Keith J. Jones

Here is an updated video from my blog post yesterday.  It now has music to cover some of the engine noise and also includes additional footage.

Click Here To Watch The Video

From Friday through Sunday I lived, breathed, ate, and slept flying.  It was everything I always thought it would be.  I was even able to shoot a little video of my fun.  Here’s a weekend rundown:

Friday August 27, 2010: After work, my buddy Jason and I rolled up to the airport for my evening flight with my instructor (CFI) Rich.  Rich brought is cool dog “Eddie The Flying Dog”.  Eddie even has his own headset.  No joke.  We were planning to do a little air work this night.  Jason was all ready for aerobatics, so he was cool with the limited “tricks” we would be doing that night.  After my lengthy pre-flight and calling in my flight plan, we were ready to roll.  Rich and Jason were busy talking about skydiving when I was doing the work.  (To this day I still don’t know why anyone would jump out of a perfectly good plane – maybe that will be my next hobby when I go through my mid life crisis phase.)  Tonight I flew N839BA instead of N5135R, which was a slightly different model of plane.  It is a little newer, so I had some luxuries – such as an airspeed indicator in KNOTS instead of MPH!  Sigh – the seat belts were different again, but I’ll get over that.  I don’t know why I notice those types of details in things.  We took off to go to our practice area North East of Frederick, MD (KFDK) by our checkpoint – “The Cement Plant”.  This night we practiced “power on” and “power off” stalls.  I used to be a little leery of those in the past because it meant you were on the envelope of losing control, but not any more.  My confidence is at an all time high.  The stalls felt very natural when Rich explained them to me and I executed them.  Granted, they weren’t perfect.  I couldn’t stop yawing to the left.  I was putting all the force I could into the right rudder with my leg and it didn’t seem to stop the left yaw.  And I admit, I’ve really been working out in 2010, so it wasn’t from a lack of leg power!  After our stalls we were flying East and Rich pulled the power to idle.  I don’t know why, but instinctively I put the nose of the plane at 65 knots.  He said “Simulated engine out… what do you do now?”  I said “Get it to the best glide speed – 65 knots”.  I’m glad I remembered that before he even said we were going through this little unexpected exercise.  I then said “And I’m going to look for a place to land…. and there is a field about 4,000 ft directly below me right now” (imagine me with my head on a swivel at this point.  Oh, we already went through all the “reasons” the engine could have gone out… none of them included my instructor pulling the power of course).  He said “Is that the best place to land?”  I replied back “Weeellll…. it’s A place to land, and right below me so I know I can make it”.  He then said “What’s right in front of you?”.  I laughed as I saw the strip of white lights in the dark and said “Well, that would be an airport with a pretty long runway”.  He said he thought we would make it with our altitude, so he encouraged me to make it without any engine power.  I gotta admit, a plane without an engine sails a lot further than you would think.  We actually made it to the runway with so much altitude we forward slipped to lose altitude and then put in all 30 degrees of flaps.  We still had considerable altitude to spare.  Although we didn’t go all the way through the landing, we could have made it.  I was proud for “saving” my passengers, who included Eddie The Flying Dog.  We then practiced touch and gos at the Carroll County Airport (KDMW) in the dark.  Most of my landings received a positive response from Rich.  That made me happy.  We headed back to Montgomery County Airport (KGAI) and watched a very spooky looking moon rise to the East as we flew along.  This night I added 2.0 Hobbs hours of flight time, 1.0 of it at night, with 4 night landings.  That made me night current again!  It’s been over a year since that has happened.  I love night flights… they are so smooth and tranquil.

Saturday August 28, 2010: Rich and I took off Saturday morning (a little over 12 hours after I last landed) and it was a day of fun bouncy thermals all day long in the heat.  (Oh, Eddie The Flying Dog also joined us!)  I was fighting the updrafts to keep our plane level and straight the whole flight.  We went back out to the practice area where we were the night before, which is North East of Frederick, MD.  Rich said we could climb above the clouds, but I declined.  I might as well get my “air legs” back on me and deal with the bumpiness.  I thought it would only make my skills sharper.  This day we practiced 45 degree banking turns in 360 degree increments.  Even in a Cessna 172N, you can feel like a dog fighter doing those moves.  There’s nothing as fun as looking down your wing and seeing it pointing what seems like straight at the ground.  I didn’t do too bad with the steep turns.  I think the I only lost about 100ft of altitude on average.  You can really feel when you lose altitude in a steep turn because the blood rushes to your head, and your cheeks feel like they start to move up due to forces.  I can’t wait for aerobatics!  After the steep turns we flew over to Carroll County Airport again for landing practice, this time in the day.  Airports look a whole lot different when you see them in the day!  Rich also mentioned something about me re-soloing today before we took off.  That made me pretty nervous.  You’ve got to give a man at least 24 hour notice before springing that on him!  So I was a bit distracted trying to remember everything in case he sent me up alone.  That was probably the reason I uttered words I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone before:  “I’m mentally saturated”.  Meaning, my brain wasn’t processing everything that was being thrown my way in regards to all the new ways I was learning to land.  However, my landings were still pretty smooth.  I think my 70+ hours of training are starting to show.  After a bit of landing practice we re-executed the stalls we practiced the night before.  This time I thought I was going to break the rudder pedal off the plane, but I kept us straight and true without any left yaw.  Success!  We landed back at KDMW, fueled up the plane, and headed back to Gaithersburg.  We had to have the plane back because our time slot was up.  Someone stole it that morning and that cut our training short.  No worries though, I learned a ton.  For example, I learned the coolest trick ever and I’ll even share it with you.  Are you ready?  We were talking about crosswind positioning of the flight controls while taxiing (so the wind doesn’t tip you over) and Rich simply said “Be lazy”.  He turned the heading bug to where the wind was blowing from.  That was the most genius thing I have ever witnessed.  Now, I had a visual of the wind and what quadrant it was in.  I didn’t have to do the complicated geometry in my mind!  My hands moved the controls based upon the simple picture I saw in front of me as I was taxiing around.  It’s amazing how simple tricks like this make your life so much easier!  This day I logged 2.2 Hobbs hours in N739BA with 6 landings.  Rich told me to go home, do some homework for the next day, and plan a cross country flight from Gaithersburg to Lancaster, PA (KLNS) to Harrisburg, PA (KCXY), and back.  I did just as he requested, and even added a gratuitous landing at Carroll County to pick up some fuel!

Sunday August 29, 2010: I was back at the airport this evening.  It felt like I was living there because the drive round trip pushes 3 hours from my house!  I had my cross country trip all planned out for Rich.  The plane wasn’t there (we were taking Romeo this time, not Bravo Alpha because it was in use) but that was not a big deal as I was a little early.  We went through my flight plan and I about fell over when Rich realized I had us landing at a different airport instead of Harrisburg.  Luckily, the mistaken airport was only about 5 nautical miles from our real destination, so it wasn’t a big of a deal as it probably sounds.  We waited for our plane, but it never showed up.  We finally found out that it went straight into maintenance due to a problem from a flight earlier that morning.  (Please remind me never to text a friend “The plane went down due to mx”, as that makes it sound like a crash occurred!  I’m not confirming or denying that I did that.)  Oh well, it looks like we would not be flying this day.  Instead, we used the extra time to discuss what we would do on our next flight Tuesday night – but Rich said “Hey, do you want to go around the pattern with me in my twin engine Baron?  I have to run up the engines.”  Who would say “no” to that?  It’s like asking a child if he wants a piece of candy.  Of course!  Riding in the Baron was a LOT different than what I was used to.  The roaring twin 285 HP engines squish you back into your seat when the brakes come off.  It was spectacular.  Since I was just a passenger on this flight, I was able to take some pictures and video.  Enjoy!

Rich's twin engine Baron

Click Here for My YouTube Video:  Around The Pattern – A Twin Engine Baron

Rich did holler a little on the landing in this video.  He wasn’t happy with the way he touched down.  For what it is worth Rich, I thought it was great… and I love the Baron.  I would have posted the other videos I captured which showed his flawless takeoffs, landings, and go-arounds, but I was so excited my finger wandered over my phone’s camera lens when I was looking around.  I don’t often just get to be a passenger when someone else flies me around.

Now my wife is interested in purchasing a multi-engine plane with 6 seats.  That means more studying, more ratings, and a whole lot more work for me.  But it would seriously be worth it!

Someone mentioned to me they were sorry it was such as waste for me to drive out to Gaithersburg, which is nearly 3 hours on the road, and not fly.  I said that was nonsense.  I got to spend a Sunday with pilot friends, got to ride in my first Beech, and got to ride in my first multi-engine plane.  How can that be a bad day?  I only wish people outside aviation could spend a day like this.  They would understand what a truly unique experience this whole thing is.

Hopefully I will be back in the air this Tuesday.  I am now mentally prepared for a solo, if required!  Next weekend will be a bit busy with family commitments over the Labor Day holiday, but I hope to find time to fly…

August 19, 2010:  I went for my first flight since 12/12/2009 this evening.  I’ve had a lot of adversity hit since my last flight in December.  It’s not worth mentioning the reasons here, but it seemed one thing after another kept interrupting my flight training.  Finally, I decided I was going to fly with my good friend Amy McMaster‘s former instructor out of Gaithersburg, MD (KGAI) and get this thing done.  First, I had to join the flying club in order to fly the planes.  That took a few meetings and an application process.  After a month or two, I was made a member of the Congressional Flying Club.  I am also in the process of becoming a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) member as well.  Cool!

I met up with my instructor after work on August 19th for our first flight.  I really didn’t know what to expect.  It felt like I had another uphill battle against me.  I had to learn the new area, learn how my new instructor works, and learn a new aircraft.  For example, I’ve never head to deal with a carburetor before this flight!  That is the benefit of flying the faster fuel injected model!  I didn’t let all that get to me though, as I’ve been through worse.  I was physically and mentally ready to do this now.  If there is one thing I can do well, it is identifying and solving problems.  The fear of flight is what initially got me into this aviation experience, and I don’t think I’m going to let anything else stand in my way until I’m done.  Well, of course, anything besides the FAA.

We spent about an hour just on the pre-flight phase alone.  Right away I started really taking to my instructor.  He was showing me things about a plane that only an engineer would love.  Who knew planes had counterweights under the control surfaces?  How about how an elevator trim tab actually reverses when you go from a climb to a dive?  Awesome!  I wish Aiden would have come because he would have eaten it up.  Finally we were ready to roll… sort of.  I’ve only ever filed a flight plan on a computer via DUATS.  I looked around and said “How are we filing?”  Rich said “You have your phone, don’t you?”.  I have to admit, I’ve never called 1-800-WX-BRIEF for anything before.  Everything in my life is computerized and automated.  You mean I have to talk to a person?  Rich walked through the call with me on speakerphone.  I was amazed at how much easier it was than the computer because the briefer only told you about the things you needed to know about for your flight.  The briefer also could answer any questions you had.  Why haven’t I used this wonderful invention before?

After we filed our SFRA flight plan (The SFRA is the security zone around the Washington, D.C. area for any pilots reading this outside of our area) and received our standard weather briefing, we strapped in.  Sigh.  Even the seat belts were different!  They were very race car like rather than the normal car-like ones I’ve used before.  That’s not the only difference.  This model of Cessna 172M had an airspeed indicator that listed your speed in MPH instead of knots.  Luckily, so did the pilot’s operating handbook (POH).  Engaging the flaps required the pilot to count in seconds in order to select the number degrees you want to lower them rather than the little convenient switches the Cessna 172S has.  I was just trying to memorize the differences as fast as I could.  Then I remembered, we needed to call in to Potomac Approach and get our SFRA squawk code!  Never fear, Rich showed me it’s just easier to call Potomac Clearance Delivery via the plane’s radios.  How come I never knew this stuff existed?

We taxied down to runway 14 and after waiting when an unannounced plane decided to land on the opposite runway (the wind was completely calm) when we were getting ready to depart, Rich asked me to perform a normal takeoff.  Even that was weird.  I pretty much always used short field takeoffs from Annapolis.  It was nice to be “normal” for once.  I liked how Rich didn’t have me do things that were memorized.  It was more by feel.  My previous instructor would tell me “turn 2 tabs of trim” and I would.  But I would think… “Why 2 turns?  What makes that special?”  But for this flight everything was done by feel.  That works far better for me and my inquisitive mind.

He said “Nice takeoff!” after we cleared everything and made it up to about 1,100 feet.  Yeah, I was proud.  It’s been 8 or more months since I’ve done that.  I liked how he asked me to do things like count off the airspeed before I rotated, call off the airspeed as I approached Vy (the best rate of climb speed), etc.  It made everything really comfortable.  He told me to turn 035 degrees as we maneuvered to a little practice area outside of the SFRA.  As we flew along, the sun had set.  He was pointing out all of the important landmarks by air: the tank farm (not as in Army tanks, as in water tanks!), the different cities and towns, Sugar Loaf mountain, the roads like highway 70 that leads up to Frederick from Baltimore, and more.  Then we aimed at “the cement plant” after we left the SFRA.  After presumably he was happy I could perform turns and I tried to rock the straight and level flying within 50 to 100 feet on target, he decided it was time to get into slow flight and gave me a speed he wanted me to hit.  I slowed down the plane and did just that.  The funny thing was I cracked a joke that he wasn’t testing me enough because my former CFI made me hang the plane from its nose in the air slow enough the stall horn would go off and still keep it under control.  He said he’ll get there with me eventually, so now I’m worried.

After clean slow flight, we practiced the “dirty slow flight”, which means with flaps down.  I laughed and said “Whoooaaa!” when we put in this model of Cessna’s full 40 degrees of flaps down.  It was like looking down from the large hill on a roller coaster.  I’m used to only having 30 degrees.  It felt like we were staring out of the windshield at the ground and floating down like a controlled feather.  How cool was that!  This plane actually felt easier to fly than the former 172S I used to fly.  After doing some 360 degree slow turns in slow flight, we decided it was time to return.  Rich showed me how not to get into trouble breaking airspace in our congested area by using VORs.  That was something lacking in my previous training.  We lined up two “fences” using Frederick’s and Westminster’s VORs and followed them right into Gaithersburg.  Just line up the needles!  Along the way, Rich again pointed out all the landmarks… Frederick, Baltimore, highway 70, Germantown, Bethesda, the tank farm, etc.

We came into the airport and he said “I’m going to let you take this one”.  Wow.  Although it wasn’t officially “night” by FAA standards, it was completely dark.  My first landing in ages was going to be in the dark with a new instructor, new plane, and at a new airport in the DARK.  Two other planes were in the pattern too.  I got in line and followed the one turning left base on runway 14.  This guy was flying a pretty wide pattern.  My former instructor would have not liked that and asked me to tighten it up.  However, Rich didn’t seem to mind.  We just followed him, kept our altitude up, slowed the plane down a little, and used the flaps based upon feel and our position to the runway.  I only had them down to 20 degrees when I landed.  I used to always land with full flaps.  We just didn’t need them for this landing, and chose it based upon feel and the situation.  I liked that.  It worked for me.  Otherwise I would have had to use the engine to get to the field with the wider pattern.

My landing wasn’t half bad.  I rounded out and noticed the plane felt a little heavier than I was used to.  That’s probably because my trim setting was different than my standard “2 rolls” that I’m used to, so I ballooned up a little when I had to pull a little harder.  No problem… I gave it a little throttle, cushioned our sink, and kept it all on the center line.  I don’t know if that move was surprising to my instructor or not.  The landing was still pretty smooth besides the balloon.  We taxied the plane back to the ramp and closed everything up (after all the checklists were complete, of course).

I was happy because my new CFI said “You can’t tell you haven’t been flying for a while”.  Those words are exactly what I needed to hear after fighting to keep in the air all those months, and even contemplated quitting at times.  I’m back!  We will be back up in the air Tuesday if the weather works my way.  Hopefully we’ll be in the air for longer this time.

I logged 1.2 Hobbs hours and 1 landing.  Technically by FAA standards it wasn’t a true night landing, but it sure felt like it.

Well, I haven’t flown since 12/12/2009 and haven’t updated my blog since well before that.  I realized I missed my last two solo cross country flights at the end of the year last year, along with my flight in real instrument conditions (with an instructor).  Let me see if I can catch you up before I blog my latest flight:

October 6, 2009:  I took a buddy from work with me flying.  I love introducing new people to general aviation.  I feel like I’m doing “my part” in our industry.  Unfortunately, the wind really picked up this night.  I’m glad my passenger was already prepared to do aerobatics, so this wasn’t an issue.  We flew from Annapolis (KANP) to Tipton (KFME) airport for some touch and go practice.  It was the strongest wind I’ve flown in.  Above the trees my CFI was estimating it was at least 20-25 knots.  At some points when we were facing the wind it felt like the plane wasn’t even moving.  On the runway there was about 15 knots of crosswind, which is the demonstrated limit of the Cessna 172S I was flying.  We also performed this flight when it was getting pretty dark.  The only “almost fun” thing I have to report about this flight is that a deer ran across the runway when I was landing one time, and the only thought that went through my mind was that an aluminum aircraft was not going to come out of the other end looking too pretty, and I’m sure a deer wouldn’t be pretty after touching my propeller. Luckily, the deer ran all the way across the runway before I throttled up for takeoff and entered his “airspace”.  I officially logged 5 day landings, 1 night landing,  0.5 Hobbs hours of night flying and 0.8 hours of total flight time this day.

November 23, 2009:  I originally took off the full Thanksgiving week to finish all my flying.  The wonderful Maryland weather didn’t cooperate.  Luckily I still had a few more minutes I had to fly “under the hood” (to non pilots, that means not looking out the windscreen and only using your instruments) so I flew to an airport with a control tower in Easton, MD (KESN).  The instrument procedures were a little new to me, but I flew the whole trip while my CFI tag teamed the radio.  I was in the clouds before hitting 1,000 feet.  I know you read about it in the textbooks, but flying into the clouds can be disorienting your first time!  I pride myself on not experiencing motion sickness and having a pretty solid head on my shoulders.  Heck, I usually take the kids on the crazy amusement park rides and I’ve intentionally spun a plane before!  This should be nothing, right?  Wrong.  The clouds are bright from top to bottom, and you have no sense where the ground is.  It’s even harder than using “the hood” which restricts your sight.  There was one time I was in a 5 degree left bank, but my head said I was flying straight and level.  My CFI reminded me to trust the instruments, so I corrected the error.  My head then told me I was banked the other way and turning.  The instruments disagreed.  After gaining altitude, I had the pure joy of flying between two flat cloud layers to Easton’s airport.  There is no better and beautiful flight experience than moving along between two close cloud layers like that.  After arriving via a GPS approach to Easton (which I flew), I came out of the clouds somewhere around 1,000 feet in steady rain.  I have to say, and I’m not exaggerating by any means, my mains (wheels) touched the runway so smoothly that I, my CFI, and the CFI that filled the backseat (because he was bored) were in shock at what a greaser it was.  The backseat CFI mentioned he wished his students could all land like that, which gave me some serious confidence.  I logged 2 day landings, 0.5 Hobbs hour of real instrument flying, 2 instrument approaches, and 1.0 hours of full flight time.

December 4, 2009:  This day I completed my second solo cross country.  I was a little less nervous this time than the first one, but it still gets to you when you realize it is just you up there in control of everything.  Especially in our little “global microcosm” airspace around Washington, D.C.  It has been so long, I forget some of the details of the flight because it went so well.  This was one of my favorite flights because of of my first destination – Ocean City, MD (KOXB).  I was able to use the runway that points into the ocean.  That means I was able to land coming in over the water.  It is definitely the most beautiful place I’ve ever landed while flying in a general aviation airplane.  Some day I have to figure out how to take real pictures when I’m flying!  (I’m sure it would take another pilot with me)  My second stop after Ocean City was Georgetown, DE (KGED).  It was pretty easy to find because I followed a major highway between it and Ocean City.  I was only nervous because within the previous month they closed one runway and opened another brand new runway at Georgetown.  It wasn’t even reflected in the airport directory, just a NOTAM (notices to airmen).  I didn’t want to be the student made famous by landing on what is now a taxiway.  Luckily, it wasn’t a problem.  I took off from Georgetown and made it back to Annapolis without any problems.  I logged 3 landings and 2.3 Hobbs hours of pilot in command (PIC) time.  Oh, and of course, as solo time.

December 12, 2009:  This was my third solo cross country.  On my first leg I flew from Annapolis to Millville, NJ (KMIV).  It was kind of windy this day, but the winds died enough my CFI sent me up.  He trusted my crosswind skills, so he didn’t worry too much.  That didn’t mean I wasn’t worried.  I flew over Dover Downs Nascar raceway and saw Dover Air Force Base (KDOV) just down the road from it.  The military runways looked so big compared to what I am used to landing on!  I also noticed that the Delaware Bay seemed HUGE.  Once I made it close to Millville I made my radio calls (after cancelling Flight Following) and was a little shocked.  Someone on the ground answered!  This is strange because there were no other planes around the airport, so I truthfully just expected silence.  The ground crew acted like a control tower, telling me which runway to use, that there was turbulent wind below 1,000 feet, the weather statistics, etc.  I quickly looked at my charts to make sure I was at the right airport because I knew Millville didn’t have a control tower.  I was right.  Apparently since Millville is a Flight Service Station (FSS), they provide “a little extra” to the incoming pilots.  Later, my CFI thought it was funny because he says that always wakes up the new pilots flying in there.  I took off from Millville and made the relatively short hop to Wildwood, NJ (KWWD) down the coastline.  I could almost see the airport as soon as I was off the runway at Millville.  Landing in Wildwood occurred without much thought.  I took off on the runway pointed West across the Delaware Bay to come home.  I just remembered what my CFI said about gaining as much altitude as I could as I crossed the bay “just in case”.  I know I’m a strong swimmer, but the plane wasn’t.  And it was cold in December.  I made it to about 4,500 ft over the water and just looked around.  I realized that it felt really high, especially because we’re usually below 3,000 ft in most circumstances around our busy D.C. airspace.  It felt kind of like standing on top of a really tall ladder.  It’s the first time I’ve ever felt a little apprehensive of heights.  I descended a bit once I crossed the shore.  I was on a race against the sun.  It was starting to look like a serious wintertime evening and I wanted to land before it was dark.  And I did.  That was the last time I flew a plane before August 2010.  Here are some pictures I took with my iPhone when I was up in the air:

This day I logged 3 landings and 2.4 Hobbs hours of PIC/Solo time!

A lot has happened since I last flew.  I am at the point in my training where my CFI thought I was ready for my first solo cross country flight.  For those of you that aren’t pilots, don’t get excited.  A cross country flight is a flight to an airport further away than 50 nautical miles, not literally across the country.  For my first trip, my CFI thought I should fly to KEVY then to KRJD, and finally back to our airport (KANP).  I think my CFI purposely sent me to two airports where most of the VORs were out of service and the automated weather reporting stations were also down.  It was just more adversity I had to add to the equation of this flight and rather than becoming upset about it, I just thought about how I would overcome it.

I planned the flight and after a few weather cancellations, it looked like it was time for the trip to happen.  The first day my CFI would let me make the trip, I could not sleep the night before.  I self cancelled (OK, my wife made me cancel too) because I did not get a full night of sleep.  Another day my CFI would let me go, there was some haze in the area.  Even though local PIREPs (pilot reports) said it wasn’t that bad, the little voice in my head said I shouldn’t go.  It probably didn’t help that I cut my thumb open on a razor and was taped up like a cartoon character.  Every cancellation made me feel like a little piece of my manliness was stolen from me and the anticipation was really building up.  About a week later a hurricane blew through offshore and cleared up the weather.  The winds changed so that it was blowing across all of the runways I would be landing at.  I decided that I would tackle the crosswinds, but wanted to do it on a day I didn’t have to think about work… so I took the day before Labor Day weekend off and went for it.  I think it is important to note that the night before my flight, my son Aiden decided to give me a little advice:  “Dad, try not to bend the plane tomorrow!”.  Wow, that boosted my confidence.

After all the pre-flight activity, my CFI cleared me to go around 3PM on Friday September 4, 2009.  I called my wife to let her know I would be landing around 4:30PM after I filed my flight plans.  I think I actually took off around 3:45 after my wife finally let me off the phone, which was a little later than I originally planned.  I got up to about 2,000 ft and exited our local traffic pattern.  I then talked to Potomac Approach for our local SFRA clearance protocol.  Each time, I was sure to say “STUDENT PILOT” after my “755SP” call sign so everyone know there was a pretty nervous guy up in the sky that did not have the experience of a full pilot.  The controllers were pretty nice and did talk a little slower than usual to make sure I understood everything they said.

I reached my first checkpoint (the West side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge) and turned towards Rock Hall, MD, which was my second checkpoint.  Somewhere in the middle of the Bay I looked around the plane, then about 270 degrees around me outside and had a feeling…. it felt kind of like taking myself as a 12 year old boy and plunking me into my 34 year old body and then thinking “Oh my, I’m flying a plane all by myself over the Chesapeake Bay!”  Who would have ever thought?  Most of my life, I was scared to fly.  Now I am flying a plane.  There’s irony for you!

I made my second checkpoint without a problem.  I was looking for my third and fourth checkpoints (some towns and big baseball fields on the Eastern Shore of Maryland) while talking to ATC providing me flight following (traffic advisories).  I looked up and realized that I was at a river (which ended up being the Sassafras River), and if my memory was correct it was my fifth checkpoint!  I could not believe how fast everything (literally) flew by!  I was also happy my dead reckoning navigation was working well because I was exactly where I was supposed to be!  This was about the point where Potomac ATC dropped my flight following and could not hand me off to Philadelphia ATC because they were not responding to them, but was nice enough to provide their frequency.  The controller was really great, he told me everything I needed to do to get on Philadelphia’s frequency.  I knew I was getting decently close to the airport (KEVY) and listened to Philly ATC.  It was much busier than Potomac and not easy to jump in for flight following for the few minutes of flying I had left.  I decided since I was closing in on the airport pretty quickly, I would start reporting my position on the common KEVY frequency.  I did not see the airport, but knew I was getting pretty close pretty quickly.  The Cessna 172SP moves along at a good pace let alone when you’re the only person weighing it down (don’t worry, my CFI isn’t THAT heavy).  At this point in my confusion, I will admit, I looked at the GPS to see where I was.  I cheated, and I feel bad about it.  I couldn’t keep up with everything going on and it seemed like the safest thing to do.  I found that I was nearly on top of the airport in no time.  What I did not expect was that 3-5nm on a map puts things closer than you would think when you are a few thousand feet above them.  For things that close, you have to look down and not straight out your windows.  After I successfully located the airport, I noticed that I did not hear anyone using the airport on the radio.  I decided to overfly the field at a higher altitude than traffic pattern in order to check the winds and to see which runway was in use.  At this point a seaplane flew across my path from left to right in front of me and was climbing higher than I was.  That was very unnerving!  I was trying to concentrate on my landing and this traffic came out of nowhere!  Even though I was on his right and had the right of way, I dropped 500ft and banked to the right just like my CFI once taught me.  Now I was about 500ft above the traffic pattern and looking for the winds… they said runway 35 was active.  I set myself up for the landing and I will admit… it was a pretty good one!  I’ll take the good landings when I get them.

I taxied back to runway 35 and pulled off in the runup area to switch my charts and navigation logs.  After I performed my runup (I figured sitting at idle for a few minutes might warrant it) I waited for the same seaplane I saw before now landing at this airport (he had wheels too).  He landed and cleared the runway, so I made my radio calls and took off towards KRJD.  After I navigated the traffic pattern towards KRJD and departed, I called up Philadelphia ATC for my flight following.  Although I said “STUDENT PILOT”, I think there is an air traffic controller in Philadelphia somewhere that wasn’t happy I was in his airspace.  I had a little trouble communicating with him at first, but we got everything straight and all was good.  Philadelphia handed me off to Potomac and they guided me the rest of the way.  I must have said “STUDENT PILOT” too many times because they even called out the airport to me.  However, I thought he said “Traffic at your 12 o’clock” because I said “Traffic not in sight”.  He said “755SP I said your airport is at your 12 o’clock and there is not traffic at your 12 o’clock”.  I couldn’t help but laugh, say thank you, and tell him I had the airport in sight.  My problem was that the plane was still traveling faster than I expected, plus miles up in the air are really small so you’re usually having to look down more than “out” the window.  That is something I’ve vowed to work on for my next solo cross country.  I’ve flown with my CFI many many times, but this realization came to me on my first solo flight because I had to do everything inside the cockpit.  It could have been worse, so I was still happy.  I remembered thinking that KRJD was the same width as KANP, but was much longer and looked really really tiny from where I was.  I wondered how I was going to get the plane on that runway.  I was duped by an optical illusion that I once read about, but didn’t realize until I actually had it happen to me.

Getting into the pattern after overflying the field at KRJD was not my most admirable moment as a pilot.  Basically, I messed it up.  I don’t know how, exactly, but I messed it up and wasn’t even level or pointing exactly where I wanted to point when I was abeam the numbers.  I thought I could correct it by the time I turned to my base leg for runway 12, but I realized I should just try again because I didn’t think it was correct or safe for me to continue how I was flying.  I called a go around on my base leg.  I think that was a first for me, calling a go around on my base leg when I wasn’t even pointed towards the runway.  I executed my go around and announced on the radio that I would circle around the airport and announce when I was reentering the traffic pattern (correctly).  I’m sure there were people somewhere listening to me on the radio and laughing, but I didn’t care.  I needed to do it right and that was the best way I could think of doing it.  The next time around wasn’t as bad, but I was higher than I wanted to be.  That’s atypical for me because usually I’m dragging it in.  I landed on runway 12, but it wasn’t one of my better landings.  I taxied back to the runup area next to runway 12 to settle my nerves, switch my charts, switch my navigation logs, and get my head on straight.  By the time I took off from KRJD I was supposed to be landing at KANP, so I wondered if my CFI was concerned.  I should have probably text his phone, but I wanted to continue to concentrate on the plane and my flying solely.

I took off and contacted Potomac to get my flight following.  ATC cleared me during my flight following into the SFRA, so that was another radio call out of the way.  I really do love VFR flight following.  I don’t know why people don’t use it more often!  The flight was uneventful other than wagging my wings at some traffic in the area.  There seemed to be more traffic in the area than normal because of the holiday weekend.  Other than overshooting runway 12 a little when I was on my base leg turning final, my landing was pretty good at KANP!  I was glad, because my family (Andrea, Aiden, Madeleine, and Charlotte) decided to come to watch me land.  I was about an hour after I told them I would be back, but I was back!  Nothing was bent, but I was pretty sweaty and nervous.  I was glad it was all done and now I’m excited for my next cross country solo.

I learned a lot from this trip.  I learned how I must pick better visual checkpoints and to expect checkpoints only 10nm apart to come at me really fast.  I also learned that 3-5nm in the air means what your looking for is probably down, and not out a ways.  I think those are all things that will get better as I fly more.  At least, that’s what my CFI told me after my flight.  He said he wasn’t surprised that I used the GPS and actually expected I would.  He said as I become more confident all the multitasking will become easier for me.

I really wanted to kiss the ground after I landed, but I thought that would scare my family too much.  I was glad I was back safely and proud to have logged my first solo cross country flight.  It was something I needed to do, and I finally did it.

I added 2.0 Hobbs hours as the Pilot in Command, Solo, and Cross Country to my logbook with 3 successful landings.

On 8/14/2008 I flew to Easton, MD (KESN) with my CFI to practice some crazier landings before my first solo cross country flight.  We wanted to get in some no flap landings and more practice with forward slips, you know…. “just in case”.  I haven’t been through a no flap landing in quite a while, so it was nice to do them again with my current knowledge base rather than when I was still learning the basics back then.  Keeping the nose up on a no flap landing felt really really weird because with flaps you’d be aiming right at a stall using that pitch.  I couldn’t imagine doing it at night without power because you can barely see the runway in front of you!

My favorite part of this flight was when my CFI took the controls, put me at not-so-normal landing configurations, and said “now land the plane in the first 1000ft”.  Usually he put me really really high (around 1000ft on short final) and I had to add all the flaps, get lined up with the runway’s center line, and forward slip my way down before the 1000ft markers would pass me.  For the record, I made it within the 1000ft markers each time.  However on other landings when he said “put it ON the 1000ft markers” I landed short of them because I thought he was still telling me to land before them.  That was an unfortunate misunderstanding.  Either way, I was happy with my results.  I can put it on the markers when requested.

This day I saw possibly the WORST closed traffic pattern flown by another aircraft.  When we were on a closed traffic downwind leg this aircraft looked like he departed the pattern at a 45 degree angle and was in another city before he turned left to his base leg.  It was pretty unbelievable.  He had to be 4 or 5 nm away from the airport before he turned base, which is traditionally about 1 nm away.  We left Easton after being behind that aircraft a couple of times around the pattern because it was just too painful.  It’s hard to fly the pattern at 80kts wasting your rental time while the guy in front of you wanders off on his own version of a downwind leg.  It seems almost dangerous to me.

This day I logged 1.4 Hobbs hours and 12 landings. Next up, my first solo cross country flight!  Only 8 more hours of solo time, 0.2 hours under “the hood”, a couple of stage checks, and the FAA checkride stand between me and the end of this training!  I’ll be training straight into my instrument rating right after that.

On 8/12/09 I woke up and got ready for my usual Tuesday morning flight with my CFI.  Things have been busy around the house and work, and I probably haven’t given the Daddy time the kids are used to from me.  When I was getting ready to leave, Aiden asked me if I would build him a paper airplane.  When I looked into his face that morning, I could clearly see he needed to go flyin’ with his Dad.  However, the last time I did touch and gos with him he was confused why we weren’t getting out of the plane to go to the airport’s “plane toy store”.  I had to let him know that this morning we wouldn’t even be leaving our airport and we would continue to take off and land until his Dad was feeling good about the small runway so I could start my solo cross country flights.  He didn’t seem to care that he wasn’t going anywhere, the bottom line was that he got to get in a plane and go out with his Dad.

The touch and gos went well.  I’m really getting comfortable with my skills as a pilot.  I do not really have anything to report other than Aiden loved the forward slips to landing we performed to lose altitude and airspeed.  Anytime we make the plane do something “not normal”, he thinks he’s an instant fighter pilot.  Now when he sees planes land at our airport he yells “Do the forward slip!”

I added 0.9 Hobbs hours with 7 full stop landings in my logbook. So did Aiden.  After we flew I took him out to lunch and he gave me his Jones kid patented thumbs up pose with his “not approved by Mom” milkshake: