2 Year Anniversary

October 21, 2012

It's a beautiful Sunday morning, and I'm up early preparing for my cross country trip to Iowa. I've never been to Iowa before, that I can remember. I'm excited!

I get to the airport and preflight the plane. It's a little cool outside but sunny and clear with low winds. I wait for Devin to finish up with another student, then we will fly together for the first time. He's not a new CFI, but is our airport's newest CFI/MEI.

His plane pulls up and they get out. Now it's our turn to fly. I taxi us out to the short runway and do a soft field takeoff from runway 9. We head north and turn onto the course heading. No need for foggles today because this is time building for commercial. I call up St. Louis Approach and get flight following. After reaching the desired altitude, we level off, sit back, and relax. Ok not exactly... Devin reached over and tunes the GPS to something completely random and says, "uh oh, the GPS failed! Now what?" He warned me that he was going to do this. I start using another chart that doesn't show my current location and start compared landmarks to what I see outside. I confirm where we are. This is called "Pilotage." Devin continues with the navigation quizzes for at least 60NM until we reach Quincy airport. We're not stopping but it makes for a perfect checkpoint.

We eventually get passed onto Kansas City Center, and they keep us on radar until we reach our destination of Keokuk, Iowa. We see the Mississippi River straight ahead, and just on the other side appears to be a fairly large city. We made it!

We tell the controller that we will be doing the NDB approach for runway 14 on our own and no longer need flight following. Since Devin is an instructor, he helps me practice doing the approach. We fly directly over the runway and once we cross the NDB on the field, we continue flying outbound for one minute. The approach plate then tells us that we need to make a procedure turn to the left for one minute, then turn right to start heading inbound. I'm not looking outside the plane so that I can practice simulated instrument flying. Devin is now my safety pilot. Even though we followed the approach plate instructions, he can visually see the runway and tells me that we are about to blow right through the approach course (due to winds aloft). I just continue making my turn inbound and line up with the runway. I descend down to the altitude published. Once close enough, Devin says I can go visual again because we can safely make the landing. I bring the plane down and make a nice landing. Half of the airport's runways and taxiways are closed, so we have to stop and assess our position on the field and figure out a way to taxi back to the runway for takeoff. 

After takeoff, Devin tells me not to use the GPS yet because he can teach me how to use the NDB to get us on course for home. After a series of calculations and turns, he proves to know what he's talking about. I can use the GPS now. I call up approach again for flight following and head towards Quincy, our checkpoint. Now that I've shown Devin that I can navigate without GPS, he decides to test me in other ways. What does this mean? What does that stand for? Are you legally able to do that? What can you do? List all of the left turning tendencies. For nearly and hour and a half, he quizzed me on random aviation knowledge. 

We finally make it home and enter the pattern. On downwind, he cuts the engine out to idle and instructs me to do a power off 180. So now I have no power and have to accurately glide my way to the runway. In addition, he wants me to land on a specific spot +/- 100ft. This is a maneuver that's required of commercial pilots. I kept my airspeed a little too high which caused us to come in fast and high. I drop all flaps and wait patiently as the plane sinks down and slows down. It was in all a nice landing.

This was a nice flight and a great way to ring in my two year anniversary of my first flight lesson.

My current status of my hours logged are as follows:

• Total time: 163.2 hours
• PIC (pilot-in-command) time: 111.4 hours
• Cross country time: 35.1 hours
• Simulated instrument time: 50.1 hours
• Actual instrument time: 1.6 hours

I'm getting there..!

Gone Flyin'

Oct. 19th, 2012

With as much flying as I've been doing lately, I can't keep up with writing a story for each flight. So for a while I will probably just write a summary of two or three flights and post them together.

• First up was a cross country with my Commercial CFI, Ryan, to Cape Girardeau on October 7th. It was a scattered cloud kind of day, but a bit chilly. The heater was going to be needed. We take off and head south, then contact St. Louis Approach to get flight following. Now in radar contact, we climb to 3,500ft and assess the clouds. We planned on cruising at 5, 500ft, however it looked like the layer of scattered clouds were hanging out there. "Oh, what the heck..." we thought, and called up Approach and notified them that we were climbing to 7,500ft. I was a bit nervous dodging the clouds as we climbed up over them. This was a first for me to do under basic VFR, but wow was it beautiful. It seems that the more I get to be one with the weather, the more I crave it. 

It was about 17 degrees up there and our heater was luckily keeping us warm. Eventually, we had to come back down under the clouds. I study the openings and my speed, figuring out which clearing I would go for and how much time I'd have. I find my spot and bring the power back. My descent is fast and steep, which is something I need to know how to do for commercial training anyway. Without violating VFR cloud separation rules, we make it under. At Cape Girardeau we decide to practice a Localizer Backcourse instrument approach. With Ryan as my safety pilot and the help of ATC giving me vectors and clearances, I make my way inbound. The airport is Class D, which means there's a control tower on the field. I need approval to land, which I quickly get. The wheels gently touch the ground and while we are taxiing back to the runway, we hear a conversation between an incoming jet and the tower. "Tower, can I ask you a question? Why did VFR traffic get priority over IFR traffic?" The pilot was clearly upset that he didn't get to land first. The tower responds, "I don't know, if it were me, I wouldn't have allowed that." The conversation continued for a couple minutes before we were cleared to take off. Sorry guys!

We make our way north and pick up flight following again. There was no point in going over the clouds again, so we just stay under. They were clearing up anyways. ATC tells us to fly to the Cardinal VOR at 3,500ft. Ryan and I look at each other and smile. I don't get to do this often. The Cardinal VOR station is on Lambert Airport's field, meaning we will be going right into Class B airspace and directly over the busy international airport. Woooo!! Once over top, we get switched over to Tower's frequency and she vectors us home. Nothing special on Lambert's field today... oh well. We set up to land on Runway 18, and are no longer talking to ATC. Another decent landing, and another 2.8 hours logged. I'm happy.

• I did an instrument lesson on October 13th, which was uneventful and not worth writing about, so I will continue on to my next instrument lesson. Just a day later, October 14th, the weather was clearly different that its previous day. Clouds were fairly low and the winds were strong. A front had just moved through. It appeared that most students were canceling their lessons, but I want to go for it. My instrument instructor, Mark, and I file an IFR flight plan. We get out to the plane and it's swaying in the wind so much that it looks like it's going to take off from the ramp. This was going to be an interesting flight. I look up and see the clouds soaring across the sky. We taxi out to the runway and I call up Clearance Delivery to get approval to take off. I'm nervous, but excited. "First for departure, runway 18" I tell them. We have an obvious crosswind from the right and shortly after leaving the ground, the wind tries to push me left (click here for video). We fly out north and set up for the Localizer Backcourse at Alton. I peak out of my foggles to see that we're flying right at the cloud base... no wonder the turbulence is intense! After a successful approach, we do a hold then get vectored around for a different approach. While inbound, we had a heart racing moment. The plane drops... 40 feet, instantly and unexpectedly. Even while buckled, Mark and I are lifted off our seats momentarily and Mark bumps his head on the ceiling. Both of us now have all hands on the yokes. In the moment it freaked me the hell out, but after it was over, I busted out laughing. That was insane!

       
         After another good approach, we head back home. The wind is strong. Our airspeed indicator reads that we are flying at 100kts, however, the GPS shows our ground speed as 60kts. The winds up here at blowing at 40kts and we are crawling as we fly directly into them. The turbulence had taken its toll on me. The foggles must come off, I'm actually getting nauseous. The flight home seemed to drag, I was ready to be on the ground. I ask Mark that if I were to file a PIREP report, how would I classify the turbulence? He said moderate turbulence to heavy chop. My jaw drops open... this was officially the worst I've ever been in. 

There's no one flying at the local airport today so I make a straight in approach to land on runway 18. Down low, there's a 30kt crosswind from the right. I crab into the wind, then on short final I correct for the wind. Ailerons into the wind, opposite rudder to keep the plane aligned with the runway. My hands are gripped hard on the yoke and the controls are almost as far as they will go. The wind is the devil. I fight hard as the wind clearly doesn't want to me to land on the runway. One wheel touches the ground, then the other, then the nose wheel lowers. But I'm not in the clear yet. The wheels start skidding to the left and Mark grabs the controls to help me stay on the runway. Once on to the taxiway, I stop the plane, take a deep breath, and then look at my watch to see if we had time to do it again, nauseous or not... but we don't. I taxi us back and turn the plane off. That was one very wild day. 

• Lastly, I flew with a pilot friend on October 15th to Farmington, MO. He wore the foggles on the way down, then I wore them on the way back home. The trees were almost in their peak fall colors though, which made for a pretty sight. The flight's route was nearly identical to the Cape Girardeau route, so there's nothing special to note. We got to fly over Lambert again though, which is always cool. 

After coming home and adding up my hours in the logbook, I happily find that I made some achievements. I finally logged over 100 hours total PIC (pilot in command) time and have exceeded 150 total flight hours. YAY!!! I fly again this weekend and as always, I look forward to it ;-)

Recents

October 3, 2012

So what have I been up to lately? Flying, what else? I've had three flights since my last post, so I thought I'd just say a few things about each.

• First, I flew with a pilot friend on Sept. 29th. We flew to Decatur, IL (which I flew wearing the foggles), we landed there after doing a GPS approach and then switched seats. It was his turn to fly for the trip back wearing the foggles. This way we can both log simulated instrument flight time. He did a GPS approach into Litchfield, IL, then flew back home. It was a fun trip and excellent practice, not to mention the first time I got to be someone's safety pilot!

Me on final approach for Decatur

Coming into Litchfield

• Second flight was an actual instrument lesson with a different instructor, Tracy. We started off by doing unusual attitudes which has gotten to be pretty routine. Then we called up St. Louis approach and remained in contact with them for the rest of the lesson. I flew us over to Alton and the first thing on the list was to the Localizer Backcourse for runway 11. I figured this would go better than last time, but sadly no. I understand what to do, but for some reason I still mess it up. After that disaster, we did the ILS for runway 29. That performance was much better, but I have a lot more practice and those in addition to loving them. Once we were done working at Alton, we flew to the published hold and practiced that a couple times. I didn't do too bad. Afterward, we flew back home and did the VOR approach for runway 18. It's another fairly easy approach and I did ok. By the time we landed, I had logged a 1.5hr flight but felt a bit disappointed in my performance. Tracy claimed I did alright though. It was the first time for me to fly with him, so I guess with his different teaching styles and extra tips, I felt like I was behind the curve... but I know better.

• The third and final flight was actually on the same day as the one with Tracy. My commercial instructor, Ryan, asked me to be his safety pilot so he could perform multiple approached to remain IFR current. We went out to Spirit airport and he did three ILS approaches all while wearing the foggles. After finishing, he flew back home and did the GPS approach, followed by a VOR approach. He did a really good job and I enjoyed observing. 

Lastly, I thought I would just share a couple pictures of last nights sunset and rainbow at the ole airport. Enjoy!

My next flight is another cross country! Tune back this weekend for another story of adventure :-)