Plane and Pilot

MARCH 25, 2025

She walked me through the foyer to the spotless, freshly painted hangar. The GameBird is right at home on the grass, pavement, or TacAeros clean hangar. As I adjusted the rudder pedals to my 5-foot-4 frame, Waghorn ran through a few last-minute details before climbing up the wing to the front passenger seat.

Knot 111

Knot Airplanes Runway Rudder 111

Air Facts

MAY 24, 2024

Centerline, centerline, centerline Air Facts Journal It was a beautiful May day as we grabbed the tow bar to pull the 1981 Cessna 182 out of the hangar. The only thing that caught my attention was a 90 degree crosswind coming from the east that was gusting to 11 or 12 knots. My left crosswind became left downwind very quickly.

Aileron 98

Aileron Crosswind Knot Runway 98

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 29, 2024

Kentland has a 4,000-foot runway, east/west, with a crosswind straight out of the north. When you discover too late that the old rudder lock doesn’t fit the new rudder… The local hardware store had pool noodles, PVC tubing, and rope. The upper Midwest scenery can be spectacular. As I got on downwind, the ADS-B went totally nuts.

Weather 74

Weather Runway Knot Rudder 74

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

I watched the stick flutter to and fro in sync with the rudder pedals as Wilkins fought to maintain the centerline, all the while pushing in the throttle. Once there, he put us in a slight right turn toward our first fuel stop 60 miles ahead, continuously fighting the stick as the gusting left crosswind did its best to push us off course.

Runway 98

Runway Crosswind Rudder Pilot 98

Plane and Pilot

JANUARY 23, 2025

Taxiing procedures: Moving the aircraft to the runway involves steering with your feet using the rudder pedals. Although I consider myself somewhat of a fearless adrenaline junkie, watching the wheel just outside my window touch down on the pavement while the other was still suspended as we leaned into a crosswind got my heart racing a bit.

Rudder 97

Rudder Descent Pilot Runway 97

Plane and Pilot

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

The 172 has a steerable nosewheel, much heavier than the rudders on my RV-9A with a castering nosewheel. There was a nice crosswind, and I demonstrated landing on a concrete expansion joint, offset from the runway centerline. It had undergone some repair work done after experiencing soot and smoke damage from a fire in a nearby hangar.

Pitot Tube 80

Pitot Tube Approach Aileron Instrument Landing System 80

Photographic Logbook

FEBRUARY 2, 2025

At the airport, there was ice and snow to remove from in front of the hangar door, fuel to add to the Warrior now resting on three fully inflated tires (the left main had a new tube), and then there was the moment when I slipped on ice while pulling the airplane from the hangar and landed flat on my back. We had a deal.

Runway 89

Runway Knot Weather Turbulence 89