I learned my lesson long ago about density altitude when taking off from an Arkansas airport short runway 90 degree heat in a Cherokee 140. I should have departed in the morning cooler air. The extra cooler full of caught fish didn’t help either.
Anyway, I maneuvered around the big trees at the end of the runway and sweated milking it clear of the branches.
I should have written a ‘Never Again’ story about that experience.
my instructor beat into my head ‘time to spare, go by air’
High on my list of “Why am I still alive?” is the event I call “The day I learned what ‘Macon reporting thunderstorms in all four quadrants’ meant”.
I should have written a ‘Never Again’ story about that experience.
we took off at 4:00 PM
That was my “Never Again” experience, A SIGMET had just ended 2 hours before we took off, after passing goffs and heading towards Barstow we hit the worst Turbulence and Micro Bursts imaginable. Before I knew it I was in a downdraft going 2500+ FPM on the VSI(pegged) full power 65 knots, as we approasched the ground, I40 was about 500 below us as I was preparing to land on the highway, I began remembering what my instructor had told me about what goes up comes down and vice versa, all of a sudden I was rocketed back up to 8500 ft with the Power OFF 2500 FPM on the VSI (pegged again) doing everything I could to stop from exceeding VNE, I was doing 130 knots Indicated in a very steep climb, with the yolk pulled All the Way Back, this happened 3 times in about 10 minutes while passing the Granite Mountains and it seemed like an eternity, we were completely out of control on more than a few times during this ordeal.
I have a 2500 ft dirt strip at my house in Mohave Valley at the River in AZ, we fly back and forth constantly and I only fly across the desert in the MORNING, Off before 10AM or we wait, All Summer Long. I seriously doubt that I will ever experience that again, for it truly is a once in a lifetime event.
A friend of mine and his wife were flying home from Vegas at the same time the same day, hit the same crap, and his Wife has never flown again.