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Dang! I'm really missing sum'thin here. I regularly fly
into Santa Paula, SZP, which has a pattern altitude of 600' AGL. I'm on downwind
at 120 mph IAS with my gear down. Due to the close proximity of the hills south
of Santa Paula, you can't fly a cross-country pattern as I see so many do at
Santa Maria; you're probably 1/2 mile at most. Opposite the approach-end of RWY
22 I pull the throttle all the way back, and slow to 100 mph IAS as I put
out the flaps. I continue on downwind until I am forced to turn base rather than
doing a CFIT into the oil derrick on the rocky outcropping. If the maintenance
guy is in his pick-up at the derrick I might toot my horn at him as I turn!
I go along a little more on base and turn final a little high so as not to end
up in the trees and power lines. Then I slip to get somewhere near the approach
end so that Klaus doesn't have to come extricate me from the dirt berm at
the end of the runway near his hangar. Typically I have about 70 lb of fuel, so
with me and cockpit stuff I'm at about 1300 lb. I have tip extensions which add
about 2 sq. ft., so I have an AR of 8.05 rather than the typical 7.2, and a
three-blade fixed pitch prop. Idle is about 650-700 rpm. I'm obviously doing
something very wrong, since the drift I'm getting from this thread is I should
be dead. Keep in mind, SZP was the home of Lancair before Redmond, so there was
lots of 235, 320, and IV activity there. No one died that I remember. Help
me!!!!
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