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 :)