Recording Your Own Death Spiral

Salt Flats south of Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas

We are cruising in our Zenith 601HDS, N314LB, past the southern tip of the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas, en route from Dallas, TX, to Deming, NM, to visit friends Lynn and Philip. 

Below is an unusual view of the Salt Flats. Normally, they are parched, but today they are wet with moisture and even contain some ponds. What an unusual view!

Out comes the camera. For a good shot, we dip the left wing, use the telephoto feature of the camera, move the camera while waiting for the right composition, and become totally absorbed. Time flies when you are having fun, or here, when you are absorbed in taking a good picture. By chance I look up from the viewfinder, and what the ....? The plane is spiraling downward at a steep angle. Ten more seconds of photography fun and I would have been in serious trouble, trying to recover from a deadly downward spiral.

So this is the day to learn a lesson: If you are flying solo, as we are doing on this trip, photography out of the cockpit in a low-wing plane such as ours should not be done. The reason is simple. To get a decent shot, you almost always have to dip a wing, and that sets you up for a deadly spiral while you are focusing on the photography business.

There is one exception. If you have an autopilot, as we do, turn it on, and let it execute a shallow 360 turn. If you have altitude hold, turn that on, too.  We do not have that feature, but our plane deviates very little from level flight when trimmed properly. So as the turn begins, we trim for level flight, and then start taking photographs. That's how the above picture was shot. 

Here are more results. First, a view of the southern tip of the Guadalupe Mountains. There has been so much rain in West Texas this summer that now, in August, the low hills display a velvety green. 

Southern tip of Guadalupe Mountains, West Texas

The green vegetation emphasizes eroded layers near El Paso. 

Hills in West Texas near El Paso

During the visit with Lynn and Philip, we hike in the mountains — well, really hills — an hour north of Mimbres, NM. Due to the monsoon, the hills are lush in green, and flowers bloom in abundance.

Thistle

Morning Glory

Small-leaved Globemallow

The return trip is a bit more complicated. Departing from Deming, NM, ceilings are just high enough for marginal VFR. But east of El Paso, we can climb above a scattered layer that now and then closes up. Not to worry. We know from ADS-B that all airports east of the Guadalupe Mountains are VFR with unlimited ceiling, so descending for the refueling stop in Andrews, TX, will be easy. 

Near the Guadalupe Mountains, billowing clouds frame our route, at one time forming a miles-wide gate. We have never seen such varied cloud formations, a thrilling experience. The southern tip of the Guadalupe Mountains, so inviting on our trip west three days earlier, is mostly enclosed in clouds.

Southern tip of Guadalupe Mountains, seen from the West

What have we learned? Single-pilot flight and taking photos in a low-wing plane can be a deadly mix. To avoid a catastrophic downward spiral, turn on the autopilot for stabilized flight in a 360 degree turn before shooting photos. If you don't have an autopilot, just don't take pictures. That's better than the NTSB analyzing photos in your camera to figure out how a perfectly functioning plane can fall out of the sky.

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