11/20 This was my last solo cross-country, destination KCUL. The plan was simple, the flight straightforward - take off & fly to KCUL, getting flight following from KEVV & transitioning the Charlie airspace, and do the same on the way back to KHNB, which if the winds were as forecast and close to what DUATS was estimating, should put me just over the 1.9 hours of solo time I needed.
Well, I could make this a long post about every detail of the flight, but honestly it was pretty cut and dry. I landed at KCUL and checked the Hobbs. I was less than halfway, still needing 1.2 hours. I made better ground speed than I'd estimated. With a tail wind on the way back, I made even better time. I did a couple touch-and-gos before my full-stop landing to get a little more time in, not knowing if anyone had the plane after me, but in the end I was 0.2 hours short.
The line worker directed me to park near the pumps so he could refuel her. After shut down I gathered my things and headed inside to fill out the tach sheet. I called my CFI and let him know I was a bit shy of the needed time. He said no one had the plane, so I should just go back up and work on landings or whatever I wanted to.
So I went back out to the hangar & had the line worker pull her back out (he'd even closed the door). After she was back out, he closed the door again and let me know he was heading to lunch.
I did another preflight, climbed back up in the seat, continued my checklist, and got ready to start. I yelled, "clear," and turned the key. I was greeted with silence. I tried again, thinking maybe I didn't push the ignition in far enough, & verified I'd turned the Master switches on. Nothing. A third attempt, and I was greeted with a strange, high-pitched moan from under the cowling. That was enough to tell me I wouldn't be getting my .2 hours in today.
I called my CFI back, and let him know I couldn't get it started. He said he was afraid I might have trouble with it, they'd been having problems with it the last few days. That would have been good information to have before I made my cross-country flight, I honestly might have called no-go. But , at any rate, I was that much closer to being done with all of my requirements.
So, we made plans to meet the following week if the plane was repaired in time. I would do a few minutes of solo flight then pick him up and we'd work on accuracy landings and stalls.
Oh and he called me back later in the evening. Turns out the starter was complete toast. They had to order a new one, and it should be in by Tuesday. Great, maybe the photon torpedoes will be on board by then as well.
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Doing Some More Work
I've been ill the last couple weeks, so I'm going to include two flights in one quick post. On 10/20 I went up with my CFI to knock out the .7 hours of hood work, starting with another instrument takeoff. While in the air we also worked on stalls and slow flight - the first time I had worked on either in a year I believe. I also got in 2 more night landings, and I exceeded the requirement for simulated instrument, getting an additional 1.1 hours in under the hood.
On 11/3 I got to the field as early as possible, around 16:45 local, and went up to do some solo work, practicing S-turns, rectangular courses and turns around a point. The weekend prior was the end of daylight savings time, which meant the sun was setting an hour earlier. I didn't have much sunlight left at all once I got in the air. I quickly climbed out and made for the practice area to find a tree, a road, and then later a field to fly around.
I had a good amount of wind, which forced me to remember the correct points at which to shallow and steepen my turns. Rectangular courses came easily. My S-turns really need work though. I know it had been over a year since I'd practiced them, and it showed. I didn't spend too much time on them though. I was running out of daylight and had to get some rectangular course practice in. I found a field and did 2 laps around in each direction. I started to do a third to the right, but looked ad the sun just a few degrees above the horizon, the length of the shadows and the houses that in some cases were already completely covered with shadow, and decided to head back to the field.
I made it back just in time, but for safety I went ahead and activated the runway lights. Not my best landing, but then again at this point that's probably going to be the case for most of them until I get some practice in again.
All in all, I logged another 0.9 solo time, leaving just 1.9 hours of solo flight to complete all of my flight requirements before my checkride. The plan after this lesson was to do a quick solo cross-country to KCUL on Monday 11/9 to finish that up, followed by 1 or 2 flights with my CFI to polish up maneuvers and precision landings.
Details on that flight, which didn't happen on 11/9, in the next post
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
On 11/3 I got to the field as early as possible, around 16:45 local, and went up to do some solo work, practicing S-turns, rectangular courses and turns around a point. The weekend prior was the end of daylight savings time, which meant the sun was setting an hour earlier. I didn't have much sunlight left at all once I got in the air. I quickly climbed out and made for the practice area to find a tree, a road, and then later a field to fly around.
I had a good amount of wind, which forced me to remember the correct points at which to shallow and steepen my turns. Rectangular courses came easily. My S-turns really need work though. I know it had been over a year since I'd practiced them, and it showed. I didn't spend too much time on them though. I was running out of daylight and had to get some rectangular course practice in. I found a field and did 2 laps around in each direction. I started to do a third to the right, but looked ad the sun just a few degrees above the horizon, the length of the shadows and the houses that in some cases were already completely covered with shadow, and decided to head back to the field.
I made it back just in time, but for safety I went ahead and activated the runway lights. Not my best landing, but then again at this point that's probably going to be the case for most of them until I get some practice in again.
All in all, I logged another 0.9 solo time, leaving just 1.9 hours of solo flight to complete all of my flight requirements before my checkride. The plan after this lesson was to do a quick solo cross-country to KCUL on Monday 11/9 to finish that up, followed by 1 or 2 flights with my CFI to polish up maneuvers and precision landings.
Details on that flight, which didn't happen on 11/9, in the next post
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Workin' on the Night Moves...
10/13/2015 This was a pretty laid-back, no-pressure flight for the most part. I met my CFI at the airport around 19:30 local. An hour later than I normally start, I was feeling tired from a hard day at work & couldn't wait to get in the air and engage my flying brain, letting the stress of the day fade into the distance.
I had 2 goals for this flight - fulfill the night cross-country requirement (100nm total distance), and complete the remaining number of night landings required. CUL was our destination, with plans to get in a few landings there before heading back to HNB.
The flight was fairly calm & straightforward. I picked up flight following from EVV & transitioned the Charlie airspace en route to our destination. About 15 miles out of CUL I spotted the beacon & called it out to my CFI, just to let him know I had the field. About 10 miles out EVV approach released me to the CTAF and VFR squawk. I thanked them for their services, then tuned to 122.8 and called my position.
I entered the pattern and began working to convince my brain that even though it was night, and I had no visible peripheral references, this was still the same plane, so I needed to fly it exactly the same. My brain unfortunately didn't agree. Over the course of the next 20 minutes or so, I struggled through 5 landings with something that hasn't been a problem until now - airspeed. I struggled to have enough of it on final. On the last landing he suggested I only use 20 degrees of flaps. This helped a bit, and the last approach and landing at CUL was much better.
We started back home, and I called EVV approach again, picked up flight following & proceeded back through the Class C. Back in the pattern at HNB, I again started having this internal conversation with my brain, and determined to make this last landing the best one. It wasn't bad by any means, but it could have been better, so we did another one. The last approach and landing was the best one I've done at night, and the perfect landing to end the night.
After this flight, only .7 simulated instrument time and 2.8 solo time stand between me and scheduling my checkride (and a flight or two to polish up maneuvers). If all goes to plan I'll have my PPL in my hand by the end of the year.
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
I had 2 goals for this flight - fulfill the night cross-country requirement (100nm total distance), and complete the remaining number of night landings required. CUL was our destination, with plans to get in a few landings there before heading back to HNB.
The flight was fairly calm & straightforward. I picked up flight following from EVV & transitioned the Charlie airspace en route to our destination. About 15 miles out of CUL I spotted the beacon & called it out to my CFI, just to let him know I had the field. About 10 miles out EVV approach released me to the CTAF and VFR squawk. I thanked them for their services, then tuned to 122.8 and called my position.
I entered the pattern and began working to convince my brain that even though it was night, and I had no visible peripheral references, this was still the same plane, so I needed to fly it exactly the same. My brain unfortunately didn't agree. Over the course of the next 20 minutes or so, I struggled through 5 landings with something that hasn't been a problem until now - airspeed. I struggled to have enough of it on final. On the last landing he suggested I only use 20 degrees of flaps. This helped a bit, and the last approach and landing at CUL was much better.
We started back home, and I called EVV approach again, picked up flight following & proceeded back through the Class C. Back in the pattern at HNB, I again started having this internal conversation with my brain, and determined to make this last landing the best one. It wasn't bad by any means, but it could have been better, so we did another one. The last approach and landing was the best one I've done at night, and the perfect landing to end the night.
After this flight, only .7 simulated instrument time and 2.8 solo time stand between me and scheduling my checkride (and a flight or two to polish up maneuvers). If all goes to plan I'll have my PPL in my hand by the end of the year.
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Three Towers Solitaire at Sundown
10/6/2015 This was a straightforward flight with one primary goal - satisfy the requirement for three solo takeoffs and landings at a towered airport - and one secondary goal - chip away at the rest of my simulated instrument time.
Preflight, runup, all normal. Then, my CFI has me put on the hood as I taxi into takeoff position. "I'm going to have you do an instrument takeoff." Even though I've never done one, this actually sounded fun, which surprised me. I'm usually anxious when trying new maneuvers or concepts in the plane, especially when I'm not expecting them. But then again, I need to be prepared for when I'm not expecting to be flying in IMC and suddenly find myself in the situation, so I felt eager to face this challenge.
Except that it wasn't. I have to admit, I actually found it fairly easy to keep the plane going straight down the runway relying only on the HSI as a point of reference.
Once we were in the air, still under the hood, I turned South to head toward OWB, and kept turning, and turning, until he asked me if we were staying in Huntingburg. I corrected, then intercepted the outbound radial from OWB and proceeded inbound.
Once we were near OWB he had me take the hood off. I called Owensboro Tower, advised of my intentions, then entered downwind for runway 36 as instructed & received landing clearance shortly after. I flew the pattern, landed, then taxied back. I did 2 more takeoffs and landings with him in the plane, communicating with the tower as my CFI coached me to stop talking so fast - an issue I still struggle with. I then taxied to Mid-America Aviation & dropped him off.
It was getting dark. I was racing the sunset to get these takeoffs & landings in legally, but I continued, making sure before each takeoff that the sun was still above the horizon, which it barely was as I completed my third and final landing at OWB. I taxied back to Mid-America, picked up my CFI, then called up tower (which handles ground at this time of the evening) to obtain taxi clearance. A quick runup and mag check at the hold short line for 36, then I called up tower to obtain takeoff clearance.
After takeoff, he had me flip the hood back down & continue with more instrument work on the way back to HNB, tracking the VOR outbound & making changes/adjustments on the GPS along the way. I struggled a little at first keeping on course as the lighting was less than ideal, making a couple gauges difficult to read, but I settled the needles down and trimmed for cruise.
"Boy it sure is beautiful up here tonight. Too bad you can't see it!" CFI humor. Gotta love it.
Once we were closer to HNB, it was off with the hood, making my radio calls, then entering the pattern for another night landing. Having only done 3 night landings before, this was still something new to me. I tried to focus on flying the numbers and staying ahead of the airplane. Key word there is try. I came in high and a little slow. After some reminders, I managed to get the plane down for a halfway decent approach & landing. I taxied back, shut 34Q down, then we put her in the hangar & cleaned off the bugs before heading in to debrief the flight.
All-in-all it went well. I have a tendency to chase the needle during hood work, but I'm improving.
For the next flight, I'll be tackling several remaining requirements at once with my CFI. Plan is to complete the night cross-country requirement, heading back to CUL, where I'll also get in a few night landings before heading back to HNB to get in the remaining landings. This should also take care of my remaining 3 hours of night flight. If the flight goes as planned, I should then only have a few hours of solo time and .7 hours of simulated instrument left. We'll also do a brush-up flight or two in between to polish up my maneuvers.
It's getting closer than I thought, and the push is on to cram for the oral exam. I'm expecting to schedule my checkride sometime in early November, just in time for Winter weather to arrive...
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
Preflight, runup, all normal. Then, my CFI has me put on the hood as I taxi into takeoff position. "I'm going to have you do an instrument takeoff." Even though I've never done one, this actually sounded fun, which surprised me. I'm usually anxious when trying new maneuvers or concepts in the plane, especially when I'm not expecting them. But then again, I need to be prepared for when I'm not expecting to be flying in IMC and suddenly find myself in the situation, so I felt eager to face this challenge.
Except that it wasn't. I have to admit, I actually found it fairly easy to keep the plane going straight down the runway relying only on the HSI as a point of reference.
Once we were in the air, still under the hood, I turned South to head toward OWB, and kept turning, and turning, until he asked me if we were staying in Huntingburg. I corrected, then intercepted the outbound radial from OWB and proceeded inbound.
Once we were near OWB he had me take the hood off. I called Owensboro Tower, advised of my intentions, then entered downwind for runway 36 as instructed & received landing clearance shortly after. I flew the pattern, landed, then taxied back. I did 2 more takeoffs and landings with him in the plane, communicating with the tower as my CFI coached me to stop talking so fast - an issue I still struggle with. I then taxied to Mid-America Aviation & dropped him off.
It was getting dark. I was racing the sunset to get these takeoffs & landings in legally, but I continued, making sure before each takeoff that the sun was still above the horizon, which it barely was as I completed my third and final landing at OWB. I taxied back to Mid-America, picked up my CFI, then called up tower (which handles ground at this time of the evening) to obtain taxi clearance. A quick runup and mag check at the hold short line for 36, then I called up tower to obtain takeoff clearance.
After takeoff, he had me flip the hood back down & continue with more instrument work on the way back to HNB, tracking the VOR outbound & making changes/adjustments on the GPS along the way. I struggled a little at first keeping on course as the lighting was less than ideal, making a couple gauges difficult to read, but I settled the needles down and trimmed for cruise.
"Boy it sure is beautiful up here tonight. Too bad you can't see it!" CFI humor. Gotta love it.
Once we were closer to HNB, it was off with the hood, making my radio calls, then entering the pattern for another night landing. Having only done 3 night landings before, this was still something new to me. I tried to focus on flying the numbers and staying ahead of the airplane. Key word there is try. I came in high and a little slow. After some reminders, I managed to get the plane down for a halfway decent approach & landing. I taxied back, shut 34Q down, then we put her in the hangar & cleaned off the bugs before heading in to debrief the flight.
All-in-all it went well. I have a tendency to chase the needle during hood work, but I'm improving.
For the next flight, I'll be tackling several remaining requirements at once with my CFI. Plan is to complete the night cross-country requirement, heading back to CUL, where I'll also get in a few night landings before heading back to HNB to get in the remaining landings. This should also take care of my remaining 3 hours of night flight. If the flight goes as planned, I should then only have a few hours of solo time and .7 hours of simulated instrument left. We'll also do a brush-up flight or two in between to polish up my maneuvers.
It's getting closer than I thought, and the push is on to cram for the oral exam. I'm expecting to schedule my checkride sometime in early November, just in time for Winter weather to arrive...
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Long Trip Alone
"It's a short piece of time but just enough to find
A little peace of mind under the sun somewhere"
I arrived at the airport around 7:30 am (11:30Z). I'd gotten the full weather briefing on duats.com before leaving home. I knew what was up. VFR along my entire flight path, but HNB was socked in with fog, <1nm visibility. CFI Randy arrived a few minutes later. I had just started loading up my gear in 34Q when he came out to the hangar. We talked it over, agreed we'd just wait until the fog burned off. He had to head into work soon, but might be back in time for my arrival home. I'd taken a full day off work, and the weather forecast was as awesome as it could be. No way I'm not going to sit this fog out.
Only one possible catch was brought up. 34Q was just over 4 hours away from being due for her 100-hr inspection. Enough for me to complete my trip, but not much wiggle room. He and the mechanics discussed, and agreed, there was no reason to call a no-go just for the engine time.
About 40 minutes later he came upstairs to the lounge to let me know it looked like the field was clear regardless of what AWOS was saying, and the rest of the fields, or stations near them in SIV's case, were reporting solid VFR. He wished me luck, shook my hand, and I headed out to where the line guys had pulled 34Q for me. I did my preflight, got my things ready in the cockpit, then started her up. I took a quick selfie (my first such in the cockpit) before I took off.
A little peace of mind under the sun somewhere"
Life has been busy. Work has been busy. Blogging is back-burner these days, so apologies ahead of time for the delays between posts.
Monday, 9/21/2015 The plan: Depart at 1200Z from HNB for SIV. Upon landing at SIV, shut down & take a break for a few minutes, get my things organized, then depart SIV for MVN. Same plan at MVN, though originally I'd planned to eat at the restaurant on-field. Since I knew a pilot needs to know 'all available information' regarding a flight, I checked their hours of operation. Closed on Mondays. So I planned to grab something from the FBO's vending, take a break, then again get organized and ready for the trip back to HNB (the longest leg of the flight).
Only one possible catch was brought up. 34Q was just over 4 hours away from being due for her 100-hr inspection. Enough for me to complete my trip, but not much wiggle room. He and the mechanics discussed, and agreed, there was no reason to call a no-go just for the engine time.
About 40 minutes later he came upstairs to the lounge to let me know it looked like the field was clear regardless of what AWOS was saying, and the rest of the fields, or stations near them in SIV's case, were reporting solid VFR. He wished me luck, shook my hand, and I headed out to where the line guys had pulled 34Q for me. I did my preflight, got my things ready in the cockpit, then started her up. I took a quick selfie (my first such in the cockpit) before I took off.
 |
After a quick check of the ATIS, off I went taxiing to 27, noting the visible fog still at the west end of the runway.
The flight to SIV was straightforward, just as it was on my solo cross-country there. After I landed, I taxied up to the FBO and shut down. I stopped and talked to the airport manager for much longer than I'd planned, taking him up on the offer for a cup of coffee after he signed my logbook. It was great, very relaxing just sitting down and conversing with a fellow pilot. Honestly, I was just enjoying the trip. I wasn't in any hurry, and I was on my own time.
After talking planes, and cars, and harrowing experiences in both, he wished me luck, then I shook his hand and got on my way, taxiing to 18. Climbout was smooth, no wind, no bumps, just a nice relaxing departure up to 4,500 feet. I started my timer and began checking off my waypoints & writing down my times one by one. Hulman Approach handed me off to Kansas City Center, who followed me until I had MVN in sight. Once I got down below 3,000, things were a little dicey. I had my choice of runways coming in, but based on the wind I elected to take the big one, Runway 5. It's a wider runway, and I wanted to push myself after my experience landing at KEVV, challenging myself to better judge the approach. After floating for what seemed an eternity, I touched down a bit more firmly than I'd have liked to, taxied off, and headed for the FBO. After being marshalled into a spot, I stopped, shut down, finished my checklist and recorded my time, then called Randy to let him know I was safely down.
Per our discussion before my departure, I elected to have them go ahead and fill the tanks. Better to have too much fuel than not enough (even though I'd calculated that I had at least an hour reserve, better to be prepared in case EVV approach had to route me around for some reason on the way back).
After grabbing a snack and a Mt. Dew, I paid for the fuel, thanked them for their great service, wished them a great day & headed out to the plane.
Preflight went as usual, I visually verified full tanks, climbed in the white satin lady as I now call her and started home.
I selected Runway 5 again for takeoff based on traffic arriving and departing all using it. I did my runup then advanced to the hold short line. After waiting on landing traffic, I made my call, took the runway and eased the throttle to full.
About 50 feet down the runway, I knew what the tone of the flight was going to be. A substantial gust hit the plane from the right, pushing me about 10 feet left of center. Thankful for the wider runway, I corrected, then continued my takeoff roll and climbed out, acknowledging departing heli traffic from the ramp as I was rolling, who also acknowleged me.
I'd planned for 3,500 as my cruising altitude due to my near due East course. I could tell right away however this wasn't the best choice. From TOC on, I was getting bounced around like a pinball. I called Kansas City Center for flight following, repeated and entered my squawk code, and waited. And waited. And waited.....all the while extremely glad I hadn't just filled my stomach with some huge meal. And I have to admit, for a couple minutes, I let it rattle my cage. I reigned in those thoughts and focused on flying the plane.
After about 5 minutes of listening to the busy center controller handle other planes, I called him back up, asking him to 1)verify squawk code was correct and 2)verify he was receiving my squawk. He replied that the code was correct, but he wasn't receving me, asked where I was. I answered that I was about 15 to the east of MNV. He said this far out from center, coverage was spotty below 4,500. So I offered to go up to 5,500 to help us both out, mentioning that I had moderate turbulence at 3,500. He agreed the higher the better, so up I went.
As I climbed through 4,500, just as he had predicted, he acknowledged radar contact. On up through 4,500 to 5,000, the air smoothed out and I settled in at 5,500 for the remaining 40 minutes home.
As I crossed into Indiana, KC Center handed me off to Evansville Approach. About 30 miles out of HNB, Approach advised me of a Skylane about 5 miles, 11 o'clock, just off HNB, climbing through 3,500. I replied negative contact, and about 5 minutes later they advised traffic was no factor.
About 15 miles out from HNB I let approach know I had the field. Frequency and squawk change approved, we bid each other a good day and I switched to CTAF 122.8, then put 118.25 in standby then switched over to get the AWOS before my radio call to HNB. It was about a 7 kt right-front quartering cross wind for runway niner. I called when I was about 15 out, straight in for niner.
When I started descending toward HNB, I knew the air would be choppy, no different than what was behind me. I was more prepared for it now mentally, so it really didn't bother me. Once I was on about a 3-mile final, I honestly don't remember the chop much at all.
I brought her down gently on niner after a decent but slightly long landing. I taxied back to the DCFS hangar, stopped at the pump as directed by the lineman, then shut down & started gathering my gear.
Randy made it back just in time to greet me. We talked briefly about the flight, finished up my paperwork & discussed where 34Q was as far as engine time. After checking the tach, she had 1.1 hour left before being taken out of service. There was actually someone standing there wanting to rent her to do some air work, so I quickly went to work wiping down the plane to remove the bugs I'd collected.
When I was done, I wished the mechanics & line men and the other pilot a good afternoon & headed home.
I spent the rest of the day pretty much just absorbing the reality of what I had just done, where I had gone, and the fact that I did it. It was a high that I'm still sailing on weeks later, in addition to the flight I've had since.
With 34Q offline, the next lesson would be spent on oral test prep, with Randy assigning me to study & know the available weather charts & what they depict, as well as VFR weather & cloud clearances inside & outside classes of airspace. I'll skip that session in my next post and talk about the flight I had last week to OWB, and how very, very close I am to completing all of the pre-checkride requirements.
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Looking for Some Guy Named Charlie
9/15 was scheduled to be my long solo cross-country. Unfortunately, as they often do, day-job commitments got in the way. Randy wouldn't be available to sign me off for the trip, so we elected to meet that evening and fly down to KEVV for work in the Charlie (Class C) airspace.
The flight down was uneventful. and as had been the case for many flights recently, it was very hazy - hazy enough in fact that neither one of us could see KEVV with certainty until we were about 7 nm out, already cleared to land.
Originally when I called approach, they advised me to expect left base for runway 18. A few minutes later he asked if we could increase speed a little (there was a Mooney coming in behind us from the north, who had also been asked to slow a bit for spacing). I responded yes, then added some throttle to bump the groundspeed up to about 115 kts. A short time later, he advised that instead of left base on 18, he was going to have me come straight in on 22, which is the biggest runway on the field
At 150 ft, runway 4/22 is twice as wide as the runways at KHNB. Naturally this messed with my depth perception and my peripheral vision, so I rounded out extremely high. After several coachings from Randy to let it drop down a bit more, we touched down and I exited the runway. I received taxi instructions and read them back, following them accordingly, with several stops before crossing runways as instructed, no help from Randy at all. Even though this was my first time landing at a Class C airport, I'd done it numerous times at several airports in X-Plane on the PilotEdge network, so I was familiar and comfortable with the procedures.
After shutting down & heading inside to pay the ramp fee, we spent time talking with some other pilots, who were actually based at KHNB, flying a KingAir C90 up to Cleveland. Then it was back out to 34Q to do preflight and get ready to head back home. I took a moment to get a shot of 34Q on the ramp at Tri-State Aero. The C172 in front of us departed while I was doing pre-flight. The C90 can be seen in the background.
After startup, I called clearance delivery, got my VFR clearance to the northeast, then called ground for taxi clearance to the active runway. The one thing I'm not used to is actually writing the clearances down with pencil and paper, since I normally use the ScratchPad feature on ForeFlight when 'flying' at home.
It was dusk at this point, and by the time I finished my run-up, called tower for clearance, and took off for KHNB it was dark. I followed the GPS back to the field & advised departure when I had it in sight. I did 3 landings, leaving 7 to satisfy the pre-checkride requirement of 10 night landings. These were my first 3 landings at night, and it was definitely challenging, though I became a little more comfortable by the third one.
After landing #3 we headed for the hangar to wipe down 34Q and debrief the flight. The other instructor was there, asked how the flight went. Randy commended my radio work, after which I explained the PilotEdge service to both of them and how beneficial I feel it has been, worth every penny of the $20/month.
At the end of the debrief we scheduled my long solo cross-country for Monday, 9/21. Details of that flight (yes, it did happen :) ) in the next post.
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
The flight down was uneventful. and as had been the case for many flights recently, it was very hazy - hazy enough in fact that neither one of us could see KEVV with certainty until we were about 7 nm out, already cleared to land.
Originally when I called approach, they advised me to expect left base for runway 18. A few minutes later he asked if we could increase speed a little (there was a Mooney coming in behind us from the north, who had also been asked to slow a bit for spacing). I responded yes, then added some throttle to bump the groundspeed up to about 115 kts. A short time later, he advised that instead of left base on 18, he was going to have me come straight in on 22, which is the biggest runway on the field
At 150 ft, runway 4/22 is twice as wide as the runways at KHNB. Naturally this messed with my depth perception and my peripheral vision, so I rounded out extremely high. After several coachings from Randy to let it drop down a bit more, we touched down and I exited the runway. I received taxi instructions and read them back, following them accordingly, with several stops before crossing runways as instructed, no help from Randy at all. Even though this was my first time landing at a Class C airport, I'd done it numerous times at several airports in X-Plane on the PilotEdge network, so I was familiar and comfortable with the procedures.
After shutting down & heading inside to pay the ramp fee, we spent time talking with some other pilots, who were actually based at KHNB, flying a KingAir C90 up to Cleveland. Then it was back out to 34Q to do preflight and get ready to head back home. I took a moment to get a shot of 34Q on the ramp at Tri-State Aero. The C172 in front of us departed while I was doing pre-flight. The C90 can be seen in the background.
 |
| 34Q at the Tri-State Aero ramp, 9/15/2015 |
After startup, I called clearance delivery, got my VFR clearance to the northeast, then called ground for taxi clearance to the active runway. The one thing I'm not used to is actually writing the clearances down with pencil and paper, since I normally use the ScratchPad feature on ForeFlight when 'flying' at home.
It was dusk at this point, and by the time I finished my run-up, called tower for clearance, and took off for KHNB it was dark. I followed the GPS back to the field & advised departure when I had it in sight. I did 3 landings, leaving 7 to satisfy the pre-checkride requirement of 10 night landings. These were my first 3 landings at night, and it was definitely challenging, though I became a little more comfortable by the third one.
After landing #3 we headed for the hangar to wipe down 34Q and debrief the flight. The other instructor was there, asked how the flight went. Randy commended my radio work, after which I explained the PilotEdge service to both of them and how beneficial I feel it has been, worth every penny of the $20/month.
At the end of the debrief we scheduled my long solo cross-country for Monday, 9/21. Details of that flight (yes, it did happen :) ) in the next post.
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two-Seven.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
North and South
I've been so busy the last week blogging has moved to the back burner, even though sharing the excitement of my first solo cross-country has been the first thing on my mind.
I'd taken 1/2 day vacation and was up early that morning getting the latest weather and winds aloft. The plan was to take off at 8 am, fly north to SIV, land, take a quick break, then fly back. I ended up taking off about an hour later than planned due to SIV being socked in with 3-4 nm visibility due to fog. Randy wanted to get me off the ground soon, because the wind at HNB was supposed to be kicking up not long after I was expecting to be landing.
Once the fog started to burn off, Randy and I went outside. I'd already done my preflight before I called FSS, so I climbed into 34Q and started her up.
The flight went smoothly. Once I was at cruise I called EVV approach and picked up flight following, taking the handoff to HUF approach once I was about 20 nm north of HNB.
Despite it being a bit of a hazy day, once I was in the cruise I just relaxed and enjoyed the moment. This is what I'm working for. Hopping in the plane and flying somewhere, anywhere, just enjoying the flight, the freedom, the surprising calmness.
I hit all my waypoints within 1-2 minutes of ETE, and was approaching SIV before I knew it. I advised Hulman I had the field in sight, acknowledged the approved frequency change and squawked VFR. Making my radio call as I entered the 45-degree for the left downwind for 18, I started going through the landing procedures, turning base, then final, adding flaps and adjusting power.
I bounced just a bit on the landing, but it was otherwise good, right down the middle. I taxied to the FBO, shut down 34Q, and headed inside with my logbook to get it signed by the manager.
After leaving Randy a voicemail that I had landed and was preparing for the return leg, I headed back out, snapped a couple pictures of 34Q with the FBO and the hangars, did my preflight, and climbed in the cockpit to get ready to head home.
34Q has been 'quirky' ever since the new engine went in. If you don't push the key in juuust the right way, the starter just spins. I'm guessing this is normal, but I don't recall needing to push in with quite as much force. She also takes a little convincing to start again after sitting for a few minutes. It took me three tries to talk her into flying home, but she finally started.
Taxi and runup were smooth, and in no time I was in the air flying South. Once trimmed in the cruise at 3,500, I called Hulman Approach to get flight following, then just relaxed, started timing my waypoints, and enjoying the view again.
I've been hesitant to take the time to snap any pictures while I'm flying, mainly because I don't want to take my focus off flying the plane. However, I did feel comfortable enough with the cruise trim and workload to snap a picture of the town of Bicknell on the return leg.
I'd taken 1/2 day vacation and was up early that morning getting the latest weather and winds aloft. The plan was to take off at 8 am, fly north to SIV, land, take a quick break, then fly back. I ended up taking off about an hour later than planned due to SIV being socked in with 3-4 nm visibility due to fog. Randy wanted to get me off the ground soon, because the wind at HNB was supposed to be kicking up not long after I was expecting to be landing.
Once the fog started to burn off, Randy and I went outside. I'd already done my preflight before I called FSS, so I climbed into 34Q and started her up.
The flight went smoothly. Once I was at cruise I called EVV approach and picked up flight following, taking the handoff to HUF approach once I was about 20 nm north of HNB.
Despite it being a bit of a hazy day, once I was in the cruise I just relaxed and enjoyed the moment. This is what I'm working for. Hopping in the plane and flying somewhere, anywhere, just enjoying the flight, the freedom, the surprising calmness.
I hit all my waypoints within 1-2 minutes of ETE, and was approaching SIV before I knew it. I advised Hulman I had the field in sight, acknowledged the approved frequency change and squawked VFR. Making my radio call as I entered the 45-degree for the left downwind for 18, I started going through the landing procedures, turning base, then final, adding flaps and adjusting power.
I bounced just a bit on the landing, but it was otherwise good, right down the middle. I taxied to the FBO, shut down 34Q, and headed inside with my logbook to get it signed by the manager.
After leaving Randy a voicemail that I had landed and was preparing for the return leg, I headed back out, snapped a couple pictures of 34Q with the FBO and the hangars, did my preflight, and climbed in the cockpit to get ready to head home.
34Q has been 'quirky' ever since the new engine went in. If you don't push the key in juuust the right way, the starter just spins. I'm guessing this is normal, but I don't recall needing to push in with quite as much force. She also takes a little convincing to start again after sitting for a few minutes. It took me three tries to talk her into flying home, but she finally started.
Taxi and runup were smooth, and in no time I was in the air flying South. Once trimmed in the cruise at 3,500, I called Hulman Approach to get flight following, then just relaxed, started timing my waypoints, and enjoying the view again.
I've been hesitant to take the time to snap any pictures while I'm flying, mainly because I don't want to take my focus off flying the plane. However, I did feel comfortable enough with the cruise trim and workload to snap a picture of the town of Bicknell on the return leg.
Once I got back to HNB, Randy's intuition proved correct - the winds had kicked up. At pattern altitude, I felt like a ping-pong ball. The sock was almost straight across from the south but favoring 27, AWOS reporting 7 kts. I entered the midfield crosswind for 27, turned downwind, then went to work configuring for landing & focusing on flying the plane in. This was my first cross-wind landing in months, and my first ever solo crosswind landing - the last several flights, the wind had been straight down the runway.
The approach was bad, no other word for it. I was high, unstable, bouncing around. I put the flaps back up to 20°, added power, and called my go-around. As I was climbing out, I heard a KingAir call that he was 10 miles to the south, inbound to land. Ok, I thought. He's faster than me, he'll be here in no time. He'll just have to wait.
I called my downwind leg. Randy tried to raise me using the handheld to give me pointers, but he was unreadable. Not long after I began my descent toward the end of downwind, KingAir called he was 5 miles out, asked where the Skyhawk was. I told him I was getting ready to turn base, he said "Alright, we'll just come in behind you."
I called my base & final turns, then set up for landing again. 30° flaps, 65 over the numbers, I put the left wing down, held her over the middle with right rudder, and brought it down for a slightly fast but good-enough-for-government-work landing. Just missing the first midfield taxiway, I turned around and called back-taxi to get off the runway fast so the KingAir could land.
I taxied back to the hangar, shut 34Q down, climbed out and did a quick debrief with Randy. He commended me for the go-around, said the landing looked great, kept the wing down like I should & didn't go crazy with the pitch like I sometimes do.
We talked about the flight, then planned my long solo cross-country for Tuesday 9/15. HNB-SIV-MVN-HNB. If the weather is bad that morning, we'll try flying in the evening instead, with plans to head down to EVV to do some work in the Class C.
I don't want to minimize the joy and excitement of the flight, but I'm comfortable enough with cross-country flying now that the complexity actually underwhelmed me this time. I believe the lap desk and the increased organization it offers significantly contributes to this.
This flight was a huge confidence boost, especially the crosswind landing. I'm excited for the long cross-country, and to get started on the night cross-country work once that one's behind me. I just have to remember to slow down and enjoy these flights. I have that luxury now since the medical cert is no longer a 20-ton question mark hanging on my shoulders.
Two Victor Uniform, clear of Two Seven.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)