My First Solo Cross-Country!

Two weeks ago my instructor and I flew from Wadsworth Skypark to the Youngstown Airport. To be honest with you it has been over 30 years since doing a cross country, yet, for me it did not feel like a difficult process. The only change is that on a cross country flight, especially to keep the FAA happy, there has to be quite a bit of planning for your flight to come off without a hitch.

This whole matter did not start off well because I was late leaving for the airport due to family obligations, and late arriving late to the airport. I then had to fill out my flight planner and complete the last-minute details. Since all of this was being done on in a rush many details were not correct.

My flight instructor and I flew to Youngstown and landed and taxied over to the apron and shut down and relax for a few minutes, and then planned the flight back home. After arriving back home he told me that if I felt comfortable I could fly this fight route by myself if I wanted to. Of course I was not going to let that chance go by.

Yesterday was one day I wanted for a long time. After two perfect weather flying days which were tied up with family obligations, on the third day I stole away and went to the airport for my first solo cross-country. My instructor was out flying so I had one of the other flight instructors to review my flight plan and was given the green light. But there were still some more problems that cropped. The first problem was that there were no ‘push to talk’ attachments for me to buy in the pilot shop. But luckily one of the other pilots allowed me to borrow his as long as I returned it as soon as I returned from my flight. Of course there were only about 3 gallons of gasoline in the plane so that added to the delay. So I topped off the tanks and took off into the wild blue yonder (which was actually 3500 foot overcast). As I called Akron approach control there was no response. I switch back over to the Skypark frequency and still had no response. So I turned back in flew back to Skypark still trying to establish communications with the airport but no avail. I announced blind on the frequency that I was landing and announced my position, after cutting off the Cherokee and a Cessna, but landed safely.

On the ramp another pilot and I fiddled with the radios until we got them working properly. It all came down to one simple switch being in the wrong position. 10 minutes later I was up in the air again and this time when I called approach control I received a response I was hoping for. 12 minutes after that I spotted the Kent State Airport which happened to be about 4 miles south of where it should have been. So either the winds were blowing differently than forecasted, or my planning was off, or over a 10 day period they packed up and moved the airport to the south. I altered my course in flew directly over Kent State and reestablished my course, and found that I was still getting blown to the north more than I planned but with my next landmark insight I was able to fly directly to it and found out that the course correction was much greater than expected.

It was great to see Youngstown Airport over my cowling and that approach control and the tower were very cooperative even though I made a couple simple mistakes, such as not acknowledging that I had the most current ATIS report, and did not report my altitude. Not to mention that I did not push the flip-flop on the frequency control so I transmitted on the wrong frequency, which ended up being good for a chuckle for approach control.

I landed at Youngstown refreshed at the pilot’s lounge which is quite a feeling when you are actually the pilot in command and not a passenger. Of course I got a photograph with the two (pretty) staff members at Winner Aviation.

15 minutes later I contacted Clearance Delivery, and taxiing to the runway and departing was pretty easy and I was quickly on my way back home. Suddenly I realized that dusk was approaching and I had to hightail it back home. I made a bold move in flew through the Class C airspace of Akron, received my clearance and that went without a hitch. I called this a bold move because my flight instructor and I have never reviewed the proper procedure for flying through Class C, but thanks to the training material Comm1 I was relaxed and had absolutely no fear of trying this on my own.

I was able to make it on the ground actually about 30 minutes before sunset and all was well.

Quite a bit was learned on this solo trip, and this was one of the biggest ego boosts that I have ever had with flying because I had a chance to put together all of my knowledge and make my own decisions when a flight was not going smoothly. I felt very comfortable on this 50 mile flight, and wanted to fly another 25 miles beyond my planned destination. Next up is one more dual cross-country and then I can take my long cross-country, and then the final steps should be the night training, a little more hood time, and then to brush up on my maneuvers and hopefully get a check right in before the end of November. My only regret is that I did not get to do all of this 30 days sooner.

Today, I Felt Like a Pilot!!

Yesterday, Sunday, it was a different story. Sunday I planned to go up about 10AM. It was a breezy day, 20-30-40 degrees off the nose about 10-12 knots. Been there, done that, so I can do it again. Right? After 2 trips around the patch I was beat. The second landing left me wanting oxygen and a reason to fly, period. I tied down, tucked my tail between my legs and sulked to the pilot’s lounge. But … I was not the only one to call it a day. One other pilot cancelled his cross country due to the winds and turbulence. For me, it was not the winds but the intermittent moderate turbulence, especially on final approach to runway 21, which is the one over the small valley that I-76 runs through and trees that are about 75 feet off the approach on the left. These trees love to kick up winds that are completely unpredictable. They lived up to that and then some.

Today, though, it was a different story. As they say, attitude, attitude, attitude. Guess what? It’s 100% true.

The wind was down the runway, about 8 knots gusting but fairly nice. I wanted to concentrate on my airspeed management, and checklist usage. I a 152 there is not much to watch, but still, good habits are needed no matter what the plane.

Takeoffs were good and I made sure I held runway centerline and also best rate of climb and also best angle of climb in the initial minute. Never have I done best angle now that I have, I love it and will do it until I reach 300 feet and retract the flaps. Downwind I worked on my altitude and keeping the right distance from the runway. And on final I was accurate in my 65-70 knot approach. As I came over the imaginary fence I wanted no more than 60 knots and was close to the numbers mostly and 9 out of 10 landings were at the first turnoff without heavy braking. The last landing was a PERFECT full stall landing with the wheel to my chest. I was so excited that I almost did another run around the patch, but called it quits as planned.

Unfortunately my camera kept cutting off, and after getting home I saw that it was due to weak batteries.

Lesson learned? Attitude is key and also, fly the plane by the numbers from takeoff to touchdown.

Next up, is my dual cross country. Now that the Cleveland Airshow is done, I may fly 15G – KBKL – KYNG – KCAK – 15G. This way I can fly into 3 controlled fields, Class D, TRSA, and Class C in one cross country. I’d better get out my Comm 1 training program.

Right into the Fire.

The first thing you need to keep in mind is that I have not flown since October, which was about nine months ago. So you know how excited I was to get back in the air after this extended period with my feet, sadly, planted on the ground.

My plane, 94400, was in the air when I arrived at the airport. And as I anticipated it needed to be fueled up after the previous student was done with his lesson. While standing by the airplane talking to the student while he was tying down, my flight instructor Mark yelled across the apron "How much hood time have you gotten so far?". I don't think he was asking me how much time I had spent in "The Hood", so the answer was zero time.

After going through the usual re-acquaintance of the airplane we were up in the air for about five minutes, not even giving me a chance to practice any turns or any other maneuvers he had put on the hood and we started boring holes in the sky with my head buried in the panel. This is where my experience with Microsoft Flight Simulator started to pay off. Keeping in mind that I was rusty for not flying all this time overall I did pretty well and was not intimidated too much, except when Mark decided to cover up the heading indicator. When Mark tried to show me how to turn to headings based on timing my turns it started to become a little overwhelming, but I was still somewhat successful. Mark also had me hold my head down and asked me to fly in different attitudes without looking at the instruments. It pretty much was a head down do not look at the panel, turn left without looking at the panel and then start to climb without looking at the panel, and then he would remove the hood and I would have to recover from these unusual attitudes. From this, I began to appreciate the need for an instrument rating and why it is very important to stay out of the clouds and what could happen if you had a partial panel when flying into clouds. We finished up with me flying to Wayne County under the hood with him talking me through the approach and then removing my lead when about 200 feet off of the ground on very short final.

We flew back to the home base in my landing actually was not bad after not flying for such a long time. What made this landing better than all of the others was that might push the was right on target, at 60 knots, and there is very little float when I flared for landing.

I decided to take an hour and a half break while Mark flew with another student and then decided to go up for some takeoffs and landings. For some reason the airplane did not want to make its descent steep enough and I ended up with three aborted landings. Now keep in mind this, I have probably aborted three landings in all of my training but today I had three in one hour. All of the landings were aborted because I was high on my approach after I turned final. Mark suggested that I would slip and lose altitude on final approach, but I felt uneasy about that because I had not performed a slip let's just say for a very very long time. So we departed the pattern and flew out to a practice area and practice a couple slips, and came back for a few more landings. After a couple of mediocre and hot landings I decided to call it a day. Even though I wanted to try a couple more landings I had to call it a day mostly due to the fact that I had consumed two large bottles of water and when you have three kidneys that water gets processed very quickly and you know what happens after that.

Next weekend is the Poker Run between four airports, and since I am due for my dual cross country this would be a great time to get it in a 200 mile, four hour cross-country instruction. We will see.

Crappy Cross Country (It was only a test)

This evening I decided to take a short cross country from one unfamiliar airport to another. This flight made me see exactly what I have forgotten over the past few months.

Well, before I get into the story, I will warn you ahead of time that this flight was on my Microsoft Flight Simulator, which also has Ultimate Terrain software. What I really like about the software is that it adds in many landmarks that the regular flight simulator does not have.

I started from Bolton airfield in Columbus and flew to route direct to Stewart Airfield which is approximately a 52 mile flight direct.

I will have to grade myself a C- due to a few mental errors. And while some will laugh or roll their eyes at simulating a flight such as this, to me and many other pilots this allows us to work on our routines and procedures such as using the check list, navigation, and get used to many procedures, many which are mandatory, and the simulator allows us to learn on the ground when it is not going to get us killed, or written up by the FAA.

I had a few minor glitches from the beginning such as not having the correct frequencies written down, but that will clear up as soon as I start using this flight planning sheets. My taxi, take off, and climb out were pretty much within guidelines and I was able to maintain the compass heading fairly well most of the flight. Also keep in mind, I am using the magnetic compass and not be directional gyro on the panel. The funny thing is that when using the magnetic compass you are always turning in the opposite direction to achieve the correct compass heading.

My first landmark pretty much was within two to three minutes, but absentmindedly I had climbed to 3500 feet as planned, but should have planned for a climb to 4500 feet due to my true course heading. Even though the 3500 foot altitude I was still legal because I was just about 2000 feet above ground I still have a cushion before I had to adhere to the even and odd altitude assignments.

My second checkpoint came a lot sooner than I figured. After I completed my flight I figured out what the problem was. Pilot error, garbage in, garbage out. After I got to my final reference point which is located about 4 miles east of the airport I had to search for the airport for a few minutes before I found it. From there, I entered a 45 into the upwind leg and everything after that pretty much was routine. And by the way, the landing was good, and the right beyond the threshold which is where I went to idle on the downwind leg.

Once I get back up in the air in a few weeks I should move right into my dual cross country.

And one final note. When my friend Steve flew up from Stewart, I was at the airport waiting for him. But when I landed at Stewart tonight on my flight simulator I expected to at least see a little animated pilot waving at me as I landed. I guess I was asking for a little too much?

Waiting is almost over

Okay, I know that I have not blogged for a long time, but that is because I have not been flying.

I SHOULD be back up in the air in the next 2 weeks after I get back from Madison, Wisconsin, from the Transplant Games. My plan was to have my license by now and to fly up, but, as things go ...

I been in the books, and watching vids and will be taking a couple of sample written exams to get back to speed. I have to get signed off to solo again and then do my cross countries.

I MAY be switching to a friend's Piper Cherokee, and have a new instructor, but that remains to be seen. For now, 94400 is waiting for me.

My HERO!!

Wounded warrior gets new wings
By Dave Hirschman



Tammy Duckworth, a former U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk pilot severely wounded in Iraq in 2004, is now an FAA-certificated private pilot in fixed-wing aircraft.

Duckworth passed her checkride July 19 at Manassas Regional/Harry P. Davis Field in northern Virginia, and she hopes, eventually, to return to helicopter flying. Her husband, Bryan Bowlsby, is an instrument-rated private pilot.

“Tammy is a very rare person, and she was fun to teach,“ said Ben Negussie, Duckworth’s flight instructor at Dulles Aviation in Manassas. “She’s incredibly self-disciplined and hard working. She’s got a great sense of humor, and she made my job easy.”

Duckworth lost all of her right leg and most of her left when her helicopter was struck by an insurgent-fired rocket-propelled grenade. She currently serves as an officer in the Illinois National Guard but her amputations prevent her from military flying. Duckworth lives and works in Washington, D.C., where she is an assistant secretary at the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

Medical Certificate Update

All I can say is ... GOT IT!!

Thank you Dr. Dr. Wirtz in Westlake. All of you pilots in the Cleveland area, I can vouch for this physician. Non-threatening, professional and down to earth. The staff was friendly and jovial also.

Best of all, I saved a LOT of money that translates to almost 2 hours of flying.

WOW ... as a Cleveland Clinic fan, I will have to stop bad mouthing University Hospitals.