Lake of the Ozarks

September 24, 2012

Finally, with our third attempt at making this cross country (XC), we finally get to go. My instructor for Commercial training, Ryan is sitting right seat and my husband is sitting in the back. I'm so excited that he gets to go with us. I do the preflight inspection; wings... check, tires... check, fuel...check. Ryan and I discuss the plan for the trip. It looks like we will contact ATC and use Flight Following. It's nice to have them follow us on radar. The other thing we planned to do, was to fly to the Ozarks without GPS... yes, we're going old school. This was going to be a test (and good practice) of flying by using Pilotage and Dead Reckoning.

• "Pilotage is the art of knowing where you are by reading a map and comparing it with the surrounding terrain and landmarks, while Dead Reckoning is the art knowing where you currently are by using a compass, your ground speed, a clock and an initial known position." - wiki.flightgear.org

This is something you are required to know in order to pass your Private Pilot checkride, but I haven't done it in a year. So yes, I'm nervous because I have been known to get lost in the past. Here's the good news, I now have a program called ForeFlight on my iPad and it has a GPS with moving maps to show you where you are as you fly. This was coming with me, and Ryan was going to be the only one using it (to check my performance) on the way to the Ozarks, then I would get to use it on the way home as a reward (if I did ok). 

The wind is blowing fairly strong, but it's a beautiful clear day. We roll onto Runway 18 and I apply full power. It's 12:40pm. At 25ft off the ground, we feel the wind kicking us around like bugs. Is this what it's going to be like for the entire trip? I think to myself. While fighting the wind, we climb to 2500ft and turn onto the predetermined heading. Shortly thereafter, I call up St. Louis Approach and request Flight Following. They now have us on radar and will "watch over us." 

We climb to our cruising altitude of 6,500ft. It's much smoother up here, but the temperature has dropped significantly. I close the air vents. My navigation chart is on my lap, and I constantly compare what I see on the ground to what is labeled on my chart. I decide that another safe thing to do is to fly by VORs. I tune in the Foristell VOR first, and fly to it. Once we pass Foristell, I tune in to the Vichy VOR which is located at Rolla Airport. We're cruising at 100 knots indicated airspeed, however we are flying nearly straight into the wind. It feels like we're barely moving. Ryan looks at ForeFlight and it tells us that our Ground Speed is about 75kts (equivalent to 86mph in a car). I continue to read my charts and track to the VOR. Eventually we cross over the VOR station. Next up should be our destination... K15 is the airport identifier. Off in the distance it looks like maybe some legs of a body of water. Is that the lake?! I'm getting excited. 

The skies are starting to get cloudy. We have to descend to remain clear of them; now at 4,500ft. St. Louis Approach passes us over to Mizzou Approach. As we get closer, Ryan and I agree that I will practice an instrument approach. He pulls up the approach plate, hands the iPad to me and has me brief the procedure. It looks like we will need to do a procedure turn that looks like a holding pattern (racetrack shape) before heading inbound to the runway. This should be done at 2700ft, then the inbound leg should be at about 1600ft.

We finally make it to the lake. It's gorgeous. ATC tells us that we have a helicopter ahead at about 1000ft below us. It's a local agency doing some work around the area. ATC instructed us to not descend below 4000ft. We performed the procedure turn and was ready to head inbound. However we were still at 4500ft! ATC told us time and time again not to go below 4000ft. The helicopter below us was flying all around the area. It appeared to look like a search and rescue mission. We start flying inbound... above 4000ft. Finally after much frustration, Ryan called ATC and got strict with our request to land. Finally, we get approval to descend.

Power completely out to idle, descend at 1000ft+ per min, with our airspeed climbing to the border of the yellow arc on the airspeed indicator. Down to 3000ft. Starting to feel the wind knock us around again, this time the wind is bouncing off the hills, making it challenging. Finally hitting pattern altitude of 1600ft on the downwind leg of Runway 14, the wind is going crazy. Hopefully I can pull this off. I look over to my left and see that directly in front of the runway is a highway with buildings, trees and power lines. This was about to get reeeeeaaalllyyy interesting...

Once abeam the runway number 14, I timidly pull the power back and lower a notch of flaps. I was nervous about descending this low over buildings on a windy day. I fight the controls and turn onto the base leg. Now on to final, my heart is racing. At this point I'm thankful that I have a CFI next to me. "Oh I really hope the turbulence doesn't throw me down" I think to myself. I clear the buildings by about 50ft. Ryan announces that we're clear of all obstacles. Now I just have to quickly descend to make the runway.

Google maps

I bring us down, and with a little help of the instructor, the wheels touch the runway. I took a huge internal sigh of relief. We taxied down a taxiway of rolls hills and parked at the FBO. It's now about 2:30pm and we really don't have time to mess around but after that white knuckle ordeal, I needed a restroom break and a minute to breathe. I get out of the plane, check to make sure we have enough fuel for the trip back, then go inside and do my thing.

It had been estimated that the trip to the Ozarks would only take between 1-1.5 hours, instead with the headwind, it took nearly 2. I only had the plane until 4:00 and Ryan was on evening traffic watch duty, which meant he had to depart our home airport by 4:00. We finally took-off between 2:45 and 3:00pm. The wind was going to be on our side this time, as it should give us a nice tailwind. 

We call up Mizzou Approach again and request Flight Following for our trip back home. Ryan took the controls for a moment so that I could take some pictures of the gorgeous scenery. I feel like I can somewhat enjoy the view now. The iPad is on my lap and the paper chart is filed away. I must've met with his approval on my navigation earlier, because now I get to play with ForeFlight for the first time. No VOR navigation needed, we were just flying back direct. The GPS tells me what heading to fly but I still back it up by having the VORs tuned. Our groundspeed of 75 knots going there, is now a wonderful tailwind and is giving us a groundspeed of 110-120knots. We're cruising now!!

Halfway back home, we have to descend again to avoid the clouds. We're now in contact with St. Louis Approach and cleared to enter Class B airspace. That means we're almost home. My iPad's calculation states that we should arrive at 3:52pm. I can see the Mississippi River and with my eyes, I follow it east to find our home airport. There it is! We begin our descent and cancel Flight Following. I got it from here. 

We listen to the weather and determine that Runway 18 is the most appropriate for landing. Ryan asks me if I want to do a right hand pattern (left is normal). I tell him we're not allowed to and that I have maybe done only one since I started flight training anyways. He says that yes we can do it if we radio our intentions to local traffic, and that it would be good practice. I shrug and say ok. 

I enter downwind from the opposite side of the airport than I'm used to for this runway. I make a right hand turn on to base, then right on to final. This only threw me off slightly. I bring us down, however we have a 20 degree crosswind. This is going to be fun, as the winds are gusting to 17knots. Ryan reminds me to turn the ailerons into the wind, and use opposite rudder to keep us aligned with the runway. I feel like I'm doing good, then as we go to touch down, the airplane balloons. With Ryan's hands on the controls, he helps me out. It's 3:54. Wow, the iPad pretty much nailed it!

I taxi us to the hanger and Ryan rushes out. He's off for traffic watch. I calculate the time the airplane had been flown to find that I rung in 3.2 hours of cross country time today. Yay!

That was an amazing trip. I feel like I learned a lot, challenged myself, and had a fun time while doing it. In less than a week from now, I'll be doing yet another cross country!


Flight Log to Date:
Hours flown: 146.9

More Maneuvers

September 9, 2012

Today was a special day... my birthday! What better way to celebrate than by flying?

I met with my CFI for the day, Ryan. The agenda involved learning a new commercial flight maneuver and practicing the ones I learned the previous lesson. After a soft field takeoff, we go out to the practice area and set up. First up, 50 degree steep turns. I'm still too timid to bank the plane that much when I'm only used to 20 degree for my instrument training. Oh well, here we go! I turn the yoke to the left and watch the horizon move sideways. "Keep turning," Ryan says. I read the instruments far too much (again, blaming instrument training). He decides that I just need to go back to my roots and "look outside the plane." I start a new turn and Ryan covers up the attitude indicator. Crap. I roll into a 50 degree turn and Ryan says to just hold it there, keeping my eyes on how the horizon looks at this attitude. I roll into a turn in the other direction. Turns out he was right, I did much better by just looking outside.

Now Ryan tells me to look down and close my eyes. He says to fly the airplane straight and level just based on my senses without sight. Alright, no big deal... I've done this before. Then he throws in a curve ball, "now turn to your left." "What?!?!" I say. I do as I'm told... this is much harder. I hear the pitch of the engine changing and based off the tone, I correct my pitch attitude of the plane (climb/descend). Now I'm asked to turn to the right. This one was much more interesting. I hear the engine's tone change again, I know that I'm gaining speed, which means I'm descending. I try to pull up, but it feels as though someone (Ryan) is pushing the yoke down. I almost asked if he was messing with me. I don't want to pull up too much because I don't want to stall the plane. Ryan tells me to open my eyes and recover. I was in a fairly steep left turning descent, and I was the only one to blame for it. Wow! Gotta love spatial disorientation...

Next up was review of Chandelles. First time around I had the concept right, but didn't get the airspeed slow enough. Lets try again... getting better. Now one in the other direction... not bad. After a couple more we were both satisfied.

Now we climb up to 4000ft and try my hand at a new maneuver, Steep Spirals.

airplanegroundschools.com

The goal is to complete three 360 degree turns around a point on the ground, and finish at least 1000ft AGL (above ground level) all while having your power at idle... gliding. Here we go! I pull the power out, turn carb heat on, drop my airspeed to 65 knots (best glide speed), and start my turn around the point. This is fun! After each complete 360 degree turn, we rev the engine just to keep it warm, then pull it back out to idle. I finish all three turns with over 1500ft to spare. Nice!

The end of the Steep Spirals maneuver altitude set us up almost perfectly to jump right into Eights on Pylons. I need to be at 700ft AGL for this, so we descend just a bit more, then pick our two points. I fly in between the points, then make a turn to the left and circle the first point. Now onto the second point... I circle it, then move back to the first point. If you were standing on the ground looking up, it'd appear that I was flying a figure 8.

We feel that was enough practice for the day, so I fly us back to the airport. The only thing left is to try and perform a better Power off 180. I get us on downwind, this time closer to the runway. Once abeam the runway number, I pull the power to idle and make my initial turn in. This time I wasn't short of making the runway, I was actually a bit too high. But no problem, I'll just glide the plane in ground effect until it's ready to touch down. After a nice landing, we look at the time and see that we still have a half hour before having to turn the plane in. Lets go again!

This time, we got stuck behind another plane in the pattern and couldn't do the Power Off 180, so a normal landing it was... sort-of. Ryan asked me to gently touch down with the main wheels, but keep the nose wheel off the ground (like a soft field landing) and to see how long I could do a wheely down the runway. I made it about half way, haha. 

We takeoff one last time with a short field takeoff, and this time around I was clear to do the maneuver. Power to idle, carb heat on, airspeed to 65kts, turn onto base, drop flaps, turn onto final, stay at 65, drop remaining flaps, and keep gliding. Still to high, but I just glide it in like the first time. Not as good, but good enough.

We taxi back to the hanger and call it a day. 

Next on the schedule is some cross country time building. I need 50 hours for Commercial and I only have 22 hours. Time to say hi to some new airports!

Hurricane Isaac

September 1, 2012

Today I logged a first. I flew through a hurricane. Hurricane Isaac. Well to be honest it was the remnants and now a tropical depression, but a hurricane sounds cooler so that's what I'm sticking with.

Isaac at time of flight. 

I arrived to the airport at 2pm, but thanks to the weather, we didn't start flying until 3pm. After speaking with Clearance Delivery, we departed VFR then picked up our IFR flight plan once airborne. It didn't take long until we were flying in light rain and clouds. The controller vectored us towards Spirit Airport. After a successful ILS approach, we flew back north to set up for a VOR approach at Smartt. My only mistake (which was not really a mistake because I still performed it correctly per the approach plate) was that I could've dropped down to a lower altitude near the end. This would've allowed me to be low enough to safely make a landing, however I was essentially on Final but still at 1,160ft which was too high to land. We went missed, circled back around, then made our landing.

After going back inside, Mark asked how I felt about the lesson. I was all smiles because I had just realized that for majority of the flight, I was able to manage 98% of the radio calls, handle the airplane, and fly the approaches almost effortlessly, all while having a solid conversation with Mark, my CFII. It felt great. The flight was also breathtaking. I love when I can experience IMC (instrument meteorological conditions).