Keith J. Jones

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:

I am behind three flights in my blog again.  Let’s see if I can get us back up to date.

On 8/9/09 I was able to fly with my CFI to pick up another CFI in Jamestown, VA (KJGG) in the plane the second CFI owns.  The plane was a Cessna 182Q, and I’m still smiling about the extra room it had inside.  I didn’t have to sit shoulder to shoulder with my CFI.  Size wise, if a C-172 is a Chevy Trailblazer, the C-182 is a Cadillac Escalade.  When I sat in the back seat on the way back I couldn’t believe how I could almost stretch my legs all the way out!  The flight both ways was smooth, uneventful, however hazy.  The C-182 had a constant speed propeller which made it a little different than the C-172, but it didn’t have retractable gear so it was not of the “complex” class of airplane.  I also think I’m getting used to adjustable propeller airplanes, along with having a carburetor to worry about (the C-172SP I train in is fuel injected).

I enjoyed watching my CFI and the CFI/Owner splitting the piloting duties on the way back.  One was on the radios and checklists while the other was flying the plane.  I’ve never seen that before and looks to be very useful!

Here are some pictures I took when I was a passenger on the way back:

On the way down I was able to log 1.0 hours of Hobbs time with 1 landing in the C-182.

After my last flight on 7/16/2009 I needed to complete my night cross country requirements.  It was difficult to get this done because civil twilight begins at approximately  20:45 local time and the airport closes at 22:00.  My CFI is able to get an extra 30 minute waiver from our airport to make the flight possible, but the time frame is still tight to land at an airport over 50nm away, do two extra night stop and gos, and get back.  Not only that, but we have had storms almost every night in our area that begin just before I needed to take off and dissipated just after I would land.  This occurred for nearly two weeks straight.  I must have planned the cross country flight over 10 times only to call it off after the storms formed.  I even had backup plans to fly to KHGR if the weather was better to the northwest.  On Saturday 8/1/2009 I was finally able to complete my night cross country requirements because the storms were a little further away than previous nights.

We flew from KANP to KSBY.  It was an uneventful flight that I do not have many details for.  The night was not the usual Maryland hot and humid night, there was a nice light coming from the moon, barely any wind, and the visibility was pretty good.  We flew direct from KANP to KSBY.  I was able to get some time under the hood too.  We came into KSBY from the exact direction we needed to make a straight out final to runway 14.  After two (and I’m not exaggerating) flawless stop and gos, we attempted to finish up our last stop and go so we could head back to KANP.  This is where things got weird.  To the right of the left base leg for runway 14 there is a stadium.  It is about 1.5 to 2.0nm from runway 14.  Instead of my usual 1.0nm base leg from the runway, I was a little further out at 1.5nm or so.  This is not normally a big deal.  All the sudden my CFI said “Look at that, they’re shooting fireworks!”  and I saw mortars exploding outside the right side of the plane, at the same altitude we were at (700ft MSL or so).  I could see all the fireworks closer than I ever imagine I would ever see fireworks in my life.  We weren’t in immediate danger, but it wasn’t comfortable for me to be there.  No one warned us and I do not recall any related Notams attributed to this event.  It was just a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

My CFI said “Do you think we would need to call someone if one of those hit us?”.  I said “Yes, and I’m on SBY’s control tower frequency so I would let them know and try to make the safest landing I could”.  He said “No, I meant as in the FAA or NTSB?”.  My CFI was obviously quizzing me on the reporting requirements I learned in ground school.  I said my concern was getting on the ground safely first, and then I would worry about my reporting requirements second.  My focus was a little more immediate than the subject his question addressed.  To answer his question, though, I said I believe it qualified for a phone call to the NTSB but I was unsure if it was an immediate notification or one that could be made days after the event without looking up the specifics.

As I told my CFI, I will never, ever, in my piloting career forget how close those fireworks were to the plane.  I can not accurately describe in words the magnitude of the bright white, pink, and red lights that lit up around us.  I don’t think I will ever look at stadiums on the ground the same way at night again.  Fortunately, my last landing went as well as the first two and we turned back around to KANP in order to get back on the ground before the weather changed.

I added 1.6 total Hobbs hours (at night and cross country), 0.5 hours under the hood, with 4 full stop landings to my logbook.

Next I look forward to some strong crosswind landing practice, becoming more comfortable with the small runway at KANP, and cleaning up odds and ends before my CFI sends me on my first solo cross country flight.  Hopefully I won’t have to wait two weeks for the stars to align again.  I am excited to finish up my training so I can start working on my instrument rating.

On July 9th, I was mentally prepared for my solo at KESN, which has a control tower, in N755SP.  The plan was simple:  go to KESN, do a few landings with my CFI in the plane, do at least 3 solo landings, pick him up, and then fly home.  We were off from KANP and headed to KESN as planned.  The plane still pulled very slightly to the right, but it wasn’t a big deal.  We called up Easton’s tower and let them know we were coming.  We performed four (somewhat) flawless landings with my CFI in the plane and parked the plane at the terminal.  This was the first time I’ve been able to talk to ground control which was fun, too.  I got out of the plane for a bit to settle my nerves for my solo.  After a couple sips of water and some walking around, I was ready to get it done.  I figured no matter whenever I did this I was going to be nervous, so I might as well get it done.

I got my clearance from ground control and rolled out to runway 4.  I performed my runup and checked the checklists, everything was good.  I took off and everything seemed to go well.  My nerves calmed down a little bit as I turned crosswind to downwind.  I called the tower to let them know I was mid field and was going to perform a full stop taxi back landings.  They gave me the clearance and I repeated it back.  I made my turns and landed slightly harder than I wanted to, but it wasn’t bad.  I’m just a perfectionist.  I even squealed my wheels a little too when I was stopping on the runway.  On my taxi back to the start of the runway, I remember thinking “well, if I can do that once, I can do that two more times”.  After realizing that, my nerves settled down.  I was cautious, of course, but I wasn’t really scared or nervous as I thought I would be.  My second landing went as well as my first.  I wasn’t exactly on the center line, but it wasn’t too bad.  On my third attempt, everything went pretty well except repeating back the clearance to the tower to land.  He said “755SP you’re cleared to land #2 behind the plane on final” when I was abeam the numbers.  First, the clearance came a little later than the other two and I unfortunately paid more attention to that than noticing I’m a little higher than normal and past the numbers to initiate my landing procedures.  I also could not seem to get the pitch of the plane right on this attempt.  I repeated back the clearance as I configured the plane for the landing and I must have messed it up, because the controller repeated what he said before.  I repeated what he said correctly and I was cleared to land.  The landing went well and the other plane landing in front of me was not a factor.  To this day I’m not sure what I said to mess up the confirmation of the clearance.  I could have said “My name is Keith and I have no idea why I’m in a plane by myself” for all I know.  However, I fixed the confirmation and it went well.

This trip really taught me the power of saying “Student Pilot” after your call sign.  I think the controller takes a little better care of you knowing you’re probably pretty nervous soloing up there.  I also try to limit extra speaking on the radio, but I still try to say “thanks” at the end to let them know I appreciate their help.  I can’t imagine their job is easy and they probably have a lot of not so nice pilots to deal with on a daily basis.

After I went back to the terminal I realized they had a pilot shop with some Hot Wings toy Cessna 172 Skyhawks.  Since I am notorious for being a softy for my kids, I bought them both one.  I picked up my CFI and we went home.  Aiden and Madeleine loved their new “Daddy Planes” and they both slept with them that night.  I love enjoying the rush and sense of accomplishment you get after knowing you just flew by yourself.

This flight added 8 landings, 2 total Hobbs hours, and 0.6 solo/PIC hours to my log book.  The next week’s flights will be with my kids and my father in law.  It will be fun!