Navigating clear skies

The rain finally seems to be over for a while. We had a clear sky with a few scattered clouds. I could actually see where I was going this time. And speaking of going somewhere, we started working on navigation today. It was a blast. After some stall practice at 3500', we headed from Wolfe field over towards Smith Point on the other side of Galveston Bay about 30 miles away. I had been using the VOR in my flight simulator at home, and it certainly helped when using the real thing. I had to hold an altitude of 1500' and a heading of 77 degrees. It became much easier once I had my trim set and found a point to aim to once the plane was pointed in the right direction. Which was good, because the trip over there was quite scenic. (I must remember to take pictures next time.) We flew over Galveston Bay which is a busy shipping lane into Houston. I was just taking in all the sights.

We got to Smith Point and I did see that little VOR which was making all the racket. I circled around it until I could get my nav configured for the flight to Schole's Field in Galveston. This was a Class D airport - my first controlled airport since my earlier flying days. I called in on the way over there and got an acknowledgment. I told them I wanted to do a touch and go but they said the pattern was too full and that I could do a full stop, come around and then take off again. Then they directed me to the base of runway 17. Apparently I have better eyes than my CFI because I saw the airport about 3 minutes before he did.

My mom came to visit last weekend and had seen me practicing landings at Schole's Field on my simulator. Galveston Island is basically a narrow strip of land that hugs the Texas coast. The airport is a large airport and takes up over half the width of the island. She saw me approaching the runway with water all around and got all excited. "One screw up and you'll land in the ocean!" "Mom... I just have to get down to the runway. If I can't land on the runway then I'm going to have difficulties no matter which airport I go to." Mothers... lol!

I asked the CFI if I was supposed to come into the downwind leg at a 45 degree angle like I was used to in my other pattern work. He said no, they said to fly right into base. So I did and radio'd my position as I did. The CFI said I didn't have to announce my position on final though - which is good because I have enough on my hands at that point. We made a good landing other than being left of center (and I managed to stay out of the ocean even!), and then the Tower said to go ahead and do a 180 back to the start of the runway and take off. I got about 200 yards from the foot & my CFI said that's good enough. So I turned around and prepared to take off. Tower called and said my Cessna didn't have enough room and to go back to the start of the runway LOL - would you two make up your mind?! So I went back to the start, turned around, and started to throttle up. CFI stopped me and said to tell them I'm ready. Doh! "Galveston, Cessna 593 ready to take off." "Cessna 593 you are cleared to take of." Thinking back, I knew the procedure because I read it. I need to put that into real world knowledge.

So we took off with a view of the ocean before us and waves crashing on the beaches to the right & left of us, entered a right hand pattern to exit, set up my nav equipment for a VOR heading of 330 away from Schole's Field, and flew to that heading. The VOR didn't seen to be responding at all. CFI said this can't be right. I double checked the map, and he looked at it too. Then he realized it should have been a heading of 300. Doh again! I had slapped together a flight plan with the wrong heading. So I corrected myself and we went looking for the 300 degree line from the VOR and flew back home.

There were significant crosswinds this time, so landing was a little sloppy. He had me go around again, and it was better that time. These things will take practice, which I need to do in my solo time.

We went over the trip back at the clubhouse and talked about what's coming next. Thursday I will solo again, and then sometime next week we will go on a cross country flight to Lake Livingston :) I had been camping there before, and it takes a while to drive there. It will be interesting flying there this time. Then after that comes the solo cross country. This is all so fun. I can't wait for more.