No wind means choices are open

[DieselFan]

Was at airfield this weekend talking to a fellow pilot, vaguely aware of a trike taking off as he flew past us - SILENCE. I ran ahead a few metres as he had gone behind the hangars.

He was about 2x hangar height and VERY close to end of runway, prop not turning and directly towards power lines . Needless to say he banked sharp left and landed on ploughed land parallel to lines. Whew.

He and pax appeared to be fine and managed to get towed back.

We then looked at the wind sock and it was no budging at all, so why not take off downhill and away from power lines?

I've noticed on many occasions that we fly like sheep (not meant to be insulting). I'm sometimes so eager to get airborne I don't even look at sock, I just follow them all . Yes my instructor corrects me, but for me it's only after this near miss I realise the importance of runway selection as one day my instructor won't be there.

[Morph]

My logic tells me to default to the runway with the best chance of landing safely again in an engine out even in cross wind and slight tailwind conditions if you have sufficient runway length. Unfortunately you have to always consider the surrounding areas, farms who are sensitive to noise etc.

Morning Star does not have a safe landing place in the southerly direction except onto the N7 or if you have sufficient altitude you should clear the bluegums all around you and land in the fields to the left. In the northerly direction we have the N7 or a small polo-field to the right in the Ostrich farm. Our default runway is to the south to minimise flying over the Ostrich farm to the north. It is wise to backtrack to the absolute start of the runway and once airborme gain as much alt as quickly as possible. This will give you runway ahead of you in a failure. I would only attempt a turn around to land on the taxiway or runway if I am above 700ft AGL. This is something worth practicing.

[DieselFan]

Funny enough, I was practicing dead stick landings 20 mins later, and meant to be going solo. I've been delaying my medical and student lic on purpose . The idea of picking a landing out of mielies and ploughed land is terryfying. I can see the next 60 hours of my mpl will be spent on forced, unplanned, pumping, scary, what if landings

[Morph]

Come now DF we are waiting in anticipation for the big event. Remember you start learning once you are on your own. This is where the big excitement is.

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Always down hill, even sometimes with tailwind. Other factors NB, but logic dictates that downhill the glide will always be better than uphill as ground is getting further away. Also ground run should be marginally (at best or significantly if big slope) shorter...



PS
Another reason to use all avail runway. If it dies just after lift off you have chance to land back on runway. Intersection take offs are cocky and fine if all OK. (I am guilty of this sometimes )

[RV4ker (RIP)]

PPS
DF
Good luck for the big day. Dead stick is simply a well planned approach which does not need power to be corrected... In old days every landing was a dead stick/glide app. Traffic congestion me thinks has lead to power approaches becoming norm.

When my Pop learn't to fly standard arrival procedure was overhead the field at 1500', cut the power and glide down to the runway. Was excellent practise and when the engine actually died it was not such a huge shock...

[GR8-DAD]

Always down hill, even sometimes with tailwind.

Agree 100% - our runway is also sloped and we take off down hill 19/20 times with MPL, Cessna etc with a slight tailwind - more airspeed is generated this way. We also have 2 Bellanca Scouts at our hanger and they take off either way due to the short take off distance required - quite awsome to watch.

The sloped runway however creates for interesting conversation after a couple of Rookie landings..........