Chicago

January 20, 2013

It's 7:30am and I arrive at the airport. The sun has just risen over the horizon, sending a warm glow over St. Louis. My instructor was kind enough to preflight the plane before I arrived. We discuss what route we will fly, the altitudes to fly at, the weather and then got an IFR plan filed with the FAA. After taxiing to the runway we call Clearance Delivery and pick up our IFR flight plan. We will be in contact with ATC for the entire trip.

It's a long, slow flight at 7,000ft and it's gradually getting colder as we make our way north. We finally get in contact with Chicago approach. Since we're on an IFR flight plan, they direct us to fly to the west side of the city for traffic avoidance. We decline the assignment because we want to fly on the east side of the city and over Lake Michigan. We're told that if we want to fly that route, we will need to fly to Gary, Indiana then go VFR up the coast to our destination of Racine, WI. They will keep an eye on us by using flight following. We accept the plan.

At about 10 miles to the southwest of Gary, we cancel IFR and pick up flight following. We can see downtown Chicago, and the coast of Lake Michigan is just ahead of us. Its brilliant turquoise color shines in the sun. We reach the coast and cross over to the wide open waters. This is nothing like flying over a typical Missouri lake.

Looking north from Gary, IN

We make our way up the coastline for over 60NM. We have O'Hare traffic flying all around us and are warned of wake turbulence. It never becomes an issue as the planes are kept a good distance away from us. The city is stunning from the air.

Downtown Chicago with the Navy Pier

Nothing but crystal clear water

The air temperature has become a crisp zero degrees and our air vents are constantly blowing open, making the cabin a bit chilly. Upon landing at Racine, WI for fuel, I check my phone's Weatherbug app. No wonder we are freezing, it's says "Feel likes -5 with winds gusting to 37mph." WOW!! The nice airport employee tops off the tanks and we get on our way. Next stop is southwest to Schaumburg, IL. 

Twenty minutes later we land at Schaumburg and make our way to a table at Pilot Pete's restaurant on the field. It's now 1:00pm and my instructor and I are quite hungry. We order chicken fingers as an appetizer. Delicious! He then orders brisket as his meal and I order the beef pot roast. As we're waiting for our food to arrive, we look at the weather forcast and see that we may run into some light snow on our way home. 

Our food arrives and it looks amazing! I take a bite and just melt right into my seat. It was absolutely delicious!

After stuffing ourselves beyond crazy, we make our way back to the plane, but not before borrowing some duct tape from the local flight school. We don't exactly care to fly back with that air vent open, so it's time to play mechanic and tape the thing shut.

We depart Shaumburg and begin our flight home. It wasn't long after leaving the Chicago airspace that the weather starts to deteriorate. We're not in the clouds and we don't see any precipitation, however we have no visibility except for down. Since I have no reference to the horizon, I'm now required to fly by instruments only. Looks like my newly acquired IFR rating has come in handy! We're now at 8000ft, and even being this high up, it's warmer outside than it was in Wisconsin on the ground. 

The weather continues to get worse; it appears that we are now fully in the clouds. We continue flying, then I start to notice tiny snow flurries entering the cockpit. What?! They are finding their way in through other air vents. We look down to the wheels and notice snow building on the tops of the tires. Alright, looks like we are officially in the snow. That means that it's cold outside and we are in visible moisture. It's a perfect setup for icing conditions. I flip on the pitot heat to keep the pitot tube from icing over. I keep my instrument scan going because that's one of the golden rules of flying IFR. In my scan I notice that I'm losing airspeed. I assess the other instruments and also notice that my RPMs are dropping and I can physically feel the airplane running more rough than normal. Although I have never actually experienced this before, I had read about it. My immediate response was to turn on the carb heat. It was an instantaneous fix. We apparently had developed minor carburateur ice. I kept the carb heat on while we descended to 6000ft. Once straight and level I turn the carb heat off so that we could get back to normal cruise speed. But once again the ice developed. Carb heat goes back on and I take us down to 4000ft to try and escape the clouds. Shortly after reaching 4000ft we exit the clouds and the snow all together.

The snow, now behind us

Now at Springfield, MO, it's completely clear and the visibility is outstanding. We can actually see downtown St. Louis from here!

After the long flight, we arrive back home. That was such an amazing experience. We logged at least 550NM, 6.3 hours of flight time and flew through 4 different states. 

This trip has completed my cross country requirements for commercial training. Now onto maneuvers and complex aircraft!

Commercial Night XC

January 15, 2013

I close down the airport that I work at and go out to my plane to perform the preflight inspection. It's cold. It's dark. It's quiet. The runways are lit up with red and white lights, the taxiways are lined in blue. I've always liked how an airport looks at night.

My instructor for the evening hops in the plane and organizes his things as I finish looking over the plane. Everything looks airworthy. I taxi us out to the runway and prepare for takeoff. My nerves start to rise as we lift off and I see that the ground is no longer visible; I can't see the trees, the buildings, or the river. What I can see is the gorgeously illuminated lights of the St. Louis region. We depart the area to the northwest while we contact St. Louis approach to receive flight following. On the way to our destination of Mattoon, IL we discuss things from night illusions, to weather, to airplane instrument requirements for night flying. We reach the halfway point of Vandalia and I see the airport beacon flashing its green and white lights. Out of curiosity  we look for the actual runways; they're invisible. My instructor shows me a tip by tuning into Vandalia's radio frequency. He says, "click ur mic seven times and watch what happens." Click click click click click click click. The two runways ignite with color. Ah... Pilot controlled lighting. Ok that's seriously cool!

A half hour later we reach Mattoon. After a stop-and-go, we leave the area and head back home. As we get closer, we can see the haze glowing as the city lights brighten the sky. We appear to be in the middle of the haze layer and a layer of clouds above. The moon peaks out to welcome us before disappearing again. It was a spectacular sight.

I decided that instead of going straight home, we would fly down by the Arch and see the city. Once we arrive I hand the controls to my instructor so that I can snap a few pictures. This is the first time that I've seen the Arch like this. It's was beautiful. This is why I fly.

After our downtown fly-by, we make our way back home and land. Night flying is certainly different than daytime flying, but with views such as the ones tonight, it's definitely worth staying up past my normal bedtime.

Using My New Rating

January 6, 2013

It's 7:00am and I wake up wondering what the weather forecast is reporting. I forgot to check it last night. I turn on my cell phone; it has numerous aviation and weather apps right on my front screen. I pull up the aviation forecast and it says it should be mostly sunny throughout the day with scattered clouds. This brings a smile to my face, as I love a beautiful, sunny day. I check the current conditions to find some contradicting information. It's only marginal VFR; the clouds are overcast and they're low. This is certainly not what I expected to read. I decide to drive out to the airport anyways, hoping that by time we take off, the clouds will rise or begin to clear out.

It's 9:00am and I arrive at the airport. It's still cloudy and doesn't appear to breaking up anytime soon. I meet with my commercial instructor and we come to the conclusion that we're going to fly our cross country anyways! Why not? The clouds aren't that thick and I have a newly acquired instrument rating which will allow me to fly though the beautiful, white fluffy things and soar above them. I take my phone out and call Flight Service Station. After hanging up I excitedly say, "I just filed my first IFR flight plan under my own name!" I was surprised how amazing it felt doing that! Everything I have been working towards for the last year has led up to this moment; the moment I can legally fly IFR, using my own rating.

After taxiing to the runway and receiving our IFR clearance from ATC, we take off. We begin our climb to 6000ft but reach the base of the overcast cloud layer around 2,500ft. I notice my heart is beating a bit more than normal; I must be nervously excited. We penetrate the clouds while continuing our climb. The ground quickly leaves our sight. It's time to rely on my instruments to safely guide me. Between 4-5,000ft we break out above the clouds and my face lights up with amazement. Wow this is stunning! I've never been above a full overcast layer of clouds before.

We level out at 6,000ft which is about 1,000ft above the clouds. The sun is radiating off the overcast layer and we suddenly wish we had sunglasses. After flying for about an hour, we reach our first destination of Rolla, MO. We perform an instrument approach to get us down below the now broken layer of clouds. The dispatcher on the field asks if we will need fuel and I inform him that it would not be needed. Soon thereafter the wheels touch down and we taxi back. It's time to file the next portion of our IFR flight plan. Once we have the plane configured, we depart the area and climb to 2,000ft at which I contact Mizzou Approach. The clouds are breaking up nicely but we stay below them until we get authorization to climb. ATC quickly responds and we rise above the clouds and level out at 4,000ft. 

Columbia is our next stop, but this time we have the added excitement of flying into a controlled airport. We switch frequencies and begin communicating with Columbia's control tower. We fly another instrument approach to get us down at which time we receive our clearance to land. 

Upon touchdown, the controller has us make a 180 degree turn on the runway to get us to the nearest taxiway. We turn off and then make another 180 turn to bring us to the hold short (of the runway) line. The tower clears us for our next IFR flight leg back home and then sends us off. We climb to 7,000ft but quickly get instructed to descend to 5,000ft. Bummer! The clouds are now scattered and no threat to us. We have a nice tailwind to push us along. With not much for my CFI and I to talk about, he asks me what I know about airplane engines. Might as well get some ground school in while we have the opportunity. Engines are not something that I am knowledgeable about. He explains how they work and then we move the conversation onto system failures. What if the ammeter's needle is completely to the right (+)? Then it's essentially too charged and we should turn off the alternator. What if that needle is to the left (-)? Then the battery is not charging enough or has died. Time to turn off anything electrical that we do not need. What about pressure systems and oxygen? If we were in a jet at 40,000ft and lost pressure, we would first get passengers and crew on supplemental oxygen, followed by making an emergency descent. The "what if" conversation continued until we reached Lambert's airspace. 

We descend down to 3,000ft and inform ATC that we'll just land visually (no instrument approach). Within 10 miles of the airport, we cancel our IFR flight plan and continue on our own. We enter the downwind leg for Runway 27 behind another plane. Our trip ends after a gentle crosswind landing. 

That was definitely an enjoyable flight and one to remember. At this point in time I only need 10 more hours of cross country time logged to meet the requirement for commercial. Within those 10 hours, I need to log a dual (with CFI) night cross country, and a long (one leg of 250NM minimum) cross country. Time to check my calendar!