Handicap flight flown Friday evening, May 24. After enjoying a great flight back from Ann Arbor MI, I landed in Iowa City. The winds were calming down, and it seemed like a good evening to try to get the handicap flight done. After calling Dan, we agreed that the "stars were aligned" finally.
Empty out the plane except for the minimum items allowed - e.g., towbar, POH (aka Pilot Operating Handbook for the plane), aircraft documents, iPad (with charts, maps). Fueled up. Weight & balance done. Weather checked - winds 150 at 8 kts.
We taxi out, launch, fly south of Iowa City climbing to 5,800 ft. The GPS tracker from ARC is turned on and logging our flight. We check all the instruments and get the plane leveled and trimmed out for level flight. Time to fly "the box" - keep it level +/- 20 ft at full power - fly 5 min on 090 heading (E) - fly 5 min on 360 heading (N) - fly 5 min on 270 heading (W) - fly 5 min on 180 heading (S) - DONE! Dan has recorded 12 ground speed readings on each of the four legs that will be compared to the tracker file log. We turn out of "the box" and head back to Iowa City as the sun sets on the horizon.
The data are downloaded from the tracker and sent with Dan's paperwork to ARC handicap headquarters. They run their analyses to set the handicap speed for the aircraft. Flying "the box" monitors ground speeds while flying with winds in front of, behind and to the sides of the plane. It all gets factored together. Tonight, we receive confirmation that the handicap flight was a good one. Mission accomplished - CHECK!
