Around the Gulf and Back

Chapter 1 - The Take Off
As I had mentioned in the previous entry, I am going to Orlando for a business trip, and decided to fly the Cessna 172 there not only for the fun of it, but to rake up cross country hours for my instrument rating.

I had been looking at the weather all week from DUATS, and the weather for Saturday, Nov 24th looked iffy. By Thursday I had my doubts for good weather, and Friday morning confirmed it. Saturday would be a mess. So I decided to get everything together and take off Friday before sunset. I planned for a fuel stop at Trent Lott International airport in Mississippi, so I decided to fly there and then see how the weather looked for flying Saturday. The trip to Trent Lott would be 4 hrs.

So I got to the airport, and packed up the plane. My kids all wanted to go with me, and I wish I could take them. I took off, and soon it got dark. Looks like I would be updating my night currency. I learned to use the fuel flow instrument, which I had never really had to learn to use before. I quickly found out what a great instrument it is. It would measure your fuel flow inflight, and tell you how much flying time you had left - a valuable piece of information! And I could all so fiddle with leaning the engine, and backing off the throttle to ensure I would have enough fuel.

I was trying to get up to 9500', but the clouds were overhead and I wasn't sure at what altitude they were. Then at about 7500' I lost sight of all the city lights. So I slowly descended back down and the lights returned. Later I had a problem... My flight plan was to go over the Lafayette airspace at 7000'. I tried to see if the clouds would cooperate and allow me to go above 7000' but they would not. In hindsight I should have just requested clearance to go through it, but instead I went around it.

The rest of the first leg went well, and I eventually made it to Trent Lott International airport. I thought the "International" part of the name was funny with its 1 modest runway. It was well after hours and their control tower was closed for the night. I clicked the mic and the runway lights came on. As I descended I could smell all the refineries in the area. There was no one at the airport. I parked and looked around. I thought maybe I would unpack my tent and find a place to pitch it, but first I went over to the FBO to find a plug for my laptop so I could get updated weather info. The lights were out. I knew for sure it would be locked up, but it wasn't. I went on in, and there was a pilot's lounge where I could plug the laptop in and get weather updates.

The weather for Saturday looked fine, so I planned to spend the night there somewhere. I went out to my plane, and there was a guard outside writing down the tail number. He said I was welcome to spend the night on one of the couches in the pilot's lounge. Sweet! That's all I need.


Chapter 2 - On to Florida
I woke up a little before 6am when someone came into the FBO. I got up and got ready to get going. He looked a little surprised to see me, but not too surprised. I asked him if there was a restaurant nearby. He offered the courtesy car so I could drive into town. This is going to take some getting used to. I'm not used to anyone loaning their car for free. While I was gone, he filled up my plane. $5.24/gallon... ugh! (I'm sure someone reading this a year from now will chuckle and wish gas was "only" $5.24/gallon). airnav.com didn't show any better deals within a reasonable distance from my route.

I then took off. Today's trip would be another 4 hrs. I climbed over 4200' so I could clear KMOB's airspace, and continued to climb up to 11,500', which is by far the highest I've piloted so far. The 172 climbed pretty slowly at that altitude. It was nice flying in daylight again, and the view was awesome. Just cruising along from one great scene to the next. I wondered if I would have any altitude problems, but there didn't seem to be any effects (I've had hypoxia training).

Today I would be flying through MOAs (Military Operations Area), and restricted airspaces around the coast of Alabama and the Florida panhandle. The MOAs were only active during weekdays though, and I could fly through the restricted areas as long as I stuck to the airways. So I paid extra attention to my route.

When I got to Florida the waypoints were spaced apart about 40 minutes each. As I passed each one it seemed like I was making more and more progress. I saw contrails overhead which still seemed just as high up as ever. After passing X35 (Dunnellon airport), I started descending down just over the clouds at 5500'. When I was closer to X04 (Orlando Apopka airport), I found an opening through the clouds and descended.

X04 was a little tricky. They have buildings and trees on the west side of the landing strip which obscured my view of the runway. I had to use my GPS to judge my position relative to it, and to find a place to enter the pattern. Then I was finally down! It was a great feeling to have made it this far in a 172. The people at Apopka were very nice & accomodating, and they gave me a great deal on a Ford Explorer rental.




Chapter 3 - Orlando & KSC
I spent the week at an I/ITSEC conference, and for someone like me who is into flight simulations and computer graphics, it is a very worthwhile conference. The bad part is Orlando is a city full of vultures who charge premium rates for every thing they can think of. Parking is $10, hamburgers that a McDonald's fry cook would scoff at were also $10. Drinks were an extra $3. To withdraw money from an ATM was a $5 fee. For an exhibitor to rent a vacuum cleaner was over $300. You can buy one for less than that. When looking for a wireless internet service to use at the convention center, I found one called "Free Public Internet" for $48/day! I AM NOT JOKING! The people I met there said they came there last year and went to a restaurant called "Salt Island". They said the service was terrible and every little service (like extra sauce) was charged. Bottled water was $7. They paid $90 each for their meals. I did a quick google search and found reviews titled "Rude", "Shady Island Tourist Trap!!!", "Don't Bother...", "Expensive Restaurant". Plus most of the major freeways around Orlando are toll roads. Sure it was all reimbursed (except for Salt Island) as a business expense, but charging the people who give Orlando their livelyhood that kind of money for crappy service and products feels like an insult.

On another subject, being a Nasa contractor, I wanted to go flying and take pictures of KSC and the Space Shuttle on the launch pad from the air. Obviously there would be restrictions about where I could fly, so I looked at the Orlando TAC to see what the airspace looked like over KSC. There were restricted airspaces all over the area. But when I read their operating times, it says they are active during launches with 24 hrs notice. That left 3 class D airports in the area that I didn't even have to fly through to be close enough to be happy. But still I wanted to make sure, so I asked the forum on studentpilot.com what their experiences were. There were many replies of "Don't Do It!!!" including one from a guy who was vectored into KSC airspace from Daytona International and got into all kinds of trouble. I also talked to people I knew from KSC. They all said "Don't Do It!!!".

If KSC doesn't want me to fly there, fine. But please put active restricted airspace regions on the map so we know where we can and cannot go. From what I hear, if I abide by the restrictions shown on aeronautical charts I can still wind up in jail. Needless to say I didn't fly over there.


Chapter 4 - On my way home
Friday morning I headed over to the airport. There were low clouds, and as I headed towards the airport the clouds turned into fog. The flight time over here took 2 hrs longer than expected, and I knew on the way home, I would be facing headwinds. I hoped I didn't have to wait too long. While waiting I packed up my plane and pre-flighted. By then, the fog did thin out enough to get 2 miles of visiblity, and I could see the sun through it. So I took off. Once up and away from the airport, the fog became thicker, and I was over a sea of clouds. I couldn't see the ground anymore, but above me were clear blue skies. I thought about the tricky situation I would be in if I had engine trouble.

Eventually, the clouds started to break up and I could see the ground again. Again I navigated the airspaces through the restricted areas of the Florida Panhandle and Alabama. And today was a weekday, so the MOAs were active. But I didn't see any traffic except for another C172 (who was for some reason going faster than me) and commercial jets high above me.

Once out of restricted airspace, I saw Mobile Alabama, and headed towards 5R7 which was supposed to have semi-cheap gas. Looking at the runway from above I wasn't too sure it was long enough. So I went to the next closest one - 2R5. I landed there, took a much needed pitstop, and asked the owner about fuel. He said his pump didn't work - DOH! But recommended Bay Minette who had cheap fuel prices. That was 30 minutes away in the direction I came from, but I went there for the cheap gas.

It turned out to be a pretty nice airport. There were hills around there which was also a new experience. It felt like I was lower than I was as I approached the runway. I landed at my highest altitude yet - a whopping 248'. Upon landing a very nice girl, young woman, whichever the correct term is, came out to fuel the plane. She was very apologetic for getting a little gas on the wing, but it evaporated before she could clean it up anyway. I didn't think it was a big deal, I often spill a little gas too. After paying I was about ready to take off again when I realized I hadn't had lunch yet. I asked her if there was a restaurant nearby. She said there was and that I could borrow the courtesy car - SWEET! (Still not getting used to this).

She looks for the keys but cannot find them. She apologizes profusely again and says all they have is an old van. I'm thinking "it beats walking" and tell her that's fine. She even offers her own car. I tell her that's not necessary and take the old van. Then she says the other car that she couldn't find the keys for was a convertible Miatta. Man!... oh well... I go to town and get some lunch. The drive there and back through the hills on a road lined with fall colored trees is very pretty. When I come back I follow a twin down the runway to take off, and then leave. Alabama is a nice place.


Chapter 5 - Trouble
I'm flying at 6500' today because that's where there are the least amount of headwinds (as predicted by GoldenEagle). Then I come up to Gulfport Biloxi Intl's airspace which is a 10,000' barrier. This time I call approach to get permission to fly through, which I get, and I squawk to the code they give me. About half way through one of my radios starts flashing on & off and then shuts down. Then my 2nd radio does the same thing. Oh crap! Don't do this! I continue flying and after a few minutes electrical comes back on. Whew. The tower seems unphased and a little while later asks my heading. I tell them, but they can't seem to hear me. I start thinking about the power outage and what I should do if it happens again. Before I'm out of the airspace, my radios again start to blink. I call the tower to tell them my power is going out. They probably couldn't hear me, and then it goes out for good. Shit.

I try to remain on my heading so I don't freak out the controller who just saw my transponder disappear, and hope I get out of the airspace quickly. Thank goodness I have my trusty Garmin 96C, which has performed really well throughout the trip. It is now the only way I have to navigate other than pure pilotage. I think it's tons better than navigating by VORs anyway.

So I'm finally clear of the airspace and I'm wondering what to do. I have my cell phone, but it's too noisy in an airplane to talk on it. So I text message my CFI and tell him my situation. I don't even know if he can get text messages on his phone, and I don't hear anything back from him. The engine seems unaffected by the outtage, but I have no lights and no radio and I will not be able to keep track of my fuel flow. I search for the nearest airport with my GPS and realize it's just out my right window. It looks like a large airport, but it's not controlled. Perfect - I should be able to find a mechanic, and I wouldn't want to land at a controlled airport with no radio. I find some nearby smoke (there always seems to be something burning within sight) to determine the wind direction, and pick a runway. I realize I will have to leave the flaps up because there's no power. Then I remember the last thing my DE wanted me to do before she signed me off for my pilot's license. She said "assume you lost power. Let's see you land with flaps up." I remember thinking "I doubt that will ever happen, but ok..." and landed fine, just as I did this time.

I expected people waiting outside the FBO asking if I was nuts landing with no radio calls. But there was hardly any traffic and no one seemed to notice. I called maintenance at my airport to let him know what happened. He said the club will reimburse up to $300 for repairs, and asked where I was. I had to look it up. Hammond Northshore Regional (HDC). I talked to the local mechanic, and he saw that some of the cooling fins on the alternator had broken off... odd. My battery was drained. They were closing for the night and I would have to spend the night. This really sucked because today was my daughter's birthday. I really wanted to be home for her. And what was worse was that tomorrow was her birthday party and I would miss that too.



I talked to the receptionist at the FBO to find out my options for spending the night. There was no pilot's lounge I could stay in. She said car rentals were $50 - a third of the price at X04 for renting an SUV for 6 days. And hotels were $120. Even she thought that was a bit much. "It's just Hammond" she said. "Exactly" I thought as I remembered some hotels in pricey Orlando for $65. After a week of being overcharged for everything (except hotels and car rentals apparently), I had enough of this, and asked for a cab to the Super 8, which was "only" $80. The taxi driver was a sr citizen with a ponytail who told me all about the hookers in Hammond, and then talked fondly about what a nice small town Hammond was, and that there should be more small towns like this. Niiiiice. Price for a cab to take me 6 miles... $17.

It was finally time to go back to the airport. I found a different taxi service that would take me there for $9. The mechanic fixed my electrical problems, and after a few hours, I was finally ready to go.


It was a hazy day, and as I neared Galveston Bay it got hazier until I was concerned I might not have enough visibility to fly VFR. When I finally made it to the Houston area I listened to an ASOS for weather. They said it was 10 miles visibility. I really doubt that. More like 3. After a long trip home I finally put the wheels on the ground. Ahhhhh.

When I tell non-aviation people about losing power their eyes bulge out of their heads and say "What!?" Other pilots nod knowingly. I probably would have said "What?!" too before going through it. But it wasn't that bad. Airplane engines still run fine without electrical power, and with the GPS I knew where I was going. I did have to land, but I kept my eye out for other traffic and landed. People ask me if I would do it again. I still doubt losing power like this is a regular occurrence and even if it does happen it's manageable. The rest of the trip was still very enjoyable and I think the experience was great. This one trip doubled the amount of cross country time I've had so far.

Stats:
Nautical miles flown: 1604
Cross country hours: 18.1
Night hours: 4.1

A real trip

A couple of weeks ago I learned that I would be going to Florida on business. The trip would be the last week of November. Naturally, as a newly minted pilot I started wondering how long it would take to make the trip in a 152 - 8 hrs. Then I wondered how long it would take to make the trip in a 172 - 6.5 hrs. Interesting. Because of the faster speed of a 172, it turns out it's actually cheaper to fly the 172 when flying the 700+ miles to Florida. Also, flying over the Gulf from Houston to Florida is something I would rather avoid if I didn't have to, especially at my experience level. So I measured the distance along the coastline. It turns out that increases the distance from 732nm to 785nm. I considered the extra 50 miles well worth the peace of mind. This worked out to a little more than a $1000 trip. Yikes!

Well I kept thinking about it. I would just be responsible for the price of the 172 rental beyond the airfare ticket. This was still going to be pretty expensive, and I thought about it for a while. The advantages of this would be a large step towards the 50 hrs of cross country time required for an instrument rating, which I have my eye on. So I could look at this as a large expense, or since I am aiming for the Instrument rating anyway, I can look at it as a savings. But even more important, the planning required, and the actual flight would be a great experience. A couple of problems though... I had to make this trip. What if there were bad weather? My solution would be plan on flying 24 hrs before I had to go to give myself flexibility. Otherwise I would feel pressured to go when conditions may or may not be safe. And also my Plan B would be to get a refundable airline ticket. That way if there was bad weather, I would just fly the ol boring way. The other problem was, even if I looked at this as a savings for an Instrument rating, it's still expensive. Then I realized with the timing of it, and when payment would actually be due, I would have 3 months to pay for it. That made it doable. As long as I had permission from my company - which I received, thank you very much :)

So I went on to the planning phase, which I really enjoy. I used www.skyvector.com to sketch out my route in the past. The problem with it was that the distances were not always accurate, and I couldn't save my route. So I wanted to see what else was out there. I found GoldenEagle at www.flightprep.com. This is a very impressive program. The more I used it, the more great features I found - up to a point. Then it turned out it did have even more great features, but only if you paid for them. The free version had plenty to keep me happy though. I did buy digital VFR sectional maps for the route to Florida. With it, I can plot routes, check for TFRs, get wind data, and connect to DUATs and download a slew of weather maps and briefings. GoldenEagle also shows a profile view which graphically shows your altitude with respect to terrain, weather, and air spaces. And then it will also print out a number of charts for you to bring along on your trip, such as maps and your flight plan. And you can file your flight plan through GoldenEagle as well. With the weather information this program displays from DUATs over my route, I felt confident I could predict if I could make the trip or not, and if necessary, fly around the weather or time my departure time to miss any bad weather. Also, if necessary I felt that I could safely divert one of the multitudes of runways along the way. How ever it turns out, I think it will be an adventure and I am looking forward to it.

As for the route, it turns out there are a bunch of MOAs and restricted areas around Mobile AL. I was starting to think that I would have to go over 100 miles even further out of my way. But after looking at the sectionals, I found that the MOAs were M-F (I'm flying saturday), and the restricted areas allow you to fly through along airways. Thank goodness. Also, if I had to spend the night somewhere, I hoped I could bring my tent, and pitch it wherever necessary. I looked up www.adventurepilot.com, which will tell you which airports have campsites, restaurants, or whatever you're looking for nearby. Unfortunately I could not find any airports with a campsite nearby. But I was wondering... if it really became a necessity, could I land at a small airport, and pitch my tent nearby? I hope I will not have to find out. Well I decided to refuel at the halfway point. This would have been at Mobile Regional, but according to airnav their fuel prices are a whopping $5.24. I saw that KPQL nearby had fuel prices of "only" $4.88, but now they are also at $5.24. That's ridiculous! I'll have to keep looking. It looks like they raise prices near the coast to get people like me who are trying to avoid the gulf, because further inland I can find prices below $4.

I pretty much have my trip plotted out. I am just waiting a couple more days so I can see the 72 hour forecast before finalizing my plan. For the last few weeks the weather has been pretty good. Sometimes even great. I have tried not to get too hopeful because of this trend because I might jinx myself. Well it seems to be happening anyway. We've had a lot of fog, rain and low ceilings the last few days. The route to Florida shows lots of rain, and there's a front going through Thursday. Hopefully it will clear out the bad weather.

Fun with a Pilot's License

I haven't written in a while, but I have gone flying since I got my license. I have been enjoying taking my kids for a ride. They loved it. It was such a good feeling being able to share that with them. I wondered if my son (who is 6) would like it as much. When he was younger he seemed to be afraid of heights. But he seemed to like it the most.

My wife is a nervous flyer though. She's flown on a commercial jet twice in her life, and never in a small plane. She chickened out the day that I took my kids. Which was a shame because the weather was nice and the air was smooth. But then she built up her nerve later in the week and wanted to go. And on that day the air was really turbulent and the visibility wasn't that great. I have yet to be able to predict how turbulent the air will be. I was worried that she was not going to like it. But she said it was fine. She thinks it's always like that though. I can't wait to take her up again when the weather is better. She'll be pleasantly surprised.

Last weekend I flew again with my parents. That was also pretty cool. My mom's dad was in the air force and practically lived in the plane. He liked to show off though with some aerobatics which she didn't like. I'm a newbie, so I'm fine with keeping it straight and level for her. She was nostalgic about it all. It seemed to bring back a lot of good memories for her. And my dad also liked the experience. We went up to 7000' and the view was great. He had a couple of lessons when he was younger so I let him fly a bit. It was a great day.

This week the weather is fantastic and crystal clear. I had to get up again, so I called my CFI to go flying yesterday. I wanted to get checked out in the Piper PA-28 so I could get some more variety. The PA-28 is a pretty cool plane. It's a bit more beefier than the 172, and I found myself having to trim it a lot as I flew. It climbed better too. By the time I got into the downwind leg, the plane was almost at pattern altitude. Usually it gets there just before I'm abeam of the numbers where I start my descent. The clarity of the air from the ground was nothing compared to being in the air. I wish I had my camera. I had never imagined it could be that clear. It was windy and turbulent though. As I went around the pattern to do my first landing in the PA-28 I turned on final and saw downtown Houston in the distance - clear as a bell. It shocked me. But I was able to concentrate on the task at hand and landed the plane pretty well. We did another landing, and then did some stalls and turns to get the feel of the plane. The plane was pretty responsive, but just required more back pressure, or trimming, to do the maneuvers. On my last landing my CFI complimented me on all my good landings in the plane.

It was fun, and now I can fly all the planes in the club. I am looking forward to getting more experience with the PA-28 Cherokee.

Now that I have my license I have to slow it down though. I need to replenish our savings account after all those lessons. But still I can't wait until I take a real trip. I am keeping my eye out for opportunities.

The Checkride

Yesterday I went to take my checkride. I went and picked up the logbooks, prepped the plane, and flew the short trip to Laporte. I was a couple hours early to allow me time to get there, get relaxed and do some more studying. The time finally came, and I met the DE - a very impressive woman who is the current national champion in the U.S. Unlimited aerobatics contest, an airline pilot, and a flight school owner. Talk about immersing yourself into flying!

After some snafus with the IACRA system on the FAA website we started the oral and started talking about the cross country flight. That all went well including all the question & answers about airspaces and other map features to which she said "It looks like you know all this", and moved on. We also talked about weather, requirements for the airplane & the pilot, airplane logbooks, FAA regs, and airplane systems. She was nice and if I didn't get something right away, she rephrased the question. The part that stumped me were the specific systems of the C150 I was flying. I wound up getting a lesson in alternators and magnetos. The oral lasted about an hour (though I heard later that her orals usually last at least 2... whew!).

Then came the flying part. I gave her the passenger briefing, and we took off and started the cross country. I was supposed to fly NE for about 3 miles and intercept the Galveston VOR to fly NNW. I should have practiced the start of this cross country... I had the VOR set up for the bearing I was looking for, but I wasn't prepared for how fast I would get there, and as I then remembered, the Galveston VOR often seems to be off. What's up with that!!? So I backtracked and tried to find the VOR again. Looking at the map, I could see that I was over the ground track I was looking for, but the VOR wasn't showing that I was. I played with it, and found that it was about 15 degrees off. Piece of crap. So I used pilotage to continue on my cross country. After about 5-10 mins she said ok, divert to RWJ. I knew where it was on the map, so I pointed the plane to that direction. Then I entered RWJ in my GPS. It couldn't find it. So I tried KRWJ. Still couldn't find it. What the hell? So, again I had to use pilotage to find the airport. Turns out the ID for the is 54T, and the name is actually RWJ. What kind of name for an airport is that? I thought it was the ID.

After that things went much better. We went on to stalls and flight maneuvers. She asked for a 'Power On Stall'. Ahhh it's so nice to have a DE who's familiar with the PTS. Just to make sure, I asked if she wanted me to slow down to departure speed first? "However you want to do it" she said. Sweet! So I slowed down to departure speed (like I had been practicing recently) and did the power on stall and recovery fine. Then did the power off stall in a turn. And... uh oh... lost my engine. Dang thing keeps going out. I set up for glide speed, found a landing spot which was about half dirt, half weeds or something, went through the procedures to restart the engine, and set up for a landing. She said ok before I got below 200', and we were on to ground reference maneuvers, and instrument flying. With her being an aerobatics pilot I was wondering if I would learn a whole new definition of 'unusual attitudes'. I closed my eyes while she screwed around with the plane. It wasn't all that unusual though. About 30 degrees down & banked to the left. I backed off the throttle, righted the wings and raised the nose. Then we went back to Laporte for soft/short field takeoffs & landings. On the way over she asked me how I thought I was doing. "Fine" I hoped. It did seem to be going well except for that initial part of the cross country, but I recovered from that. She smiled & nodded. I did the landings, and before a no-flaps landing she said I could stop after that.

Drum roll....

I passed!!!!

I'm a frickin PILOT!!!!

We talked a little more, and then she handed me my temporary license. The real deal should come within 90 days. I made all my calls to tell my wife, parents and CFI that I passed, and then took a leisurely flight back to my airport which included flyovers of Nasa, my house and Galveston Bay. This weekend I will celebrate by going to the Wings Over Houston airshow.

Perma-grin time :D

p.s.
Total Flying Time (including 19 year break): 59 hrs
Dual Time: 41 hrs

More flight maneuver practice

Yesterday I met with my CFI to make sure I had my maneuvers down. We talked about the steps one would take to do each of the flight maneuvers, which is pretty much what I had already been doing. Then I pre-flighted and we took off with a simulated soft field take-off.

Ashley Pardue is the DE I flew with, and I will be changing DEs for reasons beyond what I've already discussed in my previous entry. If he has some alternate set of standards in his head that he rates people by, then whatever... I planned on learning all the maneuvers cold and going to him again. Then I had a discussion with a CFI (not mine). He says he would never send anyone to Ashley for their checkride because he's heard Ashley say he would not pass anyone who trained at our airport. WTH? Yeah... he had some student from a CFI who isn't even around anymore, and apparently it went bad. So he's not going to pass anyone from our airport. Now, I know that he did pass at least a couple of our students and they were both using the same CFI. So if you're not with the "right" CFI you've already got a huge strike against you with this guy. I don't need this crap. I'm just trying to get my fricken license. At that point, I didn't care if I already passed my oral with him. He's already robbed me of $400 if he didn't intend on passing me. I don't need to deal with CFI/DE politics. So now I'm trying to get with a DE from either Ellington or La Porte. My CFI and I flew over Ellington to La Porte.

It was pretty hazy out. I did all my maneuvers to my CFI's satisfaction, except for turns about a point. This flight was the first one I've had with significant winds and I didn't flatten out my bank as much as I needed to on the wind side. We also did an engine out at just 800 or 1000 ft. I forget which, but it didn't leave much time. That went ok though. He asked what else, I said short/soft field landings/take-offs. So we went to Bayport airport and practiced on the grass field there.

I was thinking for soft field I had to come it at full flaps & 60 mph. When I did this it was pretty precarious with the 9kt crosswinds. The CFI suggested 30 degree flaps and add more power just before the flare. I tried that on the next go-around and it was one of my smoothest landings yet. "Great job" he said. I was impressed too, but felt it was more luck.

We headed back to the airport, and again flew over Ellington. On the way back the weather started to deteriorate. It looked like we were in 1 big low density cloud. By the time we flew over Ellington I had to descend to 1000'. At Clover I wanted to do a short field landing. That was also tricky with the added crosswind. Then I did a short field takeoff. By the time I went around the pattern again, it was pouring rain as well. The CFI suggested a 700' pattern altitude so I would be in G airspace where I only needed 1 mile visibility to stay legal. I just did a normal landing - no need to make this anymore complicated than it was already becoming.

Stepping it up a notch

Over the last few days I have been preparing for the Checkride part II. I've been going through the Practical Test Standards to see exactly which maneuvers I need to know, and also going through my Flight Maneuvers book to see exactly, step by step, how to do them. And you know what? There is no 'Departure Stall' or 'Approach Stall' on the PTS! I had seen 'Power-On-Stalls' and 'Power-Off Stalls' and assumed these to be what Ashley Pardue (the DE) meant when he asked for a 'Departure Stall' or 'Approach Stall'. But I looked them up in my Flight Maneuvers book and they are similar, but different. He asked for a 'Departure Stall' and I gave him a Power-On-Stall, which means I did not start by slowing to departure speed. So then he griped at me. Sorry dude, but if you want it by the book, I've got a book for you: Private Pilot Practical Test Standards for Airplane!

Then he wanted me to do the 'Approach Stall'. By then my confidence was shaken, and what's worse, I hadn't heard of an 'Approach Stall'. This is the test taker's version of vertigo. Up is down, black is white. Nothing makes sense anymore. So I flubbed the 'Approach Stall'. I was so nervous I didn't even remember to recover with full throttle afterwards. SHIT! I know better!

Well what can you do? I write out the procedures for each maneuver like a checklist, including the ones for 'Departure Stall' and 'Approach Stall' that certain DEs take it upon themselves to add to the practical test standards. Then I attempt to learn to do these by practicing them in MS Flight Sim over and over until I can do it in my sleep. Well I found out some more about MS Flight Sim's limitations. I did a power off stall on the sim in my virtual Cessna 150, and found myself falling like a rock. I dropped 1000' in about 5 seconds with the attitude at about 20 degrees above the horizon. (BTW, for those who are not mathematically inclined, this is works out to a falling acceleration rate of 80 ft/sec^2... way faster than free fall. With the nose above the horizon?! How is this even remotely possible??) Nothing like this ever happens in the real plane. I try a couple of other things, and find it's pointless to use MS Flight Sim for serious practice.

So this morning I went on a solo flight that I had scheduled in the 150. Even though I can practice stalls anywhere, I went to Galveston just to make everything as much like the checkride will be as possible. Especially when practicing emergency engine out procedures, it will help to know the island well. When I get to Galveston, I do my clearing turns, and then start all my stall maneuvers, and do them until there are no errors. They went well. I can fly the plane, I just needed to know the step-by-step procedures a lot better. But of course doing it solo, and doing it with the DE right next to you are two different things. Perhaps I should fly with a homicidal maniac in the right seat while practicing my flight maneuvers. Then the DE won't seem so bad! I practiced an engine out procedure. I still need to read up on that one. Finding a place to land isn't that hard. Again, it's procedures, i.e. trying to restart the engine, making a mayday call, etc. I saw a nice long neighborhood road that wasn't busy. Upon careful inspection I noticed it had telephone poles or something along it. Fields are not big at all on Galveston island. I think the only sure thing is an empty beach, which is what I ended up aiming for. There were a couple of people there who got an interesting show lol. Then I did some ground reference maneuvers on the way back. And when I got back to the airport I practice short field landings & take-offs, and soft field landings and take-offs. Those also went well IMHO. After that I called it a day. It's amazing what a balked checkride and actual clearly specified procedures for flight maneuvers can do for your practice solo flights. It was the most productive yet. This weekend I'll go flying again with my CFI to make sure I'm ready for the checkride.

BTW... I need to get a dog ;)

Flight maneuvers

The checkride was scheduled for Wednesday, but I had to reschedule to Friday in order to get the maintenance logs for the airplane. So, on Friday, I got up early to fly to GLX, cram some more, and then meet the DE.

He started off asking me to show the aircraft was legal. So I showed all the required documents, including the maintenance logs. Luckily I spent some time going through those logs since he wanted me to show him everything was in order. Then we went over the flight plan. He chose a route that went through a wide variety of scenarios, and I seem to have accounted for everything to his satisfaction. Just a couple of little things though: I didn't catch the fact that the destination airport didn't have refueling services, but I found an airport nearby to get fuel at. And he wanted to know why I was flying under a MOA. He says he's gone through that MOA hundreds of times and never saw a military aircraft. I just told him I've never been in one, and know what the hazards could be, so I chose to fly under it. Then we talked about air space, and then he had me work on a runway length problem with all kinds of conditions for take-off length, and take-off length with a 50' object. The problem required two interpolations, one for altitude, and one for headwind speed. I came up with the answers and showed it to him. He says "You mean the 50' length is about twice the regular take-off length?" "Yes - that's about what it shows for the other altitudes." He smiled and said I got it right lol.

So I passed the oral... Yes! Then we went on to the flying portion. That did not go so well actually. He started off with stalls, and of course I knew stalls in general. But he called for a 'departure stall'. I heard that term once in my practice checkride. Otherwise known as a full power stall. So I went full power, brought the nose up, and stalled the plane while controlling with rudder. No, I am told. I need to slow down to departure speed first. Ugh, in the practice checkride I didn't have a full lesson on them and my CFI didn't cover this with me! After explaining all he expected, then I did it. Then he asked for an 'approach stall'. Crap! Now this one I have not heard of. But I deduced that I needed to slow to approach speed first since I had to slow to departure speed in the other one. I did a horribly sloppy stall as I was trying to guess what the steps were for an approach stall. That was it for the checkride. The DE was dumbfounded that I didn't know these, and I was rather pissed and embarrassed that I hadn't been taught these specific stalls that show up on a damn checkride. Yes my CFI did go over stalls. But they were slow flight stalls, which would also be called an approach stall by some DEs. My CFI did not go over the textbook step by step execution of an approach stall that the DE wanted to see.

When we got back the DE said he knows I can fly, but I have to know the procedures. He wanted to know when I wanted to reschedule. I said I would get with my CFI and make sure I am ready first, then schedule a ride with him again. I do NOT want to go through that embarrassment again. I got a book called Flight Maneuvers. I'm going to go over that, with a list of required maneuvers for the checkride. Then do it on MS Flight Sim where I can practice doing procedures, then do solo flight(s) to practice more, and then go up with my CFI until he says I'm ready. And try the checkride again.

Next stop.... Checkride!!!

My checkride is scheduled for tomorrow! I'll be meeting the DE at KGLS, I've been there a few times, but it is not my home airport. So yesterday I went flying with my CFI to KGLS to get a little more familiar with the airport. I went ahead and used my GPS, although I think I'll leave it behind for my checkride. I don't want the DE thinking he has to drill me on "old fashioned" procedures because I have a GPS.

It was pretty straight forward. GLS is a class D airport, so 10 miles out, I made my call, gave my position, and was told to proceed to final, and to call in 2 miles out. Which I did. I'm used to landing from a pattern, so it felt odd just coming straight in. I asked my CFI for any tips, i.e. when to pull back on power, when to start the descent, etc... He said "Just do what feels natural". er, not too helpful, lol. Then he pointed out the PAPIs, and I used those for the first time. He said I came in fast at first, so I'll have to watch out for that next time. We landed, and were directed to the FBO to park. I wanted to look inside where the DE would be waiting. Some one from the ground crew came and put blocks around the landing gear, and gave us a ride to the FBO. Nice place. I think FBOs are so cool. They really cater to pilots, which I suppose is obvious since that is their sole purpose, but still... they do it well.

So then we got in the plane again, and I contacted ground so I could taxi to the runway.
Ground: "Mmmrfff wbble --way 13 rmffbl echo echo bschmrg"
Me: "Uh taxi to runway 13, roger"

Seriously... why do they sound like the worst drive-through speaker from the 70s you've ever heard? Don't they ever listen to see if they're coming through ok? Even my CFI had a hard time translating.

We took off and started off on my cross country for the checkride (which btw will be to Winnsboro, LA). I am sure the DE chose that destination because the route between KGLS and there are full of things I have not dealt with before. Such as MOA's in particular. I will also have to plan a refueling stop halfway there, at the destination, and halfway back. Although I will only be asked to fly the beginning of it tomorrow. (OMG... I still can't believe it's tomorrow!)

After a few minutes my CFI asked if I needed help with any maneuvers for the checkride. I opted for stalls, especially powered stalls because of my near spiral experience in the practice checkride. This time I managed the rudders much better and it was a non-event. Then we headed over to Wolfe airport for a grass strip landing, and a grass strip take off, then headed back home. It's an exciting feeling to think you've covered everything about as much as you can, and that all that's left to do is to show the DE.

We went back to the clubhouse and double checked that I had everything I needed to take with me to the checkride. The DE wanted me to bring a headset for him. Doesn't he have one?? Or does he want me to act like he's a passenger and that I should bring one for him? The CFI was nice enough to loan me his, as well as his foggles. I told him I'm not going to know what to do with myself once I have my license. I've got all these plans in my head, but I haven't really focused on them because I've been trying to stay focused with just getting my license.

I still have a lot of work to do tonight. I need to get my cross-country plans ready to use inflight, and still want to go over some things for the oral - and manage to get lots of sleep tonight.

I'd rather be flying

On the way to work this morning, I was running errands, and just happened to be near the airport. As usual when there's nice weather, like this morning, I'm thinking "I'd rather be flying". So I did. I stopped over at the clubhouse, and checked the schedule. No one had the plane, so I booked it for an hour for a short flight. I just cruised around and got above a light layer of stratocumulus clouds. It was a beautiful sight, and certainly much better scenery than the drive to work LOL. Chalk up 0.6 on the hobbs.

Practice Checkride

My CFI suggested I take a practice checkride with another club instructor. So I went flying with CFI2 today. I prepared for it as I would the real checkride. And I realized if it had been an actual checkride, the DE would have me plot a trip somewhere before the checkride. So I called the CFI2 and mentioned that. He asked where I had been before, and said to plot a trip to Lufkin.

So I reserved last night to cram and plot the trip. I decided to use Trinity VOR and then head up north to Daisetta VOR and on up to LFK. I can't fly straight to it because of the big-ass class B airspace in my way over HOU. But my route was even more out of the way because I had grown accustomed to using VORs, and due to inexperience with towered airfields, chose not to fly over Ellington airfield. In retrospect, I could have done that fine because I have already solo'd to other controlled fields. But still... I tended to avoid them. Also, if I was sticking to VORs, Daisetta was about 60 nm away. I wasn't sure I could pick it up right off, so I thought using Trinity (which was about 23 nm away) was a good backup. I planned an altitude of 1500 ft because I have seen daily cumulus clouds and cumulonimbus clouds everywhere, and I doubted I could fly much higher than that. Also he mentioned his weight, so I was sure to work out a weight & balance table for the C150.

Today I went to the airport early to continue cramming, and to get the plane ready. At noon the CFI2 arrived and some small talk we got to it. He first looked at my flight plan. And right away, questioned my out-of-the-way jog over to the Trinity VOR, saying I should have flown over Ellington with their permission, then fly to Baytown, which would have been easy to spot, and then pick up the Daisetta VOR. This would save me a lot of time and gas. He says my route is fine, but you want to take the straight path whenever you can, and the DE would point that out as well. Lesson learned... Then he asked why I was flying at 1500 ft. After checking the weather previously, I said "because the ceiling is at 3000 ft, and I need to be at least 1000 ft below them". Huh? He said. After telling him the 500-1000-2000ft cloud clearances he realized I had it bass-ackwards. I interpreted what I read wrong. I need to be 500 ft BELOW the clouds or 1000 ft above. Duh! So I could fly the route at 2500'. Those were the only 2 gotchas on the oral. The rest of what he asked I did well on. Overall the oral seemed pretty short. I hope the DE does it like that.

Then we went to go fly the flight plan. Or at least he said so before we took off. In the pre-take off I was to set up my radios. He asked what the Trinity VOR frequency was. I said 113.6 from memory, and set it on the nav. I taxied to the run-up area, and he wanted me to point the plane into the wind while I finalized my pre-takeoff procedures. I had never heard of this. I couldn't see people doing this at a busy airport. I could see the reason for this if there were significant winds, but we only had 5 knots. Doing this for the DE would feel strange since I've never heard of it, but what if he expects it? Safety wise, it's probably the thing to do, and that's what he's going to be most concerned with.

So then I turned back towards the runway made my take-off radio call, and took off. "What airspeed do you need to climb out at?" "75". "Good". At 500 ft he put the hood on me. I expected him to have me go towards Trinity, but going over the flight plan and dialing the nav to 113.6 was the extent of my cross country flight. We did some instrument maneuvers under the hood. He didn't want me banking at more than 15 degrees with the hood on. My other CFI had me doing 45 degree banks with the foggles. He said my instrument flying was very good, and we went off to the practice area. We started off with slow flight. I used a procedure that I just sorta came up with when my CFI asked me to do them before. Pull back the throttle, and raise the nose. I balance the two actions as the plane slowed to slow-flight speed while maintaining altitude. He said that was ok, but here's how you really do it: Pull out the carb heat. Pull back the throttle. Roll back the trim. Pull the nose up. Add power back in as necessary to maintain altitude. It's a more pro-active method and works very well. You can let go of the yoke and the plane will happily putt along at 49 knots maintaining altitude and attitude. Then we did some stalls. I did fine on those, except for a powered stall. My CFI never asked me to do those before. So I got a quick lesson in those. The main thing with those are to steer and control roll with the rudder NOT the aileron. I had tried using rudder to do this, but my ingrained training took over when the plane started to roll to the right. I corrected with ailerons and the plane banked way left very quickly. CFI2 helped me out of that predicament reminding me to use only rudders. I tried again and did fine.

Then... uh oh.. I lost power (with CFI2's help). "What do you do?" "Set up for ideal glide at 70 mph, and look for a landing spot". I looked out my left window and saw good ol' Wolfe Airfield. The grass strip I landed at a couple times before. "No that's too easy pick another" LOL. So I picked a field. He reminded me once I make a choice to stick with it. So I spiraled down and used flaps to get my altitude down enough and about 25 ft from actually landing there, he said ok. I put the throttle back in (need to remember to just shove it in, and not be slow about it), and milked the flaps back up. He said well done, but to make it great, find a spot near a road (to save us walking time and make the plane more accessible) and land in the direction of the furrows in the field.

Then I did some ground reference maneuvers, S-turns, and turns around a point. They went well. We headed back to the airport and did short & soft field landings, and short field takeoffs. And then... Uh oh... lost power again. This time on down wind in the pattern. I shortened my downwind, turned base, added about 20 degrees of flaps and landed on the runway. This concluded the flight portion. He said we went through probably more than a DE would and that I did fine. There wasn't anything I did that would have blown it. But even though I flew ok, he had plenty of helpful advice throughout the flight to help me do better. I consider this lesson very beneficial. CFI2's assessment of my performance and the extra advice he gave gives me more confidence as I go do my checkride.

Due to DE availability, I have at least 7 days before I can get with one. I will fly again this coming week (maybe solo, maybe with my CFI, we'll see...) to make sure all these new tricks are ingrained in my head. Till next time...

Did I actually go anywhere pt II

This flight gave me an even bigger sense of "Did I actually go anywhere?" than the last one. The reason is that it was almost a 100% instrument flight, and I hardly saw a thing the whole time. To complete the last of my requirements, I needed 1.2 hrs more of instrument flying, and I planned on getting it all in this flight. To do that, my CFI suggested a flight to LBX (Brazoria County Airport), and make an instrument approach landing. To do that I would have to learn to use the instrument approach diagrams.

The CFI explained the basics of instrument approach flying and said "let's go". I said wait, don't I need to fill out my flight planner spreadsheet first? He said, sure go ahead. I found out later that it would be completely unnecessary. He could have told me... So I preflighted the C150, and then we taxi'd to the runway. He asked if I wanted to do an instrument takeoff. Yikes! I couldn't think of any circumstance where you wouldn't be able to see the runway at all when taking off. But if that's the sort of crazy thing pilots do, I can give it a shot. I lined up down the runway, set my compass, put on my foggles, and punched in the throttle. I kept the direction indicator pegged on 320 as well as I could. I got a little too preoccupied looking at the direction indicator that I almost forgot to pull back. But I remembered before the CFI said anything.

To get to LBX I had to intercept the VOR from Hobby airport. Which I did. Then fly down that until I reached the intersecion of the LBX localizer VOR with the Houston Hobby VOR. Then fly down the localizer line as I descended 500 fpm. When I got to 400 ft elevation the CFI told me to remove my foggles. There was the runway right in front of me. I did a touch and go, and then put the foggles back on. Then we did some basic maneuvers. And once he tried disorienting me, but I got it flying right again. Then we did some stalls. And he had me flying one course after another until he said to remove the foggles.

"Can you figure out where you are?". I looked out the left window and saw my home airport right there. We were lined up on the downwind leg LOL. As I landed I was thinking "this is the end of my last lesson before my pilot's license". Man, what a feeling! But I also felt nervous because it felt like the hardest thing was ahead of me: The Checkride.

Did I actually go anywhere?

Tonight I planned on completing my night time requirements. The CFI wanted me to plot a trip to Beaumont for my night time cross country, which would take care of that, and also my 3 hrs of night time requirements. Thankfully the CFI remembered that I needed 6 more landings as well for my night time requirements.

When the CFI came I met him outside and asked what direction that large flickering thunderhead was. SE he said. Good, that will be out of our way. We were going east and northeast. So we went over the trip plan, preflighted the plane, and checked the gas. There was 16 gallons in the plane. The trip would be 1 hr, 20 mins. Regulations call for a reserve of 45 mins extra for night time trips (I did know that). So we actually needed 18. Again, I had to refill the plane.

It must have gotten good and dark right as we took off. There was a full moon again, so it wouldn't actually get really dark. It was a full moon on my last night time flight. I guess it will be quite an experience when I really fly at night with no moon. It was really beautiful though, looking at all those lights. And the experience was much nicer in the 172 than in the 150. I'm glad I have flown both at night to compare. The 172 has a nicer cockpit. The brightness of the cockpit matches perfectly with the lighting outside of the city lights. And then the bright moon above to the right, and the flickering storm clouds a head. It just all looked really cool.

We made it to the VOR across Galveston Bay. Then turned towards Beaumont. The 172 was equipped to show the distance to/from the VOR, which was really nice for navigating. No triangulating necessary. Just a direction and a distance and you know exactly where you are, and exactly when you'll see the next airport.

I found Beaumont's airport, entered a right hand pattern, and did two touch & gos, and then went on to Chamber County airport (T00). I eventually found that one, which was kinda nestled in all the surrounding city lights. Did 2 landings there, and then once I was back in the air again, the CFI placed the sun-shade over my view of the window. It was now instrument time :) I flew back to the Trinity VOR. Instruments were no problem. I thought they told me everything I needed to know. Although the sun-shade did block the air as well, and it was getting hot. I arrived at the VOR and turned back towards LVJ and flew 20 miles. The CFI then removed the screen and wanted to see if I could find the airport. I was 4 miles from it. Then I remembered the last time I flew to LVJ at night. We flew right over it and didn't see it until the CFI keyed the mic 7 times to turn on the lights. So I keyed the mic. Nothing happened anywhere. I couldn't find it. I tried again, and still nothing. So I circled around. I did see a dark region in the middle of the sea of Houston lights. But the lights should have been on by now. CFI then realized I was transmitting on the wrong radio, and switched me to the right one. Then it worked. I did 2 more landings, and got my 10 landings in. We came to a stop and completed the trip.

Did I actually go anywhere? Flying at night seems so surreal to me. Unless I actually get out at my destination and see that I'm in a new place, it all seems a little dream like, floating thought all those lights. Something must have happened though because I can now check off the 100 nm night time cross country and 10 night time landings, as well as 3 hrs of night flying! :)

Can you tell I'm getting anxious for my license? I just have 1.2 hours to go on instrument time and the test, and I'm ready for my check ride. I told him I'm ready to take my written exam this coming week. I'm not scoring as high as I would like to on the practice tests -- about 80-85 now. But I figure if I set a date, that will get my butt into gear to study more for it. He signed me off to take it, and so I think I'll take it either thursday or friday.

Well it's late, and I'm ready for bed. Gnite :)

p.s. That thunderhead is still flickering in the exact same spot as when I left lol

Back in the air

I was on vacation for the last couple of weeks. The vacation was really nice, but flying-wise it came at a bad time. I was in the final stretch of getting my license but there was just not enough time to get it done before the vacation.

So I have my night time cross country scheduled for this Sunday in the C172. Yes, it's finally back in action. During its last inspection there was some corrosion found in the wing, so it was out getting repaired for the last month or so. And since it's been a couple of weeks since I've flown and a long while since I've been in the 172, I did a solo refresher flight this morning.

The weather was clear and no wind. At least that's what ASOS said. I think there was a little cross wind. I practiced some stalls, S-turns, etc... All the basics, and then went and did 3 landings. I ended up with a few clumsy landings in the 172 the last time I flew. They were better this time, but I did feel like there must have been a little cross-wind. And compared to the 150, I was landing high. But I think today's flight helped re-acquaint me with the plane and get me back on track for my lessons this Sunday.

Also... I think I will try and take my written test next week. Wish me luck...

$217 Hamburger

There's my first $100+ Hamburger. And it was sooooo goooooood! This one turned out to be a bit more than $100 because the whole trip took 3.6 hours on the hobbs.

Today I did my long cross country flight. I did my ATC 101 flight the other day to prepare for this since I would be landing at towered airports. I took off from Pearland Regional towards Houston Southwest (to avoid the Class B airspace), then turned north towards Hooks Airport. On the way over I had a nice view of downtown Houston to my right. Things were happening fast though as I approached Hooks. I was sure to script out everything I needed to do to interact with Hooks ATC. 25 nm out I dialed in ATIS and got all the pertinent info and ATIS code. Then I contacted the tower, and they directed me in. From there I landed and switched to ground as I left the runway. It went pretty good. With ground I think I understood him to say "taxi to park". So I taxi'd to the parking lot ahead of me. I wanted my hamburger, so I talked to a couple of guys and asked where the restaurant was. They said at the FBO at the north end of the field. So I re-taxi'd (after calling ground) to the FBO.

There were a lot of people there at the Aviator's Grill. I ordered a B52 burger, and it was very good. I savored the moment because I had been looking forward to days like this when I could just go take a Sunday afternoon flight to some airport just for a hamburger, or any other fun and relaxing adventure. I look forward to many more with my family.



After my delicious lunch I went back out to my plane and snapped this picture. There's my plane :) No... not that snazzy air force plane on the left. No... not that big twin engine plane on the right. Yup the little one in the middle LOL. It ain't much, but it gets me places!

So I contacted clearance delivery to tell them where I wanted to go. Then called ground to get to the runway, and tower to take off. It all went real smooth, and I felt much better about going to towered airports. Now on to College Station. I planned on heading to a VOR in Navasota between Houston & College Station, and then use the VOR to get to College Station. I also wanted to fly at 8500' so I could enjoy the view. I ran into some scattered cumulus clouds on the way up though and had to zig zag my way up through them. It was a beautiful sight. Then on to the VOR. Well with all that maneuvering around clouds and trying to get up to altitude I was at the VOR before I knew it. Now it was already time to come back down to pattern altitude for CLL.


Good ol' College Station... Home of the Fighting Texas Aggies! WHOOOP!!!! Yup, I'm an Aggie - class of '91. You can see the campus in the picture above. I contacted ATC and told them my position. They acknowledged me and said something else. I didn't understand so I asked the tower to repeat. They sounded irritated and said "Cessna 593 I am talking to three other aircraft. Make a call when you are 2 miles north of the airfield." Oooookay. So I did that and they had me follow a Duchess in to the runway. I parked the plane and went into the FBO to relax and review my flight plan for the return trip. Then I checked my fuel, and I had enough with an hour to spare, but just to make sure, I had them put another 6 gallons in. I called FSS with my flight plan and preflighted. I had to add another quart of oil, which I brought along since I've had to add a quart every time I've flown this plane lately. Not good.

Then I contacted ground to get to the runway, and tower to take off, and off I went again. The air was so clear. After I was a about 10 minutes out of CLL I noticed downtown Houston on the horizon. That's 80 miles away! Check out this picture...



A far cry from my last solo cross country to Palacios where I could hardly see the gound from 1500 ft because of smog! I joked to myself about forgetting the pilotage and VORs and just looking for my home airport 95 nm away and fly to it lol. Well my eyes aren't that good so I went back to pilotage and navigating VORs. On the way back through Houston I noticed an airfield that I should be coming up to just to the left of my ground track. I looked closer at it on the map and realized it was the airport next to my parents neighborhood. I couldn't pass this opportunity up, so I circled around and took a few pictures of their house. I would have called them but the plane is too loud to use the cell phone. Oh well... The rest of the trip continued to go smooth. I saw a few isolated rain showers on the way back with some nice sun rays shining through.


That was a great flight and I can't wait to share these kinds of adventures with my family and friends.

ATC 101

Today's lesson: Control Towers. And not just any control towers... Class B airspace control towers (namely Houston Hobby Airport).
Images from Star Trek I came to mind as the tiny Enterprise nervously navigated its way through V'ger's "airspace". Hailing V'ger it receives an alien reply. Respond incorrectly and the Enterprise would be destroyed. The best I could hope for is to give the correct response and have my CFI replaced by a mechanical replica to aid in further communication to Vger and to accomplish my mission - to land at the heart of Vger.

Can you tell I was nervous about this lesson? I needed experience with control towers so we dedicated today's lesson towards control tower work. After doing this, I would be ok to do my long cross country to College Station (a controlled airport) this Sunday. I arrived early this morning to get started. My CFI said we would be first going to HOU, then to Sugar Land, then Galveston, and finally Ellington. All controlled airports, but thankfully only HOU is Class B. After going over the plan, I went to get the keys for the C172 I scheduled. It was supposed to be back now from its long wing repair where corrosion was found. I was surprised to see that it was red-flagged, meaning it was not in flying condition. The log said the avionics had a bad fuse. My usual C150 was already booked, and there was no one to talk to to get the scoop on the 172. There was an opening in the schedule on the 150 after lunch though. So I went on to work.

Through out the morning the weather deteriorated. At 12:30 though I went on to the airport for my 1:00 scheduled flight. It was pouring! The streets were starting to flood. Yet I continued my drive to the airport. When I got there, the rain stopped and my CFI was looking over radar maps on the internet. He then called 800-WX-BRIEF, which of course told him it was marginal VFR at best. After about 10 minutes of purusing animated radar maps we determined that the bad weather still over our heads was the last of it, and it was moving out of our planned route. So we were off.

I learned not to approach Vger directly. Just fly alongside its airspace and let them know of my presence. They seemed nice. No death rays yet. They told me to fly towards the Astrodome and wait to be contacted again. I did, and took in the improving view. The storm had cleansed the air and visibility was really good, with some cool looking clouds to the SW. Then HOU had us follow a Bonanza to the airport, which I did. He was much faster than me. I was directed to a runway reserved for tiny planes like mine and landed, taxi'd, and parked - all under the watchfull eye of Vger. Actually it wasn't so bad. The CFI & I sat in the C150 while we waited for clearance to get to us. It was a looooong wait. I said something about them not having time for us little guys. The CFI said he was talking to one of his pilot buddies who was a CFI and was at LaGuardia in a small plane like this with his student. And like us, they were waiting for an eternity while ATC granted permission to one large jet after another to depart. Finally he had his student call clearance again to request to depart. They said it would be a while. Then the instructor got on, without identifying himself, and said "C'mon, let the little guy go". Thinking it was one of the jumbo jet pilots talking, they relented and let them go LOL. We didn't have to resort to those measures. We were finally cleared to depart. So I went off to Sugar Land airport, That one was less intimidating. We landed, taxi'd, took off to the next leg, which was Galveston. On the way over there I was able to get in some instrument time. By now Galveston was starting to become familiar territory. When we taxi'd back to the runway, ATC warned us not to go to the threshold because it was barricaded there... yeah, the ones the CFI told me to bypass the other night LOL. So we entered the runway at the next to last entrance and took off.

On the way back, the CFI asked if I felt comfortable enough to do towered airports now. I said not the Class Bs, but other than that, yeah. He said there's not much reason to go into Class Bs, so that's good enough. We got back and I rounded the day off with a really nice cross wind landing. I showed him my flight plan for flying to College Station. He approved it, so I'll be ready to do that Sunday :)

Fly by Night

It's time to rake up some night hours! I was excited about this flight all day. I met the CFI at the airfield and he says we're going on a mini cross country. To Schole's Field in Galveston, then to Brazoria, then to Wolfe field. Nooo! He mentioned how he took someone up before on a night flight and they flew to Wolfe field, which is a grass field. He said they circled around it, and it was dark there. He said his other student was circling but getting higher instead of lower into the field like he wanted because his student was afraid of the black hole there. Well now it was my turn to enter the black hole. I put together a quick flight plan for the route he described, and went to www.aopa.org to download and print kneeboard formatted sheets for each airport. The CFI told me he was proud of me. He was always impressed that I did that without being told to. It goes back to when I did the practice cross-country on my flight sim to see what I needed on a xc flight, and that was something I found out I needed. That was re-inforced on the two xc flights I have done so it has become something that's just part of preparing for a xc flight.

CFI went over some things that would be different about a night flight. Including bring a flashlight. I hadn't even thought of that one. I figured there were lights in the plane. Apparently not enough, and he says it's a possibility they could go out. So I'll have to add a flashlight to my flight bag. As I taxi'd to the runway I started to turn on my GPS. CFI said I won't be using that tonight... aw man. I didn't plan it this way when I scheduled the flight, it just happened - there was a nearly full moon tonight, which looked awesome from the air, and of course helped with seeing. So I followed the Galveston VOR to Schole's field. I was hoping it was a controlled field so I could practice more at a controlled field in preparation for my long xc flight. But it turns out Schole's tower only operates from 6am - 6pm. My route took me right into final, and I was preparing for awkward maneuvering to enter the pattern 45 degrees towards the downwind leg. CFI said there's no one in the pattern so it's ok just to enter in on final. Interesting - I didn't know that. So then I descended to the runway outline of Schole's field. I came in a little slow, but it was a landing we could walk away from and use the plane again. We taxi'd off and went around to the start of the runway. There were barricades blocking my way onto the runway. I asked CFI about them. His strategy seemed to be to ignore them. We set up the VOR nav for the next leg, taxi'd around the barricades (if he says so...), entered the runway and took off into the wild black yonder. I could see what he mentioned earlier - that the ships in the ocean looked like stars and that it becomes hard to see the horizon. On this flight, however, with the moon out you could actually make out the horizon, and the real stars were not as bright as the ship lights.

We went on to Brazoria. There were not many landmarks I could use along the way. So it was good that I had the VOR to follow. I found that at night I seemed to want to yaw the plane to the left. I paid extra attention to the VOR, CDI, and the artificial horizon. I saw from the map that Brazoria was just a couple miles SW of Angleton. So I looked for Angleton when the time was came for me to be near there. I saw a mass of lights. CFI and I looked for the airport. But when it seemed we should be almost on top of it, we saw nothing. Then he spotted it about 5 miles to the right. Galveston's VOR should have led me right to it. I'm not sure I trust Galveston's VOR. See my previous post for the reason why. I'm not sure what the mass of lights was. It wasn't on the map. So we turned to Brazoria, which turned out to be a right hand pattern, and landed. I came to a full stop and took off again.

I would be using Houston Hobby's VOR to get to Wolfe field. At first I went east of my route to intercept the VOR heading. Then I turned to my planned compass heading, and soon found myself far to the right of the VOR heading. I went left of the heading for several minutes to intercept it again. What's up with that? Well we made it over to the black hole. Once CFI keyed the mic several times the runway lit up and it wasn't black anymore, and I didn't feel any fear of flying near it. I thought we were just going to fly around it. He wanted me to land there. He says it's alright I've been there before. Yeah - that was during the day. This is much different! We landed. Landing on a grass field just feels so odd. Especially with this field. It's raised in the center, which means you're tilting to the left if you're left of the center. Or maybe all grass fields are like this to keep the water off. We taxi'd back to the start of the runway, but instead of taking off again he wanted me to park the plane by the hangar. We both got out, and he pulled out some keys and opened the hangar. Apparently he comes here a lot. Inside there were many planes. It was a very cool feeling to see all these planes there in a dimly lit hangar at night with no one around. It was like that Nissan Enjoy the Ride commercial where this kid finds an underground garage full of an impressive array of cars. Only there was an impressive array of airplanes in here - including one of my favorites. A yellow biplane. I have always loved these planes and would kill to fly in one. Someday... someday... So then CFI opens up a C172 and starts trying to remove a GPS from its yoke. He says it's half his since he went in on it with someone else. Ohhhh... so that's what's going on. He wanted to come here and pick up the GPS and I'm his chauffeur LOL. Well that's fine. I'm having fun.

Then we get back into the plane and take off. I put a notch of flaps in for a short field take-off. We haven't built up much speed by the last half of the runway, and the plane is veeeerrrry slowly rising. I'm not even sure if it's completely off the ground. We're on the verge of stalling it when it does leave the ground. We milk the flaps up and are passing over houses just 50 feet above them. Finally this thing gets in the air. He says I can use my GPS now to get back to Pearland. So I turn it on, and fly towards it. We continue to follow the route on the GPS and seem to have difficulty spotting the runway. Then we think we see it, but it looks like there are 2 runways. Pearland just has one (well it has another one, but that's just a grass runway running parallel to the other one). I check the GPS again, and it says we are RIGHT OVER PEARLAND! I strain to look straight down and I see it in the dark. The airport we thought was Pearland was actually Ellington. I thought Pearland would have been a big enough airport that its runway lights would have been kept on, but apparently not. CFI keyed the mic several times and the lights came on. I landed on the runway, and CFI said I outdid myself on that landing.... Cool :)

That was 1.9 hours of fun. Flying at night was a bit more difficult than during the day (especially landing on grass fields) but it was so fun. I had a great time. For the remaining lessons towards my private pilot's license I will be landing at Houston Hobby (a big-ass Class B airspace airport) and Houston South West (a class C airport) in preparation for going to Easterwood airport (class C) in College Station for my long distance solo cross country flight. Then I have to do another night cross country (tonight's wasn't long enough to qualify, it was more to get used to flying at night), and rack up some instrument time. Then I will be ready for my written and oral test. Woohoo!!!

Bleah!

Looks like it's time to do more studying for the written test...

Perma-Grin

Ahhh the joys of flying! I did my 1st solo cross country today to Palacios where I flew with my CFI a couple of days ago. When I was planning for this flight I wanted to be sure to avoid the thunderstorm situations I encountered with my CFI last time. So I looked at the weather forecast and today there was only a 10% chance of rain. Well I found out that 10% does not a clear sky make. It was really hazy with smog. I guess that still air (no winds) allows it to build up.

I called my CFI yesterday and told him I planned on doing the solo cross country to Palacios (a 71 nm trip). He asked if I was going to fly the same plan (and sounded like he expected me to update it after my last flight)... "uh.. no I was going to redo the plan". So I re-worked it going straight to the VOR near Palacios, with no BYY fly-over. I marked checkpoints at the point where I would be at cruising altitude, where I would pass the 3 lakes I saw before, where I passed Bay City, and where I would start my descent. He OK'd the plan, and this morning I woke up to go fly. When I got to the airport, I saw this awesome sunrise, and looked just in time to see the fiery orange sun rising above the clouds. It was a good moment.

I updated my weather info - not much wind to be found anywhere - and then called 800-WX-BRIEF to file my flight plan. After I filed my plan the operator asked if I wanted a weather briefing for my route. I wasn't expecting any adverse weather, but I said "sure" anyway just to hear it. OMG... he went on and on and on. Talking about weather everywhere from the Texas coast, to Dallas to Big Bend. These places (except for the Texas coast) are several hundred miles away! Like many people had told me, the report was useless. They did tell me though that my route was not VFR. That was unexpected because all the metars en route reported clear to mostly clear skies. I would see for myself. I had the airplane fueled up, and off I went.

Now I could see what they were talking about. It was smoggy as hell! So much smog on a clear day that conditions were barely VFR!


Environmental Soapbox: People, clean up this crap! Yes, I even mean you oil refineries, heavy duty trucks and buses that are exempt from many environmental restrictions, even though you are the cause of much of it. It looks ugly and we have to breath this crap. Cut it out!

I believed I still had enough visibility to see my land marks and to continue on. I dialed in the Palacios VOR, and put in my heading. I was puzzled why it said 'From'. The needle was also way to the left. I verified the morse code ident, and it checked out. Oh well, I continued navigating by pilotage. My times to each checkpoint was right on. I had to descend from my planned altitude of 2500' to 1500' though because of the haze. Then as I neared Palacios I had to descend down to 1000' because of clouds. I used other VORs to check my position along the route as well. It was about this time I realized my stupid mistake. I'm supposed to use the course TO the VOR, not FROM the VOR... Duh! Ok... little learning experience there. Now the Palacios VOR made sense!

So I announced my arrival at Palacios air space. Listening to the radio, I thought I entered another country. Is there a red-neck equivalent of ebonics? There should be! Geez lol. I landed at Palacios, taxied over to the start of the runway, closed my flight plan and re-activated it for the return trip, and took off again before I was captured and raised by a pack of wild shrimp boaters. Yee haw!

On the way back I decided to try something different, and fly above the cruddy smog and scattered clouds. After doing a few spirals while gaining altitude I reached 5500' and was able to fly above the clouds. Very nice view. It looked like the smog reached a hight of about 5000'-5500'. It was now even harder to see checkpoints on the ground, but I still could do it. I followed the Palacios VOR back home, and also used my GPS for navigation to become more familiar with that. The GPS HSI is a big help for navigating (and yes, I know it's only for back up and that I should be using the airplane's instruments even though the course direction indicator is only accurate for about 3-5 minutes in the airplane I'm flying, but it sure does a nice job!). After a while the GPS blinked a warning telling me I was approaching an airspace in 10 minutes. Ah, thank you very much... I lowered my altitude down to 3500' so I could slip under the 4000' Class B airspace around Houston Hobby. Then I lowered to 1500' to avoid the 2000' airspace around Houston Hobby. I was now in familiar territory and could see my airport. I checked the winds and they were out of 340 at 4 kts. So I planned on landing on runway 32. Then I listened to the traffic and people were using runway 14. I radioed and verified which runway I should use. They reported back 14. Ok, 14 it is. I landed quite nicely, and that was it. My first solo cross country was in the books :) It was a lot of fun, and the unexpected smog/cloudy conditions turned out to be minor obstacles during the trip. It was nice being able to get up above the clouds and enjoy the view - and the cooler temperatures!

Cross Country & Dodging Thunderstorms

My long awaited xc flight happened today. The weather, as usual around here, was iffy but good enough to fly. I planned routes to two different destinations over the past week so that if the weather was bad one way, I could go another direction. Then once I had every thing ready I tried flying one of the routes on my flight simulator for practice.

I wanted to see if I could do it with just what I had in my lap. It was difficult, and I could not use pilotage skills on the flight simulator because there is no real-world scenery I can use in my area - I don't blame them, Houston is not a scenic place! But it would be nice if someone would develop some Houston area scenery for those of us who are marooned here and working towards our pilot's license. So anyway, I had to use dead reckoning on the flight sim. I found that I needed a decent lapboard, and airport diagrams with all the necessary frequency info in an easy to access form. Also, I was using flight planning forms where I had figured out course info, and right before my virtual flight, I had gathered all the virtual weather info and adjusted the resulting heading I needed to fly and ground speeds after wind was factored in. I found that these forms were a headache because the airplane's airspeed indicator is in mph and everything else is usually in knots. Plus during the flight weather conditions change so the adjustments to headings will have to be easily recomputed during the flight. So the flight sim was really useful for identifying what I needed to bring to the real flight.

The first thing I did was to make a flight planning spreadsheet, which I could upload to my cellphone. I made one which I must say is pretty versatile. I enter the calibrated airspeed from the aircraft in mph, and it computes the true-airspeed in knots with the altitude tweak built in. Then everything else is in knots. Before flight, or during, I enter the wind direction and speed, and it computes true heading etc. So it turned out pretty well. The only drawback is the cell-phone sized display, but it worked out alright.

So I got to the airport about an hour before and made some last minute preparations. Then the CFI got there and we talked about the plan. He seemed impressed at how prepared I was, especially with the airport diagrams and information sheets I had ready which I downloaded from AOPA. We looked at the weather situation, and decided to go to Palacios - a distance of 81 miles from the airport (something clicked in my head saying "yeah the weather's ok to Palacious, but how is it going to be on the way back? Then the thought was replaced by other concerns.) The weather decided to put a spin on things and the wind was blowing from the north for a change. So for only my 2nd time, I took off from runway 32. With full tanks of gas and two adults, the C150 slowly climbed to 2500' and I began my first leg to Bay City. There were a group of 3 small lakes that I picked on the map as landmarks, and I found them pretty easy. It was cool seeing my flight plan in action. I re-verified the weather conditions at Bay City, and updated my flight plan with the changing wind data. After the group of 3 lakes, I easily picked out other landmarks along the way. Bay City airport was difficult to spot. I learned that if you're coming in at right angles to the airstrip it's hard to spot. But when I did find it, I was nearly on top of it. The CFI was happy about that... so was I! That was a 55 nautical mile leg. Then I turned to Palacios. During that leg, the instructor said "Ok, let's assume you are completely lost and need to find out where you are. How do you do that?" I picked 3 VORs on the map to use to pinpoint my position. I really only needed 2, but the CFI wanted me to use 3. Two of the VORs pointed right to my position. The 3rd one from Schole's Field was at least 20 degrees off! WTH? The CFI double checked that one and he got the same thing. Can anyone explain that? I'd really like to know why that one was off. I guess that's why you need 3 VORs. So we made our way to Palacious and landed. It was only after landing and taxiing that it hit me - I did it! I successfully got us all the way over here. Very cool :) So we taxied over to take off again.

On the way back the CFI wanted me to call FSS to have them do flight following. One thing I am a bit concerned about for when I do this on my own, is how the heck am I going to understand them? I relied on the CFI to interpret what they were saying. It's one thing to learn what to say and when, but I can't even understand half of what they're saying on the radio. We requested flight following back to the airport. They came back and advised against it because of deteriorating weather conditions... Doh! CFI said to tell them understood, but we would request flight following anyway. We then requested weather info for Bay City. They said to stand by, and after 2-3 minutes we got tired of waiting and just went ahead and pulled up ASOS for Bay City on the radio. It was fine. We decided to land there and check out the radar at the FBO. This was actually turning out to be really good training because I'm learning what to do when weather fouls up your way home. We landed at Bay City and went to the FBO. There were some nice people there who showed us everything they had - which wasn't much. Just a radar of Texas and a few surrounding states. Not really good enough for determining weather conditions beyond Bay City. So we decided to try and make it to South West airport, which is a bit north of the route back to Pearland, and see how the rest of the route looked from there. I went a head and used my GPS for this impromptu route planning. On the way to South West I looked at the direction back home and it looked possibly rainy, but ok - no thunderstorms that way. So we re-routed again and headed back towards Pearland. All this was really good training I thought. When I make the solo xc I'll go during absolute blissful weather, but it's good to know what to do if things start looking bad. We actually made it all the way back to Pearland without even rain. By the time we got there it was sunny skies. I guess the storms moved off to the south.

When we landed the CFI asked if I thought I was ready to do that flight on my own. It was all pretty straight forward, so I said "Yeah, I can do it". He ok'd me to do it whenever I'm ready. I'll have to look at my budget to see when I can make it happen. I'm really excited to have this xc under my belt and am looking forward to the solo. I'm going on vacation for a week and a half in August and was wondering how much I had left to do for my license. It would be really pushing it to get it done by then and would probably blow my budget anyway.

By the way. As I write this, there are thunderstorms with lightning striking all around me, and the wind is really picking up. It's great to watch... when you're on the ground!

Here's the ground track: