WAC vs Sectional

And I thought I was the only one that did that (500 ft AGL, that is)!!!

Jose wrote:
I guess you don't fly low cross countries. I like to go CT to FL at
five hundred feet. A thousand over some parts. A WAC won't cut it
there.

And I thought I was the only one that did that (500 ft AGL, that is)!!!

The view is awesome, especially in fall, over rolling hills. But keep
a sharp eye for cell towers!

Jose
--
Money: What you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
And I thought I was the only one that did that (500 ft AGL, that is)!!!


The view is awesome, especially in fall, over rolling hills. But keep a
sharp eye for cell towers!

Do you use cruise power, or do you slow down to give yourself more time to react
to obstacles and populated areas?

Dave

Do you use cruise power, or do you slow down to give yourself more time to react to obstacles and populated areas?

There's plenty of time at cruise power to react. A dakota only does
140 on a good day. Maybe 160 with a tail wind. (Tail winds are
mainly a myth. It takes twenty seconds or more to cover a mile.

This is obviously not the kind of flying you hand over to George while
you make a ham sandwich, and I wouldn't do this in two miles and mist,
but by focusing on the high-definition wraparound panoramic plexiglass
screen (HDWPPS) one can easily avoid tilting at windmills.

Jose
--
Money: What you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

At 75 MPH/2100 RPM, the world goes by SLOWLY!!!
My next biggest obstacle (after towers) are buzzards riding the thermals.
As for populated areas, I read the water towers to figure out where I am.
Of course, in the summer, the topless sunbathers sometimes wave as I
pass by.

Dave Butler wrote:
Do you use cruise power, or do you slow down to give yourself more time
to react to obstacles and populated areas?

"Jose" wrote in message m...
Do you use cruise power, or do you slow down to give yourself more time to react to obstacles and populated areas?

There's plenty of time at cruise power to react. A dakota only does 140 on a good day. Maybe 160 with a tail wind.
(Tail winds are mainly a myth. It takes twenty seconds or more to cover a mile.

This is obviously not the kind of flying you hand over to George while you make a ham sandwich, and I wouldn't do this
in two miles and mist, but by focusing on the high-definition wraparound panoramic plexiglass screen (HDWPPS) one can
easily avoid tilting at windmills.

Jose
--
Money: What you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.


HDWPPS - I like that!

What're you flying, Jose?

A Dakota.

You fly a Dakota, cross-country, at 500 feet?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Do you use cruise power, or do you slow down to give yourself more time
to react to obstacles and populated areas?

There's plenty of time at cruise power to react. A dakota only does 140
on a good day. Maybe 160 with a tail wind. (Tail winds are mainly a
myth. It takes twenty seconds or more to cover a mile.

This sounds crazy to me. What do you do in the vicinity of airports? Or do
you only fly this way over unpopulated areas? (Since you joke about dodging
cell towers, it doesn't sound like it.)

Have you calculated your glide range from 500 feet? When that big fan
sputters to a halt, your choice will be to land straight ahead, or maybe 30
degrees off either side...

I guess I thought you were joking.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

You fly a Dakota, cross-country, at 500 feet?

I like to. But it's usually more like 1000. There are many more
towers now than there used to be, and the East coast is more dense
than the Mojave desert. (I used to fly up and down the desert like
that twenty years ago before there =were= cell phones - I probably
picked up an extra ten or twenty knots just from pitching down into
the rising heated air.)

I plan the flight very carefully, checking the sectional for towers
(knowing they aren't all there), for airports and frequencies,
terrain, parachute drop zones, and anything else that might be
significant that low. It's all written out in a log ahead of time,
plotted on the sectional, obstacles circled (they make good landmarks
actually), quadrant minimum altitudes logged, and I make sure I have
good visibility to do it in, and a high enough ceiling to climb if I
need to.

Planning a long flight like that can take as long as actually flying
it - there's a lot I can ignore at 8000 feet that is critical on the
deck. To do it without detailled planning like that, in low viz,
under scud, is suicide. But on a nice day with careful planning, it
is not only (relatively) safe, it is excellent XC practice. I have
the GPS on in case I need it, but turned to a text page so I don't
cheat. At that altitude you can't see the whole world below you, so
you'd better hold a good course, pick good landmarks, be on top of
your timing, and pay attention.

Try it. Practice it. It may save your butt one day.

Have you calculated your glide range from 500 feet?

The fan stops, yes, I have fewer options. Of course, it's much safer
to fly as a passenger in a jetliner. We fly little airplanes because
the joy of flight is worth the risk. There are tradeoffs all over
aviation.

Jose
--
Money: What you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

The probability of the "fan sputtering to a halt" is probably no
greater than a truck running you off the road at 75 miles an hour.

....unless you run out of gas. Preflight planning again. Critical.

Jose
--
Money: What you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.