Lesson 26 - First Solo X-Country Flight

On 11/29 I flew my first solo cross-country. I had the 172SP reserved from 9am to 1pm and I planned to fly to Ardmore, OK and back.

That morning I arrived at Monarch about an hour and half early and used a computer to sign into duats.com and get a standard route briefing. I then updated my flight plan with the latest winds aloft information. It was a beautiful day. That Addison metar at my departure time was:

KADS 291547Z 33010G15KT 13SM SKC 07/M04 A3019

After my instructor reviewed my flight plan and the weather with me I got the dispatch bag and headed out to preflight. The Skyhawk was in great shape and soon I was strapped in and starting everything up. Then something weird happened.

I was tuning the radios and I dialed 133.40 for the atis. There was nothing. No biggie, this happened on my last flight and since it was 10 minutes till the hour I reasoned that the tape was being updated. But I did re-check the frequency and that the radio was working.

So then I dialed in 119.55, the clearance delivery frequency. Again, nothing. I gave it a minute and then I hit the PTT and called in my flight following request. The next thing I hear is the ground controller directing ground traffic, a lot of it. After a few minutes of this with no breaks I hear another aircraft ask for flight following and get it. Hmmm so he must not have heard me. This time I say "Skyhawk xxx at Monarch with request." The response I get is "xxx continue taxi to runway 33 give way to helicopter coming your way." Huh!?

He's busy with a couple of other folks and then there's a break. I call in again and he comes back and asks me to switch to 121.6 which is the ground control frequency. I do that and call again. This time I get to give him my flight following request and after a few he gives me the clearance and permission to taxi to 33.

Weird. My guess is that maybe someone had a stuck mic on 121.6 so the ground controller switched everyone over to 119.55 until it got sorted out and I happened to tune in to the middle of the mess.

Well, now I'm on my way. I taxi to runway 33 and do my flight control checks and runup. Everything is hunky dory so I call up the tower and tell them I ready to go.

By the time I got to 33 most of the other traffic was gone except for a Cirrus in front of me. After they depart I'm cleared for take off. The climb out is fun. The Skyhawk is rather sprightly with just me on board.

I'm switched over to regional control and they clear me into the Class B and up to 3500'. WooHoo I'm on my way.

At this point I let george fly the plane while I calculate my checkpoint ETA times and keep an eye out for traffic. I see one or two other aircraft off in the distance but the only contact I have with ATC is to change frequencies. Looks like no one else is headed my way.

I planned my route to take me North parallel to the shores of Lake Lewisville and Lake Ray Roberts and over a couple of towns that I used as checkpoints ... Tioga and Whitesboro. The forecasted winds didn't match up to reality. I was getting pushed to the East so I had to make heading adjustments for that.

The view was spectacular. Occassionally, I'd pick up my camera and point it out the window, but most of the time I was busy watching for traffic and keeping an eye out on my track. It was pretty easy to spot all the various towers and other landmarks along the way. After Whitesboro I turned a little Eastward and headed for Cedar Mills Airport on the shore of Lake Texoma. Texoma is a huge lake that straddles the border between Texas and Oklahoma. Cedar Mills is quite a destination I've heard. A medium length turf field that ends at the shore line. As a matter of fact, as I was crossing overhead I watch a plane land. Looked like a good one from 4500' up.

After crossing the border I turned toward Madill, OK and Madill Airport. About the time I got there ATC cancelled my flight following and turned me over to the Ardmore tower. I listened to the awos first (KADM 291555Z 32013 10SM SKC 06/M07 A3017) and then called up the tower. He cleared me for a straight in landing on runway 31.

When I turned toward Ardmore I saw why. I was perfectly lined up with 31. I was still 17nm away but it was clear as day. That 17nm seemed to take forever. When I got close enough to get cleared to land he asked me to land long since the only exit was at the very end of the runway. It's a 7000' runway so I went as far down it as I dared but I still had a long way to taxi to exit. Unfortunately, a military tanker had to go around because I was too slow. Sorry guys.

If you look on airnav or in the airfield directory you'll see two runways listed, 13-31 and 17-35. But 17-35 is closed and is in the process of being dug up. I meant to ask why when I was there but I forgot, though I can guess. When I flew up here with my instructor, C, we landed on 17 and I swear there were potholes in that runway. It was pretty rough.

Anyway, the tower controller had me dodging dump trucks on the way to the FBO, Lakeland Aviation. There I got out and went in to check the winds aloft forecast again. Sure enough, it had changed so I redid my flight plan going back to Addison.

It had taken me an hour and one minute to get there. But I didn't get out of Addison until 1011 local so I didn't have much time to dawdle in Ardmore. I paid for a top up and admired some of the pictures on the wall. Then I poked my head into the new bbq cafe next door (what is it with airports and bbq?). Looked good, I'll have to come back when I have time to eat.

After revising my flight plan I went back out and preflighted the plane again (well, a light pre-flight, mostly checking the fuel and quick once over on the exterior). Another military jet that had been practicing approaches had pulled up next to me and the fuel truck was there filling them up. So I couldn't just fire up and pull out of my spot (it's a huge ramp with no one around except me and two other aircraft parked wing to wing). Instead I got out and pushed back and turned perpendicular to the line. Then I fired it up and got my radios set up. The tower cleared me to taxi to runway 31 but I had to clarify with him that the taxiway was still open. The layout there is so big I couldn't see the taxiway or the signs all the way across the empty ramp! Taxiway D is basically the long way around and it took me a good 10 to 15 minutes just to get out there.

After my runup I was cleared to depart. The tower controller gave me a squawk code and frequency for Fort Worth Center but once I was able to change frequencies they had no idea who I was. There was a bit of back and forth with the controller. Him asking me questions about my destination, aircraft type, squawk code, etc until he finally just gave me another code and had me ident. Then he found me. I was given discretion on my altitude and told to change frequencies. I switched over and called in "Skyhawk xxx at 3000' climbing 5500'." I had no further radio problems after that.

The flight back into Addison seems a blur now. The winds were more in my favor so it took only about 50 minutes to get there. Returning there was more traffic to watch for, a Skylane going the same direction but about a mile off my right wing and then a King Air passing in front from my left to land at Addison before me. Other than that there was a lot of traffic on the radio but not much in my immediate area.

I took the same path back but once I got near Tioga I programmed the gps to take me direct to Addison as I was running a little late. I was on the ground at 1308 local. Luckily, no one had reserved the airplane after me so no one mentioned it at Monarch. The landing at Addison was rather ugly but nothing got bent so ... whew.

All in all a really enjoyable day. Great weather. Radio calls went well. My flight matched up pretty well with my flight plans. But I did encounter one goof. I had planned to use two VOR radial intersections as waypoints on the way up to Ardmore. These matched locations where the floor of the Class B airspace stepped up. However, the aircraft I was flying only had one OBS so I had to toggle between the two VORs to see if I was getting close. I was trying to avoid using the gps too much, just the VOR points and pilotage. But considering that I got cleared into the Class B it didn't matter too much how exact I got locations marked since I didn't need to worry about busting airspace. Still, I should get to know the aircraft a little better. Or maybe just pick one and stick with it throughout the rest of my training.

Next up is a stage check to test me on diversions and soft/short field takeoffs and landings. I'm on the schedule for Saturday for that one. Then I get to do the long cross-country. YeeeHawww!

BTW: 11.4 gallons of 100LL at Lakeland was $41.95 ($3.68 a gallon). Welcome to aviation! ha

This flight: 2.5 hours
Total: 43.9 hours

Lesson 25 - Back in the Saddle

Today is 11/19. My last flight was on 9/1. What have I been doing?? Well, first I was studying for the FAA written knowledge test. I finally went and took it on 10/29 and made a 90%. Between then and now I've been dodging my job and weather until ... finally ... tonight I took to the air again.

My last flight was my first night cross-country and my instructor, C, and I went from Addison (KADS) to Paris (KPRX). It was such a blast that I couldn't help being pleased that the only way to get a plane and my instructor at the same time today was to schedule a flight from 4 pm to 8 pm. This time we're going to Tyler (KTYR) where there's good BBQ to be had at Rudy's.

I got up this morning and checked the weather. It's cloudy out but the weather's stable. The clouds should stay above 6000' AGL and there's practically no chance of percipitation or storms developing. I pulled a DUATS report around 1:15 pm and started doing my flight planning. It's pretty much a straight shot from Addison to Tyler; 83nm on a true course of 117.

I picked out the East shore of Lake Ray Hubbard, Terrell Airport (KTRL), and the town of Canton as my checkpoints. Flight time to each was 11.5 minutes, 10 minutes, 12 minutes and finally 14 minutes from Canton to Tyler. Cruise ground speed should be 113.

I got to Monarch about 3:45 and both C and my plane were still out (turns out C was flying the aircraft we would take to Tyler) so I went upstairs to check if the forecast had changed. It had. Winds for 6000' were now forecasted as 250 at 8 knots instead of 220 at 10 knots. So I pulled out both flight plans (there and back) and re-calculated everything.

Cameron arrived and I went down to pre-flight the Skyhawk. The plane looked to be in good shape except for some ripples in the skin just above the exhast pipe. Cameron didn't know what caused them but they didn't compromise the structural integrity of the plane so we could still fly. The school has, for some reason, switched out all the convenient small spiral-bound checklists with one large laminated checklist card. And it sucks. Before, you could conveniently clip the checklist to the yoke while you flew. Now this thing (8" x 10") is too big to clip to the yoke, you can't get to the PTT switch anymore. And it won't easily fit into the little document pocket down next to my left leg. And it won't quite fit into the plastic drink holder thing on the floor between me and my instructor. I think I'm just going to go buy a checklist like they used to have. It had more comprehensive checklists anyway.

The fuel truck finally showed up and after a final siphoning of the tanks we were ready to go. I had trouble getting the engine started. We tried twice priming it but then had to use the flooded-engine method. Finally it fired up. Then the ATIS wasn't broadcasting. Weird. I thought maybe the radio was having problems but we could talk to ground control just fine. So we got clearance and taxied out and planned to try again later for the ATIS. Turns out we had plenty of time because there were several aircraft waiting to take off.

We finally were wheels off at 5:21 pm local time. As we passed under the Class B inverted wedding cake we step climbed until eventually we reached our cruising altitude of 5500' ... about 500' to 700' under the clouds. What was thin and whispy over the Metroplex became more solid the further East we went. But their altitude stayed constant.

The winds were not quite as forecasted. We got pushed to the South and had to adjust once to get back on course. And for a short while we ran ahead of schedule but by the time we reached Tyler we were on the ground 2 minutes behind my planned arrival.

We parked at Jet Center of Tyler and borrowed their courtesy car to go to Rudy's BBQ. C navigated and I drove until we pulled up in front of a restaurant/gas station that was surrounded by firetrucks!! Ummm so this is it, eh?

Turns out it was just a fuel spill. But what a site. C had been bragging about this restaurant for months and we finally get there and the parking lot is full of firetrucks and firemen. Sure, I feel confident. =;-)

The food was excellent. Rudy's is a chain but the bbq is very good. And their creamed corn is excellent ... the best I've ever eaten.

Returning to the airport was an adventure too. C and I were so busy chatting that we missed a turn and didn't realize we were lost until we saw a sign saying "Welcome to Chandler". Hey, isn't the airport in Tyler?

So we turned around and headed back until we found the intersection we missed. We got back to Jet Center only 10 minutes before closing. Whew!

While we were preflighting another Monarch Skyhawk lands and taxies over to Jet Center. They're just doing a quick turn and return flight so they follow us to the runway. I set up the GPS for direct to Addison and slave the autopilot to the GPS and set our altitude as 4500'. Departing from TYR we are cleared for a right turn out to the West and I intercept our course before turning the controls over to George. =;-)

What a great flight back. Our ground speed matches what I planned for and though I didn't keep up with the checkpoints on the way back the overall timing matched up. We also chatted with the other Skyhawk on 123.45 until we got close to the Class B.

The clouds had lifted and I could see stars out along with a brilliant near-full moon that climbed into the sky behind our right wing. Just beautiful!!

Coming into the Metroplex I had trouble again finding Addison but I did manage to spot it much sooner than I did last time. The problem is that coming from the East the beacon blends in with some bright lights at a gas station behind the airport. Plus, Addison is in the middle of a really built up area so there are LOTS of lights. And there's not much black space around the airport like others have. Soon enough though, we were cleared for right base to runway 33 and I made a pretty decent landing. Winds were light and variable. =;-)

All in all this was a really good flight. I was nervous because it had been so long since the last flight. But I handled most things well, set up the GPS and autopilot myself. I did flub some calls on the radio (like saying we were departing West when we were departing East). But both landings were good (despite an upward slope to the Tyler runway) and I felt ahead of the plane all the time.

And the BBQ was good!

So next up, I'll meet with C for an hour with a prepared flight plan to review. And then I'll take yet another quiz. If all goes well he'll endorse me to do my first solo cross-country!

2 night landings
2.4 hours this flight
41.4 total hours

Patience - skill #213

When learning to fly there are many many skills you have to learn. One of the most important is patience. Especially when you are a VFR (visual flight rules) pilot.

I was scheduled last Sunday for a cross-country flight with my instructor to Tyler, TX. I cancelled it because my wife's birthday was that weekend and the family wanted to have a luncheon. I felt like the timing was just too tight for me to eat, visit, get my flight planning done and get to the airport on time.

So I rescheduled for today, Friday. But, alas, though it looks beautiful outside my window there are low clouds hanging around near my destination. And in between me and my destination. So, though the flight might have been possible I took the safe route and cancelled again.

Unfortunately, with my work schedule my next opportunity is not until next weekend. (And people ask my why it's taking so long to get my license!).

All too often you hear about accidents where a pilot (or the passengers) have got a serious case of get-there-itis and they push their luck until it breaks. I don't think I have that much luck stored up so I'm taking the safe route and choosing instead to deal with my disappointment instead of dealing with flying in a cloud.

If you're in that much of a hurry, book a seat on a Southwest flight and let the pros do all the work.