Learning to Fly (Part 4: Cross Country Work Begins)

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Practicing Turns Around a Point (July 5, 2007)

Had two more days left before Audrey and I left to go see Jim in Duluth, Minnesota, so I decided to go ahead and get in a solo flight (as directed) to practice turns around a point and S-turns.

Winds were coming mostly from the northwest, so it was a tossup whether I used runway 29 or runway 22.  Had a normal preflight, and after listening in on ATOS and local traffic, I decided to use 29.  Took off normally in my favorite plane, N2135S (a Cessna 172SP, see the photo on the right).  It was a beautiful, hot Summer day- temps in the high 80's (30° C, actually) with 7 knot winds from the northwest, very high cirrus clouds and only a 7 mile visibility due to haze.

I did two takeoffs on runway 29; it's not my preferred runway, but it's always good practice to NOT use your favorite.  Landing one was too fast, and I tried to push the plane into the runway again, but all in all a pretty good landing.  Not too bad.  Did a full stop, taxied around and did it again, this time doing a touch and go.  Better.

Headed around the airport and went west to practice turns around a point and S-turns around a power line.  Both were fine.  Enough wind to make life interesting in both cases!  I did my turns around a point at 2,500 feet close to I-985, then climbed to 3,500 to practice my S-turns.  Found a cross-country power line and practiced away for about 10 minutes, then decided to go back to the airport to practice two more landings.

Aha.  Everyone's now using runway 22, not 29.  Ok, Statham, think.  Never landed on 22, so it's a left pattern.... got it.

I stayed at 3,500 feet (could have gone higher, but why bother?) and cruised around to the west, then the south of the airport.  I programmed KGVL back into the GPS (should have done that before I left the taxiway, shame on me!) and swung gently around to the west, then the south.  I worked the radios just fine- there was some traffic west of me and north of me, but nothing I had to worry about.  Visibility was good enough to where I could keep the airport just barely in sight through the distant haze.

Again, this was my first time coming in on runway 22, so I had to enter from the southwest.   I spoke to a King Air who was going to takeoff and make a 45° departure to the south; I told him I'd keep an eye out but that I was almost on my 45.  After cutting power and coming down to pattern altitude of 2,300 feet, I flew in nice and easy in from the southwest on a 45° leg into a left pattern (see below, 45° entry).  A gentle right turn into my downwind leg, and I watched the King Air take off as pretty as a picture.

Since this was my first landing on 22 (typically I've been landing in the other direction, which is called runway 4 at the other end), I got to see some fresh scenery as I flew my downwind leg over I-985.  But I turned base just a bit too early, so I was a bit too high on final.  Not to worry- get to practice my slips!  Did a left slip (a nice way to describe an uncoordinated turn where you're crabbing sideways!) and lost altitude (just like in the book), then straightened her out, cut the power and floated down for a "not bad" center-line and slight crosswind landing on 22- then full power and back to do it all over again.  Landing number two on runway 22, or landing number four for the day, was even better.  But after landing I rode the brakes a bit too hard, wanting to pull out at mid-field.  Not a big deal, I guess- just a small lesson learned.  Still have a long way to go to learn the small details.

Exactly one hour from startup to shutdown.  Good solo flight.  Next week I'll be flying lessons with Matt again.

Short Field and Soft Field Takeoffs & Landings (July 13, 2007)

Ah, my first day of flying on a Friday the 13th!  Back in the saddle with Matt Perrer again, this time practicing short field and soft field takeoffs and landings.  Why?  Because both allow the pilot and passengers to visit more out-of-the way fields, such as grass fields or sand strips (soft fields) as well as shorter runwayed airports with trees or other obstacles at the end.

They are very different from each other, and both are fun.   I had been reading up on the procedure, so getting in the plane and trying it was going to be fun.  And it was!  For short field, I put in 10° of flaps, went to the very beginning of the runway, lined the plane up, stepped on both brakes and ran it up to full power.  Let go of the brakes, rotated at only 51 knots, then climbed at 56 knots.  Clear of imaginary obstacle, I slightly lowered the nose, sped up to 65 knots, pulled in the flaps, then began climbing out at 75 knots.

Stayed in the pattern for a short field landing.  A bit harder- only 60 knots of landing speed, and every time I tried it I was just a hair too fast.  But we kept at it- took one go-around and two landings before I was even close to getting it, so we decided to continue practicing it for future lessons.

Soft field takeoff is complex enough to where I won't even try to describe it here- because most people won't care!  But we practiced it a couple of times.  Soft field landing- arrrrg.  Fortunately, it's not a part of my FAA check ride.  It's not an easy maneuver for a new pilot like me.  But like the short-field landing, I'll keep practicing it until I get it.

Total time was 90 minutes- a very busy day working the pattern, flying off of runway 4.

At the end of my lesson, I went up with Matt and another instructor in a Cessna 182- a much bigger, faster version of what I'm learning on.  Had a lot of fun staying in the backseat and watching a couple of pros fly a real airplane.  Total time in the air today was over 3 hours, half of that as a pilot.  Sure was fun.

VOR & Instrument Recovery (July 17-18, 2007)

Have you ever head the term "Flying the needle"?  Two lessons this week focused on VHF Omni-directional Rangle (VOR), which is a pretty slick way to fly from point-to-point in the air.   VOR has been around for over 50 years, and is a series of radio- direction antennas that can be picked up and flown by aircraft- easily, safely and comfortably.  (That is, once the new student figures it out!)  The photo on the left shows a typical VOR ground station.

I will spare you the technical details (click here for a deeper explanation), but in a nutshell, think of them as fixed, easily identifiable radio light-houses that airplanes of all sizes, from small aircraft through jet aircraft, can easily find and follow.

I had some challenges this week in understanding exactly how it worked and how I could use it, but I kept studying until I finally had a major "aha" moment about 6 AM while slowly coming awake.  And once it finally clicked, I had it.

For two lessons Matt had me wearing foggles for a total of one hour of flying solely on instruments.   A pair of fogged glasses with clear spaces at the bottom blocked out the sky, allowing me to only see my instruments while Matt provided outside eyes.  It's as if I were flying in the clouds, which is important to learn just in case it were to accidentally happen before I get my instrument rating.

My assignment was to pick up the Foothills VOR (ODF, at 113.4 MHz) which was listed on my chart north of Taccoa.  Matt gave me a specific radial he wanted me to put into my VOR, then fly to intersect that specific radial.  Why?  Well, think of radials like spokes on a bike wheel.  I don't need to necessarily fly all the way to the VOR station itself; I may just need to fly 30 miles along one of it's spokes, either towards the station, or maybe away from the station- depending on which direction I need to go!

As you can see from the photo on the right, suppose I were directed to fly on radial 335 "to" the VOR.  I would set it as you see here, then I would fly a course until the needle you see would slowly come in from the right or from the left until it was centered directly; I would then turn the airplane on the same heading, flying directly on that "spoke", or in this case, 335°.  Pretty nifty!  Wish I could tell you I got it right the first time, but I didn't.  But I kept working at it until I got it figured out.

The second time up, Wednesday afternoon, Matt kept me under the hood using the VOR, then had me tune up a second station and put in a second radial that when I intersected it, would end me up about six miles from the Gainesville airport.  How cool is that?  And sure enough, I kept flying my first VOR, keeping my needle centered with small course corrections, holding my altitude, and eventually I noticed small movements on needle number two- then more movement- then it began to creep in- then it was centered.  "I have the controls," said Matt.  "Take off your foggles.  Find the airport by finding landmarks you recognize."  Sure enough- found it at 10 o'clock, and we were 7 miles out.

On Wednesday (second VOR day) we also worked on instrument recovery.  With the foggles on, Matt had me put my head down and close my eyes.  He then put the plane in either a climb or descent, with a wing down.   "Your controls."  My job was to look at airspeed and attitude indicator (see left) to see if we were too fast and climbing or descending, then take appropriate action to keep the airplane in a safe mode.

I did fine.  When you open your eyes and see high airspeed and nose down, it's simply a matter of pulling back power to idle, leveling the wings in the attitude indicator, bringing the nose gently back up (also easily seen in the attitude indicator), then gently re-applying power to cruising speed.  For the opposite (a wing-high climb), it requires MORE power, then leveling the wings, bringing the nose down and adjusting power back down as needed.

At the end of both lesson, landings both days were short field- higher approach and slower speeds.  The one on Wednesday was better, but both were fine.  Those require a bit more work to get the approach just right, so Matt and I decided to continue working on those.

Cross-Country Flight Preparation (July 19, 2007)

No flying today- just ground school.  Matt and I took an hour to plan out a cross-country flight, calculating track, compass heading, weather, checkpoints, fuel consumption, and all the other details.  We had decided to fly from Gainesville to Chattanooga Friday afternoon, stopping in Dalton and continuing on the CHA, then flying straight back to Gainesville.

It was a very productive hour of one-on-one.  He had assigned me to try to do it on my own before I got there, and other than severely messing up my initial compass heading (dummy!), the rest of my planning was right on track.  But it wouldn't have mattered, because my initial compass heading was so severely off.

But we got it straightened out and calculated, using the E6-B flight computer wheel that Duane Fisher had given me- it allows the pilot to calculate wind effects, fuel consumption, time between checkpoints-- in short, a very necessary tool to learn as a new pilot.  The E6-B Duane gave me is nice- it's aluminum, very solid; he also gave me a plotter, which is used to calculate mileage, ground track and other useful information in planning.

Of course, the planes now have a GPS, but what happens if the GPS fails?  You got it!  Still need to know how to navigate with my good old Mark II eyeballs, a chart and a compass, just like in Scouts, with potential help from the VOR if I need it.  The more ways to navigate, the better!

(Note: Got the airport Friday at 1:30 PM, but weather wouldn't cooperate.  Had to postpone until next Tuesday morning.  Weather didn't clear Friday afternoon until 5 PM.  And learning when NOT to fly is a very good thing!!)

Dual Cross-Country (July 24, 2007)

Tuesday morning, and if the weather will hold, dual cross-country.  Plan was to fly GVL-DNN-CHA-GLV (Gainesville to Dalton to Chattanooga to Gainesville).  Called and got a weather brief at 7 AM- thunderstorms had just left Chattanooga and were still over Dalton, so VFR not recommended.  Hmmmm.   Dropped by Atlanta Bread Company in Gainesville, got on www.aviationweather.gov and looked it over- bad weather was headed due east, and we'd be flying to the south of it.  Workable, but will discuss with Matt.

At the Flight Center we looked it over for about a half hour and saw that it was definitely dissipating while heading east, so we decided to GO.  Plugged my numbers into my flight planner (winds, headings, fuel consumption, time en route) using my calculator, dispatched the plane and headed out.  We went to the fuel farm put in 12 gallons.

Wheels up at 9:20 AM, heading for Dalton.  Compass heading calculations as well as ground speed calculations were right on the money with what the GPS was showing.  Hooray!  We hit our way points-  Bill Elliott's private airstrip, Carter's Lake, and in short order, the ground reference for descent.  Sure enough- the sky cleared all the way up, with blue skies on top.  Came into Dalton using a left pattern and made an easy landing on runway 14.   No one around but us.  (See the photo on the right- me on the Dalton taxiway).

Sitting on the Dalton taxiway, we put in the right frequencies into our radio for our flight to Chattanooga, which was a very short flight over the mountains, but since it's a towered airport, we would have several frequencies we'd had to keep track of.  By the way- Dalton's a nice little airport.  Very nice.

Normal takeoff and climb, and pointed the bird at CHA, just to the north of us.  I called Chattanooga approach, and they had us squawk a transponder code, then "ident" (beacon) that same code, calling our altitude of 3,500.  They then had me fly almost due north on a heading of 340 magnetic at a lower altitude of 2,500 while they landed some other traffic.  Now the clouds were rolling in, and I'm not allowed to fly through clouds- so Matt called the tower and we made some minor adjustments so we could legally stay VFR.  We were worried that we may not be able to make a VFR approach, but eventually we found a big enough hole to fly through, could see the runway they directed us to (it's a commercial airport with an 8,300 foot runway!), and I landed the plane just fine.

I switched to ground frequency, got clearance to go to flight services so we could relax and get a Coke and a restroom break.  As you can see from the photo on the left, Matt was very pleased with my morning's performance- normally he'd be squeezing my neck much harder at this point in the de-briefing, so I could tell he was pleased...  <Grin>

Had a nice long break, then we filed an IFR (instrument flight rules) flight plan for the return.  Matt wanted me to practice an IFR so I could see and feel what it was like to fly purely in the clouds and talking to air traffic control.  Then back into the bird at 11:20 AM after pre-flighting it and an engine runup (since ground control had us hold for other traffic).   New squawk code, new set of things to learn outbound.  Ok.

Down to the end of that same beautiful, LONG runway and a takeoff to the south with clearance to climb to 7000 feet with clearance direct to KGVL- a short 85 miles away.   We climbed nice and steadily to 7,000 but I had a dickens of a time holding my bearing-- and once I got to 7,000 feet I also had a tough time holding altitude.  I ended up spending half the flight like a wobbly porpoise- compensating for the wind first from the left, then from the right- overcompensating for altitude climbs and descents, because I hadn't trimmed the plane as I should have.  But I learned the importance of not only flying "the needle" but of watching the needed course vs actual course indicator in the GPS display.  After about a half hour of thrashing around, I got a bit smoother using smaller corrections.  A bit.

But all fun things must come to an end.  After about 50 minutes, Gainesville was in sight so we called Atlanta on the radio and cancelled our IFR plan.  I entered the pattern at a 45 degree angle and had a nice easy landing (with a strong right cross-wind) on runway 4.

Total time flying: 2:20.  I was tired, but pleasantly so.  I had not used the autopilot, because I'm learning how to fly myself manually.  But I was able to fly an airplane successfully from point a to point b and c, then back to point a, using a compass, landmarks and backed up by a GPS. 

Fun.  Next cross-country will be solo.

Weathered out three times on solo cross-country  (July 26 & 28, 2007)

(Thursday once and Saturday twice)

This morning (Thursday) was supposed to be my first solo cross-country, but it was not to be.  Spent three hours at the airport, but weather wouldn't cooperate.   Too many low clouds I'd have to dodge.  Matt decided to put it off until Saturday.  Weather forecast looks good and would like to go tomorrow (Friday) but unfortunately, I've got a full day on Friday.  Gotta work to help pay for these lessons!

Two days later- Saturday. 

Of course, yesterday (Friday) the weather was fine, but I had a full day of meetings I couldn't and shouldn't be trying to shake loose from.  Up early this morning to get some painting done before heading to Gainesville for my long-anticipated solo cross-country from Gainesville to Dalton, and as I'm leaving for the airport... you guessed it.  Raindrops.   Arrrrrg.  Rain wasn't even in the forecast!

I called the weather guesser for a weather brief, and he said "rain all morning until the system moves through over the next four hours; system moving slowly to the southeast at around 10 knots". 

Got to the airport, and it just wasn't going to happen this morning- too many lines of rain out there moving too slowly to wait it out until later in the day.  Oh, well.   But at least I got to go to breakfast at IHOP with Bill, Matt and another of Matt's students, Kevin.  So the morning wasn't a total loss!   Had some laughs with my new pilot friends and got to hear some new lies I hadn't heard before.  Went back home and did some more painting to get the house ready to sell, since it looked like the afternoon was going to be ok. 

Sure enough- just as I got to the house- blue skies!  OOORAH.

So I got a couple more hours of painting in.  Our son Jim called while I was painting- he had left Duluth, MN this morning at 6:30 am and was driving south.  He's hoping to see us this Wednesday in time for church.

Went back outside to be back to the airport by noon, but the blue skies were gone, replaced by solid overcast and dark clouds towards the northwest.  I kept driving to Gainesville, though, hoping it would clear enough so that I could do my solo cross-country, then get my check ride with Brad Griffin.

The clouds were hanging on due to a trough right over where I wanted to fly- Dalton, Georgia.  As you can see from the satellite image, this was decidedly NOT VFR conditions for flight.  So I talked it over with Brad and with Matt, and we decided to have me try tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) in between church services for my solo cross-country, then Monday afternoon with Brad for my check ride.  Hopefully!

Keep those toes crossed.

 Sunday

Weather was supposed to clear in the afternoon.  So I waited at the airport, but at least I got some studying in- because I wasn't going to be flying.  Three hours for naught- until just before it was time to leave for church, of course, when it cleared up.  Will hit the briefer tonight after 9 pm and see what they say about tomorrow.

Supplemental:  Briefer says tomorrow morning's out, but tomorrow afternoon looks fine.  I called Matt and we moved my solo cross-country attempt #4 to Monday at 1 PM, then a check ride with Brad at 4 PM.

Solo Cross-Country Washout #4 Check Ride  (July 30, 2007 1:00 PM)

Sure enough, weather this morning was lousy.   But it was still lousy at noon.

Fortunately, Brad and Matt took pity on me.  While the weather was STILL too lousy for a solo cross-country (same stalled weather front, of course), Brad decided to go ahead and give me my solo cross-country check ride (bless him) on the belief that I actually knew what I was doing, and let me do my solo on Tuesday, when the weather should be finally clearing.  Matt told me we would not be flying into Dalton, but would practicing diverting as well as emergency procedures.

Good easy pre-flight (hot as a firecracker), and I set up the GPS and radios for Dalton, as planned, even though I knew we weren't actually going to get anywhere close to Dalton.

Normal run-up and takeoff, but this time a new runway for me: runway 11, which I've never used before.  Had a good takeoff to the southeast, then we swung around to the west-northwest and headed for Dalton.  We hit our planned checkpoint #1 (Georgia 400 just north of the Dawsonville Outlet Mall) then kept right on course for Dalton.  Brad asked me if I could use the VOR just north of the Lumpkin County airport, and thanks to Matt's training plus a bunch of supplemental study on my part, I tuned it in, verified it (it's nice to know Morse code!) and gave him all the right answers to his questions, including how to find the radial for the Lumpkin County field.  (Thanks, Matt!)

"Ok, you have thunderstorms ahead in route.  What now?"  We discussed if they were small enough to skirt or not, and if so, the wide route I'd use to skirt them.  But for the purposes of our exercise, they were "wide and nasty", and Brad asked where I planned to divert to wait out the simulated bad weather.  I proposed Habersham, Lumpkin or worse case, Bill Elliott's private airstrip which was within a few miles of us.  Brad said, "Bad weather's now all around you.  Guess you need to find Elliott's strip and land it."  I knew from our route that it was probably on our right and just behind us.  (I figured Brad had probably seen it out his window, on the right.  And I was correct.)

Sooooo... I circled the plane back around to the right, holding altitude, and found the airport about where I figured it would be, right behind us on the right.  I looked up it's altitude (1500 feet) and length (4000 feet) on the chart, and we circled around it to the north, descended a bit and entered at a 45 degree downwind for a pattern landing, coming in at 2500 feet.  But I was way too close to the airport due to a strong crosswind, so my base leg was too short, and I had trouble lining up for a landing.  Go around.  Grrrr.

And you know-- I made the same bonehead move the second time.  DUH.  Didn't adjust for the crosswind.  So I had the same problem the second time.  So Brad waved me off.  "You could have landed it no problem" he said.  "You had more than enough runway even if the weather HAD been lousy- I just didn't want to wear our my welcome at this airstrip.  You did great."  (Well, jury's still out on that, I guess.)  "Good job.  Return us to Gainesville."

Good short field landing on runway 4 my first try.  Beginner's luck.  Not as good on the second one, but good enough to make Brad happy.  I guess if the senior instructor is highly pleased, that things must be going ok. 

The verdict?  I'm cleared to fly cross-country solo, and hopefully, tomorrow morning.  The weather's supposed to finally clear so I can do this.  I'll call the briefer tonight after 9 pm and make sure things look good.

Solo Cross-Country Washout #5 

(July 31, 2007 8:00 AM)

Beautiful forecast when I called again this morning, calling for no clouds and virtually unlimited ceiling.   As I drove in, the sky was great!  I got to the airport at 7:30, and Matt was pumped.  "Finally," he says.  "you get to go to Dalton.  You pumped?"  You betcha I was pumped.  After four washouts and a good check ride?  Who wouldn't be pumped.

But just before I began my pre-flight a huge mass of clouds (same weather pattern as the last week that had been making me CRAZY) started walking across the sky from the SOUTH.  You got it- the mess that had been making me crazy was back, drifting back up from the south.  I could watch the clouds as they starting scooting back overhead, northbound like a slow freight train. 

I called the weather guesser, and the verdict was a strong "No Go" until the afternoon.  Of course, the plane was booked solid until 4 pm, so I'll try it again then.

Solo Cross-Country  (July 31, 2007 5:45 PM)

Well, truly the sixth time was a charm.  The weather guessers had said weather would clear beginning at noon, and it did.  Here's a satellite image (to the right) of what it looked like at 5:30 PM, about fifteen minutes before I took off.

I had gotten to the airport at 4 pm, and it still wasn't good enough.  But it was starting to look promising.  Matt and I decided that I should hang around a few hours and see.  And by 5 pm it was looking just fine- a few clouds hanging around, and those dissipating.  I called for a final weather brief, and was off to the races.

Matt signed my logbook and medical certificate as required, and I performed my pre-flight and runup.  I took off at 5:45 pm from runway 4, heading northeast- then began ascending to 4,500.  As I crossed through 2,500 I began making my turn to the northwest and kept a nice 80-knot climb until I hit 4,500 feet, then trimmed her out and kept her pointed on my compass and GPS heading to Dalton- only 58 minutes away.

It was very hazy, especially flying into the late afternoon sun.  But I could see all the right landmarks right on schedule- the plane was making better time than I had hoped, even in spite of a slight quartering headwind.  I flew over Jasper, close to Chatsworth while purposefully skirting the tall mountain range that included Fort Mountain, since I would only be about 1,000 feet above them.

Everything clicked away.  I flew my landmarks and my GPS.  I found Carter's Lake north of my heading (as expected) so I flew north and intercepted and got right back on my planned course.  Called Dalton about 12 miles out and began my descent about 7 miles out, while talking to Dalton unicom and a Mooney that was planning to take off.  I told him to go ahead- I was a lowly Cessna 172!  He thanked me, took off and flew about 2,000 feet over me and to the north!

I hit my proper 1,700 "pattern" altitude (1,000 feet higher than the 700 foot airport), entered my pattern as described earlier and flew a nice little landing on to runway 32.  Winds were dead calm.  I taxied up to the Fixed Base Operator (FBO), where Bob parked me.  (The photo on the left Matt took last week shows the Dalton FBO on the far right.)

Parked the plane, shut it down, met Bob and went inside and bought a hat, a Diet Coke and a bag of peanut M&M's.  Couldn't fly to Dalton without buying something!

Called Matt and told him I was ok, then back to the plane for an abbreviated pre-flight.  Since winds were calm I decided to take runway 14- much easier to simply fly off, turn slightly to the left and head home!  Nice easy takeoff and gentle climb to 5,500 feet, staying on my course of 122°  back to Gainesville.  Flew directly over the mountains this time, passing them at about 2,000 feet.  Nice views!  Only had to dodge one cloud, swinging slightly to the south then back on my heading again.  Nice and cool up at 5,500 feet, too.

Picked up Gainesville on the radio about 20 miles out, and it sounded like a fire drill with all the traffic in the pattern.  Everyone was using runway 11, which I had never landed on- but hey, I'm a pilot now, so might as well get used to it.  I moved my course slightly to the north of the airport so that I could swing around to the east and enter the pattern like I was supposed to.  I began my descent at 10 miles from the airport, a nice gentle 500 foot per minute descent from 5,500 down to 2,300 (pattern altitude).  Probably started a bit too soon, but that's ok.

Entered the pattern normally, and lined up to land.  That runway looks funky- it's short, it has a hump in the middle where it intersects the main runway (4-22) and it doesn't look right when you're on final.  (At least I'm not alone in that assessment.)  Sure enough- I came in a bit too fast, nudged the hump and bumped gently back up TWICE before settling down.   Lousy landing.  So I did a full stop, taxied around again and decided to do it again.

Second approach, pattern and landing was much better.   Interestingly, in spite of my repeatedly communicating where I was in the pattern, talking to an airplane right behind me on downwind and base, he tried to enter final as I was on final.  DUH!!  He wouldn't have hit me, but clearly he had been talking to me all along, so why he didn't enter a longer downwind leg and give me time to fly my final was beyond me.   I was nice to him on the radio- of course.

Was the second landing on runway 11 any good?  Good enough to take her back to the ramp, where Matt was waiting with a big smile on his face.  "How'd it go?" he asked.  "Great!" says I.  And it was.  Total time 1.9 hours.

Wrapping it up (Part 5)