Second solo XC...the long one.

One of the requirements to get your Private Pilot Certificate is that you must fly 150 nautical miles, landing at three different airports or more, and your first stop has to be at least 50nm away from your departure point. They call this the long cross country. For my long cross country I decided to head back to Torrence airport, flying right up the coast through some busy class C airpsace, and near the even busier class B airspace. From Torrance I would fly east over the mountains, and land at Hemet-Ryan airport...an uncontrolled airport in the middle of nowhere.

Once I had my route planned, and had chosen my checkpoints there was nothing more I could do until the day of the flight. When I woke up the morning of the flight, I poured myself some coffee and got right to finishing up my flight plan. The first step is to call the weather briefer and get the weather information for my route of flight. With the weather in hand, I could now calculate what heading I needed to point my airplane to compensate for the wind, and also how fast I would actually be flying with the wind either speeding me up, or slowing me down. With your airplanes ground speed figured out, you can now figure out how much fuel you are going to burn up over the length of the trip.

With the flight plan finished, I was off the the airport. My instructor reviewed my flight plan, and signed off in my logbook so I could legally make this flight. Next I called the weather briefer back up, and read him my flight plan. Once you are up in the air, you call up a specific frequency and tell them to activate your flight plan. If they don't hear back from you, in the amount of time you told them it would take you to fly the trip, then they will send out search and rescue to look for you, using your flight plan to determine where they should look. After filing my flight plane with the briefer, I was finally ready to fly!

I headed outside and pre-flighted the airplane, making sure it had full fuel tanks, and nothing was broke. Finally all the prep work was over, and I was taxing to the runway for takeoff. Once in the air, I set course for Torrance and wrote down my time of departure, I would use this time to determine if I was arrive at my checkpoints in the time I estimated in my planning. Now that I was cruising along, I called up San Diego Radio and activated my flight plan. Next I called up SoCal Approach and requested flight following. Flight following is a nice little tool to have, especially when flying near busy airspace. My route of flight has my flying past John Wayne airport, Long Beach airport, and pretty close to LAX, so having someone watch me on radar and informing me of other planes nearby is very helpful, and helps ease the nerves.

I landed at Torrance airport easily enough, and taxied around back to the runway for takeoff. After takeoff, my plan was to climb to 7,500'...once I got around 7,000' however, I heard someone on the radio yelling at me that I just entered class B airspace, a big no-no unless you have permission. Turns out I screwed up my flight plan, overlooking this particular section of class B airspace, and sure enough my plan had be busting right through it. The controller on the radio cut me a break, and didn't yell at me too bad, and more importantly didn't write me up. This ordeal got me second guessing myself now...I was certain my flight plan had me avoiding class B airspace...so where the heck was I? It wasn't until later that night, that I took a closer look and discovered just what I had done.

I was now heading away from the coast, and the busy airspace that surrounded it, and headed over the mountains to the sparsely populated inland areas. Flying over the mountains had me a bit concerned. I wasn't sure what to expect exactly. The flight training videos warn of wind shear, and turbulence when flying near mountains...this had me concerned. Sure enough, the turbulence definitely picked up as I flew over, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. With the mountains behind me, my next obstacle was avoiding the parachuting, and gliding activity that goes on in the area. Luckily for me, the person at Approach giving me flight following gave me a lot of help avoiding this activity, and directing me straight towards my next stop. Not being familiar with an area, and never have flown into this particular airport is a bit of a challenge. You don't want to  start descending until you know for sure that you have the correct airport in sight. Thanks to flight following, I was certain I had the right airport. Since this airport doesn't have an operating control tower, it is up the pilots to sequence themselves for landing and departing, and not crashing into each other. This is done by announcing intentions on a common frequency that all pilots should be using when flying into or out of this particular airport. I announced my intentions on the radio at each turn I made, but it seemed that on this day I was the only airplane around.

After landing at my second airport, Hemet-Ryan, I was feeling good...the hard part was over. The only thing left to do was to fly a short trip back to my home airport. The final leg of the trip went smoothly, and I landed back at Palomar airport in Carlsbad in one piece. To meet my solo XC requirements I need to have 2.9 hours logged on this trip...when I parked the airplane and recorded my time I was relieved to see that I had indeed logged exactly 2.9 hours! Thank god, because I did not want to have to do this again...not until after I get my certificate at least.

Not my exact route of flight, but you get the idea. 

The red circle is the restricted area over Disney Land.

Lesson 20: Night Operations

Well it finally happened, after a month of cancelled flights, I finally got a night lesson in...and just by the skin of my teeth too!

The first thing I noticed during this lesson was just how dimly lit the instrument panel was. I was expecting each individual instrument to have some sort of back lighting, but to my surprise, they are all lit by a red overhead light in the airplane. It made it quite difficult to read the numbers on the airspeed indicator, instead I relied on knowing where the numbers should be on the gauge.

My instructor had me taxi most of the way without my landing light on, he wanted me to use my beacon lights to determine if I was centered on the taxi way. It is shocking just how invisible the taxiways look without a landing light on. I wasn't allowed to turn my landing light back on until we were cleared for takeoff. When we departed, we flew straight out over the ocean. Once we got away from the city lights, and were surrounded by water, it was quite obvious how different night flying can be. I had to pay attention to my instruments to make sure I was staying straight and level... similar to flying in the clouds I would imagine.

After my instructor was done trying to freak me out, we headed back to the airports traffic pattern to make our first landing. I realized that my usual visual cues I used to determine how to fly each leg of the traffic pattern were gone, and that the runway was really hard to find. Once I did find the runway though, it was easy enough to keep track of it...its finding it initially that was tricky. Trying to judge the landing flare was interesting. When I flared I felt the plane floating, I tried to keep just the right amount of back pressure on the yoke to prevent ballooning, but also preventing hitting the runway too hard. I remember feeling moments when I wasn't exactly sure just how high off the runway the plane was, and just waiting for the plane to SMACK the runway.

After the first landing my instructor upped the difficulty on me. The rest of the landings were done without the landing light on, and one landing was done without the landing light or instrument panel lights...leaving me to land with my flashlight in my mouth so I could read the instruments...uncomfortable, but totally doable. After getting eight landings in we called it a night, and just in time too, because twenty minutes later and the overcast had rolled in pretty thick.

I enjoyed the challenge of night flying. It felt a lot different than the flying I have done thus far, even though it really is the same techniques. Once I get my ticket I don't see myself doing a lot of night flying...you never know though.

So frustrated!

I need to vent. It is late September now, and I have gotten zero flying done this month. Its not like I haven't tried though, that's for damn sure! I have had two of my long solo XC flights, and one night lesson canceled on me last minute due to the plane having something wrong with it, and last night another night lesson was canceled on me due to weather. Since luck hasn't been on my side lately, I have gotten more aggressive with my scheduling. Unfortunately it looks like the other two flights I have scheduled this week have a good chance of being canceled due to weather again. I was really hoping to have my license to learn by the time my parents come out in mid October, but I am really cutting it close now. Bummer!

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.

Lesson 16: VOR tracking under the hood

Today we killed two birds with one stone, that is we went over how to track different radials on a VOR, which will be useful for my next cross country into Bravo airspace, and I did it while flying under the hood to build instrument time. I have another lesson tomorrow to try and finish up the remainder of my instrument time.

I am starting to feel like I am nearing the end of this journey. I have been studying like crazy for the written exam, which I hope to take next week, and also I have started thinking about getting the hours I need to meet the FAA requirements. So far this is where I am at:

So, it looks like all that is left is my dual XC (which is next weekend), a couple solo XC's, and some night flying...then it will be time to start preparing for the check ride I guess? 

Lesson 15: First Dual XC

Wow! According to my logbook, my last dual flight was 6/20/12, almost a month ago! After a couple reschedules, the day has finally come!

The preparation for the XC started weeks ago. The first step was to meet with my instructor and discuss what he expected from my planning. The second step was to plot my course, and draw it on my sectional map. We were heading from KCRQ to L36, and I would be using a series of airports as my checkpoints along the way. 

Once I had my course planned, my checkpoints chosen, and the weight and balance done, there really wasn't much more that I could do without having weather information, so I waited. I woke up early the morning of the cross country and tried to finish my planning before leaving for my lesson. I got the weather information, and with it, calculated for wind correction, got my ground speed, estimated time en route to each checkpoint, and fuel used. This all took longer then I thought, and I was only able to finish the first leg before I had to leave for the flight school. The second leg would have to be completed when I arrived at the school, which kind of made me feel like a slacker since I had weeks to prepare this.

Once I had both flight plans filled out, I called 1-800-WX-BRIEF for a weather briefing, just to make sure it would be safe for a VFR flight, and that I wasn't flying into anything I shouldn't be. I was in such a rush to finish my planning and get in the air, that I wasn't even nervous to call...which I know I would have been if I had the luxury of time to ponder what I was going to say to these people. The person on the phone was very friendly, and the briefing was pretty easy to understand...more importantly it was reassuring. 

With the flight planning complete, I gave it to my instructor to review. With his approval we were good to go. After so many delays, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that something would come up, and we wouldn't be able to fly, but nope, not today. I called 1-800-WX-BRIEF again to file a flight plan, and then headed to preflight the airplane. Two hours after my scheduled lesson started, we were finally taxing for takeoff. 

Cross country flying is pretty stressful. You have to maintain heading and altitude, monitor the radio, keep track of time between checkpoints, stare out the window, and constantly look at your map and flight plan. I found it quite difficult to do all these things at once, without finding the plane heading off course, or deviating from my altitude. After a few checkpoints things became a little easier, but right when I was getting somewhat comfortable is when the engine started running rough. We decided to cancel out trip to Big Bear, and divert to the closest airport. This added a whole new level of stress!

The airport we chose to divert to was Redlands, which is right next to San Bernadino, a class D airport. To land at Redlands we first needed to circle over it to try and determine which runway to land at, and which way the traffic pattern went. Next I would need to circle and lose altitude, while staying out of the nearby class D airspace, and staying clear of the mountain ridge. While circling I monitored the CTAF, and declared my intentions on the radio. I came in high and fast for my landing, it was quite embarrassing to land like this in front of my instructor after not flying with him for so long. Diverting to REI was an eye opener. I realized that it was quite confusing, and difficult to land at an unfamiliar airport that you hadn't planned on landing at. 

Once we were safely on the ground, we did a runup and checked to see how the airplane was running. We decided it was safe to fly it back to KCRQ. Before heading home, we took a bathroom break to stretch our legs. It was about 20+ degrees hotter here than it was at KCRQ, which really made it feel like we were far from home...I loved it!

The trip home went a little smoother, since now I knew what my checkpoints looked like. We stayed pretty much on course with my line, but my instructor still constantly made me confirm that I knew we were in the right place, by having me list other landmarks surrounding the main checkpoint. 

Finally I could see our home airport! After another terrible landing we were back at the school. I don't know why I choke with him next to me, but I do...I guess he makes me nervous? The flight was a total of 2.4 hours, and I was charged an additional our of ground time from my instructor...a grand total of $369. I am so happy to have this milestone in the log book, and to finally fly with my instruct again after a month of short, solo flights. The next lesson will be some simulated instrument time, and then after that, another cross country...this time into class B airspace using VFR corridors. Exciting stuff! 

my planned course, which ended up  being diverted to REI

the old 152 sitting in the hot sun at REI

Caught on camera

Well I had to reschedule my cross county flight due to plane maintenance, and I have had to cancel multiple night lessons due to weather...I did get a chance to get some pattern practice in, while my brother was visiting from out of town. He was nice enough to put this video together for me. 

Hopefully I will have some more interesting content next week, when I am schedule to take my cross country flight.