Cross Countries
It has been a while since I've written, and I've had I think four flights in the mean time. I went out on Monday the 9th, and did a few landings before heading out over Woodside and practicing steep turns and VOR tracking. My flight back to the airport was uneventful; I found the airport OK, my calls were fine and I descended right back into the pattern and landed. It was nice!
I didn't fly again until Monday the 16th, because of the weather. So I went out and just practiced landings -- 1.4 hours worth of landing practice, 8 landings in total. I tried doing short field and soft field landings, but there was a crosswind which made things difficult. But, I did get good crosswind landing practice, and figured out a few things. It seems there are two schools of thought on crosswind landings -- the first is to adjust the rudder and aileron for the slip, to be headed straight forward, early on final, and then just hold the picture all the way in. The other is to crab in on final, and adjust the rudder and aileron shortly before landing. The first is more comfortable to me, but when I think about it, the second makes more sense -- the first puts you in a slip condition, which will cause your rate of descent to increase, which you may not want. In any case, I got lots of practice on crosswind landings.
So, feeling good about crosswinds, on Tuesday the 17th Kevin and I went out on our first cross country together (my previous flight to Oakdale was with Chris). We flew to Gustine -- I planned the flight, and we followed my plan. We were a little looser with timing checkpoints and everything, but I have a feeling the examiner's going to want more than that...anyway, so we made it out near Gustine, and Kevin says, "OK, let's see if you can find the airport." We had figured out that it sat along a certain radial from a nearby VOR, and we knew the distance, so when I intersected the radial, I said, "Alright, it should be right around here." Kevin, smugly, said, "Can't find it? If you need to look around you should do a 360 to the left." (to the left so I can look out the window, since I'm on the left). He said, "Then we'll see what you think" or something; at that point I knew. "We're right on top of it, aren't we?" Sure enough, as I turned my 360, we'd been directly over the airport! Which, by the way was TINY. Mini-airport. I would've worried about driving my car down the runway. But we entered the pattern, I figured out the non-towered airport communication protocol (which if you recall I had much trouble with on my solo phase check, possibly because nobody had ever taught me before), and we landed -- in a crosswind! It was a good landing; the only thing wrong was that immediately after touchdown I neutralized the ailerons instead of putting them all the way into the wind, so I had trouble controlling the plane.
We taxied back past some wicked looking cropdusters -- amazing machines they were, biplanes that were essentially a set of wings and an engine with barely room for a person, and giant tanks in the wings with nozzles to spray chemicals. No radios, nothing. We had to look both ways before getting on the runway; at uncontrolled airports, there is no requirement for a radio and someone could come along and ruin your day if you're not careful.
So we took off and flew back to KPAO, and this time we contacted the FSS (with some difficulty) to get a weather briefing, and then we contacted Norcal over Tracy to get flight following. It was a little uncomfortable talking with Norcal -- these are busy people who are routing jets into major hubs. But I have to trust that if they don't have time for me, they will tell me so. Getting back into KPAO was interesting -- I descended quickly enough that they allowed me to fly directly to midfield (instead of going all the way to the Dumbarton and coming into the pattern on the 45 -- the midfield intersection route cuts under the outer ring of KSJC's Class C airspace, which comes down to 1500'). But there was a 12 knot almost direct crosswind! So Kevin and I talked it through on the approach, and I handled almost the entire landing with some coaching from Kevin. The only thing was, right after landing, again I did not deflect the ailerons correctly. I just have to keep thinking about that -- otherwise, I think I've got the hang of crosswinds!
So we went out again yesterday, Friday the 20th. This time, we flew to Petaluma. I didn't really have a plan, because I knew we'd have to cut through KSFO's Class B airspace, which was a formidable task for me (I'm not even permitted to do that alone, until I get my license -- nobody can even give me an endorsement for that). But I did my best, and we followed my plan as much as possible. We took a straight out departure from KPAO. I realized that I'm not really sure where the airspace boundaries are between KPAO and KSQL, so that wasn't a good thing. But we switched to KSQL tower, and they in turn handed us off to KSFO tower. The communication from KSFO tower on contact was insane -- they said about 20 things, and I panicked. Kevin said, "2000 feet, Bayshore on the right." Which I repeated back at the tower. I now see that the only difference between talking to KSFO and KPAO or any GA airport is that the major towers expect you to be a pro, and they tell you a lot more stuff. But in the end it's a matter of parsing out the important stuff (where to fly, at what altitude, plus any squawk codes they give) and reading it back.
So we flew through KSFO's airspace, directly over my apartment, which was fun! And then up over the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, and Novato on the way to Petaluma. We got to Petaluma, and my procedures were great. I found the runway, I communicated well, I entered the pattern properly, and I even kept in mind noise abatement rules. We did one landing, and then we got out of there, but before getting back up, I pulled out my charts and reviewed my airspaces a little, which was wise.
The way back was good, except my radio work went to hell. It was understandable, I was pretty overloaded, but when we got back in touch with KSFO, I completely missed an instruction to "turn right and overfly midfield" which didn't make sense since that would've been a left turn. I was lucky that the instruction didn't make sense, because when I indicated confusion, the ATC said, "Actually turn left over midfield; sorry.." We ended up flying directly over midfield at San Francisco International, with a giant jet taking off directly beneath us! That was incredible!!
We flew back to Palo Alto, and were told to "make left traffic" which we were right on course for. Then weirdness ensued -- there was something going on that I didn't understand with another plane. Kevin later told me he'd figured out that someone was lost somewhere in the vicinity of the left traffic pattern, so he knew that we were probably going to get an instruction to go to right traffic. The instruction did come, but with the wrong call sign, so I missed it altogether. Kevin keyed the mic and asked if the instruction was for us, to which the ATC said, with plenty of attitude, "Yes, 6521J, I'm talking to YOU. Turn LEFT." So we turned left across the front of the runway just as another plane was departing directly toward us (I increased throttle and tried to get us out of there). We entered right traffic and listened to ATC misroute several other planes, including putting a Mooney close behind us on final (which is bad because Mooneys are way faster than Cessnas -- or at least THIS Mooney was way faster than US). I tried doing a soft field landing but leveled off a little too low and touched down a little unexpectedly. It was pretty funny: "Alright, hold it off for as long as you can." (skid) "That's OK, it happens to all guys..." (alright, so nobody said that last part, but I was thinking it!)
More entries = shorter entries. Next flight, possibly tomorrow!
I didn't fly again until Monday the 16th, because of the weather. So I went out and just practiced landings -- 1.4 hours worth of landing practice, 8 landings in total. I tried doing short field and soft field landings, but there was a crosswind which made things difficult. But, I did get good crosswind landing practice, and figured out a few things. It seems there are two schools of thought on crosswind landings -- the first is to adjust the rudder and aileron for the slip, to be headed straight forward, early on final, and then just hold the picture all the way in. The other is to crab in on final, and adjust the rudder and aileron shortly before landing. The first is more comfortable to me, but when I think about it, the second makes more sense -- the first puts you in a slip condition, which will cause your rate of descent to increase, which you may not want. In any case, I got lots of practice on crosswind landings.
So, feeling good about crosswinds, on Tuesday the 17th Kevin and I went out on our first cross country together (my previous flight to Oakdale was with Chris). We flew to Gustine -- I planned the flight, and we followed my plan. We were a little looser with timing checkpoints and everything, but I have a feeling the examiner's going to want more than that...anyway, so we made it out near Gustine, and Kevin says, "OK, let's see if you can find the airport." We had figured out that it sat along a certain radial from a nearby VOR, and we knew the distance, so when I intersected the radial, I said, "Alright, it should be right around here." Kevin, smugly, said, "Can't find it? If you need to look around you should do a 360 to the left." (to the left so I can look out the window, since I'm on the left). He said, "Then we'll see what you think" or something; at that point I knew. "We're right on top of it, aren't we?" Sure enough, as I turned my 360, we'd been directly over the airport! Which, by the way was TINY. Mini-airport. I would've worried about driving my car down the runway. But we entered the pattern, I figured out the non-towered airport communication protocol (which if you recall I had much trouble with on my solo phase check, possibly because nobody had ever taught me before), and we landed -- in a crosswind! It was a good landing; the only thing wrong was that immediately after touchdown I neutralized the ailerons instead of putting them all the way into the wind, so I had trouble controlling the plane.
We taxied back past some wicked looking cropdusters -- amazing machines they were, biplanes that were essentially a set of wings and an engine with barely room for a person, and giant tanks in the wings with nozzles to spray chemicals. No radios, nothing. We had to look both ways before getting on the runway; at uncontrolled airports, there is no requirement for a radio and someone could come along and ruin your day if you're not careful.
So we took off and flew back to KPAO, and this time we contacted the FSS (with some difficulty) to get a weather briefing, and then we contacted Norcal over Tracy to get flight following. It was a little uncomfortable talking with Norcal -- these are busy people who are routing jets into major hubs. But I have to trust that if they don't have time for me, they will tell me so. Getting back into KPAO was interesting -- I descended quickly enough that they allowed me to fly directly to midfield (instead of going all the way to the Dumbarton and coming into the pattern on the 45 -- the midfield intersection route cuts under the outer ring of KSJC's Class C airspace, which comes down to 1500'). But there was a 12 knot almost direct crosswind! So Kevin and I talked it through on the approach, and I handled almost the entire landing with some coaching from Kevin. The only thing was, right after landing, again I did not deflect the ailerons correctly. I just have to keep thinking about that -- otherwise, I think I've got the hang of crosswinds!
So we went out again yesterday, Friday the 20th. This time, we flew to Petaluma. I didn't really have a plan, because I knew we'd have to cut through KSFO's Class B airspace, which was a formidable task for me (I'm not even permitted to do that alone, until I get my license -- nobody can even give me an endorsement for that). But I did my best, and we followed my plan as much as possible. We took a straight out departure from KPAO. I realized that I'm not really sure where the airspace boundaries are between KPAO and KSQL, so that wasn't a good thing. But we switched to KSQL tower, and they in turn handed us off to KSFO tower. The communication from KSFO tower on contact was insane -- they said about 20 things, and I panicked. Kevin said, "2000 feet, Bayshore on the right." Which I repeated back at the tower. I now see that the only difference between talking to KSFO and KPAO or any GA airport is that the major towers expect you to be a pro, and they tell you a lot more stuff. But in the end it's a matter of parsing out the important stuff (where to fly, at what altitude, plus any squawk codes they give) and reading it back.
So we flew through KSFO's airspace, directly over my apartment, which was fun! And then up over the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, and Novato on the way to Petaluma. We got to Petaluma, and my procedures were great. I found the runway, I communicated well, I entered the pattern properly, and I even kept in mind noise abatement rules. We did one landing, and then we got out of there, but before getting back up, I pulled out my charts and reviewed my airspaces a little, which was wise.
The way back was good, except my radio work went to hell. It was understandable, I was pretty overloaded, but when we got back in touch with KSFO, I completely missed an instruction to "turn right and overfly midfield" which didn't make sense since that would've been a left turn. I was lucky that the instruction didn't make sense, because when I indicated confusion, the ATC said, "Actually turn left over midfield; sorry.." We ended up flying directly over midfield at San Francisco International, with a giant jet taking off directly beneath us! That was incredible!!
We flew back to Palo Alto, and were told to "make left traffic" which we were right on course for. Then weirdness ensued -- there was something going on that I didn't understand with another plane. Kevin later told me he'd figured out that someone was lost somewhere in the vicinity of the left traffic pattern, so he knew that we were probably going to get an instruction to go to right traffic. The instruction did come, but with the wrong call sign, so I missed it altogether. Kevin keyed the mic and asked if the instruction was for us, to which the ATC said, with plenty of attitude, "Yes, 6521J, I'm talking to YOU. Turn LEFT." So we turned left across the front of the runway just as another plane was departing directly toward us (I increased throttle and tried to get us out of there). We entered right traffic and listened to ATC misroute several other planes, including putting a Mooney close behind us on final (which is bad because Mooneys are way faster than Cessnas -- or at least THIS Mooney was way faster than US). I tried doing a soft field landing but leveled off a little too low and touched down a little unexpectedly. It was pretty funny: "Alright, hold it off for as long as you can." (skid) "That's OK, it happens to all guys..." (alright, so nobody said that last part, but I was thinking it!)
More entries = shorter entries. Next flight, possibly tomorrow!
posted by MKT at 9:08 AM
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