Lesson 22
... cue Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" ...
My last training flight was on 22 June. Since then there's been hmmm 1) weather, 2) family in town, 3) stress at work, 4) 10-day long driving vacation from Texas to Arizona and back, and 5) weather. I could look at it as it's only been a month and a half since my last flight. But I really look at it as it's been 51-freaking-days!!!! since my last lesson.
It felt like a year.
Now, you may be thinking, "Ahh but I'm sure Chester was studying his FARs and the AIM, and taking the Gleim knowledge practice tests and memorizing the information manual for the Skyhawk during that time." But you'd be wrong. Well, mostly wrong. I have been reading and studying this and that. But I haven't hitting the books nearly as hard as I should!
But I will now. I was pretty nervous getting prepared for today's flight. There's a lot of rust on me. But over the last couple of days I've been reviewing my V speeds, the emergency procedures, the diversion procedure (which is the point of this flight), etc. By the time I got out to Monarch and had the dispatch bag in my hand I felt pretty good. Actually, pretty darn excited. It's a pretty day (a bit windy) and not to hot (for August in Texas).
As usual, performing the pre-flight gives me the chance to get familiar with the airplane again and get my nerves under control. I took my time and made darn sure to use the checklists. By the time I was done I'd probably pre-flighted that plane three times.
C had asked me to plan a flight from Addison (KADS) to Bowie Municipal (0F2). BTW, around here that's pronounced boo-wee, not bow-wee. Nearly half the flight would be under the Class B cake so we won't get much higher than 3000' probably before C diverts the flight. My flight log showed that it would take us 42 minutes to get to Bowie (if we actually went).
The ATIS at Addison was reporting 18004KT 10SM FEW075 33/21 A2995. We got our clearance and taxied to runway 15 where the Cavanaugh Museum's Stearman was doing its runup. What a beautiful plan to watch! The takeoff went well ... I stayed on the centerline and nailed the climbout speed. About 500' up I started a turn to the right to take us toward the Lake Lewisville dam and then Denton Municipal. I was feeling pretty good at this point.
We climbed to 2000' and using the checklist I trimmed up the plane and set my throttle and mixture. We made the first checkpoint right on time. Getting close to Denton I made a mistake that I shouldn't have. During my flight planning I realized that I was going to cross the Denton airspace well within the Class D altitude so I needed to notify the tower there of my intentions. But did I write down the frequency? No. And could I find it on the sectional? No. I could find the airport just fine, especially since I had drawn my course line through it, but the frequency I just couldn't make out on the map. So C had to dial them up and notify them of our position and intentions. He wasn't too happy with that. Even if an airport isn't towered and in controled airspace I should still listen to their ATIS or AWOS and get the local altimeter setting and make position reports. I'll be sure to remember this from now on.
After crossing over Denton I turned to head to the town of Decatur and the Decatur Airport (KLUD) but the winds weren't as forecasted and we ended up a few miles south of my course. And we were four minutes off the schedule! Mistake #2. C told me that I can't just blindly fly the heading I noted in my log. I must be completely familiar with the course I have mapped out and stick to it. And if my groundspeed is faster or slower than planned I need to adjust the ETA on my flight log to compensate. Right now that seems like a lot to do when I'm also trying to keep the wings level and watch for other traffic. But, I know I'll get better at multitasking the more comfortable I become in the cockpit, plus I could always use the autopilot to keep those wings horizontal.
It was getting pretty bumpy up there. Clouds were starting to build above us and to the West there was a rather large line of clouds building. So C took the opportunity to say, "hey, those could be thunderstorms, let's divert to Alliance."
So, I noted the time and found Alliance on the sectional and turned us in the general direction. C asked me about the Class B space since we were heading back to it. We were at 3000' which should be a problem unless we go past Alliance, then the ceiling drops to 3000'.
I measured the distance on the sectional from our current location to Alliance (KAFW) and figured out that it would take us 10 minutes to get there from when we turned. So we were coming up on it pretty quick. C asked me how far away we were and I said 6 to 7 miles. He turned on the GPS display and punched in KAFW ... 8.3 miles. So, I tuned in their ATIS and got the altimeter and wind real quick before we called the tower and asked to do touch and goes. No problem ... come on in! Such hospitality! =;-)
Alliance sits on the North side of Fort Worth and houses a large Fedex facility. Besides the light aircraft used for training there are a lot of Fedex heavies coming and going ... except while we were there. We were alone in the pattern for our three touch and goes.
There was a bit of a crosswind and so my landings were rather squirrely. But I didn't reduce C to tears or laughter so I guess they weren't *that* bad. I knocked off a lot of rust but there's still work to do!
After three we headed back to Addison picking up flight following from Alliance. Despite not being happy about my landings I was pretty comfortable by now and I was able to maintain my assigned heading and altitude and handle the radios while getting handed off from controller to controller until we got to Addison. That felt pretty good.
So, of course, I made a few mistakes, but I also had a good flight and I really feel like I'm back in the game now. The next lesson is a local night flight (back to Alliance!) that will include a lot of touch and goes and some unusual attitudes so I'm going to schedule it for during this next week while I'm still fresh.
This flight 1.5 hours
4 landings
Total 34.7 hours
My last training flight was on 22 June. Since then there's been hmmm 1) weather, 2) family in town, 3) stress at work, 4) 10-day long driving vacation from Texas to Arizona and back, and 5) weather. I could look at it as it's only been a month and a half since my last flight. But I really look at it as it's been 51-freaking-days!!!! since my last lesson.
It felt like a year.
Now, you may be thinking, "Ahh but I'm sure Chester was studying his FARs and the AIM, and taking the Gleim knowledge practice tests and memorizing the information manual for the Skyhawk during that time." But you'd be wrong. Well, mostly wrong. I have been reading and studying this and that. But I haven't hitting the books nearly as hard as I should!
But I will now. I was pretty nervous getting prepared for today's flight. There's a lot of rust on me. But over the last couple of days I've been reviewing my V speeds, the emergency procedures, the diversion procedure (which is the point of this flight), etc. By the time I got out to Monarch and had the dispatch bag in my hand I felt pretty good. Actually, pretty darn excited. It's a pretty day (a bit windy) and not to hot (for August in Texas).
As usual, performing the pre-flight gives me the chance to get familiar with the airplane again and get my nerves under control. I took my time and made darn sure to use the checklists. By the time I was done I'd probably pre-flighted that plane three times.
C had asked me to plan a flight from Addison (KADS) to Bowie Municipal (0F2). BTW, around here that's pronounced boo-wee, not bow-wee. Nearly half the flight would be under the Class B cake so we won't get much higher than 3000' probably before C diverts the flight. My flight log showed that it would take us 42 minutes to get to Bowie (if we actually went).
The ATIS at Addison was reporting 18004KT 10SM FEW075 33/21 A2995. We got our clearance and taxied to runway 15 where the Cavanaugh Museum's Stearman was doing its runup. What a beautiful plan to watch! The takeoff went well ... I stayed on the centerline and nailed the climbout speed. About 500' up I started a turn to the right to take us toward the Lake Lewisville dam and then Denton Municipal. I was feeling pretty good at this point.
We climbed to 2000' and using the checklist I trimmed up the plane and set my throttle and mixture. We made the first checkpoint right on time. Getting close to Denton I made a mistake that I shouldn't have. During my flight planning I realized that I was going to cross the Denton airspace well within the Class D altitude so I needed to notify the tower there of my intentions. But did I write down the frequency? No. And could I find it on the sectional? No. I could find the airport just fine, especially since I had drawn my course line through it, but the frequency I just couldn't make out on the map. So C had to dial them up and notify them of our position and intentions. He wasn't too happy with that. Even if an airport isn't towered and in controled airspace I should still listen to their ATIS or AWOS and get the local altimeter setting and make position reports. I'll be sure to remember this from now on.
After crossing over Denton I turned to head to the town of Decatur and the Decatur Airport (KLUD) but the winds weren't as forecasted and we ended up a few miles south of my course. And we were four minutes off the schedule! Mistake #2. C told me that I can't just blindly fly the heading I noted in my log. I must be completely familiar with the course I have mapped out and stick to it. And if my groundspeed is faster or slower than planned I need to adjust the ETA on my flight log to compensate. Right now that seems like a lot to do when I'm also trying to keep the wings level and watch for other traffic. But, I know I'll get better at multitasking the more comfortable I become in the cockpit, plus I could always use the autopilot to keep those wings horizontal.
It was getting pretty bumpy up there. Clouds were starting to build above us and to the West there was a rather large line of clouds building. So C took the opportunity to say, "hey, those could be thunderstorms, let's divert to Alliance."
So, I noted the time and found Alliance on the sectional and turned us in the general direction. C asked me about the Class B space since we were heading back to it. We were at 3000' which should be a problem unless we go past Alliance, then the ceiling drops to 3000'.
I measured the distance on the sectional from our current location to Alliance (KAFW) and figured out that it would take us 10 minutes to get there from when we turned. So we were coming up on it pretty quick. C asked me how far away we were and I said 6 to 7 miles. He turned on the GPS display and punched in KAFW ... 8.3 miles. So, I tuned in their ATIS and got the altimeter and wind real quick before we called the tower and asked to do touch and goes. No problem ... come on in! Such hospitality! =;-)
Alliance sits on the North side of Fort Worth and houses a large Fedex facility. Besides the light aircraft used for training there are a lot of Fedex heavies coming and going ... except while we were there. We were alone in the pattern for our three touch and goes.
There was a bit of a crosswind and so my landings were rather squirrely. But I didn't reduce C to tears or laughter so I guess they weren't *that* bad. I knocked off a lot of rust but there's still work to do!
After three we headed back to Addison picking up flight following from Alliance. Despite not being happy about my landings I was pretty comfortable by now and I was able to maintain my assigned heading and altitude and handle the radios while getting handed off from controller to controller until we got to Addison. That felt pretty good.
So, of course, I made a few mistakes, but I also had a good flight and I really feel like I'm back in the game now. The next lesson is a local night flight (back to Alliance!) that will include a lot of touch and goes and some unusual attitudes so I'm going to schedule it for during this next week while I'm still fresh.
This flight 1.5 hours
4 landings
Total 34.7 hours
posted by AirmanChet at
16:32
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