That was my concern as I put on my scuba mask: what was I going to do if I needed to cough under water. But then I remembered that people have been known to vomit into their regulators (a good way to attract fish).
As it turned out, most of us in the dive party were fighting some sort of bug: at least two people were dealing with a cold, someone had sinus problems and I was dealing with a runny nose and a cough but feeling good otherwise.
Our descent was one of the slowest I have ever been in during a scuba trip but I was grateful. As I worked to equalize pressure (this can be painful when you are having sinus problems), I looked around and I could tell that everyone else in the dive party was also struggling with the same thing. After this first discomfort, things went well and we enjoyed a nice dive.
In the end, I did cough into my regulator once but it was no big deal. An itch on my face was more of an event: I gave in to temptation and scratched the itch and in doing so flooded my mask.
I am not one to stay home on windy days even when I am planning on flying. But, sometimes, depending on what and where you are flying, it is best to just do some hangar flying.
This past weekend proved to be a little too windy for flying. I was originally scheduled to fly a Citabria on Saturday but the winds were too much for this little taildragger on its home runway: winds were 15 knots gusting to 27 knots at 90 degrees to the runway. The maximum crosswind conditions for this plane were more like 18-20 knots.
I knew things would not be much better on Sunday for the Citabria at Houston Southwest Airport (AXH). Instead, I decided to fly a Cessna 172 from West Houston Airport (IWS). We still had the strong winds but they were now pretty much down the runway and tricycle gear planes are easier to deal with in crosswinds.
The low ceiling concerned me so I decide to stay close to the airport in case things turned nasty. So, I practiced landings. I did two landings at IWS before I decide I would give Weiser (EYQ) a try: I expected the winds to be at 90 degrees to the runway and the hangars would add an extra challenge. Not surprisingly, I was the only one that was willing to practice landings at Weiser this morning.
Expecting the strong winds to push me a little off of the centerline, I began my turn to final early but not early enough – I still had to correct to get lined up. On final I had to keep playing with power and pitch to keep proper speed. Once closer to the ground, I had to continually work the pedals, yoke and power to maintain centerline and speed. I was patient and kept it in the air as long as I could while trying to get a smooth landing which I managed to do. Just when I was about to relax, the nose gear started vibrating like crazy: another case of having to work on the nose gear dampers (second airplane I’ve had do this to me in about a month). The only thing I could do was pull back on the yoke to try to get some pressure off of the nose gear before doing a 180 and back-taxiing to take off and shoot another landing … I did mention I had the airport to myself, right?
I know a lot of people don’t like to land under these conditions (referring to Weiser’s strong crosswinds) but I think it is a great exercise. I know that if things get too hairy I will just do a go around and either try again or go somewhere else to land.
In this video you will see what it looks like as I try to land the plane at Weiser. The video stops just before I pull over to the side to do my 180 to back-taxi.
