Stage 3 complete!

Today I completed stage 3! Monday I finished my final solo cross country. The weather was great at Newton, but I was flying to Topeka, Manhattan, and then back to Newton. The further east I got toward Topeka, the more the ceiling closed it. It was down to a bout 2000 ft as I was 20 miles out, so I told flight service it was looking a little to iffy for me as a student pilot and that I wanted to go direct Manhattan. I adjusted my heading and flew pretty much straight there. I was pretty proud of my pilotage skills. I wanted to make sure, however that I SAW the runway and didn't miss it because immediately on the other side of the airport is a restricted area. I didn't want to become one of those general aviators who was intercepted by an F15 just because he wasn't paying attention.

I did two landings there and got to practice with commercial traffic in the pattern. There were a couple of US Air Beech 1900's departing around the time I was landing. It was a good experience.

Today I did a local flight with Amy, reviewing maneuvers that I haven't practiced in a while. Right as we were taxiing to take off on 35, a Chinook came out of no where, buzzed the runway, and then went back into the pattern. There was actually a stackup today! Yes, they happen even at a small airport like Newton. We waited at 35 while a Piper Aztec landed, the Chinook on final right behind him for number 2. As we taxied into position to take off, the massive twin rotored helicopter smoothly decended to about 10 feet off the grass and hovered there, slowly turning. Those mammoth beast of machines fascinate me.

After we finished our flight I was watching another aviation student flying on the sim when Amy said "There was something BIG that just landed, you guys might want to go take a look." We both ran out onto the tarmac and saw a Gulfstream III taxiing to the FBO. It stopped there for 5 min or so and then taxiied to 35. We hopped in our cars and drove to a little dirt road that was right near the runway. Man, I wish I had my camera on me. Then I realized there was NASA written on the tail. Don't ask me what they were doing in Newton, but I tracked their flight using FlightAware and see that they are now heading to California.

Either way it was a great day!


Photo from Airliners.net. NASA Gulfstream, not the same one I saw however


I tracked the flight on FlightAware. NASA803



Chinook, similar to the one I saw

Weather

One thing that you are forced to adapt to here in Kansas is the weather. When its sunny it is beautiful. But let me tell you, it can get quite nasty going the other way. Most of you have noticed that I haven't posted the "Solo Cross Country 2!" yet. Yes indeed. This is because of the weather.

Last Wed. I made an attempt. There was some low lying fog in the early morning but it was predicted to burn away by my departure time, as well as in the areas that I was flying to. Amy warned me that some of the fog in areas might evaporate into low lying clouds, maybe 1500 to 2000 ft. As a student pilot, I need to maintain visual contact with the ground at all times. This means I cant fly over an overcast layer. Well, I took off with the visibility about 6 miles at Newton. Along one of my checkpoints I could see the overcast layer on the right side of the plane stretching over the city that was my checkpoint and then eventually curving in front of me 30nm miles in front. I tuned to an AWOS at an airport in the cloud layer and it reported them at about 1400 ft. The left side was completely clear, so it was like a wall of clouds.

Well I decided to turn around because I would eventually be forced to fly over this cloud layer to get to Topeka and thus would obscure my vision to the ground. I told flight service of my intentions and headed back to Newton. Except that unforecasted clouds (scattered) had moved in over Newton and the visibility had dropped to about 5 miles or so. The clouds were hanging right at minimums. So I basically scud ran it into the airport. I thought about landing at another airport, but I was within legal limits so I decided I might as well bring the airplane back to the hangar.

This was my first encounter with weather, and I'm sure it wont be the last.

As for the cross country, I'm sure I'll get it done wed morning. That is when I am scheduled to fly again. We'll see. It is supposed to snow tomorrow and Tuesday so we'll see how that works out.

First Solo XC

Today I completed my first solo cross country flight. First I should define "cross country" for those who are reading. In the Hesston College Aviation Program, cross country flight is simply any flight that is 50 nautical miles or more away from the airport of origin.

Today I flew from Newton (KEWK) to Hays (KHYS) to Hutchinson (KHUT) and then back to Newton. The preflight went as usual. Preflight for xc (cross country) flight takes a lot longer than a local flight. You need to plan for winds aloft which affects your true course, heading, ground speed, fuel burn and time to checkpoint. Basically speaking, then, you have checkpoints along the way that act as references to make sure you are tracking where you want to go. As a VFR pilot these are visual references like towns, bodies of water, highways, etc. Determining your location on your sectional chart by referencing it to the surroundings around you is called pilotage. It is a skill that is developed, as landmarks and other things used as references take a keen eye to identify.

Filing a flight plan is another thing that I have learned. Technically, as a VFR pilot, I am not required to file a flight plan. But I have been taught how to do it so that I am familiar with it once I start on my instrument rating. Once the flight plan has been filed, I am ready to fly!

Once in the air, opening the flight plan is quite easy. You tune your radio to a specific frequency and then contact FSS (Flight Service Station). They open the flight plan for you and give you any NOTAM's (Notices To Airmen) or TFR's (Temporary Flight Restrictions) in the planned area of flight and any other relevant data that you need. Once that is complete you can fly directly to your airport or you have the option of contacting a center and requesting flight following. Flight following is basically a radar service in a specific area. So I would tune to Wichita center and say something to the effect of "Wichita Center, Cessna niner six eight hotel charlie is climbing through five thousand, requesting flight following." Sometimes if they are busy it will take a while to get back so patience is needed. When they do come back, they might ask for your type aircraft and then they will tell you to squawk a certain code. Our airplanes are Cessna 172 type A which means they are equipped with a radio, a DME and a transponder with mode C (altitude encoding). Once you squawk that code into your transponder, you show up on their radar. In this way they can warn you of other traffic in the area and pretty much guide you along.

Todays flights went extremely well. I was very happy to fly today, as yesterdays flight was canceled because of high wind. I think I finally have crosswind landings down to a science. My landing at Hays was almost perfectly on the 500 ft markers, touching down on the right wheel first (there was almost a 90 degree right crosswind) followed by the left and nose wheel. Flying into Hutchinson, the controller gave me a straight in on runway 17 and that was nice I didn't have to work the pattern. Coming straight in really lets you use your distance judgment. You need to descend, but not to fast because you'll end up low on the glideslope. I hit it right on the money. It feels pretty good, getting the hang of this flying business.

Student-Pilot Student

Being a student pilot and a student at a college can be quite challenging sometimes. I have found that my schedule is packed now more than ever. Tuesdays and Thursdays are typically my busiest days. Usually I'll have a flight Tuesday morning early, say 7:30 but I'll be up much before then because I need to get out to the airport to preflight. Combined with classes all day, including ground school in the evening for 3 hours and then musical practice in the evening for another 3 hours, I am more than ready for sleep.

I have found the miracle beverage to help with grogginess in the morning. Most of you know it as coffee. Indeed that is what I call it as well. I find that, now that I am drinking it a little more regularly than I had been, the caffeine will last as long as I need it to without interfering with my sleep patterns. Up early at 6:45? No problem! As long as I've had adequate sleep the night before, coffee can give me the boost I need. The real killer though is when I have to get up at 5:45 or earlier. The cafeteria isn't usually open by then, so I have to resort to my powdered milk, water, and cereal method. My coffee is then made with those little instant packets Starbucks is handing out these days. That tastes about the same as the Folgiers coffee I get in the cafeteria. Not top grade but it gets me going.

I am preparing for my cross country solo now. I will be flying Newton --> Hays --> Hutchinson --> Newton which is about a 3 hour trip total including takeoff and landing time. I anticipate it highly and am looking forward to it. Flight planning has become easier and easier just because of the practice I've been having in ground school and with Amy. Friday looks to be a little windy, so it might have to wait until Saturday. After that solo I'll have one more solo XC and then a stage check and I'll be done with Mod 3! One more mod until my checkride and license! I added up my log book today and I have about 33 hours of flight time total so far with only about 6 PIC (pilot in command) time. But with these next two solos coming up I should get a good 5-6 hours more PIC time. The total required flight time for a Part 141 school (I can explain that later if anyone would like, just post a comment) for a student is 35 hours flight time, 35 hours ground instruction. I'll be well over that by the time I'm ready.

Cross Country!

What a day for flying! I started it off waking up to my alarm at 6:45 and thinking it was way to early. Then I remembered today was the day for my first cross country! Hitting it for snooze, I slept 5 more minutes before getting up and doing my usual routine of showering and usually finding nourishment of some sort. Being a college kid and a pilot, sometimes I miss breakfast at the cafeteria. So I devised a way to have cold cereal in the morning without a fridge. Powdered milk, cold water, and boxed cereal. It works out fine.

I drove to the airport at around 7:15, right into the beautiful sunrise. Dan was at the airport already, and was pulling out planes. While I preflighted and fueled the plane, I snapped a couple of pictures.

Jason, the instructor taking me up on my cross country arrived around 8:05, after all the preflight for the plane was done, we went over my cross country sheet that I had to fill out. This basically has the heading (corrected for magnetic deviation, wind, and compass variance) you will fly, the fuel burn for each leg, time for each leg, estimated true airspeed as well as ground speed, diagrams of the airports you will be fling to and their frequencies, the weather briefing, among other things. It is quite a load to take on as a student pilot and I must say I haven't quite mastered the art of doing it myself yet. As we finished we got into the airplane and took off, full of fuel and ready to go!

We leveled off at 4,500, looking for 2400 rpm and 110 ktas (knots true air speed). Our first stop was Hays, a non towered airport about 70 nm (nautical miles) North West of Newton. We the would fly to Hutchinson, a towered airport (another 70 or so miles back south east. Hays was not a problem. Once the airport was in sight I made my radio calls, entered the pattern and made my touch and go landing. Once on the ground I cleaned up and then pushed full throttle again and we departed to the SE.

Let me say that the legs between the airports can get quite long, so I busied myself with scanning for traffic, examining the chart and referencing it with the ground. Cockpit conversation was good, but after a while you settle into the rhythm of flying and talking is not needed to pass the time.

About 30 miles out, I tuned to the Hutchinson tower frequency and started listening to traffic within that radius. This was my first time to a towered airport and it operates slightly different than a non towered airport. About 10 miles out I made my radio call. "Hutchinson tower, Cessna niner five niner Hotel Charlie is ten miles to the north west for touch and go, with information India." The last part is basically what weather briefing you received from the ATIS. The tower then contacted me telling me to fly a left downwind for 36 (the same traffic pattern applies to light aircraft at towered airports as it does at non towered airports). Right about when I was to turn base the tower cleared me "for the option" which basically means I can full stop or touch and go. I chose to touch and go because we were running a little short on time. As soon as we took off and were on the upwind leg, the tower cleared us to depart to Newton and approved us to change our frequency. The only other traffic in the area at the time was a hellicopter doing some low maneuvering over the city, which we had in sight. The flight to Newton was uneventful and while on final, I noticed Paul (a community student, a surgeon, who is refreshing his commercial pilots license again after many years) taxiing to 35 in his Pitts Special. Apparently he was going to fly to a steakhouse for lunch. After landing and taxiing to the hangar I noticed a beautiful Cessna 160 parked at our hangar. Another student (who had his own plane) was getting his tail wheel endorsement.

Later on that day I flew my final solo flight for stage 3. And what a flight it was! I departed 17, with quite a bit of crosswind. I departed to the west practice area over Hesston and descended to 2,500 to practice my rectangular course maneuvers. I started on the downwind leg and was just about to turn base when something caught my peripheral vision. I snapped my head around and saw two tail draggers flying in formation, intersecting my path not more than 100 feet below me. I slammed on the throttle and hauled back on the elevator. After the adrenaline subsided I evaluated the situation. They looked like restored planes, either without radios or were on another frequency. They came from my left quarter, so were hidden until I made my turn. Recently I have been focusing on holding my altitude when maneuvering. I tend to fluctuate around 100 feet. How glad I was that I was at 2,500 and not below. The incident could have turned to an accident, as the planes were on a direct intersect course below me. If there are any pilots out reading this, PLEASE! USE CTAF AND TALK ON THE RADIO!! You can protect yourself as well as others.

Thus ends my eventful day of flying. Once again I sit back and ask myself, "A pilot? Is this really for me?" Then I smile. "You bet!"



Beautiful morning


clear skies


The Cessna 160 sitting at the HCA ramp