July 12, 13, & 14, 2008

July 12, 13, & 14, 2008

 

Saturday ; Today was Riverside RV Park Resort's second annual general meeting. Or more precisely, annual general non-meeting. Most of Riverside's lot owners gathered at Victory Hall in Keremeos at 2:00 P.M.. The President of our Society ( lot owners' association ) called the meeting to order, explained that a legal issue regarding voting procedures was still unresolved, and therefore the meeting would have to be postponed for a couple of months, then he adjourned the meeting. The whole thing took about a minute and a half. Nobody was very pleased, especially those "weekender" lot owners who live in the Vancouver / Lower Mainland area that had to drive 5 hours to get here.

 

Sunday ; Today was the Riverside RV Park Resort pool party and potluck luncheon organized and hosted by Joanne and me. We chose today, because almost all lot owners were going to be here this weekend to attend yesterday's AGM. It was another sunny, hot day, a perfect day for a pool party. But there were very few of our neighbours who showed up. For those that did, we had a great little pool party and potluck luncheon.

After the very busy, active social calendars that we have encountered at many RV parks all around North America we are very puzzled by this park's lack of interest in social activities. And more than puzzled, we're disheartened ( read that disgusted ). We organized, sponsored ( paid for everything ), and hosted a barbecue a month ago, and organized and hosted this pool party and potluck luncheon. The barbecue was poorly attended. And the pool party was even worse. We could see all our neighbours in the park, working on their yard projects, or just relaxing, but almost no one could be bothered to wander down to the pool complex patio and socialize with neighbours.

Okay ... that's our last attempt at trying to stimulate some social activities in this park !

 

Monday ; Today was Dan Air Flight 401 a.k.a. Mountain Performance Course Training Flight 1, actually the second mountain training flight. Today we flew in Cessna 172 C-GXTN ( X-ray Tango November ), a slightly better equipped aircraft than Hotel Juliet Charlie. The first exercise was to determine if it was possible to return to the airport for a landing if the engine failed after take off at an elevation of 500 feet above ground. My initial opinion was that it was not. However, under some conditions, it is possible. So, we did a few simulated engine failures after take-off, at 500 feet AGL. On one of these exercises, I took off from runway 16, heading to the south, out over Skaha Lake Beach. At 500 feet AGL my instructor pulled the throttle back to idle, simulating an engine failure. I turned steeply and began to descend at a constant "best glide" airspeed of 80 MPH in an attempt to return to the runway. This "return to runway" manoeuver after an engine failure is a common cause of fatal aviation accidents. I was busy trying to fly / glide back to the airport, so I didn't notice the scene on Skaha Lake Beach below. HA HA HA ! With the throttle pulled to idle, the engine is fairly quiet, and would not be heard by the people on the beach. They saw a silent aircraft, turning steeply, descending rapidly, and looking like it was going to crash on the beach. My instructor watched as people scrambled to get out of the way of the "crashing" airplane. HA HA HA ... the moral of that story is don't spread your blanket out on the beach right at the end of an airport runway ! By the way, I did make it back to the runway ... that time. From runway 34, with the wind in the opposite direction, I was not able to make it back to the runway with an engine failure at 500 feet AGL, although I did "clear the fence", and in a real emergency, would have touched down on the grass just before the runway.

We flew from Penticton to the restricted airspace east of Oliver designated for "upper air work" flight training exercises, flying along the east side of the mountains along Skaha Lake practicing "contour crawling". Flying following the contours of the mountain sides, keeping my left wing about 200 feet away from the mountain sides at all times. The point was to experience the "convective heating" air currents rising off the mountain sides on the sunny side of the valley. WOO-HOO ... "free lift", so to speak. But along with the "free lift" comes turbulence. Once in the restricted airspace, also known as the "practice area", my instructor wanted me to fly with an indicated airspeed of zero. HUH ? Well, it can actually be done. It's an exercise in "extreme" control of an aerodynamic stall. One stalls the airplane, and as it begins to drop from the sky, its forward motion decreases, and the airspeed drops, until finally, it is not flying forward at all, it's just falling, and the airspeed indicator reads zero. It's quite difficult to manage a stall that effectively, and fall keeping the aircraft level, not allowing either a spin or a dive to develop. So ... I have now flown an aircraft with the airspeed indicator reading zero. But, I guess ... that's not really "flying", that's just very controlled "falling". HA HA HA !

We did quite a few engine failure / forced approach exercises, from high altitudes over the mountains, to lower altitudes closer to Oliver. On most of them, I was surprised by how much "glide" I really could achieve over the warm mountains, and how far I could "reach" to get to an emergency landing location. In one instance, I actually came in "high and hot" ( too high, too fast ) and would have overflown my selected "forced landing" location, which was Oliver airport. Brilliant ! Experience an engine failure high over the mountains, stretch the glide to achieve reaching a distant but visible airstrip, then shoot over the runway and crash at the far end of the airport ! ! ! DUH !

On the way back to Penticton, we did more "contour crawling", but this time, flying in the opposite direction, I had to keep the wing on the passenger side a couple of hundred feet away from the mountain sides. It's easier when the mountains are on my side ! I'm now feeling fairly comfortable flying with the wing tips about 200 feet from the sides of the mountains. < blink > Hard to believe I just said / typed that ! We did another zero IAS ( indicated airspeed ) exercise on the way back. About 5 miles out over Skaha Lake my instructor "jammed" the elevator, and told me to land the airplane without use of elevator. Oh ... okay ... hmmmmm ... how could I do that, with only power and trim available to raise or lower the aircraft nose ? ? ? It was relatively easy until I was about 20 feet up, approaching the runway. Then I did a series of "porpoise" manoeuvers from about ten to twenty feet above the runway, trying to use power and trim to get the aircraft nose up and the tail down in a flare for landing, and avoiding smacking down into the runway with the nose down, smacking down on the nose wheel. That's called a "crash". HA HA HA ! Well, I did it, but I hope there weren't too many observers in the airport terminal, critiquing my landing !

DSK