So I came across this video today on Jetwhine. I thought it would be fitting to pass it along.
I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that the ground school and all the studying that I’ve done has paid off. I passed the knowledge test!
I left the airport and immediately started planning my next cross country, which would be to London-Corbin (LOZ) in Kentucky. It was of vital importance that I get most of the planning done because, for the first time in my training, I would be flying with less than 24 hours separation between flights. In fact, this would be my 2nd flight in 2 days and my 3rd flight in 4 days. I wish I could afford to fly like this all the time, but I’m paying as I go and I refuse to take on any debt. Josh told me that if I show up ready to preflight and takeoff, that we might have enough time to actually stop and eat at the restaurant on the field. It meant doing the weather and associated calculations at the end of my workday, but I was willing to make that sacrifice.
The weather wasn’t quite as good as it was for the trip to Cleveland, but it was still a good day to fly. The only issue that I could coming up was clouds on this side of the Cumberland mountains as the sky conditions were listed as few clouds at 4500 feet. That would mean that we might have to keep the altitude a little low on the way back and just climb over the ridges. Nothing risky, just not ideal. I wrote up nav logs for both legs of the flight, and I was prepared to calculate ground speed, etc with the E6B. Everything was perfect, except I forgot to fill in the radio frequencies on the forms, and I was ready for preflight when I walked into the flight school. The entire process seemed much easier this time, even having to deal with two sectionals.
I was determined to make this flight as perfect as possible, but it seems I was destined for some sort of issue from the beginning. That trouble was that I called clearance delivery, told them that we were headed VFR to London-Corbin, Lima Oscar Zulu, and they put us down as headed to Lima Zulu Uniform. This is an issue because, LZU is down near Atlanta and it exactly 180 degrees the wrong direction. We only became aware of this misunderstanding after we were handed off to departure and they gave us a heading that would take us way off our planned course. Josh quickly called them to ask what the deal was and where they had us headed. They had us stay on our current heading and await further instructions. The end result was that we were something like 20 miles off course initially. Josh let me use the GPS to get back on course and then it was up to me to find the visual checkpoints. This was not an issue with the exception of one — Powell STOLport, which I could not locate until we were past it. I did catch myself drifting a little right of course at the next checkpoint which was easy to see. I corrected and everything else was smooth sailing. I did notice that our current altitude, 4500 feet was about the highest one could fly and maintain cloud clearances. This would be interesting on the way back.
After we crossed the Cumberlands, the sky was clear. It is very interesting to go from dodging clouds to a completely clear sky in a matter of seconds. Not long after crossing the mountains, we had the field in sight. The wind was negligible and was reported as variable, which led us to select runway 6. It would make for an easy landing and a quick turn around, but on listening to the CTAF, we discovered that there was traffic in the area and they intended to use 24. We elected to follow suit and entered on the 45 for a left downwind for 24. We didn’t have time to eat, which I knew before we left, but Josh let me know the particulars for getting to the restaurant in case I return on a solo cross country or any future flight (which I know I will). Apparently they had quite a time trying to get into the restaurant.
On the return trip Josh elected to show me some particulars of VOR/GPS navigation. He explained the button that switches between radio an GPS navigation and set it to GPS. He mentioned that it would be easier to deal with tracking the GPS course back to McGhee Tyson. He explained how to track the course on the HSI and how and when to correct. He also showed me some GPS features that would be helpful when tracking a course. It was very useful information. He also had me do some more simulated instrument work. In all I’ve got about half of the required 3 hours. Truth be told, I really don’t mind instrument flying and I find that not having to watch outside makes it easier to fly specific headings, altitudes, and etc. In order to avoid running into clouds, we kept the return leg pretty low and there wasn’t much excitement past crossing the mountains. Once we were within about 20 miles, I called approach and they set us up to enter a left base for runway 5L. For those unfamiliar with current airport projects, that runway is currently 2500 feet shorter and has non standard markings. That said, I made a really good landing and completed a really good flight.
After we taxied back to parking, we secured the plane, Josh debriefed me and we discussed the next step. He mentioned that he usually likes to get in a night cross country before he signs a student off for the solo cross countries. He also mentioned that we would hopefully do some VOR stuff on the night cross country and that I should select a destination accordingly. I mentioned that I was getting close to being ready for the knowledge test and inquired whether there was anything he needed to do. He said to let him know when I scheduled it and that he would sign me off.
To make a long story short, I completed my first cross country. We flew to Cleveland Hardwick. It was a nice flight and it only takes about a half hour to get there. I was a little nervous, but I knew that I had planned everything and that it was a good day to fly. I don’t fly much on the weekends. I find that I can usually schedule during the week with no problems. Unfortunately, this week there had been a number of issues that prevented me from flying this cross country during the week. It happened to work out so that I could get it done on Sunday. The airport is different on the weekends. I expected to see more people on the GA ramp, but that wasn’t the case. I saw very few people, but there were noticeably fewer aircraft as well.
Just after arriving, I checked the weather and verified my planning. Everything still checked out, although there was some weather moving into the western part of Tennessee that would be here later in the evening. It was a good day to fly. I went out for preflight, which involved making sure I had the correct sectional, nav log, and my e6b accessible in the cockpit. As usual, everything checked out. Hopefully every preflight will go this way.
After preflighting the plane we got in, strapped in, and started the engine. I radioed for clearance, gave the destination and preferred heading and altitude, and was issued a clearance. Everything was going according to plan. Josh set up the GPS and dimmed it so that I couldn’t peek. We took off and were cleared to our requested altitude (4500 ft) in short order. Unfortunately, we were issued a heading that wasn’t directly on course, which meant that once ATC had cleared us to “resume own navigation” we were off course. We were nearly to the lake before this happened, so I was well to the right of my intended course and nearly past the second checkpoint (it was a short flight). This was exacerbated by my slight inability to detect my reference points.
I managed to get back on course by the time we reached the third checkpoint (Madisonville KMNV). After that it was smooth sailing all the way to Cleveland. With the exception of my initial issues, I spotted all my checkpoints. Though to be fair, I didn’t select the best checkpoints to begin with.
Where the real issue came in was with the E6B and keeping track of everything while flying the plane. While I am confident in my abilities to pilot the plane and perform maneuvers, until today, I did all this without anything that wasn’t mounted in the panel. Now I was combating a giant sectional, that despite my refolding needed further condensing, an E6B, a nav log, seeing the checkpoints and flying the plane. This new workload was quite taxing to say the least.
The next issue came when I made an attempt to calculate my ground speed with the E6B. As we overflew Madisonville, I started the clock and I noted the time at McMinnville (the next checkpoint). I pulled out my E6B, looked at the nav log to determine the distance we had traveled, and dialed in what I thought were the appropriate numbers. This yielded a result that was way off. It looked as though all the practicing I’d done was in vain. From what I understand, the much maligned analog E6B is the preferred device of the FAA examiner that will be administering my check ride. Anyway, Josh ran me through two other ways to determine ground speed. One was to simply call ATC and ask and the other was the GPS. As we were discussing this, Knoxville Departure cut us loose just over McMinnville. This was a first for me and I was surprised how far out we were.
We arrived at Cleveland shortly there after. We entered on a 45 for the downwind to runway 3. Josh mentioned that he didn’t recommend flying in and out of Cleveland if you were hungry because the base leg is basically directly over a strip of restaurants. A quick glance down confirmed this. The other end of the airport is surrounded by ridiculously huge houses. One of which is on a hill straight in line with the runway. It is crazy.
I was pretty high on final and I made a pretty bad landing. We taxied back, I took off, and stayed in the pattern. The second landing wasn’t spectacular but it was better. I don’t know what the deal is. We were going to taxi back, but there was a guy on downwind so we elected to use the taxiway. When we reached the hold short line, he radioed that he was going to fly around town a little bit and reenter on a base leg for 3. We elected to take the runway, which we stated on the radio, and we began taxiing out. This was met with the other guy’s immediate call that he was on final for 3. Josh told me to “turn and take off now”, which I did. It was absolutely ridiculous and we’re pretty certain it was intentional.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we used the GPS on the way back. We flew over the corn maze. It was a Chikfila maze. Once we were about 20 miles out I called approach and told them we were inbound for landing at McGhee Tyson. After we were closer to the field they set us up for a straight in approach on 5L which is currently 2500′ shorter. This would be my first landing on this runway since they started the Taxiway B project. It made me a bit nervous because I didn’t want to drop it in too short. Unlike my previous two landings, this one was actually good. It was an excellent end to the lesson. The next lesson would be my second cross country and it would be tomorrow. We’ll be headed to London-Corbin (KLOV) and maybe eating at the restaurant there.
A conga line similar to the one at DKX.
I had planned a new cross country to Cleveland Hardwick (HDI), but as I learned upon arrival at the flight center, I would not be making my cross country today. Josh assured me that we would get it done in short order, but that it wasn’t happening today. Instead we grabbed a plane and planned to head for Downtown (DKX). We would be accompanied by the other 172 as another flight instructor and his student would be traveling there. The other guy was going to solo and we were going to get out of the way and do some short and soft field landings. We all set out for preflight straight away. As usual everything was pretty well in order and I was ready to go. The other guy had beaten us by roughly 5 minutes, but he had a head start.
I radioed for a clearance and received one. Did the run up and taxied to the runway. Take off was normal and we were pointed to Downtown. I hadn’t ever flown into Downtown, but I had been there a number of times. The owner of my flight school also owns the flight school there so there is a great deal of mixing that goes on between the two. It doesn’t hurt that it only takes about 5 minutes to fly there either. As we were flying into the area, the controllers alerted us to some traffic that was nearby and also that there were “multiple contacts in the vicinity of Downtown.” We thanked them and they approved us to change frequencies.
The runways at Downtown are 8 and 26, which are similar in orientation to McGhee Tyson’s 5 and 23. We were pretty much set up for a straight entry into a down wind for 26. We entered the pattern. The radio calls were new to me, but I knew what to do even if I hadn’t done it before. We came around and Josh told me to just execute a normal landing to get acquainted with some of the characteristics of the approach. I did so and we were about a third of the way down the runway when I touched down. It wasn’t bad, but it meant we’d do a full stop and join the conga line.
It wasn’t until we were third in line behind Remote Area Medical’s Beech 18 and the guy doing his solo that we realized we’d be better off at McGhee Tyson. It wasn’t so much that we were having to wait as it was that there was a helicopter in bound somebody trying to do a straight in approach that just kept hammering the radios and at the last minute veered off onto an upwind leg to come all the way back around to 26. The phrase of the day – “We’ll be staying in the pattern.” Once we got ready to take 26 for takeoff, we radioed that we would not be staying the pattern and that we were going home (something to that effect anyway). We did just that too. After clearing the area, we switched back to Knoxville Approach and told them we were in bound and that we’d like to do some touch and goes if possible.
They had no objections and set us up for a straight in approach to 23R behind the Beech 18 from DKX. This shouldn’t have been an issue, but he was a little slow in clearing the runway. I thought we would have to go around until at the last moment he cleared the runway. The first landing which was meant to be a soft field landing. I say it was meant to be a soft field landing because if we had actually be on a soft field our plane would had been buried up to the struts. In trying to perform all the necessary elements of setting up the landing, and upon Josh’s urging to set it down on the numbers, I absolutely planted it on the numbers. It wasn’t hard enough to damage anything, but it was far from a soft field landing. I retracted the flaps and firewalled the throttle and we were on our way back around. We had noticed some birds lingering around and so we kept our eyes on them. This time I was just doing a short field landing. Abeam the numbers I reduced power and dropped in 10 degrees of flaps. I turned base, dropped in the second notch and then the third just after turning final. Everything was looking good except the birds. They were now flying about between the runways. We let the tower know that they were there. They acknowledged and began warning other aircraft. I put it down and everything worked out this time.
We took to the sky for one more trip to try that soft field again. Like last time we flew a full pattern and we were back around again in short order. Unfortunately the birds (big vultures I might add) were now quite agitated. The end result being that just as we were reaching the edge of the pavement, the birds began flying right were we wanted to go. I reacted quickly and I think I surprised Josh when I went full throttle, called a go around and added full power. It was a good go around. Once we were back around they gave us the left side for our full stop landing, which was safe and uneventful.
In the end, I was glad we hadn’t done the cross country because this lesson was full of those learning experiences. At the end of the lesson Josh asked me if I could do the cross country on Sunday afternoon. As I am always happy to fly, I quickly agreed. I left with a smile and vowed to talk to the operations guys about the birds on Monday. Also, I thought I’d better make sure that my wife was OK with me flying on Sunday.
Fort Loudon Dam from the air.
I checked the weather just before leaving the office for the flight school. I was hoping that today would be the day for my cross country. Instead, since the weather over Upper Cumberland Regional was terrible, I would be doing something else. It was really odd because it was nice outside and had been all day. I was pretty sure I would fly, but I was unsure what I would be doing. I went to the flight center and checked in with Josh. He said that I definitely wouldn’t be flying to the plateau. Instead he sent me to do some solo flying. I was perfectly satisfied with this outcome because any flying is good and fun. Just as an aside, I learned that staying in the valley means easier weather. How did I learn this? Another flight instructor and his student were finishing up the planning for a cross country to Lovell Field in Chattanooga.
I followed them out he door on my way to the plane. They were in the Warrior, which needed fuel. I started my preflight and just sort of watched off and on as they moved through various stages of waiting for the lineman to top them off. Other peoples’ piloting habits interest me. Needless to say, they weren’t doing a ton of stuff aside from waiting, which intrigued me because I knew the weather that was moving toward their destination and I would have been doing everything I could so that as soon as the fueling was complete I could leave. I finished my preflight as the lineman showed up. It only took them about 20 minutes. I just laughed because, on the occasions that I required topping off, I was beaten to the plane by the fuel truck.
Runways 5 left and right were active and I elected to go out to the Fort Loudon Dam practice area. I decided that I wanted to do some ground reference maneuvers and also get a little more acquainted with the aircraft systems. I called for clearance and received my instructions.
I was already in a good position for a run-up so I proceeded with the checklist. Everything checked out and I called for taxi. I was cleared for taxi to 5R and I set out for A2 and take off. It was a long taxi, but I try to keep the speed up so that I get in front of the jets and so that it takes less time. I immediately called tower and let them know I was ready for takeoff. They cleared me for takeoff and I rolled out onto the runway and firewalled the throttle. The plane shot down the runway and I was off with instructions to turn to heading 280 and contact departure. This was much earlier than I had performed the switch before, but I got it done and didn’t crash.
After contacting departure they cleared me to resume my own navigation and proceed direct to the Fort Loudon practice area. Since 280 is roughly on course for the area I just stayed on that heading while I finished my climb out. The Fort Loudon practice area is a bit of a different beast from the Walland Gap practice area. It is mostly water and big lake houses. It’s kind of interesting in that you can really see some big houses.
Needless to say that this might be a problem for ground reference maneuvers didn’t occur to me until I got out there. It may just be me, but I don’t like maneuvering over structures that are exceptionally costly or might be filled with people. That became a problem when the only good points for turns were houses. After a lengthy search, I settled for a big house alone on an island. At least it’s by itself. I made several rotations around it each way and immediately gave up. My turns around a point all turned in to ovals. I lost altitude, gained altitude, lost and gained airspeed. I just couldn’t feel it today. I tried unsuccessfully to correct some aspect of the turns, but wound up just doing some steep turns and then flying around looking at houses.
I recently decided that I should make an effort to learn how to use the various systems installed in the aircraft. While I am the first to tout the importance of learning the basics (flight with basic instruments and GPS free navigation), there is no reason not to use tools that are at your disposal. So I decided that I would practice with the GPS. I programmed in Madisonville (KMNV), radioed my intentions, and I started tracking the course. It was easier than I expected, but I know that I’m not even scratching the surface. At least I can program in a direct course, check the messages (such as airspace warnings), and change the range on the display.
The lesson culminated with me putting on a show for my mother and wife. There was a bit of a crosswind so I came in in a crab. I rode it down almost to the runway and (for the first time ever) kicked out the crab so that I was lined up perfectly with the runway. I touched down on centerline slightly fast, but otherwise a really good landing. It was quite the sales pitch for my training. I secured the plane and checked it back in and I was on my way to dinner.
Hopefully, next time we’ll get in my first cross country flight. The destination will likely be down toward Chattanooga or up toward Greeneville. We’ll see what happens.
The week after my solo, we started working on cross-country flying. I had a week off following a ground lesson. It wasn’t really my choice - the schedule filled up. Then, I had a week with two lessons. I went Wednesday evening for what I thought was a cross-country planning session and then we would fly it Friday. What happened instead was I got in .7 hours of solo time and 3 more landings. Then Friday, after planning a cross-country to Upper Cumberland Regional, the weather wasn’t up to par for a flight to the plateau. I got in some ground regarding sectionals (very informative) and an hour of solo time in the practice area. The practice area time was pretty bad (I did some pretty sorry s-turns and turns sort-of-around a point). The two redeeming things were my steep turns, slow flight, and the landing (perfect). Anyway that is what I have been up to and I assure you there are entries in the works. For now I will post some pictures.
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- Cessna 21693
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- Cessna 21693 cockpit
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- Me on my first solo.
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- KTYS from downwind left traffic
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- KTYS from downwind right traffic
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- My second solo flight.
I went in to the flight school today with the intention of flying a cross country to Upper Cumberland Regional Airport. The weather, however, had a different plan. Instead of flying to the cross country, since the weather was bad over the plateau, we decided that I should do a solo lesson. Josh recommended I fly out to the practice area and do some ground reference maneuvers and then come back in a do some touch and goes. With some discussion about cross countries and future lessons, I checked out the plane and headed down for preflight.
The preflight was pretty uneventful. I climbed in and started the engine. I radioed for clearance and moved to do a run-up. Everything checked out. I called for taxi and was cleared to taxi to 23L. I was ready to go and immediately called the tower upon reaching the hold-short line at 23L. The cleared me for takeoff and I took the runway, firewalled the throttle, and took off. They handed me off to departure over the end of the runway and cleared me direct to the practice area. Realizing that I had failed to dial in the departure frequency before taking the runway, I quickly dialed it in and switched over. I called them and made contact and they answered that I should “sqauwk 0355 and check transponder on.” That’s when I realized I had switched the transponder off rather than switching it to altitude. I quickly switched it over. This was not a good start.
I got out to the practice area and did a few steep turns while searching for a good place to do turns around a point. The steep turns weren’t bad. There was a little altitude fluctuation but otherwise they were good. I had initially searched out the barn that I originally used for turns around a point, but it was now a very busy construction site. I was a little uneasy about using it as a point, in case anything were to happen. I attempted to find another point, but I was unsuccessful. Thankfully, the workers left so I lined up for some turns. I had a little trouble initially setting up the turns, the wind was a bit dodgy, but I finally got set up. I made a pretty sorry turn around a point. I lost about 200 feet in altitude and I was bordering on a steep turn by the time I had made it back around. I tried one more the other direction which was only better in the sense that I maintained altitude.
I elected to move on to s-turns. I turned out toward 321 and attempted to set up a downwind entry. I started over the Superior Car Wash and proceeded snaking down the highway. Half my s-turns were pretty good the other half were really spectacularly bad. It was really depressing, but to be honest not totally unexpected. I tried some more moving back up the highway. They were only marginally better. I suppose this is to be expected since the intent of these exercises is to teach me, the student, how wind effects the path of the aircraft on the ground.
Slightly disheartened, I decided to try to find my grandparents’ house and then head back for some touch an goes. I flew and flew looking for their house and never did locate it. I assume I was flying right over it. A quick glance at the time and I realized that I had better try to get in the pattern if I was going to do anything else. Just as I was about to key the mic a guy on an instrument flight plan, who wanted to land at Sky Ranch, began what would be 30 or 40 minutes worth of radio calls.
For those not in the know, Sky Ranch is a grass strip just outside the class charlie air space at McGhee Tyson. It has no instrument approaches. So those wishing to land there must file a flight plan as if they are going to McGhee Tyson and then cancel in the air before heading to Sky Ranch. Even though I was VFR my entire lesson, there was a very distinct ceiling at about 3500 feet so there were a ton of instrument plans being canceled in the air. Enough had been going on that I was familiar with the procedure. ATC vectors you around until you break through the clouds and then you cancel and continue VFR for your approach. I didn’t think it was a hard concept. Nevertheless, I wasn’t able to break in for at least 20 minutes. Finally, I was able to request permission to return for landing.
I elected to forego touch and goes in an attempt to lighten the load on the controllers and myself. They vectored me in, which was easy. I came straight in to my base leg and turned final. I set it down in the first thousand feet and made it to the first turn off. It was a really good landing. I taxied back, secured the plane and headed up stairs. All in all it wasn’t the best lesson ever, but I left with the resolution that I would practice more. If I could do it perfectly there would be no need for training.
Hopefully we’ll get the cross country in next time, otherwise I’m probably going to change destinations.
After taking a week off post-solo due to scheduling issues, I was looking forward to getting back in the cockpit. The last lesson was a ground lesson during which we covered cross-country planning and discussed how my first cross-country flight would go. The plan for the following lesson (today) was to plan the cross-country. I took all of my stuff, which is a little easier with the Jeppesen pilot bag. That thing will hold a ton of stuff…or so it feels. I walked into the flight school and found that Josh was not there. I thought he might be out with another student so I started talking to Nathan. As it turned out, I would be flying today. I didn’t mind this change one bit. Josh’s exact instructions were to get in some solo time and plan a cross-country for the next lesson.
Without further ado, I got the plane and went down to start preflight. I didn’t feel as nervous today about flying all alone, but I probably should have. I couldn’t decide where to go or what to do. It ocurred to me that there were any number of things I could do in the next two and a half hours. I considered the practice area for some maneuvers. In the end, a quick glance at the time I decided that traffic pattern work at McGhee Tyson was the best use of the time. It was really weird doing all the preflight stuff without anyone else coming. I used it as an opportunity to snap some pictures. I thought it was fitting that none of the frequencies set on the radios were even close to where they needed to be. I reset the frequencies on both radios in accordance with my own radio strategy, a la Jason Miller’s The Finer Points (Com 2 is for you). I called clearance delivery, they cleared me and I taxied to a nearby area free and clear of planes for a run-up. The usual area wasn’t going to work out because it was full of planes. I elected to do it in a wide area right before the entrance to the taxiway. No one was coming and it was the easiest and safest place to do it while staying out of the way.
After a complete and successful run-up, I radioed tower and let them know I was ready for taxi. I find it strange that they always say “tower for taxi” when I fly. They cleared me to taxi via alpha, as usual and I made my way to the runway. I like doing the run-up on the ramp because it means less time sitting on the taxiway. If I do it on the ramp, I’m usually off the runway within 5 minutes. Today was no different. I reached the hold short line and radioed that I was ready for takeoff. They cleared me and I was in the air in short order. They put me on right traffic for 23 right. This was fine for me. Its a win-win situation in that I’m not rushed and they don’t have to sequence me unless traffic comes in for the guard base.
I did 3 trips. My landings were better, but still average. Of the three I would say that the middle one was the best. It seems that landing is like when I make pancakes, the first one isn’t so good but the rest are edible. My own assessment is that I am failing to grasp the intensity of control inputs required. In other words, I am letting my desire to be smooth override the need for slowing the decent quicker, thus I bounce. This currently permeates all phases of flight. It’s not that I’m unsafe, it’s that I’m inexperienced. The hardest thing for me to accept is that I’m not going to fly perfectly right away. Practice makes perfect as they say.
For the next solo lesson I plan to head out to the practice area and put in some time with maneuvers. It is hard to say whether that will come before or after the cross country. I’ll be doing both either way.
Over the past week I worked on the presolo test. It was pretty straightforward although I wasn’t sure how much to say on some. One question in particular was what to do if the engine ran rough in flight. I wasn’t sure whether to exclude things that didn’t apply on the particular plane I would be flying, for example adding carb heat. I figured everything would come out in the discussion before we went flying and it did. We went over the test question by question before heading out to fly. For the most part I did pretty well. The only thing I had to look up and correct were the limitations on student pilots as they were looking for a much more thorough answer than I originally gave. In the end I wound up stating all of them I just had to write them down.
After our brief discussion, I went out to start preflight. I had a new toy, a gats jar, which greatly improved the fuel testing. I could actually have done every single sump with out emptying it, but I chose to pour the samples back in when I checked the fuel levels. Score one for the environment. Josh came out about half way through and tried his best to distract me, but it never really works out. Nathan gave up most of the flight instructor tricks during the ground school and so I am paranoid and usually catch on. After a thorough check we loaded up.
Starting the plane was completely normal. It has become sort of second nature at this point. I clarified the plan, which was to stay in the pattern. I called clearance delivery told them who we were and what we wanted to do. They told us to go ahead and as usual, for me, contact tower for taxi. I did the run up out of the way on the ramp everything looked good. I called the tower and asked for taxi clearance which they granted pretty much immediately. It was a short taxi since 23R/L were the acitve runways. As we arrived, I told them we were ready for takeoff. They cleared us, although I wouldn’t have minded waiting, and seeing the jet on long final I hurried out of there.
We did three trips around the pattern. I was well aware of the fact that I needed to do the best I could because these three landings were the deciding factor in the matter of my solo. The wind was weird. It wasn’t terribly windy but there was a crosswind that varied from directly across the runway to almost a direct headwind. This made it a little hard to judge. The first landing was going according to plan until just over the edge of the airport property. At that point the threshold was getting really big. I was afraid I might not be able to salvage the landing and that I would have to do a go around. I thought that would blow my solo, but I kept it in mind. Instead I calmly added power and held it level until we were back on course. I pulled the power and finished my landing. It wasn’t incredbly smooth, but it was a decent landing.
The next two times around were mostly uneventful. Both landings were good enough. As a perfectionist, I wasn’t satisfied with them, but they were alright. One thing I learned the first time around was to carry a little power all the way down. Apparently this is a common technique with larger aircraft. What I know is that this techique pretty much improved all of my landings. What I want to figure out now is how to fix my problem on the flare. I do it too early or I don’t do it enough. Maybe I’m just chasing too perfect a landing.
Just after touchdown on the third landing, Josh keyed the radio and asked if we could do a full stop and keep the same squawk and stuff so he could get out and I could solo. The controllers said go for it. So I taxied up to the 182 and let Josh out. He got his stuff, let me know to watch the weather that he’d put up on the MFD, and told me to make sure the door was latched. I closed and latched the door and taxied over to the edge of the ramp where I radioed that I was ready for taxi. They cleared me to 23L and I proceded to A8. I didn’t think it would be all that different without anyone else in the plane, but it was really weird without anyone backing me up. I radioed that I was ready for takeoff and they cleared me. I rolled out, made a quick check of the instruments, and pushed the throttle to the firewall. My takeoff was perfect, but I was a bit more worried this time because I’d just done the easy, optional part. Now it was time for the long part followed by the hard, mandatory part, the landing. There was no turning back. Once I was all set up on downwind I snapped a quick picture (probably mildly unsafe but I was more focused on flying anyway). When I was abeam the numbers, having recieved a cleared for the option call from atc, I pulled the power back to 1500rpm and dropped in 1 notch of flaps. I turned base, checked my airspeed, and dropped in the second notch. I turned final, dropped in the last notch and lined up with the runway. I rode the plane in and put it down well inside the touch down zone (which isn’t saying much since that’s about a thousand feet of runway). I was a little off center so I took a little extra time to line it back up while the flaps came up and I pushed the throttle all the way in.
Just after I left the ground, the controller did something that threw me for a loop. I’m used to being told what to do, but this time the guy asked me what I wanted to do. I figured it was all the same, but I would be more out of the way, so I took right traffic and 23R. It worked out pretty well. The only plane I was competing with was the Navy DC-9 that was currently refueling. My circuit went pretty quickly and just as I was about to turn base, my downwind got extended. I stayed pretty slow, trying not to go too far and take forever on final. They turned me just over the hill from Pellissippi. It wasn’t bad. I waited until I was on final to slow and add the last two notches of flaps. This time landing was a little easier and I was pretty much straight and centered. Overall it was a pretty good landing. I took back to the air and considered asking for left traffic again, but the controller was preoccupied with some small jet that was all over the place on the taxi. I opted to continue making right traffic and ask for a full stop when I reached the downwind. Interestingly enough, just as I was about to ask for a full stop, the controller came on and cleared me for another touch and go. At this point, I asked for a full stop landing and my request was granted.
Once back on the ground, I thought I might have a little bit of a wait to cross 23L. I was surprised to hear them hold the Learjet and even more surprised when he explained why. Apparently there was some poor guy lost out off the departure end of the airfield, just flying around. I was fine with this because it was smooth sailing back to the ramp where Josh was waiting. I taxied in and got set up to park. We pushed the plane back and went back inside. There was some fanfare and congratulating, we discussed the experience, and my shirt tail was cut. By the way, my favorite shirt survived but the undershirt did not much to my wife’s chagrin.
Now begins the fun part – cross country training. I’m excited.
Thirty Thousand Feet – Aviation Directory