Turbulent Circuits
In order to remain current for night flying with the Calgary Flying Club, pilots must complete at least 5 takeoffs and landings within a 90 day period. With a holiday in November and Christmas in December, I was getting close to the end of my 90 days.
The surface winds for most of the day were straight down (or just off) the active runway but were 19+ knots, gusting to 25 knots. But by the time I got out to the Springbank airport, things had calmed down considerably, with the wind blowing at 14 knots straight down Runway 25. And at 0300Z when I was holding short at Charlie for 25, it had dropped further to 12 knots.
The first three touch and go’s were uneventful; boring almost (I hate doing circuits). But it was as if Mother Nature was reading my thoughts because circuits four and five brought moderate (leaning towards heavy) chop in the circuit. So much so that I dared not do anything other than shallow turns. In the end, I requested runway 34 and was granted a right turn to join a wide downwind for a right-hand circuit on runway 34.
And, sensing I’d had enough, Mother Nature calmed the winds to 7 knots giving me a reasonable crosswind and a smooth, though somewhat long on the rollout, return to ’terra firma’ as the controller called it.
My PIREP was recorded for evermore as:
UACN10 CYEG 250345
EG UA /OV CYBW /TM 0345 /FL055 /TP P28A /TB MDT CHOP /RM IN CCTS -VIA YEG
FIC-
Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:32 Posted in Flying
