Long Solo Cross-Country
Long Solo Cross-Country
Finally! After numerous weather-related cancellations I finally got to make my long solo cross-country today. Weather did keep me from making the flight I planned ... Addison (KADS) to Paris (KPRX) to Tyler (KTYR) and back to Addison because Tyler was one of only two or three airports in the entire freakin' state that was IFR. I'm just not destined to fly to Tyler.
So, instead I hurriedly rewrote my flight plans to go to Paris, then Ardmore, OK (KADM) and then back to Addison. As I'm sure you've heard on the news it's very dry and very windy here and big grass fires are cropping up every day. Well today was windy but not enough to keep me on the ground. My instructor, C, happened to be at Monarch this morning when I arrived so he helped me check the weather and go over my new flight plan. He told me that since the winds were blowing right down the runway he'd let me go as long as the gusts were under 25 knots. I had to hang out an hour later than I originally planned to depart but that was enough to see the wind slow down.
The ATIS when I departed runway 33 was winds 340 at 18, vis 13 miles, clear skies, temp 15, dewpoint 0 and altimeter 2988.
Lift-off and departure went smoothly. I was soon cleared into the Class B and climbed to 5500'. The ride was slightly bumpy until I passed through 3000' and then the air became really smooth. This time I vowed not to use the autopilot or GPS for the entire trip and the smooth air made it easy. I hardly touched the yoke the entire time; instead I used the rudder pedals to keep the wings level. I had no trouble at all holding my heading this way.
The flight to Paris passed rather quickly. There's not a lot of scenery out that way but that's ok because I busy recalculating my ground speed and adjusting my flight plan. The winds were not as forecasted so my planned 121 knot ground speed turned out to be 98 knots. That's OK, the journey is the whole point so the longer it takes the happier I am.
I landed on runway 32 at Paris because the AWOS said the wind was coming from 310 at 12 knots. Oddly enough, other people there were taking off and landing on runway 35. 35 is much closer to the ramp so the taxi time is much less. My landing was OK. I ballooned a bit during the flare and dropped it in from about a foot off the ground. Ouch!
My instructor, C, had told me to fill up with fuel at both airports so that my receipts could be used as proof that I made the trip. So I pulled up to the self-serve pump ... the first time I have used one of these things. How odd, once you swipe your credit card it wants you to choose $-s or gallons. WTF? So I chose $ and then it wants to know how much I expect to purchase. Since there is no indication what the price per gallon is I'm stuck. I punch in a number (100) I think ... that should cover it. Then it authorizes the card ... THEN it tells me it's out of printer paper and I won't get a receipt. Now I wanted to kick the thing! Well, I didn't need fuel but I wanted the experience of doing the selve-serve so I went ahead and hoisted the nozzle up to the top of the wing and filled both tanks with a couple of gallons. There were no ladders around so I was climbing like a monkey with this nozzle and hose hanging around my neck. I remembered to attach the ground wire to the exhaust stack so I didn't start a Skyhawk-sized grass fire of my own!
Instead of a receipt I did get out and take pictures of the Skyhawk sitting next to the fuel pumps. That'll have to be proof enough!
Back in the air I tuned in the Texoma VOR and started tracking it inbound toward the Oklahoma border. The past few days have been pretty hazy (and smokey) but a cold front came through this morning and blew a lot of that away. The view today was spectacular. I had Lake Texoma in sight almost as soon as I left Paris. I climbed at Vy all the way up to my cruising altitude, 6500' and within half an hour I was crossing over the Red River into Oklahoma. For the first time I started to notice smoke columns and large ... very large ... areas of blackened ground. Far to the north of me was a very large column of white smoke rising up. I passed over one area just a few miles south of Durant where a previous fire was starting to flare up again. I found out later that a fire-fighting Chinook had been dispatched to douse that fire. I probably missed it by 20 minutes or so. That would have been pretty cool to see from my altitude.
To navigate to Ardmore I was following radials of the Texoma VOR. But I misread my own handwriting on the chart because I ended up about 5 miles north of Ardmore. I was in touch with the Tower after being passed off by regional control and I had descended to 2000' but after a long while of droning along in the bumpy air at 2000' I realized that something was wrong. I was getting close to the town of Ardmore and knowing where the airport is in relation to the town I guessed that I was north so I turned south and sure enough, over the next hill, there it was. The controller there was very polite about it. But I still felt like a dope.
The wind here was from 320 at 9 knots gusting to 16 knots. Fun. The runway is 31. I did a better job of managing the power and the descent and I landing close to my aiming point. But again I ballooned in the flare and dropped it in a bit, not as bad as before ... and I _was_ on the centerline ... but still not pretty.
They're still doing construction here. I found out from the FBO manager that runway 17-35 is being completely rebuilt. They have completely ripped it up and are now laying down the foundation. Instead of using lime he said that they're putting down powdered concrete which they then will till into the soil. They'll water that and let it set up for six days. When it's done they'll have a concrete base on which to put 9-inches of asphalt. The plan is to be done by February, but he said it'll probably be March. It was sorely needed. The old runway, I swear, had potholes in it.
He also mentioned that the forestry service is setting up a tanker base this weekend to help combat the grass fires. This Sunday is expected to be really bad ... 80-degrees F and 30+ mph winds.
Departing Ardmore it was an almost straight south flight back to Addison. Regional control was very busy and it was tough to get their attention. But almost before I could think about it I was being sequenced into Addison. I picked out the Tollway and just followed it in. I was determined that this landing would be better than the others and I didn't disappoint myself. The winds were only 310 at 10 knots as I landed on runway 33. Again I handled the power management and descent well as well as tracking the centerline. This time the flare was much better though maybe a tad late. But I didn't balloon much and I added just a touch of power when I did so the wheels settled down on the runway nicely. Yeah!
A funny thing happened when I was taxying back to Monarch. I was cleared to "taxi to uniform". So I went down taxiway alpha until I got to uniform and then I stopped. The controller asked me if I could see someone coming down uniform. I told her no, that I stopped because she cleared me "to" uniform and not "to" Monarch. She told me that that was implied and that I could continue on my way. She also thanked me for asking. I'm not so sure it was implied. Or at least, I'm not going to take it as implied. I recently went through the AOPA's online runway safety course and there were a couple of instances where a pilot took a clearance as implied and there were accidents. I think I'd rather hold short and ask just to be sure. Besides, taxiway uniform is too narrow to do a 180! heh
Next up is a solo flight to practice short/soft/regular takeoffs and landings. That's going to be fun!!!
KADS to KPRX ... 1.3 hours
KPRX to KADM ... 1.7 hours
KADM to KADS ... 1.2 hours
Total to date 50 hours
Pictures
Logbook
Finally! After numerous weather-related cancellations I finally got to make my long solo cross-country today. Weather did keep me from making the flight I planned ... Addison (KADS) to Paris (KPRX) to Tyler (KTYR) and back to Addison because Tyler was one of only two or three airports in the entire freakin' state that was IFR. I'm just not destined to fly to Tyler.
So, instead I hurriedly rewrote my flight plans to go to Paris, then Ardmore, OK (KADM) and then back to Addison. As I'm sure you've heard on the news it's very dry and very windy here and big grass fires are cropping up every day. Well today was windy but not enough to keep me on the ground. My instructor, C, happened to be at Monarch this morning when I arrived so he helped me check the weather and go over my new flight plan. He told me that since the winds were blowing right down the runway he'd let me go as long as the gusts were under 25 knots. I had to hang out an hour later than I originally planned to depart but that was enough to see the wind slow down.
The ATIS when I departed runway 33 was winds 340 at 18, vis 13 miles, clear skies, temp 15, dewpoint 0 and altimeter 2988.
Lift-off and departure went smoothly. I was soon cleared into the Class B and climbed to 5500'. The ride was slightly bumpy until I passed through 3000' and then the air became really smooth. This time I vowed not to use the autopilot or GPS for the entire trip and the smooth air made it easy. I hardly touched the yoke the entire time; instead I used the rudder pedals to keep the wings level. I had no trouble at all holding my heading this way.
The flight to Paris passed rather quickly. There's not a lot of scenery out that way but that's ok because I busy recalculating my ground speed and adjusting my flight plan. The winds were not as forecasted so my planned 121 knot ground speed turned out to be 98 knots. That's OK, the journey is the whole point so the longer it takes the happier I am.
I landed on runway 32 at Paris because the AWOS said the wind was coming from 310 at 12 knots. Oddly enough, other people there were taking off and landing on runway 35. 35 is much closer to the ramp so the taxi time is much less. My landing was OK. I ballooned a bit during the flare and dropped it in from about a foot off the ground. Ouch!
My instructor, C, had told me to fill up with fuel at both airports so that my receipts could be used as proof that I made the trip. So I pulled up to the self-serve pump ... the first time I have used one of these things. How odd, once you swipe your credit card it wants you to choose $-s or gallons. WTF? So I chose $ and then it wants to know how much I expect to purchase. Since there is no indication what the price per gallon is I'm stuck. I punch in a number (100) I think ... that should cover it. Then it authorizes the card ... THEN it tells me it's out of printer paper and I won't get a receipt. Now I wanted to kick the thing! Well, I didn't need fuel but I wanted the experience of doing the selve-serve so I went ahead and hoisted the nozzle up to the top of the wing and filled both tanks with a couple of gallons. There were no ladders around so I was climbing like a monkey with this nozzle and hose hanging around my neck. I remembered to attach the ground wire to the exhaust stack so I didn't start a Skyhawk-sized grass fire of my own!
Instead of a receipt I did get out and take pictures of the Skyhawk sitting next to the fuel pumps. That'll have to be proof enough!
Back in the air I tuned in the Texoma VOR and started tracking it inbound toward the Oklahoma border. The past few days have been pretty hazy (and smokey) but a cold front came through this morning and blew a lot of that away. The view today was spectacular. I had Lake Texoma in sight almost as soon as I left Paris. I climbed at Vy all the way up to my cruising altitude, 6500' and within half an hour I was crossing over the Red River into Oklahoma. For the first time I started to notice smoke columns and large ... very large ... areas of blackened ground. Far to the north of me was a very large column of white smoke rising up. I passed over one area just a few miles south of Durant where a previous fire was starting to flare up again. I found out later that a fire-fighting Chinook had been dispatched to douse that fire. I probably missed it by 20 minutes or so. That would have been pretty cool to see from my altitude.
To navigate to Ardmore I was following radials of the Texoma VOR. But I misread my own handwriting on the chart because I ended up about 5 miles north of Ardmore. I was in touch with the Tower after being passed off by regional control and I had descended to 2000' but after a long while of droning along in the bumpy air at 2000' I realized that something was wrong. I was getting close to the town of Ardmore and knowing where the airport is in relation to the town I guessed that I was north so I turned south and sure enough, over the next hill, there it was. The controller there was very polite about it. But I still felt like a dope.
The wind here was from 320 at 9 knots gusting to 16 knots. Fun. The runway is 31. I did a better job of managing the power and the descent and I landing close to my aiming point. But again I ballooned in the flare and dropped it in a bit, not as bad as before ... and I _was_ on the centerline ... but still not pretty.
They're still doing construction here. I found out from the FBO manager that runway 17-35 is being completely rebuilt. They have completely ripped it up and are now laying down the foundation. Instead of using lime he said that they're putting down powdered concrete which they then will till into the soil. They'll water that and let it set up for six days. When it's done they'll have a concrete base on which to put 9-inches of asphalt. The plan is to be done by February, but he said it'll probably be March. It was sorely needed. The old runway, I swear, had potholes in it.
He also mentioned that the forestry service is setting up a tanker base this weekend to help combat the grass fires. This Sunday is expected to be really bad ... 80-degrees F and 30+ mph winds.
Departing Ardmore it was an almost straight south flight back to Addison. Regional control was very busy and it was tough to get their attention. But almost before I could think about it I was being sequenced into Addison. I picked out the Tollway and just followed it in. I was determined that this landing would be better than the others and I didn't disappoint myself. The winds were only 310 at 10 knots as I landed on runway 33. Again I handled the power management and descent well as well as tracking the centerline. This time the flare was much better though maybe a tad late. But I didn't balloon much and I added just a touch of power when I did so the wheels settled down on the runway nicely. Yeah!
A funny thing happened when I was taxying back to Monarch. I was cleared to "taxi to uniform". So I went down taxiway alpha until I got to uniform and then I stopped. The controller asked me if I could see someone coming down uniform. I told her no, that I stopped because she cleared me "to" uniform and not "to" Monarch. She told me that that was implied and that I could continue on my way. She also thanked me for asking. I'm not so sure it was implied. Or at least, I'm not going to take it as implied. I recently went through the AOPA's online runway safety course and there were a couple of instances where a pilot took a clearance as implied and there were accidents. I think I'd rather hold short and ask just to be sure. Besides, taxiway uniform is too narrow to do a 180! heh
Next up is a solo flight to practice short/soft/regular takeoffs and landings. That's going to be fun!!!
KADS to KPRX ... 1.3 hours
KPRX to KADM ... 1.7 hours
KADM to KADS ... 1.2 hours
Total to date 50 hours
Pictures
Logbook
posted by AirmanChet at
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