Lesson 21 -- First cross-country flight
First X-Country!!!
Addison, TX (KADS) to Ardmore, OK (KADM)
The plan going up is pure pilotage, no navaids. Coming back we'll use GPS.
Checkpoint -- Planned ETA -- Actual ETA
KADS -- xx -- 2013Z (departure)
Lake Ray Roberts Dam -- 2022Z -- 2024Z
Lake Ray Roberts North Tip -- 2028Z -- 2030Z
Gainsville, TX crossing Highway 82 -- 2034Z -- 2034Z
Marietta, OK cluster of towers -- 2045Z -- 2040Z
Lake Murray State Park Airport -- 2050Z -- 2050Z
KADM -- 2059Z -- 2103Z
Planned ETE: 0:44:00
Actual ETE: 0:50:00
I made my plan for an altitude of 4500' but we ended up climbing to 6500' in an attempt to get out of the horrible haze that was sitting on North Texas. We didn't make it ... we needed to go at least another 1000' up but that's also where the clouds started.
The flight up went pretty well. I arrived at Monarch well over an hour ahead of time to do my flight plan and preflight. But we got delayed leaving because of a King Air blocking the ramp. I did file a flight plan when I called to get my weather briefing but both C and I forgot to open it once we were airborne. We requested flight following before we left Addison and the airspace around Addison and DFW was so busy that we both were pretty busy keeping up with the radio. Leaving Dallas we got vectored around a little until we were clear of the Class B.
C mentioned that earlier in the day he was doing a flight in the practice area at 3500' and a Southwest Airlines 737 arrived at their same altitude! C had to take the controls and do an emergency descent to get out of his way. Glad it wasn't me. We didn't see any other aircraft on our flight though we did get vectored around some traffic at one point. But we never made visual contact with it.
I was pretty busy during the flight watching for other traffic and noting my times on my flight plan. I didn't really get much time to look at the scenery below not that I could see that much for the haze. C also showed me how to use the autopilot so that helped take some of the pressure off. Especially since I was juggling paper what with the flight plan, my usual ATIS/airport info sheet, sectional chart, and eventually the airport diagram for Ardmore. We weren't using GPS on the way up so I had to "steer" using the heading bug to keep us on course.
Ardmore is a neat little airport. It's towered as it use to be an army/air force base a long time ago. Now it only has two active runways left with a couple of 200' wide taxiways. And lots of space on the apron. There were some planes near hangars but only one other aircraft on the apron while we were there. No arrivals or departures while we were there. The runway and the taxiways all are pretty beat up. I was really surprised there weren't potholes. Are a lot of airports like that?
We pulled up to Lakeland Aviation (the only FBO) and the woman managing the place actually came out and waved us in. I was surprised that with a mile of apron and only one other aircraft that she would bother waving someone in. I mean, it's not like there's anything for me to hit.
We got the fuel topped off and checked out Lakeland (I signed the guest log). What a neat place. Lots of cool pictures on the walls, a nice selection of books and charts and knick-knacks. I picked up a copy of The Oklahoma Aviator ... the two front page stories are about new light sport aircraft ... the Flight Design CT and the Legend Cub.
Borrowing the Lakeland golf cart we drove down the road leading to the FBO and three blocks away is a great hole-in-the-wall burger joint. Big T's Express. We had just enough time for a couple of burgers and fries before returning to Dallas. It was great getting a chance to talk to C about things other than my lessons.
Back at the airport we did a quick preflight and fired up the engine for the flight back. Originally, the plan was to do a diversion on the way back. I had my little checklist card written out and ready on my clipboard. But, with the delay getting out of Addison and us enjoying our burgers we needed to make best time on the return trip. So no diversion, just set up the GPS for guidance and follow the magenta line.
We were cleared for taxi and then takeoff on runway 17 and were asked to contact Ft Worth Center on 128.10 to get flight following. That done I followed C's prompts to set up a direct course to ADS. Then I did my best to keep us on that course and climbed to 7500'.
At 7500' on the way back we *almost* got out of the haze, but the further into Texas we went the higher up the haze went. Oh well. Of couse, the flight back seemed to go in the blink of an eye. Two ATC handoffs later we were on approach into Addison. Regional Approach was very very very busy. The controller was speaking so fast (plus there was at least one other aircraft with a callsign similar to ours) that even concentrating on him calling out callsigns I still missed it when he talked to me. Eventually C had to help out with the radios because I just couldn't keep up. When we were handed off to Addison Tower I was met by a constant barrage of monologue coming from the controller so I was waiting for a chance to announce myself when all of sudden he started giving us clearances and commands. Again, I totally missed it. I know they know we're coming but I was expecting that I would have to start the dialogue. Lesson learned.
C showed me what a fast approach is like. Wow! Fun! Groundspeed was around 130 knots until nearly short final when he finally had me pull the power and pull the nose up slightly to slow down. I was surprised by how quickly we slowed. I expected to have to really struggle to get the Skyhawk slowed but that wasn't really the case. Just a little nose up and no power quickly got us under 110 so we could start putting flaps down. The wind was 110-degrees at 7 so we had just a little bit of crosswind but the landing went really well. Good thing too because Monarch's owner was waiting to take off in his King Air!! No pressure there.
Lessons Learned:
1) Filed a flight plan, great. But doesn't do any good if I don't open it. And for god's sake don't forget to close it.
2) Radios! I must keep up with the radio. If the radios are causing stress use the autopilot to lessen the work load. There's no problem with letting George drive for a while.
3) Learned how to use the instruments to get True Airspeed.
4) Learned how to use the autopilot.
5) Got a good introduction to the GPS. Still a lot to learn there.
6) When stopping at an airport, if you're making use of an FBO then buy some gas. Even if you only need a few gallons, it's their bread and butter.
7) Flight Following ... be ready to read back the instructions ... CRAFT ... ?, Route, Altitude, Frequency, Transponder. I can't remember what C stands for.
8) I need less paper on my kneeboard. I think, ditch the pad of paper. Just carry the AOPA kneeboard sheet for my destination, airport diagram, flight log and sectional. All the other little communication cheat sheets, etc are just getting in the way.
Great flight! Great fun! Finally, this is what flying is all about (except when Marco and Aerobat are doing loops, hammerheads, barrel rolls, etc)!
This flight: 2.3 hours
Landings: 2
Total: 33.2 hours
Addison, TX (KADS) to Ardmore, OK (KADM)
The plan going up is pure pilotage, no navaids. Coming back we'll use GPS.
Checkpoint -- Planned ETA -- Actual ETA
KADS -- xx -- 2013Z (departure)
Lake Ray Roberts Dam -- 2022Z -- 2024Z
Lake Ray Roberts North Tip -- 2028Z -- 2030Z
Gainsville, TX crossing Highway 82 -- 2034Z -- 2034Z
Marietta, OK cluster of towers -- 2045Z -- 2040Z
Lake Murray State Park Airport -- 2050Z -- 2050Z
KADM -- 2059Z -- 2103Z
Planned ETE: 0:44:00
Actual ETE: 0:50:00
I made my plan for an altitude of 4500' but we ended up climbing to 6500' in an attempt to get out of the horrible haze that was sitting on North Texas. We didn't make it ... we needed to go at least another 1000' up but that's also where the clouds started.
The flight up went pretty well. I arrived at Monarch well over an hour ahead of time to do my flight plan and preflight. But we got delayed leaving because of a King Air blocking the ramp. I did file a flight plan when I called to get my weather briefing but both C and I forgot to open it once we were airborne. We requested flight following before we left Addison and the airspace around Addison and DFW was so busy that we both were pretty busy keeping up with the radio. Leaving Dallas we got vectored around a little until we were clear of the Class B.
C mentioned that earlier in the day he was doing a flight in the practice area at 3500' and a Southwest Airlines 737 arrived at their same altitude! C had to take the controls and do an emergency descent to get out of his way. Glad it wasn't me. We didn't see any other aircraft on our flight though we did get vectored around some traffic at one point. But we never made visual contact with it.
I was pretty busy during the flight watching for other traffic and noting my times on my flight plan. I didn't really get much time to look at the scenery below not that I could see that much for the haze. C also showed me how to use the autopilot so that helped take some of the pressure off. Especially since I was juggling paper what with the flight plan, my usual ATIS/airport info sheet, sectional chart, and eventually the airport diagram for Ardmore. We weren't using GPS on the way up so I had to "steer" using the heading bug to keep us on course.
Ardmore is a neat little airport. It's towered as it use to be an army/air force base a long time ago. Now it only has two active runways left with a couple of 200' wide taxiways. And lots of space on the apron. There were some planes near hangars but only one other aircraft on the apron while we were there. No arrivals or departures while we were there. The runway and the taxiways all are pretty beat up. I was really surprised there weren't potholes. Are a lot of airports like that?
We pulled up to Lakeland Aviation (the only FBO) and the woman managing the place actually came out and waved us in. I was surprised that with a mile of apron and only one other aircraft that she would bother waving someone in. I mean, it's not like there's anything for me to hit.
We got the fuel topped off and checked out Lakeland (I signed the guest log). What a neat place. Lots of cool pictures on the walls, a nice selection of books and charts and knick-knacks. I picked up a copy of The Oklahoma Aviator ... the two front page stories are about new light sport aircraft ... the Flight Design CT and the Legend Cub.
Borrowing the Lakeland golf cart we drove down the road leading to the FBO and three blocks away is a great hole-in-the-wall burger joint. Big T's Express. We had just enough time for a couple of burgers and fries before returning to Dallas. It was great getting a chance to talk to C about things other than my lessons.
Back at the airport we did a quick preflight and fired up the engine for the flight back. Originally, the plan was to do a diversion on the way back. I had my little checklist card written out and ready on my clipboard. But, with the delay getting out of Addison and us enjoying our burgers we needed to make best time on the return trip. So no diversion, just set up the GPS for guidance and follow the magenta line.
We were cleared for taxi and then takeoff on runway 17 and were asked to contact Ft Worth Center on 128.10 to get flight following. That done I followed C's prompts to set up a direct course to ADS. Then I did my best to keep us on that course and climbed to 7500'.
At 7500' on the way back we *almost* got out of the haze, but the further into Texas we went the higher up the haze went. Oh well. Of couse, the flight back seemed to go in the blink of an eye. Two ATC handoffs later we were on approach into Addison. Regional Approach was very very very busy. The controller was speaking so fast (plus there was at least one other aircraft with a callsign similar to ours) that even concentrating on him calling out callsigns I still missed it when he talked to me. Eventually C had to help out with the radios because I just couldn't keep up. When we were handed off to Addison Tower I was met by a constant barrage of monologue coming from the controller so I was waiting for a chance to announce myself when all of sudden he started giving us clearances and commands. Again, I totally missed it. I know they know we're coming but I was expecting that I would have to start the dialogue. Lesson learned.
C showed me what a fast approach is like. Wow! Fun! Groundspeed was around 130 knots until nearly short final when he finally had me pull the power and pull the nose up slightly to slow down. I was surprised by how quickly we slowed. I expected to have to really struggle to get the Skyhawk slowed but that wasn't really the case. Just a little nose up and no power quickly got us under 110 so we could start putting flaps down. The wind was 110-degrees at 7 so we had just a little bit of crosswind but the landing went really well. Good thing too because Monarch's owner was waiting to take off in his King Air!! No pressure there.
Lessons Learned:
1) Filed a flight plan, great. But doesn't do any good if I don't open it. And for god's sake don't forget to close it.
2) Radios! I must keep up with the radio. If the radios are causing stress use the autopilot to lessen the work load. There's no problem with letting George drive for a while.
3) Learned how to use the instruments to get True Airspeed.
4) Learned how to use the autopilot.
5) Got a good introduction to the GPS. Still a lot to learn there.
6) When stopping at an airport, if you're making use of an FBO then buy some gas. Even if you only need a few gallons, it's their bread and butter.
7) Flight Following ... be ready to read back the instructions ... CRAFT ... ?, Route, Altitude, Frequency, Transponder. I can't remember what C stands for.
8) I need less paper on my kneeboard. I think, ditch the pad of paper. Just carry the AOPA kneeboard sheet for my destination, airport diagram, flight log and sectional. All the other little communication cheat sheets, etc are just getting in the way.
Great flight! Great fun! Finally, this is what flying is all about (except when Marco and Aerobat are doing loops, hammerheads, barrel rolls, etc)!
This flight: 2.3 hours
Landings: 2
Total: 33.2 hours
posted by AirmanChet at
10:39
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