The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Good VFR, but NOT a good flying day! (and getting worse!)

KMHV 121547Z 28050G60KT 40SM FEW070 05/ A2974 RMK BLDU N


Miles

Ahhhh, just a spring zephyr, good day for some xwind landing pratice on runway 22.

lowNslow wrote:Ahhhh, just a spring zephyr, good day for some xwind landing pratice on runway 22.

You mean cross-RUNWAY landing practice on 22, don't you? Even on the best runway (26 or 30, take your pick depending on whether you want to deal with it from the right or left) the crosswind component is 17-20 knots. Of course, you could land diagonally... but then what? With 50 knots, you couldn't let the tail down.

Miles

Well I guess with 50-60 knots it doesn't matter which runway you use, you could just point it into the wind and hover down into a parking spot, have your passenger jump out and tie it down so you could lower the tail.

Yea - it's been windy. I finally talked my wife into flying down to San Diego (CRQ) to visit our son and her mother (life has its pluses and minuses). So, of course on the way home it is blowing like hell. Monday the 9th, coming back, my groundspeed across L.A was 69 Knts. We got our teeth rattled crossing Lancaster/Palmdale - up and down drafts of 1000 fpm - moderate turbulence all the way home. I have to hand it to her - she hung in there all the way back. I think the worst experience of the whole trip was paying $5.70 per gallon for fuel at BFL. I am still impressed with the 170 - even in the strong gusty winds landings were manageable - you have to fly it - but, no bugeyman .

Robert Eilers wrote:... I think the worst experience of the whole trip was paying $5.70 per gallon for fuel at BFL.

Should have stopped in Tehachapi, $3.26/gallon. Also, you could have saved over 3500 feet of descending and climbing back to altitude. Yeah, it's windy here but almost always down the runway. Next time you're in the area, tune in 120.025 for our (so far) unpublished AWOS.

Miles

I hadn't seen that remark before:

BLDU N

Is that "blown down" - as in the equipment was knocked over ?-)

Hey Miles, what's a little wind?

I shoveled snow from the front of the hanger door today! Will have to go to Petit Jean just to get warm this year.

kyle,
how much snow did you guys get up there?
we got about 1-2" here in GC
dave

Romeo Tango wrote:I hadn't seen that remark before:

BLDU N

Is that "blown down" - as in the equipment was knocked over ?-)

That is BLowing DUst to the North. The wind kicks up dust and sand off the desert, and the viz can get pretty low, not to mention damage to paint and glass. The lab let us go home early, and just after I got through, the Highway Patrol closed Highway 58 around the north side of Mojave due to low visibility and high winds. They claim to have measuered gusts in the 100mph range. The pass from Tehachapi is pretty narrow and makes a good venturi opening out onto the desert just north of Mojave. http://skyvector.com/#20-24-3-3005-1392

Kyle Wolfe wrote:Hey Miles, what's a little wind?

I shoveled snow from the front of the hanger door today! Will have to go to Petit Jean just to get warm this year. ?-)

When I got home yesterday, we'd had a dusting of snow, too. Even though Mojave and the rest of the desert had 40 mi visibility, the cause of the wind was a fast moving storm with some high clouds with a bit of moisture the mountains managed to wring out. It's pretty nice today, but tomorrow, it looks like we're going to get a bit of a repeat performance of yesterday, incuding a bit more snow.

Miles

Dave, had just 3 inches or so. Pretty well gone now.

Think it's warm enough I can take the winter kit stuff off the airplane - finally!

This is an excerpt from this week's newsletter from the Flight Test Center Commander:

Men and Women of the Air Force Flight Test Center--

So how'd you like those winds last week? Man oh man, it was soooooo windy….

("How windy was it?!")

Thought you'd never ask!

It was so windy the T-38s were having to use Air Carts to STOP the engines….
It was so windy, one Desert Tortoise laid the same egg four times….
It was so windy, the only things flying were a few of the Tehachapi Pass windmills….
It was so windy, kids were attaching bricks to fishing line and using them as kites…using bicycle chains for tails….