PackFlier

After my long solo cross country, I am now in check ride prep mode and the home stretch is in site.  I still have some simulated instrument time to take care of but we are handling that while sharpening my skills for the practical test.

I had a weeks worth of flights canceled due to some weather issues. Today, however, turned out to be a great day.  My primary instructor is away for a much needed vacation overseas, so I am utilizing some of our other amazing instructors to help me get ready.  Today I rode with one of my favorites, he helped me get the hang of stalls before my solo.  He has a ton of experience and I love just talking to the guy.

Since I need 2.2 hours of simulated instrument, today was all about the simulated instrument work. As soon as I took off from runway 21 at TTA and turned on course for the practice area, I put on the hood.  A hood is a little different from the foggles that I have used in the past, this thing looks like you strapped a dog cone to your forehead.  It is a little unwieldy but it did the job.

We started off with some simple turns as I ascended to 3000 ft msl.  Then I did some radial tracking off of the LIB VOR.  Next we moved on to a couple of stalls.  I have never done stalls under the hood.  Weird sensation.

Each time that I was asked to make a turn or perform a maneuver, I asked if I was cleared.  Tried to get in the habit of clearing turns or asking for clearance before each maneuver.  You can fail a check ride quickly by failing to do this.

After a few more turns, I hear “I have the flight controls, why  don’t you go ahead and close your eyes for a bit.”  I figured this was unusual attitudes.  I haven’t done these yet so it was a good experience.  I did a couple attempts where my instructor took the controls and had me close my eyes.  Next, I was asked to close my eyes and make some blind turns.

Next, my instructor asked me to perform some steep turns.  That was wild.  I am so used to site picture when performing a steep turn, so with just instruments, I could really feel the G forces in the turn.  Especially when I started to lose a little altitude and pulled back to regain. It was a really cool experience and I nailed it!  If you have been following my progress, you know that steep turns have been my Achilles heal.

After the maneuvers, we moved on to some turns and descents.  I realized pretty quickly that he was vectoring me to runway.  After a few turns and a few altitude step downs, he said “Ok, take off the hood and land”.  I was setup perfectly on Base for runway 22 at Siler City.  He asked me to perform a slip to landing and I nailed it with a sweet touch down.

As soon as we departed runway 22, once again I was asked to put on the hood as we ascended through 500 ft.  Once I turned on course, he said “Vacuum failure” and put a piece of paper over the attitude indicator and directional gyro.  I was now using the wing leveler (which runs on electricity so you have the backup for a vacuum failure), and the compass.  This is the first time I have had to deal with losing instruments but I think I handled it well.

I could tell that we were headed back towards TTA when my instructor went searching through his pockets, “I’ve got this toy here somewhere”.  After a few minutes it was revealed as he slapped a black circle over top of my airspeed indicator.  Now I was running on a compass, altimeter, vertical speed indicator, and wing leveler.  As it turned out, it wasn’t too big of a deal.  I knew the engine rpms for cruise, decent, etc.

While performing a few more turns then I hear, “go ahead and take off the hood and land”.  We were setup about 3 miles west of the airfield (TTA) at 2000 ft MSL.  I proceeded to fly over the airfield and descend turn into downwind for runway 21 at TTA.  I preformed another slip to landing since I was a little high. It was a weird experience flying and landing with no airspeed indicator but was great practice for if/when that situation arrives.

All in all, I think I did quite well considering it has been, literally, months since I have worked on just maneuvers. And oh yeah, I nailed both landings, greasy!  I had a lot of fun and got to fly!  What could be better?

 

Today, the weather worked out and allowed me to complete some of my final requirements, including the long solo cross country flight.

As of this morning I needed:

• Solo Cross Country total distance greater than 150nm with at least 3 stops and one leg greater than 50nm.
• 3 solo landings at a towered airport
• 2.2 hrs of hood time (Instrument training)

Today I was able to knock out two the remaining items.

My flight today took me from Raleigh Executive (TTA) -> Davidson County (EXX) -> Stanley County (VUJ) -> Richmond County (RCZ) -> then back to Raleigh Executive.

I performed my calculations, filed a flight plan and headed to the airfield to have one of the instructors review my numbers and sign me off for the flight.  Today was my normal instructors day off, I was able to get one of our other club instructors to fill in.  We have an amazing group of instructors and members in our club.  It is a very supportive community.

We discussed the possibility of para jumpers around VUJ and what I should do if that happens.  It turns out that this was a very relevant conversation.

I headed out to the airplane, like I was a real pilot and performed preflight and run up.  Made the radio calls and away I go.  I have been to all of these airports before so I was familiar with the routes.  The flight to EXX was uneventful.  Except Raleigh Approach terminated my flight following instead of handing me off to Greensboro approach… which was weird.  No big deal, I just requested a new following from Greensboro.

I made a pretty nice landing, if I do say so myself, at EXX and taxi’d up to the fuel pumps. Again, acting like a total pro, filled the tanks, sent a text to my surrogate instructor then I gave VUJ tower a call to see about those para jumpers.

The tower indicated that there were some jumpers scheduled but she thought I could squeeze in before.  As it turns out… not so much.  As I approached, VUJ, I dialed up the tower and was told that I needed to hold outside of the airspace.  The conversation that I had earlier about this helped me not freak out.  So I circled over a lake, taking in the views.

 

Once the jumpers completed their jumps, I was routed into VUJ and told to report right base 22L.  I complied and made a nice landing.  I still needed two more solo landings at a towered airport, so I requested to takeoff and remain in the pattern.  Upon the next landing I did the same.

After I had completed my requisite landings, I asked ground to route me to the fuel.  I didn’t originally plan to refuel at VUJ but with the hold and the extra landings, I figured better to be safe than sorry.

The rest of the trip went pretty well.  I flew from VUJ to RCZ, then it was just a hop through the Sandhills VOR (SDZ) back home to Raleigh Executive.

All in all it was a good day.  I am a little tired afterwards but totally worth it.

Today I got to fly and airplane… by myself … long distance.  I felt like a pilot.

If you read the previous post, you understand that this was a long time coming. And even up to the last minute, we were nearly thwarted. This quick night flight has been a long time in the making.

We go through the start up sequence, perform the engine run up, set the radios, and depart runway 3 with a destination of Stanley County Airport, VUJ.

Since this was a night cross country, the typical landmarks would be nearly useless so instead I picked out things like major highways, bigger cities that would have bright lights.  Airports, tracking their green/white alternating flashes.  Also for each one of these, I had two radials one from LIB to the north and one from SDZ to the south which would help me stay on track.

Once on course, I dialed in the first radial and then called up flight services to open my flight plan.

Me: “Raleigh Radio, Raleigh Radio, Cessna 89433 on 122.45.”

FltSvc: “89433, Raleigh Radio, go ahead”

Me: “89433 would like to open flight plan”

FltSvc: “89433, confirming round robin to Stanley county. For in route information……..”

Flight plan now open, I dial up a flight following.

Me: “Raleigh Approach, Cessna 89433”

Ral App: “Cesnna 89433, Raleigh Approach say request”

Me: “Approach, Cessna 89433 is type 152 slant uniform off of Tango Tango Alpha enroute to Victor Uniform Juliet climbing through three thousand five hundred to four thousand five hundred, request flight following”

Ral App: “89433 squawk 0216 and ident”

Me: “0216 and ident, 89433”

Ral App: “89433, we have you 10 miles west of Sanford at four thousand one hundred, once at altitude report any changes, altimeter 29.61”

Me: “Roger, will report”

With the housekeeping out of the way, we are on our way.  It was quite pleasant since the cool air was smooth.  Once trimmed in cruise flight, I just made small corrections depending on how my waypoints were turning out.

Once released from flight following, we got the AWOS from VUJ and I made my first call to a tower at an airport.

Me: “Stanley Tower, 89433”

Tower: “89433, say request”

Me: “89433 is Cessna 152 inbound to land”

Tower: “89433 fly base runway 22L report when entering airspace”

Me: “Wilco, 89433”

Once we enter airspace

Me: “Tower, 89433 has entered airspace”

Tower: “89433, there is no traffic in front of you, report when entering base”

Me: “Will report, 89433”

I slow the aircraft and drop a notch of flaps setting up for the base leg.  Once I am at 1600 feet, pattern altitude, I make the call.

Me: “Tower, 89433 is base runway 22L”

Tower: “89433, you are cleared for the option runway 22L, winds are calm, altimeter 29.65”

Me: “Cleared for the option 22L, 89433”

I won’t bore you with the rest of the communication but once we landed I was instructed to contact ground where I requested immediate taxi for departure.

Once we cleared airspace, Stanley tower wished us a good night and we got back on flight following for the trip back.  It was an uneventful trip back and overall a very pleasant flight.  It was a long time coming, nearly a month and a half of trying.

Now, I am trying to the the long cross country out of the way and start my check ride prep.

I could have done without all of the drama but it was good to get back in the air.

I haven’t been neglecting the blog, actually I have not been flying.  I am at a point in my flight training where I need to complete the last few things in a certain order.  The domino that was blocking my path was the night cross country.

I only have a few items to check off before I can start check-ride prep.

• Night Cross Country
• 3 Takeoff/landings at towered airport
• 2 more night takeoff and landings
• 2 more hours of solo cross country work
• 2 hours of hood work.
• Long solo cross country

Other than the hood work, my instructor wanted me to complete these in a specific order.  I’ll explain….

In order to complete my long solo cross country, which fulfills ,the Tower takeoff and landings and rest of my solo cross country time, I needed to first visit a towered airport with my instructor.  In her curriculum, this first towered experience comes during the night cross country.  Also the night cross country would fulfill the final two night take off and landings that I need.  So in short, the night cross country is the first domino to fall.  Then I can complete my long solo cross country and the only thing that I have left are two hours of hood time.  Which most will occur during my check ride prep.

So I know what you’re asking.  Why did it take so long?

Well, the weather has been horrible.  I started booking several nights a week starting mid March.  On the 19th attempt, May 4th, the weather finally cooperated.

After many, many, many, many,  yes…. many attempts. (You read 19 above, right?)  I get a text from my instructor, “Based on new tafs, tonight is a go!”

Now I was pretty shocked because it had been cancelled so many times due to cloud heights, wind, dew points, etc., that I wasn’t really even paying attention to the tafs.  At least not sitting here waiting for the updates.

As it gets closer to time, I get another text… “Check clouds wind before drive to tta today”.  I immediately started looking at the surrounding area.  Crap… winds are still high in spots. 10 in some places with 8 crosswind component.  However, the predictions say that the winds will die down.  I go to the airfield anyway even though things are sketchy.  Hell, I just wanted to be around airplanes if nothing else.

So I get to the airfield and talk with my instructor before she goes out for some hood work with another student. She says,”I’m confident tonight will happen, go ahead and cancel the rest of the night flights and reschedule for your long cross country”.  Yay!!!

She heads out with her student and I sit around, consuming a cup o noodle for my dinner and continue to hawk the weather.  Things are starting to look better, winds dying down as predicted, clouds staying above 6000 ft.

Once my instructor returns, I get busy on final calculations for the trip. While she is going over my work, I call for a weather brief.  This is where things go sideways.  As we get to the notams, the briefer says “Looks like there is military lights out training at your destination tonight.  You have to stay above 3,100 ft in the area. Since they are using night vision goggles, there are no lights in and around the airfield.”  I have him repeat this with my instructor listening, hoping I was misinterpreting what he was saying.  Nope, it was exactly what he said it was.  At this point, I am pretty disappointed.  I know the weather for the next week is not good.

My instructor says, “Well, it is what it is I guess”.   After a minute of mulling, she then says “Give the tower a call and see what they say.  Tell them that we are just flying in then quickly turning around and taking off.”  I do as she asks and I hear the best news ever… well maybe not ever but in recent history. “The c-130’s are not operating tonight, so you can come on.”  Yay!!

My instructor grabs her headset and as she walks toward the door to the flight line says, “Let’s get the hell out of dodge before something else happens”.  I couldn’t agree more.  I grab my stuff and then remember that I never actually filed the flight plan because of the news the briefer gave us.  I quickly call up and file our flight plan then sprint to the plane.

I will write another post with the details of the night flight but spoilers… It happened!  Finally.

 

 

For the month of March and April, the weather has conspired against me.  Gusting winds daily have cancelled most of my flights.  I typically schedule 3-4 times a week and recently, I have been lucky to get in one flight.  So… This has been me lately.

Today, however, there was a break in the wind and I got in a round robin cross country flight to KEXX.

Everything was working out fantastic, TAF’s predicted sky clear, winds variable 3kts.  As I was preflighting, the wind picked up substantially.  I checked the AWOS and it was saying winds were gusting to 10. The saving grace was that they were right down the runway.  My instructor walked out to the plane next to mine with another student and asked “Are you paying attention to the winds?”.  I replied to the affirmative and let her know what I last saw.  She seemed pleased that I was on top of it.

The trip was really uneventful except for a couple of things to note.  As I was fueling up, someone from the FBO came running out.  Evidently, I was trying to fuel from a pump that was reserved for farm equipment.  It was 100LL fuel, so it was the right fuel but for some reason that pump was reserved for farm equipment.  I needed to open up a big silver box to find the pump that I was supposed to use. The problem was, the big silver box looked like one of those things that was reserved for maintenance people or authorized people only.

It was only the second time that I have ever fueled a plane by myself, so I chalked it up to a learning experience.  I had a nice chat with the guys at the FBO and then I was on my way.

The next bit was that Greensboro approach notified me that they were having radar issues and it took them a while to pick me up and give me a squawk code.  15 minutes later, they lost me again and had me squawk VFR.  I listened in to the frequency in case they mentioned to someone else that an unidentified plane was converging with them.

I hit all of my waypoints on both the trip to and from.  Felt good to be back in the air. Next I still need to get in that night cross country, so far 10 scheduled flights have been canceled.  Then I need to do my long cross country, which is a flight of greater than 150nm.

Here is my cloud ahoy track to KEXX. Not the straightest flight that I have made but…https://www.cloudahoy.com/debrief/?key=Oibh37XGpWCahJM2E

The weather hasn’t cooperated lately but today things seem to look good.  I had my instructor scheduled for our weekly dual session but she suggested that I go ahead and fly my first real cross country solo.  I have been trying to get it in but the days I have scheduled have been less than ideal. Today I’ve got that pilot feeling!

I performed all of the navigation calculations and headed to the airfield.  Now I have to say, I haven’t flown in over a week and before that it was a couple of weeks, I didn’t have any butterflies.  I was focused on the mission.  When I arrived, my instructor looked over my calculations and my plan, listened in while I got the weather/filed my flight plan and we quickly discussed some procedures.  After this, she ushered me off reminding me that I need to be back before the next reservation and also to remember to close my flight plan upon my return.

I walked out to my machine looking it up and down as I walk, making sure that nothing obvious is out of place. I make a thorough pre-flight to make sure she is ready to carry me aloft.  Everything checks out but there is one last thing.  Bathroom break. It wasn’t nerves, I don’t think, just nature calling.  As I said before, I was pretty relaxed all morning.

Back in the cockpit, I was ready to go.  Started the airplane, went through the run-up procedures and taxi’d to the runway.

My Turn so I taxi onto the runway.  Heels to the floor, throttle full, green green green, airspeed alive, rotate and away I go floating above the earth on a cushion of air.

Once on course, I call up flight service to open my flight plan.  Next, Fayetteville approach for my flight following.  I am making radio calls, climbing to cruise altitude, beginning my navigation way-points and completely at ease.  It wasn’t too long ago that I saturated my workload capability and had to have my instructor help out.

Once I reached my cruising altitude, trimmed out and performed my cruise checklist.  At this point I realized that the plane was trimmed and flying hands off and the air was glass smooth.  I was able to sit back and enjoy the rest of the flight to my round robin destination.

Since it was so smooth and everything was under control.  I broke out the camera for some pictures!

Once I landed, I taxi’d over to the fuel pumps and filled up.  This is the first time that I have fueled the airplane unassisted.  Even though, there was a gentleman on site that made sure that I didn’t do anything wrong.  We had a nice chat.  The aviation community is good like that.  Part of flying is just going to little out of the way areas and meeting others in the aviation community.

On my way back, I was cruising a thousand feet lower and was rewarded with a shear layer.  This means that I am paying for my smooth trip down by a really bumpy trip back.  On the way I heard military traffic over the approach comms.  Looks like Pope was running some maneuvers with Jets in the restricted area 30 miles east of my track.  It was pretty cool, you could definitely tell the fighter jocks because their masks were causing a muffled affect on their audio.

I returned to TTA and made one of my better landings.  I really think the short and soft field work improved my landings.  I landed around the time that I predicted and plenty of time for the next reservation.  I chalk that up to good planning! Haha

It was a good day.  Mostly because even with the cockpit management and workload. I felt completely at ease.  I felt under control.  I felt like a pilot!

 

 

So back in the air after a nice weeks vacation in the Caribbean.  While I was away, two things rattled around in my brain as I sipped mixed drinks by the ocean.  One, my landings have been crap lately.  I have been transitioning too high, bleeding off speed or floating and dropping to the runway with a thud.  The other was my previous experience with advanced takeoff and landings, Soft Field and Short Field.

If you read my previous entry, Weirdly frustrating day… you would know that I scared myself during gusty soft field take offs.  That has haunted me ever since.  Well.. winds were light and variable so we tackled soft field and short field today.

First up, soft field.  My instructor showed me how it is done and again it felt weird as a passenger as she expertly maneuvered us around pattern. As expected, she did a wonderful job.

Now was my attempt.  To say I was nervous was an understatement.  I felt like this was my first take off ever.  I dropped 10 degrees of flaps and pulled the yoke to my stomach and started my slow taxi onto the runway.

I advanced the throttle and soon the front wheel was off the ground.  This time, I released some back pressure as needed to keep the front wheel from getting too high.  Now this was key, because in my first attempts, I had full back pressure and we lifted off quickly and I struggled to find the ground effect with a stiff crosswind pushing us off the runway.  Today, I felt under control.  I felt the plane lift from the ground and I held steady in the ground effect to accelerate.  As I reached my Vy speed of 65 kts, I retracted flaps and performed a normal climb.  Easy Peasy.  To reinforce my feeling of joy I hear from the right seat, “Text book soft field take off!”  Yay me!

The landing was not all that soft but the approach was good.  And it was a site better than I have been doing as of late.  Two more times around the pattern for soft field take offs and landings.  The second landing was nearly perfect, except as the wheels kissed the earth, for some unknown reason, I pulled back on the yoke, lifting us back up a couple of inches before settling down.  The third landing was pretty decent, could have been softer but I have the technique down now, just need to practice.  All of the landings were far far better than I have been doing in the last month, so that felt good.  Along with the confidence of soft field, I felt really good.

Next we moved on to short field take offs and landings. Once again, I let my instructor show me how it is done.  We didn’t get this far last time, so I didn’t have too many worries.. err expectations.  It seemed much more straight forward so when my turn came, I was feeling at ease.  I went through my lights, camera, action pre-takeoff checks and dropped 10 degrees of flaps.

As I taxi’d onto the runway, I was trying to hug the edge and when I turned… I was not at all lined up with the center line.  More like 10 feet to the right.  No big deal, but sloppy and I would definitely pay more attention to the turn next time.  Feet on the brakes, full power…. as the engine fully develops the power, I release the brakes.  Airspeed alive…. 50, rotate and climb at 55 kts.  Once I reach 50 feet above the runway, I lower the nose and accelerate to 65 kts… retract flaps. Not too bad.

As I turn final, I drop 30 degrees of flaps and slow to 55 kts.  The controls at this speed are pretty mushy but I have trained in slow flight at the edge of a stall and we weren’t nearly at stall speed in this configuration.  I was aiming to land on the numbers so I aimed for a dirt patch just before the runway.  As I got closer, I adjusted throttle and pitch to maintain between 55-60 kts.  As I crossed the threshold and the wheels touch down right on the numbers.  Whoo hooo!!

The second time around the pattern, I missed my target and I think I was longer than the 200ft margin that I have available to pass this test.  The third time around the runway, I missed the numbers, but set down right after and was well within the 200ft.  YAY!!!

Overall, I had a fantastic day. I haven’t flown in nearly two weeks because of weather and my vacation, so this was definitely a confidence boost.  As I said before, my worst landing today was silky smooth compared to my landings over the past month.  It felt great, and most of all, I really felt like I was the master of my machine.  I felt like a pilot!

Lessons have been cancelled for about a week due to high winds in the area.  We had a few tornado warnings… yuck.

That did not spoil my day today!  My family and I are going on vacation for a week and I really wanted to get a solo flight in before we departed.  The weather cooperated and I put together my flight plan for a Round Robin trip from KTTA -> KSOP.  Not quite a cross country trip, as a cross country trip is defined as a flight to another airport with a distance greater than 50nm.  The trip from KTTA to KSOP even via the SDZ VOR is only about 43 nm.   It’s baby steps leading up to my real cross country solos and I happen to be taking these trips solo in the order in which I took them with my instructor.

I arrive at the airfield and go over my flight plan with my instructor.  Everything checks out and I get her advice on using the engine preheater.  It is around 36F outside so not cold cold but still chilly.  She advised that I try to give it a shot and if it doesn’t start right away, grab the heater.  As I was preflighting, I listened to two other students having a hard time starting their planes, so… I grabbed the heater. I think it helped because I had no issues starting my ride.

As I perform my run up, for some reason everyone is in the pattern landing with a 6 kt tailwind.  Even when there was a pretty decent break in traffic, the next incoming aircraft still landed with a tailwind.  This led the two planes in front of me to take off on said runway.  I’m still new to the pilot game but this was annoying.

I takeoff and get setup on course with no troubles.  As I climb I tried to radio Fayetteville approach on 125.17.  No response.  I try again.  No response.  I then hear another try with out getting a response.  I am just a lowly student and not really prepped in this area.  I decide to try the southern Fayetteville approach frequency 127.8 to see if I can talk to them.  If not, then I am turning around because I have radio issues or something.  I called up approach on 127.8 and got a response, so I requested a flight following.  Once I was in the system, I hear another pilot say, “Do you guys know that something seems wrong with 125.17?”  Approach answers that they were unaware.  I was asked by approach to do a radio check on 125.17 and get back to them.  I complied and after trying a few times I returned to 127.8 and told them negative results.

The rest of the flight to and from SOP was pretty uneventful.  The flight back was quite bumpy.  I wasn’t able to take pictures as I planned.  I did get off a few but not any good ones.

Returning to TTA, I call for an advisory.  There was one plane that had landed, none in the pattern.  Awesome, let’s land on the right runway!  As I was getting ready to make my 5 mile radio call, I hear a freaking Cirrus taking off on the runway with a tailwind again.  WTF!!!  Windsock, AWOS, Common freaking sense!!!! aghh!  Then I hear two other approaching aircraft chime in that they will be landing on said runway.  I mean, the AWOS clearly indicates around 5-7kts of tailwind on that runway.

I don’t like landing with a tailwind, I tend to float and that is exactly what I did today.  Great trip, crappy landing.  At least I got this trip in before my vacation.  I had a lot of fun and felt like a pilot.  Next, my instructor advised me to plan a real cross country to KRCZ and also try to get some time scheduled for a night cross country to KVUJ.  Sounds like fun, can’t wait!

Watch my flight on CloudAhoy -> Clicky Clicky!

 

Last time, I flubbed the flight plan due to a miscommunication between my instructor and I.  She wanted me to plan direct but I didn’t get the memo and planned it through a VOR that happened to be out.  No worries, still stoked for a cross-country flight!

This time, I have everything planned, checked over and signed off.  So we prep to fly direct from TTA to EXX.  As I was walking out to the plane I chatted with one of the other instructors who said it was beautiful up there, smooth as glass.  We would learn that it was smooth no longer.

As we departed TTA and turned on course, I felt a little bit of overload.  We didn’t think we could trust the DG (Squawk said so), so I was bouncing all around, trying to fly by the magnetic compass and at the same time open up my flight plan and dialing up Raleigh approach for a flight following.  I flubbed the frequency at first by calling Fayetteville approach thinking it was Raleigh approach… ugh. Need to make sure that my frequencies are correct.

.  After flying in the wrong direction for a few minutes after my goof, I got us back on course.

The bumps smoothed out as we reached our cruising altitude of 4500.  Didn’t last long as we were handed off to Greensboro approach and was immediately directed to descend to 4000.  500 feet was a huge difference because we bounced around the rest of the flight to Lexington.

As I approached the halfway point, I had the Greensboro VOR dialed in because I knew that I should be on the 162 radial dead smack over the city of Asheboro.  My instructor pulled out her portable GPS and I felt good since I was right on the magenta line.  She seemed quite pleased.

I checked off the way points and setup for the approach at Davidson Co airport.  Pretty uneventful landing.  We taxi’d back and after flubbing the takeoff call (Saying Moore Co instead of Davidson Co.), we were back in the air.

Made the flight following radio call and feeling good about how I am managing the radio.   The rest of the way back was quite bumpy and tiring.  We chatted about our upcoming vacations.  It was nice.  Would have been nicer if it was smooth but you can’t have everything that you want.

When we got back to TTA it was pretty crazy.  Several inbound aircraft from different directions, a plane in the pattern, and a guy who stayed on the radio ranting about hearing someone say right traffic when the pattern was left traffic.  I mean, it wasn’t busy enough?

Made a pretty uneventful but ballooned landing due to giving a little power to stop sinking toward the end of the approach.

As we taxi’d back, my instructor commented on how I did.  She said I did really well with the planning and execution of the flight plan.  Only pointing out my initial flub to approach that got me off course at the beginning.  She then commented on how she noticed that even with all of the turbulence that I held my altitude with deviation no more that +- 75 ft and that she was really impressed.  It is odd because I was kind of upset that I didn’t hold it better, but it felt good.  It was pretty bumpy and I fought it most of the way there and the whole way back.

It was a good day flying.  Next I need to try to plan my night cross country and solo cross country.  Making progress!

 

It all started out innocently enough.  A simple cross country from TTA to EXX.  Last night I did the planning  TTA -> LIB -> EXX.  This morning, I got the weather and winds, and finished my wind drift calculations, Visual checkpoint times and fuel burn.  All was looking good, I was ready to go.  Then I hear from the briefer, “Looks like LIB Vortac is out of service today….”.  Damn it.  Also the weather was showing Few clouds all around hanging out at 4000 ft.  I wanted to cruise at 4500.  Not that big a deal because they are quickly moving out the area and will probably be no factor… but that Vortac being out of service puts a crimp in my plans. In a word, frustrating.

I arrive at the airfield and start my preflight while my instructor finished up with her current student.  Preflight went well and my instructor started going over my navigation log while I finished.  She asked me to do another quick weather profile as she finished with my calculations then I hear “Stop,  looks like you used LIB Vor.  I wanted you to plan direct.  I don’t think I told you that and with LIB out, this is no bueno.”  Welp, best laid plans….

Plan B, Advanced landing techniques which include soft field takeoffs and landings and short field takeoffs and landings.  And since we have the airplane for a good bit today, we will do some hood work.  I am still short 2.6 hours.  We spend the next 20 minutes going over the techniques that I need to employ for short field and soft field work.

As we taxi up to the runway, my instructor takes the controls and begins to demonstrate a soft field take off.  10 degrees flaps, yoke all the way back power smoothly input.  As the front wheel comes off the ground, she release a tiny bit of back pressure then the mains lift off the ground.  I notice the crosswind feels much greater than we had numbers for.  I shrug it away and pay attention as she takes me around the pattern. This in itself was a weird feeling, she hasn’t taken me for a ride in a long time.  It was kind of peaceful.

As previously reported by one of the other pilots, it was pretty bumpy.  I sit there as she completes the pattern and demonstrates a soft field touch down in a crosswind.  As expected, she did wonderfully.  I thought, ok, not so bad.

As I taxi on to the the runway, full swagger in place, reality comes crashing inward.  As I try to copy what I just saw, I had to have help on both the rudder and the yoke.  I haven’t had this much help in a long time.  It seemed like a lot went sideways, literally, very quickly.

As we turned onto final, I had everything setup nicely.  As we approached the runway, I added 1200 rpm like I was told and tried to hold the float.  As we plopped down on the runway in a less than graceful fashion, She commented that we probably just got stuck in the mud.  We discuss things as we taxi back and she remarks that with the gusting/variable winds it probably isn’t a good day to be starting this training for the first time but I convince her to let me try one more.

This time things went even worse.  Stall horn blaring, sliding quickly to the right side of the runway, trying to correct, feels like we are syncing and thoughts of ending up as a pile of aluminum were front and center on my mind.  My instructor quickly helped correct the situation and at that point we decided… let’s go do some hood work.  Normally I might groan, especially with the turbulence but I was all for it at this point.

The hood work was the only thing I did well today.  Considering all of the turbulence, I kept us within standards for altitude and heading.  I was able to complete 360 degree turns and even VOR work.  I did slip up at first on tracking the inbound radial after tracking the outbound radial.  I understood what was going on in my head but didn’t actually change the VOR Dial to track the inbound.  As I got about a third of the way through the turn, I realized it and made the correction and got us turned and tracked.  My instructor commented on that part of the failure but seemed pleased with the rest of my hood work.  I did have to be prompted a few times about our airspeed getting close to the yellow mark.  With the turbulent air that we were flying in, that would be a no no.  The point was well received and overall felt pretty good and oddly comfortable under the hood.  Maybe that is a good sign for my instrument rating after I tame the PPL beast.

So we head back to TTA to make a couple of crosswind landings.  My first landing, the slip was terrible and needed help. The landing sucked.

The second approach was much better but as we touched down, I landing on the downwind wheel which could be disastrous under the right circumstances.

I learned a lot today, especially about my abilities.  Honestly, the short field takeoff scared me.  This means I have a lot to work on and hopefully we can try again with out the 10 to 15 kt gusts with nearly 12 kt crosswind.  Right now I am blaming the the wind.

Even though it was a relatively bad day of flying for my ego, I still got to fly.