An airplane ride in the winds

On a windy day late last February, I went on what some in general aviation call a scenic ride. It was my first scenic ride. I wrote this a few days after the flight.

In the world of Cessna trainers (172P) the day of my first scenic ride dawned with strong winds. The folk at the general aviation airport canceled student pilot's flights. As I was going on a scenic ride, my ride was not canceled. I did have the option to cancel without penalties. I did not. One of the phenomenon that I wanted to experience was strong winds so I went up. Winds on the ground were about 15 to 20 knots (from 290 degrees) and winds aloft were about 30 knots. We started out flying into the winds towards the Delaware Water Gap in the Appalachian Ridge.

It was a bumpy ride, especially after we arrived at the Ridge and just before Mike turned the plane around. The winds at the Ridge were the strongest of the trip. I thought about the strength of the winds as the Cessna was knocked about a bit. I was glad for Mike's skilled piloting and knew that the winds we were experiencing were within the safety margins for the Cessna. I was grateful for the opportunity to experience, in small measures, some strong winds and turbulence. At this point, the ridge (about 1,200 feet give or take) was about 1,500 feet below us. We were flying at 2,800 ft and broken clouds were about 500 feet above us. There was a tower of some sort on the PA side of the ridge.

At the same time, I knew that Mike was not pushing the envelope in taking me up. And I had confidence in his abilities as a pilot. I knew that I would be safe. I was mostly afraid that I might get air sick and I did not! I knew that the winds that we were experiencing were nothing like the winds and mountain turbulence that tanker pilots experience. I am not going to try to think that what I experienced comes close.

So what can I say? I can say that I have respect for the power of winds and turbulence. As a passenger, I trusted Mike's abilities. I trusted the Cessna trainer. I found myself reflecting that the tanker business is not easy.

Flying is all about the wings.

On other matters, I spent a lot of the flight looking out the window and not watching what Mike was doing with the yoke and the rudder pedals. And when I go up again, I can watch what he is doing instead of the scenes from the windows.

I observed other maneuvers. Early in the flight, after we got to straight and level flight and Mike trimmed the plane (I did watch this), he took his hands off the yoke and I saw that the Cessna did reach stable straight and level flight on her own (positive dynamic stability, I think).

Flying is all about the wings.

I felt slight creepy when Mike demonstrated a power off stall at a fairly low angle of attack. I heard the stall warning. Mike was explaining what he was doing as he was flying. In fact he explained everything he did. Anyway, the creepiness passed as I saw and made a mental note that Mike knew what he was doing. A short time later, he put the nose down a little and the stall warning ceased. He powered up, put the flaps up (I think that he put the flaps down to 10). And we flew on.

Flying is all about the wings.

When we turned around at the Ridge, I asked Mike if we were turning at a 20 percent bank angle. We were. I was looking at the wings out the window as we turned. Later on he demonstrated patterns at 1,000 ft. AGL. I looked out the window and noted that he was crabbing into the wind. I noted the steeper bank angle as I was looking at the wings.

Flying is all about the wings.

As we approached the airport and entered into the pattern for landing, we again crabbed into the wind at the appropriate points. As we were on final, I asked Mike how far out we were. He said about one quarter of a mile. I said so we can glide in to landing in case the engine fails? He said, that is right.

Flying is all about the wings.

Mike did a nice job piloting the airplane. I learned a lot during this flight by watching him fly the plane and listening as he talked about what he was doing. Just as important I thoroughly enjoyed my first scenic ride.