[elky] Re: [non] Flying
- From: STILLFRANKSFAULT@xxxxxxx
- To: elky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 10:08:21 EST
Sounds great, looks good. Your a lucky guy to have a friend like that.
Don't miss any opportunity for a flight.
Smoky Mt. Frank
In a message dated 1/5/2011 9:58:14 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jryan@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I got to fly in my friend's King Air 200 last night. For those unfamiliar
with it, here is a picture of a similar plane:
This wasn't a necessary flight. The idea was that the King Air is not
going to fly much for the next month, because its pilot is going to be in
school to learn to fly a new jet, and he wanted to get the engines up to
operating temperature, cycle the landing gear and flaps, and generally get the
fluids moving and warmed up.
Anyway, we took off from Houston Hobby Airport with a 500 ft. ceiling and
flew down to Brazoria County, did a missed approach (on purpose) so the
gear could be cycled down and back up, and flew back to Hobby. It should have
been about 20 minutes in the air, total. Going back to Hobby is where the
fun started.
The approach controller brought us in too high and fast, and John and Clay
waved off the approach before we even got very low. We circled around,
and this time the controller tried to bring us in in front of a Southwest
737, which resulted in us having to dive, and at 500 ft., we still couldn't
see the runway, and were going too fast. So the pilots again called off the
approach, and during the climb-out, kinda told off the controller. "We
want you to bring us out far enough that we can stabilize our descent and not
have to dive to make the runway." Third time was the charm. We finally
broke out of cloud at 280 ft. (!) - minimum for that airplane is 250 ft.
Seeing the runway of a major airport like Hobby through the cockpit
windows is a special treat that airline passengers just don't get. The lights
at
night are incredible, and each has a purpose.
Almost as soon as we saw the runway, John started the flare, and we were
down just past the threshold.
He told me after they shut down and we'd tidied up the plane that he had
not missed an approach in over two years and did two of them tonight because
of a controller trying to be cute. He was pretty miffed. He also said
that if conditions at Hobby had been as bad as they were when we landed, we
wouldn't have taken off. Conditions at Hobby worsened while we were down at
Brazoria County. We're pretty sure we were the next-to-last flight to
land for a while last night.
Anyway, it was very fun to ride on the King Air. It's a beautiful plane,
and very comfortable, even in bumpy conditions. There are no squeaks or
rattles, and the engine noise is not bad. Being a turboprop, it is a
different sound from a jet airliner. That is the first time I can remember
flying
on a turboprop and only the third time I have flown in anything fixed-wing
other than a 737.=
Other related posts:
