First solo XC

I woke up the morning of my first solo XC and immediately looked out the window to see if the overcast that had covered our skies the past few days had cleared up. What I saw looked promising, but I wasn't totally convinced I would be able to fly. I called for a weather briefing, hoping he would tell me it would be blue skies in a couple hours, but he didn't, instead I got a briefing that described exactly what I saw out my window.

I went ahead and finished up my XC planning, even though I told myself that if the weather wasn't near perfect that I would postpone. The coast here in San Diego can be pretty stubborn when it comes to that overcast burning away, and my XC route was directly up the coastline to Torrance. I finished my planning, ate breakfast, showered, and headed off to the airport.

When I arrived at the airport the skies had significantly cleared up, this was confirmed by a CFI who was just out flying and said it was a beautiful day out there. My CFI wasn't at the school today, so I had another CFI check my flight planning and endorse my logbook...whoops...where is my logbook? Where is my headset bag? Doh! I forgot two of the most important things at home. Luckily my wonderful fiance drove them up to me, and I was able to get the endorsement I needed not but two minutes before his next lesson walked through the door.

With everything in order, and legal I was off to preflight the airplane. Once the preflight inspection was complete, I was soon off into the skies. The first order of business was to trim the airplane to the best rate of climb speed, and wait until I reached my cruising altitude of 4,500. Once I reached 4,500 I estimated the time en-route to my next check point. Now that I was on my way, it was time to activate my flight plane. I called up the frequency I had wrote down, but no response. Dammit! I must have written a bad frequency down. I was nervous about flying for too long without flight following, so I called them up. Apparently I was well outside there area, but they stayed with me. Now back to the flight plan...wait, I am with SoCal Approach now, I cant change frequencies...no flight plan this time I guess.

With the rough start behind me, the rest of the leg went smoothly. SoCal approach pretty much let me fly through class C just as I had planned, and once flight following was terminated, Torrance tower let me make a straight in approach for landing. Easy! My landing at KTOA was one of my best landings in recent memory...a much needed confidence boost at this point. I taxied back for takeoff, and was soon climbing to my cruising altitude of 5,500.

I made another attempt to activate my flight plan, but again no response at the frequency I was trying to contact. I decided to contact Flight Watch and see if they could help. Flight Watch was nice enough to give me a frequency I could call up, and a minute later my flight plan was active. Next it was time to contact SoCal approach again for flight following. The leg home went smoothly, but I did have one intense moment when SoCal told me to look for traffic at my 10 o'clock. I saw a jetliner off in the distance taking off, and reported I had the traffic in sight. A second later I saw another jetliner climbing right at me off my right wing. I radioed again, saying that I had the wrong traffic before, but now I have the correct traffic. SoCal had the jetliner make a turn to their left, and it ended up flying under me by what seemed like 500 feet. Pretty intense!

The rest of the trip home was uneventful and calm, although my nerves were on high alert, as I constantly scanned for traffic. Once I was near Palomar I was once again immediately cleared to land, with another Cessna right behind me. The landing went smooth, and I taxied back to my flight school with a sense of accomplishment. I just flew this plane...for real. Not just around the traffic pattern, but I went somewhere. I talked to people. I followed directions. And I did it safely.

On a side note: I recently purchased a Nexus 7 tablet with the intention of using it as an in flight GPS. I brought it along with me on this flight, mounted it to my yoke, and ran Naviator as my moving map. Everything worked great and really made my workload much lighter. Although I plan on using this once I get my ticket, I think next solo XC I will leave it at home, so I can be more prepared when it comes time to the check ride.

Suzy Q

San Diego coastline, north of Camp Pendelton

the waters near the Queen Mary

my Nexus 7 running Naviator

just gotta follow the magenta line

Lesson 19: Dual XC through LAX

This is attempt number two at taking the "new" C152 on a cross country through Bravo airspace. The plane has been out for maintenance since I joined the flight school, and is finally back in action...so its new to me. Last time I tried to fly it though, the left magneto was acting up, and the flight has to be aborted before we ever left the ground. This time though, the plane passed the run-up check.

Once we departed KCRQ, I climbed to my cruising altitude of 4,500 and opened my flight plan with San Diego Radio. Upon reaching my first checkpoint, the San Onofre power plant, I contacted SoCal approach for flight following. Not only did I want flight following, but my route had me going through class C airspace, so I needed to get in contact with them anyway, to allow me to continue my planned path. This time they allowed me to continue as planned through the class C airspace, where I had a Southwest Jet fly under me at about 1000 feet. 

We continued up the coast passing the checkpoints I had chosen, such as Dana Point, Newport Bay, and the Huntington Pier. Once we reached Huntington Pier it was time to intercept the SMO VOR 132 degree radial, which according to the LAX special VFR corridor, located on the LA Terminal Area Chart, would allow us to fly right over LAX.

Once through the VFR corridor, there was little time to contact SMO tower and begin our descent for landing. We had to overfly SMO and make a descending turn for right hand traffic. This was probably the most hectic portion of the XC, which resulted in me overlooking my checklist. We landed without incident however, and taxied back for takeoff. 

Taking off from SMO requires you follow their noise abatement procedures by over flying a gold course, and not making any turns until you reach the coastline. We needed to be at 3,500 feet to be able to fly back through the LAX VFR corridor, so we made a right climbing turn which had us overflying SMO at around 3,00 feet. We got to 3,500 just in time and overflew LAX again. Once through the corridor I contacted LGB tower and requested runway 25L. I have never been at this airport, but I knew it was complex, and they use LAHSO (land and hold short operations), which is exactly why my instructor had me landing here. The tower was very helpful, and I followed another airplane in for landing, which made finding my runway much easier. 

After taking off from LGB we were headed back home. I contacted SoCal approach again for flight following and clearance through class C, but this time they vectored me off my course. Once they told me to resume normal navigation, I made the mistake of not immediately getting back on my course that I had planned. It wasn't until my instructor yelled at me, that I intercepted my course, and was on track again. The rest of the flight went without incident, and we landed safely back at CRQ. 

The entire flight was 3.2 hours, which in dollars is $450. JEEZ! Flying is expensive isn't it? Next step for me is a solo cross country...stayed tuned for that.

the magenta line is my route to SMO, and the pink away from SMO

the view flying over LAX

KSMO - Santa Monica Airport

KLGB - Long Beach Airport

KCRQ - home sweet home

The written exam

Well today was the day I had been dreading since I started my training...well one of the days. Today was the day where I had to prove I knew something about flying, and being a pilot. Today was the day of the written exam.

I chose to skip the standard ground school, and instead used this syllabus (DOWNLOAD) and read the appropriate materials which related to whichever lesson I was currently on. Once I was serious about getting ready for the written exam, I started watching the King Flight School DVD's. I wish I had watched these DVD's earlier though, because they would have been a big help with the pre-solo exam. Along with the King Flight School DVD's I also checked out the Jeppesen DVD's, and the Sportys DVD, but I found the information from the King DVD's really stuck with me...I HIGHLY recommend them.

After watching the King Flight School DVD course. I purchased the ASA Private Pilot Test Prep book and answered all 1000 questions. It took about a week to accomplish, but I felt it was very valuable to be able to get a sneak peak at the actual questions and answers that would be asked on the test. Once the book was completed I felt confident to take the test  The only thing left to do, was to go into the flight school and prove to my instructor I was ready for the test. I did this by taking a few practice tests on their computer and showing him the results.

The day of the test went as follows: I showed up with my E6B, a protractor, my logbook, my ID and MONEY. The proctor had me fill out two forms with my personal information, then I showed him my logbook endorsement. The proctor had to call someone and relay my information to them, and once that was done it was time for me to sit down at the computer and take the test. The test looked very similar to the ASA computer practice test I had taken on the flight school's computer the week before. It was 60 questions and seemed to cover a little bit of everything...unlike the practice tests which could focus on one subject and leave out others. I used 90 of the 150 minutes allotted for the test. When I was done, I was shown my results, the questions I got wrong, and received a nice little letter proving I passed the test.

All I can say is...WHAT A RELIEF.

I passed!

An update

Well since my last post I have taken another lesson (lesson 17) with my instructor where I flew under the hood, doing VOR tracking, and unusual attitude recovery...pretty fun stuff actually. I had planned a dual XC with my instructor to fly into Santa Monica Airport (KSMO), which is in class B airspace, and then into Long Beach Airport (KLGB) which has 10 runways. The flight had to be delayed though when we discovered during the run up that the airplanes left magneto was running really rough. Unfortunately the soonest I can get on the schedule for another attempt at this XC is in two weeks, until then, there wont be much to write about.