Beautiful slip into a nice landing. Nothing more satisfying than being in a big slip on final and then kicking that rudder in, straightening out and greasing a landing.
I just saw this video. Thanks for posting it! Great learning tool. You wisely executed Go Arounds until the profile was correct! Kudos to you and your professionalism. This is a great teaching aid for all pilots.
Correct. This video was from my first visit there. I turned base too soon on the first two attempts finding myself too high. The view of the mountainside in front of me, the one we'd hit if we extended downwind too far, was scaring me into the early turn. Diving for the runway from that height would have been a big mistake. After the 2nd go-around some nice person on the ground suggested I extend the downwind and that's what I did on the third attempt. The trick is to fly the pattern at the slowest maneuvering speed for your aircraft, extend the downwind, and when you make the turn follow the slope of the terrain. If things don't go well you can drop the nose, increase the throttle, and escape to the south. And getting used to seeing nothing but earth on all sides of the airplane - that helps to make things go better.
Anticipate Side Spliping on final looks like the best tactic here to keep the base turn high enough to stay secured from trees with a wider radius in that tight valley. Trying to be as low as possible during downwind and base to get the perfect height for the final looks like a bad choice to me as well as going too far on downwind.
That was a dangerous game you played. You sure landed well. There’s no playing around those mountainous terrain. No question a Bonanza is a great plane if not The Best Plane…no margin for errors though. Nice job.
Scary. On the one approach, the air speed was down at the bottom of the white arc and it looked as though there was a significant bank angle. I was getting chest pain watching. Nice job.
Thanks for watching and commenting. I spent quite a bit of time establishing my minimum controllable airspeed and the actual stall speed with stuff out. My Bonanza will break at 45 kts and so I will stay at least 1.3 times greater, which magically is the bottom of the white arc. The bank angle was not as steep as it looked in the video. The technique I was taught, and trying to adhere to here, was to fly on the back of the power curve where the horizontal speed component is as low as possible but the vertical is great. Use throttle to manage the sink rate. And because we're flying a flat attitude, we only need to unload the wing if things go south.
Thanks for sharing, especially when the footage contains “Lessons Learned”, which often just elicit criticism from the outside world. It’s always interesting to visit new airports which challenge your skills, and add to your experience. These days an airport can be researched, and its tricks learned in advance, just like this video. So another Lesson Learned might be to surf online for all the “inside info” before you make the flight. And you might even have done that.. It was valuable to ride along the first two attempts, agree you were too high (unless cross-controlling and slipping hard which can be risky or barred by the manual), then the go arounds, and finally the success.. Thanks again! Cheers!
Thanks for the comment Arthur. I agree that online research and the tools at our disposal are great for preparing. I will say though that despite all the preparation, the first time entering a narrow canyon at high density altitude was something I could not fully understand from reading about it. Like spin training, there's just no way to understand the sensation without experiencing it. The higher ground speeds and boxed in sensation are the two things that stood out for me. Looking back on how my flying experience, I would recommend that someone who normally flies over flat lands near sea level (like myself) not attempt something like this until they are very comfortable flying their airplane at minimum controllable airspeeds, have enough flying experience to not get distracted by something unusual, and have worked with a flight instructor who does this kind of flying. With these pillars of experience, one can build their experience level by starting with some of the more accessible strips in the backcountry and working toward getting into some of the more challenging spots. Johnson Creek is a favorite. I missed getting in there last year because of all the smoke. Planning to be there again in a few weeks, in early July.
20 degrees on takeoff and full flaps for landing unless really gusty, then use partial flaps. I don't have a cockpit indicator, so I placed tape on the left flap to visually indicate 15 and 20 degrees.
