On Sep 9, 9:55 am, Denny wrote:
Saturday morning, just at dawn we took off for Lowell, Mi (24C) to
attend a ham radio swap and swindle... Heavy thunderstorms the night
................................................. .......
of the runway so was not concerned... Because of the hill right up to
the end of the runway, and the BIG trees on top of the hill, this was
not my fathers 3 degree ILS approach.... Being fat with fuel and
people I kept an extra 5 on the speed o meter... Got a firm flare,
slight burp of power to arrest the sink, and we slid on with just a
squeak from the mains... Now that I am under the overhanging shelf of
cool whip I can see all the way to the end of the runway - which
wasn't that far away (2394 feet on the chart)... Took a bit of life
off the brake pucks but we were stopped before the grass over run...

Denny,
About two years ago, I had the most puckered go-around at 24C.
It was a very gusty windy day with strong direct crosswind so I had to
add some power the last minute to my intended short field landing on
runway 12. Once the wheel touched at more than one third of the
runway, I initiated a go around heading towards those BIG trees. Rick
yelled at me: "Keep the nose down". It was quite nerve wrecking to
keep the nose down aiming right the trees. I had no time to say a
prayer just held my breath until the plane just barely cleared the
trees tops. We then headed to Y70 airport which had two long run ways
smacked in the middle of acres of cornfields just like the rest of
Michigan for an uneventful landing. Later on, we learned that the
flight school at 24C was specialized in Missionary Aviation. With the
runways located at the bottom of a bowl brimming with treetops at the
rim, it was just a perfect location for this type of training.
We had been landing at Y70 for all our Michigan visits up until the
last trip during Labor Day weekend. The week before that, we attended
the Cardinal Flight Training clinic with Guy Maher, the Jedi Master of
Cardinal flying. Guy taught us to do power off approach with full
nose-up trim along with all kinds of emergency maneuvers, takeoff
failures, high key spiral descent etc. I specifically asked Guy to
train me for short field landings and was amazed to see that I did not
have to hang on the prop then plunk the plane down with heavy
braking. Once the obstacles were cleared, he had me pull the power
off, keep the nose down all the way to the number, gently level the
nose let the plane sink, keep the nose wheel off then let it down
softly. I did not keep track of how short my landings were during the
lesson but they were pretty much spot on, smooth and soft.
By the way, there had been quite a bit of discussion at the Cardinal
Flyers forum about Guy's technique of full nose up trim with go-around
concern but all pilots who had been trained with Guy or practiced his
method are firm believers. At 100lbs, I had no problem holding the
nose down during go-around. A quick nose down trim with my thumb while
my hand on the throttle was all it took to relieve the pressure on my
Cardinal.
Returning home, we did few more practices of Guy's techniques at
hour home base, KPOU before heading to Michigan. I flew the last leg
and wanted to head to 24C instead of Y70 but Rick thought it was not a
good idea after a long day of flying. The next day while staying at
my brother's home in Lowell, we drove to 24C after Church service to
check out the lay of the land. A Citabria pilot told us that he
preferred the grass runway 6/24. At 2700', it was longer than the
12/30 paved runway and the trees at the end of 24 were somewhat
shorter than 30. The grass runways looked firm and seemed in pretty
good condition. We told him about my aborted landing, he laughed and
told us that if one could land at Lowell, one could land anywhere. It
was the same thing we heard when I was in training at Wurstboro; a
glider airport nestled between two mountain ridges.
The visit bolstered our confidence. That afternoon, Rick moved the
plane from Y70 to 24C. He landed on the grass runway 24 and noticed
it was somewhat bumpy in few sections. The next day, we came back to
24C and practiced our landings in both the paved and grass runways. We
nailed all our short field landings easily and decided that we 12/30
runways would be kinder and gentler to our bird.
From now on, 24C will be our airport of choice for our Michigan
visit. We will just have to be a bit careful with weight and balance
and be mindful of density altitude and wind condition in takeoff
planning. It is not only closer to my brother's home but the tie down
at $3/day is a lot cheaper than $10 fee at Y70. Besides, it is quite
a fun airport to practice real short field landings. I don't think
that I would ever become a missionary pilot. However, I have started
to think of taking aerobatic lessons after Guy Maher's training
clinic. The private certificate which I obtained 4 years ago was
truly a license to learn.

Hai Longworth