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Remember this post from a while ago? Well, in my continuing effort to post some video on this blog, I uploaded the one video that I had to YouTube. I took a nice panoramic video from the big field next to the lake.
It really is a nice place to hike up in the ridge. If you get a chance, make a day trip of it.
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I made it the flight school early again and wanted to get some of the preflight stuff out of the way, but the plane was locked. I figured it would be, so I cleaned the dew off the windshield. Yigal came and I got the key to do the whole preflight. We needed fuel, so we started the airplane and taxied over to the filling station. Putting fuel in a Cessna (high wing) is a bit different than the Piper (low wing). You need a ladder to get up to the tank caps. Other than that, it is about the same. The tanks were pretty low, so I put about 45 gallons in them.
Today was perfect weather for practicing more takeoff and landings. I am getting pretty good at them. The one problem I am still having is not gauging the height of the plane from the runway when we are almost at the touchdown point. We are generally higher than I think we are, so the touchdown is slightly bumpy. Also, in a Cessna, you need to keep the yoke pulled back while landing and after you land as well. If you don’t, you will put too much weight on the front wheel.
What really excited me about these lessons is that I actually learn things. This lesson, the major point I took away was to keep my speed at least 70kts when approaching the runway to land. During one landing, our speed was only 60kts, so when we approached closely to the touchdown spot, I stalled the plane to drop somewhat hard. Controlling the airplane at that low speed is difficult as well. I think the tendency for new pilots is to slow the plane down as much as possible to land, but that shouldn’t be the case. It just feels weird giving the airplane more throttle as you are approaching the runway. I will be sure to practice this next time, as I am sure we will be working on this more. Yigal wants me to practice staying above the blacktop at a height of about 3 feet for as long as possible. After that hard landing, I explained to him what I did wrong. That put a smile on his face. He likes it when his students realize what their mistakes are and plan on correcting them next time. He says that flying is all about corrections.
One of my mistakes during takeoff is climbing at too high of an airspeed (not enough pitch). I usually climb at 80kts, when it should be only 70kts. The way to lower the speed is to pitch the airplane up so you gain as much altitude as fast as possible. There are two reasons for this: 1. to gain altitude fast in case you lose your engine, and 2. to save fuel. I will be sure to work on this as well.
I am really starting to feel very comfortable flying these airplanes. If I had to do my solo tomorrow, I would be able to. I hope Yigal is not reading this. (haha)
After my sixth takeoff, I looked over at the ridge and told Yigal I can’t wait to start flying around to look at the beautiful views of the area. Since he seems to really love the Autumn colors, he said, “Let’s do it.” I said, “Yeah baby!” and headed towards the ridge. We flew about 10.5 miles Northwest, straight for the Mohonk Mountain House tower . I climbed to 3,500ft and we cruised all the way over at 2,200rpm (110mph). When we reached our point, I descended to about 2,000ft and we circled the Mountain House. We flew over Minnewaska State Park (earlier post) and further South along the ridge. I think I am pretty lucky to be learning how to fly in this area of the country. I really couldn’t ask for anything more.
We headed back towards the airport and I actually knew where it was. I figure that if I flew Northwest towards the ridge, I should fly Southeast back to the airport. I really felt like a genius. I descended from 3,500ft to 1,400ft and entered the airport landing pattern. When I entered the pattern, Yigal pushed the throttle to idle and told me to do an emergency landing. I banked for a tight left and kept my optimum glide speed of 70kts. I came in to land and we drifted slightly to the right. Yigal was telling me to use the left rudder, but we had already landed ok. He asked me what happened and I explained to him that we were in an emergency situation and I had to land the plane. He loves it.
Till next time!
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Welcome to one of the wonders of the world…well almost. It should be anyway.
Early this Spring, Laura and I decided to take our first motorcycle ride through the ridge. It was one of the first nice warm days of the year, so it was perfect for the type of ride we wanted to take. We decided to ride to Minnewaska State Park. I have heard a lot about the park, but from some reason, I always thought it was this big flat field. I was shocked at what I discovered.
We got there by taking Rt. 55 from New Paltz towards Kerhonkson, NY. It is a really nice ride on a motorcycle. When you get to the bottom of the ridge and start climbing the mountain road, it gets pretty intense. There is a sharp hairpin turn there that will scare the hell out of you if you don’t follow the 5MPH speed limit. We kept riding up the mountain and saw the best view over the Hudson Valley on the left and rock climbers on the right, through the trees. About 5 miles in on the left hand side is the park. There is a dirt road with a small booth run by New York State Parks. I rolled up and gave the lady $6 for the entrance fee. I asked where the waterfall that everyone talks about was (Awosting Falls). She said to follow the dirt road about two miles to the parking area (it was really about 25 feet in on the left. I am surprised she didn’t hear the water falling). Anyway, we followed the dirt road all the way in and arrived at some spectacular views. There were people playing in the field and the most tranquil lake you would ever see, just sitting all the way up at the top of this mountain. I was really impressed by it.
We decided to park the bike and hike to the other side of the lake, where you could see the Catskill Mountains as a backdrop.
We passed a really nice little wooden bridge with the path going underneath it and some quiet picnic areas.
When we got to the top of the area, where we could get the best view, we found a great field for football, baseball or whatever. The breeze was great up there, so you would be fine on even a hot day.
We must have asked about 5 people where the waterfall was. No one knew. They were all probably looking around just like us. We wandered back down the trail to continue our quest for Awosting Falls. With no luck up in that part of the park and with it getting dark, we decided to hop back on the bike and head for the gate. On our way to the gate, we noticed a little trail with a small sign on it: Awosting Falls. Ah ha! We parked the bike and walked down the path for a few hundred feet. The setting sun was so nice glistening off the river water. It is things like that I will remember forever. We finally got to the falls and were pretty excited. They had a very nice drop and reminded me of the falls up in Ithaca, NY
We stayed at the falls for a while and walked back up to the waiting motorcycle while putting our helmets on for the trip home.
