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
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
posted by AirmanChet at
23:31
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