked forward to cooler skies.
I worked on the ANR fruitlessly for almost two hours until the call of the sky overcame my desire to hear the radio well.
I worked my way through preflight hesitating to put on my flight suit because of the warmth.
She started up at the first touch of the button and seemed eager to leave the ground behind.
I checked ATIS and heard the sound of silence. It was time for it to change so I sat with the engine idling waiting for the new ATIS. After almost five minutes I called groud.
“Santa Maria Ground, Experimental Gyroplane 142 Mike Golf without the weather at Alpha 9, taxi to runway 30.”
“Our ATIS is not working Vance, wind 280 at 11 altimeter 30.16, runway 30 taxi via Alpha.”
Run up went well and I asked for a straight out with a slight right.
We were off quickly and pulling the power back at the half way point.
We had about a 15kt head wind as we worked our way across the valley.
As we crossed the river the wind began shifting around
At the water tower I checked the ATIS at San Luis Obispo (SBP).
“Wind 010 degrees 11kts gusting to 23kts, winds variable from 310 degrees to 050 degrees. Landing and departing runway 29.”
I checked SMX ATIS and it was out of service so back to SBP ATIS.
I listened to SBP ATIS three times before I called ATC for inbound from the South West through the Avilla Pass.
This is over my gust spread but well below my wind limit so I decided to give it a try.
As I listened to SBP tower a nervous sounding student in a Cessna went around several times sounding more panicked each time.
Our descent to 500 feet at Pismo Beach was a little bumpy and I had more trouble than usual maintaining altitude as I passed the hills near Shell Beach.
The ocean air felt great and the ocean appeared unusually blue and calm. There was not a whitecap in sight.
We started rocking and rolling as we entered the Avilla pass and climbed a little to get out of the turbulence.
The climb didn’t work but it kept us further from hitting something with our somewhat divergent flight path.
I called the tower inbound on the 45 and was to report established on the downwind.
There were five aircraft in the pattern and three had gone around, one had gone around three times.
The nervous student was still in the pattern and I had lost count of he go arounds.
I was to extend my downwind and she would call my base.
I put my camera away and watched the show.
Most of the high wing planes were steady until they crossed the threshold and then they would dip noticeably and their wings would rock. They were not maintaining the centerline and things would get ugly as they passed the tower. Three were successful as I watched the student went around again.
A piper seemed to have more trouble at the end. He was well off the centerline and seemed to float midfield. He touched down on the last third of the 6,100 foot runway.
She called my base and told me to head straight to the numbers.
As we crossed the threshold at 60kts I saw the indicated air speed drop to 40 and then jump to 70.
We lost around 70 feet of altitude and gained most of it back.
The wind sock was twitching through around 80 degrees.
She touched down as nice as could be at taxi way Foxtrot with a slight left twist but she resisted my efforts to keep the disk flat.
I suspect I was just lucky.
I was glad to be flying a gyroplane.
The student landed long as I was securing the rotor and fitting the gust lock. He taxied all the way to the end of the runway.
The hangar flying on the patio was more boisterous than usual and the time passed quickly. We graded each landing with few getting more than a 7.
I was number three for takeoff and it was interesting to watch the different techniques for managing the unruly wind.
The Predator was off quickly climbing out in an unsteady way as we made our left downwind departure to the east.
We rocked and rolled all the way to the water tower and ATIS was still not working at SMX.
ATC gave me a wind check at 250 degrees at 8kts gusting to 18kts and gave me my choice of runways.
I picked runway 30 and when I reported mid field downwind for 30 each of the four wind socks I could see pointed in a different direction and was twitching around a lot.
On short final I hit the stops on the rudder and she couldn’t make up her mind which way she wanted to turn.
She planted herself nicely and I taxied to parking.
I almost went up to practice some stop and gos because I was having so much fun but thinking about the recent gyroplane accidents caused me to put her away.
3031 Juliet was moaning and banging as though she was trying to tell me something as I worked through my post flight check list. I left before I was able to get the message.
I find gusts a bigger challenge than a steady wind and the challenge is compounded with large sudden shifts in wind direction.
Thank you, Vance
