Greenbank Newsletter, December 2005 

Well we had our first major snowfall last Saturday December 3rd and my experiment on the runway looks like its working fine.

Some of you are wondering what I mean.

The process is you blow snow off of the field except for around 3 inches. First of all what that does is it saves the turf throughout the winter and stops it from being damaged throughout the winter. Then you get a gigantic roller (the previous owner left behind one of these) and you roll the snow flat after you blow the runway.

They say that shortly you have a hard surface runway that is not supposed to be too slippery. Of course that will be the interesting question. Will it be too slippery. So far everyone is reporting good results. Our own flight school was working on it yesterday with good training and today Durham Flight school is working on. I guess time will tell.

You all need to know something very important about the strip the way it is and or the strip the way it is in the winter or winter landing and take off.

Here is the way that I see and understand it.

On take off you have a slippery surface. That affects the ground roll (shorter and especially in the high density cold air). That also means that your heavier load seems lighter but don't get too bold!

On the roll bear in mind that even the slightest cross wind means a side load on your wheels or skis so pay attention to your rudder and aileron even more than normal and be careful not to hit a light pylon if you slide sideways. By the way full power on your rudder is almost totally mandatory on take off. If for some reason you need to abort, you had better have air pressure (wind and power ) on the rudder or you might lose your steering abilities.

Which brings me to the landing.

You need to be able to steer on snow or ice and a turning nose or tail wheel most likely will not work. You need as I mentioned before, to have pressure on the rudder. I cannot over state that as this is your steering wheel. If you dont believe me, land on an open lake and you will find out that the rudder is god.

Please dont let me scare you as there are so many positives of snow flying that once you master and understand the slide issue, you will find out that you end up having more control in some areas than you ever had. For example, to do a sharp turn, you simply do prop blast with one brake on and you will be shocked at how easy the aircraft slides around. Also if you find that you are coming up fast on something again you can do a 180 in a straight line, add full power and stop on a dime while you are going backwards. I know that that is extreme and I pray that you never have to, but you cannot do that on dry ground.

Again if you want to play, find a frozen lake with no cracks etc.

On the approach we have always recognized ground gradient. Simply put in ground school, we call it a cushion of air that exists most of the time because as the air passes over grass or a rough surface (pavement) or is pushed down (by the aircraft) , it meets friction that slows the escape of the air underneath the plane,therefore allowing the aircraft to experience a sort of cushion which in many cases, gives you those precious extra milliseconds to input control.

Well on an icy lake the cushion does not exist or I might say that landing on any surface that cannot or does not have good friction qualities, the likely hood of the gradient to be there lessens.

That means you need to fly it on. If you do not remember this, you will after the first landing as it feels like a small weird stall as you start looking for the cushion.

I bet a lot of you take the cushion for granted as if its just naturally there every time. I learned this while landing on ice and the plane came down hard. After a day of this I quickly learned that this must be the reason. No one ever told me but after speaking to a few instructors they agreed.

So to finish, snow has a wee bit of friction but not much so be aware.

Lastly remember carb ice. It really exists in that 2 degrees below and above freezing most of all but can of course be there in other temperatures and moisture levels.

For some of us that do not have carb heat, watch out mostly for this after about 15 minutes of flying or more. Do not fly low especially as you shorten your deadstick window. If you are fortunate, the engine will run rough and you get to land and fix the carb ice. Otherwise, you get to glide.

The most pressure drops in your carb are of course at full throttle. The larger the pressure drop the more likely of carb ice. That means the red line area is the take off. Your first takeoff might be fine but the second or third might have cooled your carb body enough to start icing. If takeoff is the most crucial time of the flight, you might want to know this. Again that is if you do not have carb heat.

To avoid carb ice, dont fly in those temperatures or have the ability to look at your carb to see if there is frost on them during the typical days of icing.

As of this writing, the main 16/34 runway is open and being used for flight training by our own and other schools in the area. It seems that they cannot find the example that I shared with you in the first few paragraphs and are anxious to teach the concept to their students.

The fuel is fine but still waiting for Mo Gas (no not more gas). It will happen soon but probably in January.

All hangers are free of snow and in front of doorways. I would really encourage you all to experience snow flying as I have always maintained that it really is the best time of year.

Alvin who owns the Maule that is tied down, needs to know that there is also a path for him to simply taxi out to the runway and go flying. The best type of aircraft to fly on wheels and snow is a tail dragger apparently.

I am contemplating also blowing out the alternate as it is so easy to do it and the cabin in the tractor is heated. I guess that means I will. Actually I was going to start today at lunch but I needed fuel for the tractor.

The runway lights are on hold due to frozen ground but I had anticipated that anyway. I did install two of them to what they look like and they are fine but of course not hooked up to power. The reflectors on them look great as apparently with good reflectors, you can land with no lights. Please dont do that but the reflective back up will be nice.

Some of you already know that we are also going to run an ultralight training facility at 1st Class Flight training. The new Ultra rules are out as of the 1st of December and allow PP Ultra to carry passengers, which is a real light aircraft breakthrough.

The ground school is 20 hours long and the flight training is 10 hours. Obviously that cost is less than Private Pilot GA. For those friends of yours that cannot afford Private Pilot GA or want an alternative, here it is. They can always graduate to heavier equipment in their flying career. Also the medical for Ultra is a simple note from your GP. Not bad eh. All you need more is your radio and radio license which I believe our flight instructor can do. (I should ask him first though).