WEEK 14 |
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Date & Time: Saturday, 2nd August, 1997, 15:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 1.1 hrs solo. Running logbook total: 38.3 hrs, 11.0 hrs
solo...double figures for solo time!
Aircraft: Beechcraft C23 Musketeer, N5977S
All Systems Go
I've been trying to go cross country all last week, but
the weather has been continuously diabolical. It was either IFR at my departure
or destination point, or at best true 'scud run' type weather. By the time
Saturday had dawned, I was once again suffering withdrawal symptoms from
flying! I now had a plane to fly, but the weather had forbidden it.
Saturday started getting nice in the afternoon. So, I checked
the weather, and got myself on the schedule for 3 p.m. to start sweating!
(the temperature was running in the mid-90's). I decided to brush up my steep
turns and slow flight, since I identified a few weaknesses in left-hand turn
slow flight and steep turns. I also wanted to get familiar with the radios
on the Beech, since they are different to the 172 (the 172 has a very nice
set of King radios, the Beech has a Collins navcom, an older radio (probably
the original), plus the real jewel...a GPS! The VOR head on the Beech is
different (and IMHO) much nicer than the standard ones you get in a GA aircraft
- the needle sweeps across the instrument, rather than being hung from the
top like a voltmeter - the Beech CDI is the same as how they work on Flight
Simulator).
The steep turns were my best yet, after a slightly shaky start
(I had to abort the first two left-hand ones because they turned into a spiral
descent). Slow flight also worked well. I practised this for just about a
full hour to make sure I had it down.
The winds were perpendicular to the runway when I got back,
running about 8 or 9 knots. The best thing about it was that I made my best
crosswind landing ever! Although the touchdown could have been smoother,
I was on the centerline, and I wasn't letting it drift! I had to keep quietly
repeating "patience... patience... patience..." since the Beech stays in
the ground effect seemingly for ever. However, the ailerons remain remarkably
effective throughout the flare.
I got back, then did my cross country planning for the Big Cross
Country, scheduled for tomorrow. The plan was to go to Lufkin TX, then Lake
Charles LA, then back home to SPX. Lee checked my planning and signed me
off... let's hope for good weather!
Conclusion.
Summer weather does its normal thing in Texas. I hadn't really
started to appreciate it until I started flying... Although it's hot, you
get the summer haze, scattered cloud cover, and a feature commonly in the
METAR reports is WDLY SCT -TSRA (widely scattered low intensity thunderstorms).
When a high comes in, it sucks moisture out of the gulf, then... no more
flying!
What was learned.
I found the best way to do the left hand steep turns was
to make sure everything was straight and level, and at the entry, roll into
the turn and gradually pull back, and listen to the RPM carefully. If the
engine speed starts to increase, a small amount of back pressure is needed.
If it goes the other way, ease off very slightly. So long as I enter the
turn correctly, it only takes slight corrections to keep the altitude the
same. The same goes for slow flight, except that power for altitude and pitch
for airspeed is prevalent. If airspeed starts dropping off, pitch down, and
if that's not going to hold altitude, you need more power. Of course, this
is what my instructor has been telling me all along. I found the best policy
in slow flight turns was to keep making small throttle and pitch adjustments
so that any altitude changes were very small.
Date & Time: Sunday, 3rd August, 1997, 08:30 CDT
Where: From SPX -> LFK -> LCH -> SPX
Instruction: 4.1 hrs solo. Running logbook total: 42.4 hrs, 15.1 hrs solo
Aircraft: Beechcraft C23 Musketeer, N5977S
Cross country at last!
Today was finally the day that everything would conspire
to be right for my first solo cross country! I was hoping my first one would
be the shorter trip to Bay City and back (about 55 miles each way). However,
today was to be the long cross country - my route took me around 330NM or
so. I had done this dual with Lee on the 13th July, but we went round the
other way (Lake Charles first, I chose to reverse the course and go to Lufkin
first).
I learned some lessons in cockpit resource management last time,
and one was looking after the radios. This time I made up a checklist of
radio frequencies in the same style as the preflight checklist, with items
like "Before taxi", "Before takeoff", "After takeoff" etc. with both the
COM and NAV frequencies I should set on the radios. This worked very well!
I had no trouble with having the radios straight, and I knew what frequency
to use before I was handed off to other controllers (except in the Lake Charles
area, where they had me tune in a different approach frequency than I expected,
but that was no big deal.)
I called for a weather briefing, and the weather looked good
to go. I filed my flight plan, and was ready to go. My plan was to fly to
Lufkin using VOR (up to Daisetta VOR, then use V407 up to Lufkin, and tune
LFK VOR about halfway between the two). I kept visual checkpoints on the
map to ensure my progress was going to plan. I also had the GPS on - Lee's
words of wisdom were keep every bit of nav equipment doing something, even
if you aren't using them for primary navigation. Then I would go to Lake
Charles using pilotage and dead reckoning, then use the GPS to get back home
(I know using GPS is thought of as cheating - but if I do my checkride in
the Beech, the examiner will expect me to know exactly how to use it, so
I wanted to make sure I could use it whilst I was in familiar territory).
In the end I exchanged the pilotage/GPS legs, and did the LFK to Lake Charles
using GPS, then pure pilotage from Lake Charles back home. This turned out
to be a good plan - it had me use all the different types of VFR navigation
methods that were available to me.
So off I went. SPX was buzzing as I taxied out - there were
3 aircraft in the pattern with students practising touch-and-goes, two Cessnas
and a Warrior. I was about to add to the general melee myself, since I would
go round the pattern since I would be taking off to the south off 13, but
wanting to go north.
I did my run-up, and watched a Cessna 172 come in on final for
a touch and go, and followed him out. Once he was clear, I pushed the throttle
home and roared off down the runway, with 200hp of fuel injected Lycoming
propelling me along the tarmac. I took off, and went round the pattern as
far as downwind, then departed northwards towards Diasetta VOR. I had already
set the radial and frequency before I had taken off thanks to my radio
checklist.
Once I was off, I opened my flightplan, then tried to contact
Houston departure to get flight following. At this point, COM1 decided to
get a little intermittent (this has been squawked), so I ended up putting
the frequencies in COM2, and using COM1 to listen in to other things (like
ATIS). It was then plain crusing all the way to Lufkin. I made the course
change at Diasetta to get onto the victor airway, and changed tanks since
I now had about 1/2 hour out of the left tank. I checked off visual checkpoints
as I followed the victor airway (remembering the maxim: Pilotage and
dead-reckoning are the basis of all air navigation - everything else is just
backup). I wanted to make sure that if the electrical system bought it I
could still get back home! Due to the haze, I remained fairly low. Fortunately,
turbulence wasn't a problem. I did try to climb up, but the haze only gave
about 7 or 8 miles of visibility anyhow, and the horizon was more visible
if I kept a bit lower.
When I got to LFK VOR, I had the airport in sight. I requested
an airport advisory from the UNICOM operator, and the winds were calm, and
everyone was coming and going on runway 07. I set the heading bug on the
DG as a reminder (the heading bug is a small red arrow that you can set to
a heading on the DG. It's very useful - you can set it to runways to remind
you which runway ATIS told you was in use, you can set it to headings that
ATC give you before you depart etc.). I made a nice landing, and taxied in
where the fuel guy was already waiting for me. He signalled me in, and I
parked. When I went through the shutdown checklist, and pulled the mixture,
the engine decided to run on a little bit! But it did stop. The aircraft
was refuelled as I went to close my flight plan, have a bit of rest and get
a weather briefing for the Lake Charles leg.
Once I was ready, I went out and preflighted and got rolling
back towards 07. However, the engine was very balky! Lee had warned me that
this type of engine can be trouble to start when it's hot. First I followed
the hot-start checklist (mixture lean-cutoff, throttle fast idle, crank and
when it fires, slide the mixture to full rich). This didn't work, so I tried
again a couple of times with a pause in between as Lee had suggested. I then
tried the flooded start checklist, which is mixture lean cutoff, throttle
full power, turn the key and when it catches, bring the throttle back and
at the same time push the mixture in! I think I need three hands... But this
did work, and the engine sprang into life. I got it stabilized at 1000 rpm,
and taxied out. I did my usual checks, including the radio checklist, and
got the GPS set to Lake Charles to do the GPS navigation leg.
I took off, opened my flight plan, then followed the GPS. They
are right... GPS is cheating! It's extremely easy to use - you just select
the 'Airport' function, and use the knobs to edit the identifier for where
you want to go. Then press Enter, and the GPS tells you what heading to fly.
As simple as that. I had still done the usual line on the chart and nav log,
and I checked off my visual checkpoints as I went along. I also had the NAV
radio tuned to LCH VOR as a further crosscheck.
As the miles counted down on the GPS display, the time was nearing
for my first solo encounter with an ATC controlled field! Unfortunately,
due to the haze, I couldn't get high enough to contact Center and get flight
following, so it wasn't until 30NM from Lake Charles that I made contact
with Lake Charles approach. I got the ATIS before I called them up, then
I called them, and added those magic words "student solo pilot" that makes
ATC go easy on you! It was quiet at Lake Charles, so they told me just to
keep on my own navigation, and go for a left downwind for runway 33. I set
the heading bug ready on 330, and continued towards LCH. They also had me
set a squawk (transponder) code so the could easily identify me as I came
in on their radar screens. As the airport came in sight, I was handed off
to the tower, who cleared me to land as number 2 behind a twin Cessna. I
never saw the Cessna, so I reported 'negative contact' to the tower, and
they told me that he had landed and was no longer a factor.
My landing was kind of so-so - not quite on the centerline,
and with a slight bounce thrown in for good measure. It always goes that
way when someone (in this case, the tower) is watching!
I taxied in. My Beech looked incongrous, parked amongst nothing
else but various assorted Cessnas (last time we blended in perfectly in the
172). I got fuel - I didn't really have any difficulty pointing out my airplane
to the fuel guy when I got to the office, since it was the only low wing
on the ramp!
After another period of sitting down to have a can of Coke,
I called flight service and got the latest weather for the trip back home,
and filed my final flight plan for the day. When I started the engine this
time, I immediately used the 'flooded start' procedure, remembering the dismal
failure of the 'warm start' at Lufkin. It worked! The engine started first
time, and I quickly brought the throttle back to fast idle, and the mixture
to full rich. I got the latest ATIS, then contacted ground control. He had
me 'back taxi' down the runway (I decided not to hang around on this bit,
and rolled down the runway at a reasonable speed) up to the runup pad. I
did my run-up, and told tower that I was ready to go. I was cleared for takeoff,
and to go for a heading of 300 after takeoff, so I set the heading bug, and
rolled out onto the runway.
Once I was established on the climb-out on a heading of 300,
tower asked me 'do you have retractable gear?', to which I replied 'Negative'
(Gear down and welded, I felt like saying!) I suspect the Beeches he usually
sees are flashy things like Bonanzas which are all retracts, wheras the Musketeer
is just a regular, four place airplane with a fixed-pitch propellor and fixed
gear. I was soon handed off to departure, and could resume my own
navigation.
First, I headed towards the Sabine Pass VOR, and followed the
network of lakes and rivers, using the VOR station as a cross check. As I
got to Sabine Pass itself, I turned towards the heading that would take me
home - paralleling the coastline and intracoastal waterway, a few miles to
the north of the intracoastal. However, there was a scattered-becoming-broken
cloud layer at the altitude I wanted to cruise at. It soon became clear that
it wouldn't thin, and as I looked around, I saw that if I flew over the
coastline, I would be in clear skies. I turned a little further south, and
got up to 4,500 feet on a southwesterly course. I wanted to go higher, but
the haze was a factor. I followed the coastline until High Island, where
the intracoastal waterway starts widening towards Galveston Bay, and turned
to follow the inland side of the intracoastal to Smith Point. As a crosscheck,
I set Trinity VOR which is on Smith Point on the NAV radio. I followed this
until I could see the familiar shape of San Leon on the other side of the
bay, and began a gradual descent as I flew on towards it. I was down below
3,000 by the time I got to San Leon, which was good since the 4000-foot floor
of the Houston Class B airspace starts just after here. From now on in, I
followed my familiar way home from the practise area.
After 4 hours of flying, it was nice to see the familiar approach
into Houston Gulf rwy 13, and its normal 45 degree crosswind component! I
made a nice touchdown on the centerline with the stall horn going off, and
taxied back to the ramp, having had one of the best flying adventures I've
had to date! It's now time to get some sleep...
Conclusion.
One thing I did before I went out was file a flightplan
using DUATS. I think I'll be sticking with WX-BRIEF! They tell you what frequency
to open on, plus they interpret the weather data for you. However, DUATS
is good for outlooks since you can download graphical weather maps
etc.
4.1 hours flying an airplane is quite a long time, but I tell
you, it's so much better than 4.1 hours in a car! I'm looking forward to
the day when I pass the checkride...
What was learned.
Summer haze. I've never flown anywhere in it other than
to the practise area (on my dual cross country, we had 20 miles visibility).
I guess it's something you have to put up with down here. Lee tells me the
spring and fall are the best times, and when the weather is good over the
winter, you get nice clear days. I can well believe it.
Using GPS - I've not used one until now, and before you write
to me saying 'student pilots using GPS is cheating' it is something I will
have to know for the checkride, so I will have know in practise how to use
it. The only way to do that is to actually plan a trip using it. But as with
every other electronic navaid... don't forget the visual checkpoints, just
in case the electrics croak!
Pilotage still gets the top marks in the enjoyment factor of
flying cross-country. I enjoy checking off the visual checkpoints, following
roads and rivers, and then have the satisfaction of the destination appearing
just where I expected it. If you do use GPS/VOR all the time, you're missing
out!