httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMmoKkIC7cY
Aircraft: C150
Registration: C-FFXT
Dual Time: 1.1 Total: 55.0
PIC Time: 0.0 Total: 26.5
Total Time: 81.5
Today was a special flight for me. It would involve many “firsts”. First time in a C150, first time as PIC in a C150. First time flying up the Gatineau River instead of over the hills and first time flying with Louis, RFC’s newest flight instructor. Considering all of this, the flight was amazing and a great time was had by all.
I arrived to the airport early on Monday morning to help remove the dusting of snow from the wing covered C150, C-FFXT. Louis was there and in good spirits. After a quick walk around noticing the details that differ between a C172 and the C150 we were soon heading over to the run-up area. I noticed that the C150 has a lot less mass and therefore a lot less inertia than it’s bigger brother the C172. You can tell right away that although these aircraft are similar in appearance they are very different in personality. As the runway was covered in about 2 mm of snow it was a quiet day with only us and one other aircraft reporting in the area. I LOVE flying in the snow.
We took off using standard configuration with Louis’ warning fresh in my head “she won’t lift off right away but just kinda mush its way into the sky.” He was correct but since the temp was down in the -2 arena the aircraft performed surprisingly well attaining 600 FPM on the climb out. Soon we would turn up the Gatineau river and head up to 3000’ in the “East practice area”. I was asked to get the aircraft setup in slow flight. It was a cinch by bringing out the carb heat, then reducing power. Louis caught me forgetting my HASEL check! Bad PIC! I went ahead and verified all was well then resumed slow flight with some shallow turns. Nothing exciting here. Next was the stall.
I am never great with Stalls, I don’t like the attitude and almost always seem to get a wing drop. Louis offered “The 150’s seem to have a faster wing drop than the 172’s” adding to my apprehension. Soon I was pulling back into a weak but passable stall. I didn’t like that it didn’t “break” so I pulled back herder causing a secondary stall that felt much better. I recovered and went back to 3000’ to try a power on stall with 1500 RPM. That went wall and I then asked Louis to demo a stall for me just to see the “real” one. He setup and pulled and as the stall warning came on he PULLED! The nose went up then the left wing dropped to approx 30 degrees and we slowly went around in a small circle at the edge of stall. Louis was holding full opposite rudder and it didn’t lift the wing! He simply accepted a small altitude loss and flew the aircraft out of the stall. It was fun, if not unexpected for both of us.
Next up were steep turns, they are so much easier to perform in the C150 than they are in the C172. The nose is so light and the aircraft just loves to fly so one to the right and one to the left were a breeze. Soon we were heading back to CYRO for circuits. The first approach was deemed to be 20 degrees of flap and normal touchdown. Since the snow was on the field, a soft field technique was called for on every landing. I managed my approach with Louis talking me thru the numbers and came in for a really flat and slightly off center landing. It was still quite good, particularly for my VERY FIRST one yet as I raised the flaps and put in the power I overheard Jean in C-GBRI call on the radio, “Make sure that you practice your soft field techniques today guys!” Now I must take a small aside here.
It is fully understandable for one to want to be “helpful” to other pilots but I have 2 major problems with this comment.
- 1: Except in cases of dire circumstances you should always save the debrief or judging of a pilot’s performance for the ground as it is rarely helpful in the heat of the moment and only can cause them to dwell on the performance issue and not staying ahead of the aircraft.
- 2: He should mind his business as he was NOT my instructor at that moment but merely a ground pounder who happened to get to witness the landing. I think that Louis was well aware of the flat landing and was already offering advice, which I was currently paying for. Now I have nothing against Jean, in fact I HIGHLY respect the guy but that was simply uncalled for and he has the experience to know better!
So that landing out of the way we flew around for my first full flap approach and landing which went off well, again off the centerline, again not quite nose high enough. Louis taught me a new acronym, NOAH. Nose ON or Above Horizon. For landing and rollout on a C150. Good advice. The next two landings were on par, not the best in my book but certainly passable and definitely considering the conditions were okay. As we climbed out for circuit number 5 I sensed this would be the last one. I asked Louis “Engine out for this one?” He replied “nah, I’m not going to be mean to you this time”. As we turned downwind I heard Jean call on the radio “Bravo Romeo India simulated engine failure Runway two seven”. Louis almost giggled, “Well if they get one……”
Abeam the numbers I asked for the engine failure, Louis disregarded and waited until I was about to turn base when he gave me a “partial engine failure”. Since the carb heat was already out and the runway was there, I ignored the outage and flew the aircraft down to a very decent landing, again left of center. My only real satisfaction was that for the 4 or so circuits that BRI made, they too followed my black tracks making it “the” runway! 
Louis signed me off for flying the “little birds” and now I can add a new aircraft to the repertoire. The only downside is that flying a C150 does not enable currency on a C172 so I will have to make some dual booking for it soon. All in all I had an amazing time and managed to make a decent video of the flight!
Thanks Louis for being a calm and excellent instructor. You da man!
Tags: Firsts
Hey Michael,
I actually talked to Jean later that day about his comment and it turns out it wasn’t in response to our landing, but just a friendly reminder that now the snow has arrived, soft field technique should be practiced. I guess he could have articulated that more clearly, because like you, I assumed it was a reaction to our landing. I’m still a junior instructor, and as such, I get lots of these friendly reminders from all the senior staff. Sometimes it’s news to me, sometimes I already know it. I just smile and nod. They don’t know what I know. Jean did most of my instructor rating, and so has a certain “parent looking out for their kids” syndrome with me. Just like I have with all my students. Just like how I’m tempted to remind you of what we covered during our lesson. Just like how I want to remind you that it’s nose on or above horizon.
Louis, thanks for pointing out that information. It makes me feel a lot better knowing that even though the timing was there, it wasn’t derogatory. I’ve updated my post slightly to account for this. I also fixed the acronym, that’s an important one!
I had to chop out some of the video but it’s still worthy of watching. I’ll post a new link as soon as it finished digesting at youtube. Now that we’ve flown at o’dark early, how do you feel about working at night? hint, hint…