What a gorgeous morning! Sunday morning, I joined Paul for a short hop to Chetek to validate my navigating skills to make sure I am kosher for my upcoming solo cross countries. What a fun trip! This "cross country" being less than 30 miles was actually a bit stressful. I wasn't really stressed because I was concerned about getting lost, the landmarks are pretty easy. The problem was the trip was so close, and the checkpoints so close together, the workload was constant and heavy. I really didn't have much time to enjoy the flight, it was all work.
Not to worry though, the fun came after first landing at Chetek. We landed on 35, a paved runway half the length (3500 ft) and width (60 ft) of any runway in Eau Claire. I came in high and had to do an aggressive slip (with Paul's encouragement) to get it down in time. We taxied to the end of the runway, and Paul instructed me to pull the plane off the runway.... onto the grass.... Ok....
What I didn't realize is that Chetek has a grass strip 25/7. Wow! 1100 ft!! As we begin the back taxi, I see a house that appears no more than 3-4 blocks away with telephone poles around. Yikes!! We have to keep the plane moving so we don't get the nose wheel stuck. And what a different feeling! Taxing on a grass "field" was bumpy. We circled round, never stopped the plane and starting full power as we came out of our turnaround at the end of the runway. Flaps to 10*. Yoke full aft. Wow, when you see the buildings getting so close at the end of the runway, it was a bit overwhelming.... are we going to climb out in time??? Nose off the ground quick, accelerate to barely flying speed, lift off, lower the nose, accelerate to Vx, climb out at Vx. This was a combined soft/short field take off. Quiet a test! We fly out over Lake Chetek. Left traffic, now for a landing on a 1100 ft grass strip. You have to hit your airspeed on approach, and you have to be slow! Normal approach is 70 kts. Short field is 55 kts, half way to stall speed. You have to be slow when you touch down because you MUST slow down in time. Full flaps. Slip if you have to. Touch down. Wow! That touchdown is bumpy on grass. Keep that nose up, full breaks!! Whew! We made it.
We continue to do a bunch of short field landings on the pavement. My greatest fault seems to drift into the runway on downwind before turn to base, I am not sure why. I think the narrower strip is giving me some optical illusion. Then headed back to Eau Claire, some more hood time to get another 0.2 instrument time. Did some practice steep turns, and then we called it a day. A great flight! Looks like I will be set to finish off the last of the requirements, but I learned a lot today, and got more confident controlling the plane at slower speeds.
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