Monday, July 2, 2007

Landing on Grass

We found Carleton Place airport after our initial navigation difficulties (see earlier post).

CNR6 has 2200 feet of nice rolling turf, although it can be a little soft and wet in spots, especially in the Spring. Each year I phone before landing there, since it is a "Prior Permission Required" (PPR) airport.

There was an ultralight Challenger on the frequency in-bound when we checked in, but we were closer and travelling faster. I let Lauren fly the approach while I made the radio calls. I pointed out the power lines and the displaced threshold, and she came in low over the hangars and touched down at the threshold. There was no hard bounce and no fighting to keep the aircraft lined up like when we land on asphalt, just a gentle bump and a slide. The grass slowed us down quickly, and we only used a few hundred feet of runway. We turned around and Lauren was surprised by how much power it takes to keep the aircraft rolling on the grass.


CNR6 - Carleton Place, Lauren's first landing on grass and Wonder Woman is still pumped about her landing


CNR6 - Carleton Place, Challenger C-ILPM followed us in

After taking photos to celebrate her best landing yet, and a chat with one of the ultralight pilots, it was time to go again. We did several more "stop and goes" on the grass, hopefully not too many because we don't want to annoy the airport neighbours on a Sunday morning. Lauren experimented with forward slips to lose altitude coming over the trees, and worked on her directional control on the rolling grass runway. Then it was time to leave Carlton Place and go to Gatineau Airport and have lunch at the little restaurant "L'Aileron" in the terminal.


Enroute - Look, it's the Palladium. Wait, it's the Corel Centre. No, it's called Scotiabank Place now. Look for the Ottawa Senators to host another Stanley Cup final series here soon.


Enroute - An eye-catching tennis court in Kanata


Enroute - Canadian suburbia in Kanata

My Aviat Husky has a cousin at Gatineau - this Pitts Special (built by Aviat). He was going up to practise in the aerobatic box as we were getting ready to leave Gatineau. I wanted to tell him that his engine had swallowed a valve but he looked like he was having too much fun.



2 comments:

aeropunk said...

Tony,

Thanks a bunch for the outstanding blog and *fantastic* photographs. I've been reading your adventures from cover-to-cover like a mystery novel for the last few mornings. I'm still a little ways off from owning my own Husky, but you can bet I'll be following in your wake when I do. Keep up the great work.

Brian W.
ATP BE-1900, CFII

Tony Hunt said...

Thanks for the encouragement Brian. I will be leaving on my next trip in a couple of weeks - a swing down through Colorado, Utah and then Idaho again for the Husky Fly-in at Root Ranch on 17 - 19 Aug 07. Final route depends on the weather and whatever looks interesting enroute. Maximum flexibility!