Keith J. Jones

November 30, 2011:  Today I did something really fun in a plane.  I was able to fly into BWI with a Cessna 172 at night during gusty conditions.  I haven’t flown since the end of June, so I was out of currency big time.  I asked Rich (my CFI in previous posts) to come along with me since it’s been so long.  Even though I don’t think he touched the controls the whole time, I needed some confidence.

I called the briefer before we left and he was pretty chipper.  He was one of the funnier briefers I’ve talked to, which surprised me a little because I know the calls are recorded.  He even said he has to say the same things so many times a day and we hear them so many times that he tries to make it as fun as possible.  I hope that I get him again the next time I call.

That night at KGAI it was gusty.  The winds were reported as 340 at 12kts gusting to 20kts.  Watching the windsock you could tell the wind was moving around anywhere between 310 and 340, which are directions to the left and right of runway 32.  That makes crosswind control a little more difficult than just holding your ailerons into the wind like you are trained to do.  I was doing our runup at the entrance of runway 32, about ready for takeoff, and I kept looking up and becoming startled.  One of the runway edge lights looked like a nice sized deer standing silently at the end of the runway staring at me.  I must have looked at that thing 10 to 20 times and stepped on the brakes harder because it looked so much like a deer with the legs and long neck holding the edge light facing the other way.  We finally took off and instead of rotating the plane at about 55kts like the checklist states, I held it onto the runway until we were above 60kts.  Once we hit 60kts I pull back to abruptly come off the runway cleanly (while still applying the proper crosswind controls).  This was the way I was taught to help counter gusty crosswind conditions.

The night was overcast so there wasn’t a moon to check out or anything like that.  As soon as I took off we were bouncing around.  The briefer was correct, there was moderate turbulence from 10,000ft down to the surface.  He also said the winds were approximately 30 kts at 3,000 feet and you could sure see them as you were flying.  Although you were flying forwards you could see the plane was moving with the wind.  It was a very odd sensation because your body’s senses don’t match up with what your eyes were seeing, movement-wise.  This was one of the windiest days I can recall flying.  Getting into BWI wasn’t that difficult.  Almost immediately after checking in with Potomac Approach (a requirement in the DC SFRA) they cleared me into Bravo before I was even close.  From there, they gave me my headings and altitude.  Things like “Fly 040 at 2,500″ and I obeyed.  They moved me around some hovering helicopters in the area.  I’m wondering if the helicopter we saw was the new sign helicopter I read about in the news.  It was pretty bright.

We flew right over Raven’s Stadium, Camden Yards, and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  The controller gave me the numbers for the airport (winds 300 at 10kts versus the ATIS reporting 320 at 14 and barometer 30.01).  She vectored me near the airport and handed me off to the tower.  The tower cleared me for landing on runway 33R (the smaller general aviation runway) as I was already on an extended right base leg for that runway.  I was watching a line of commercial jets landing directly in front (perpendicular to me) on runway 33L.  That’s the runway positioned with a park at the end of it that I enjoy watching the larger planes takeoff and land.  Coming into 33R was odd.  I felt like I was too low because I don’t practice a lot of non standard traffic pattern entries.  In general, I want to start landing with a greater glide slope in the future… especially at night.  As I landed it was smooth and either the left main touched without a bump or the left main and nose wheel touched simultaneously.  Either way, it was a smooth touchdown.  I want to be sure to have a greater angle of attack during landings.  That’s one thing I’m keeping in my mind as priority #1 for future flights.  I settled the rest of the plane onto the runway without much problem and the tower kept me on their frequency all the way to the general aviation terminal.  Once we were ushered in by the lineman, he escorted us to the terminal.  Because it is BWI, the security is a lot tighter than your typical “shack in the woods” airports where I usually land.  On the way to the terminal I was able to capture a couple of pictures:

Rich, Eddie the Flying Dog, and I hung out at the terminal for a few minutes to calm the nerves.  The staff loved Eddie and stuffed him full of dog biscuits they had hidden behind the counter.  I’ve never been in such busy airspace (and frequencies) before.  It was a lot of fun and quite an accomplishment.

After having security escort us back to our plane we called Clearance Delivery for our departure information.  We then contacted Ground Control to get our clearance to taxi to runway 33R via taxiway Q.  We were handed off to the tower and they asked us if our transponder was on.  It was, but I clicked “ALT” as our transponder has an automatic function to switch to “SBY” while you are on the ground.  They were able to pick up our position and clear us for takeoff.  I stated that I needed to perform our runup.  They acknowledged it and told me to check in when I was ready for takeoff.  I performed our runup and notified them I was done.  Immediately they cleared me for takeoff.  I took off simultaneously with a British Airways jet on the runway to my left.  He gained a lot of altitude quickly and turned left.  My instructions via Clearance Delivery were to fly the runway heading (ignoring any wind drift that may occur) at or below 2,000 ft.  I did that.  Then the tower handed me off to Potomac Departure.  They vectored me out of the Class B airspace heading back towards Gaithersburg.  After I exited BWI’s Bravo airspace they dropped my radar services but notified me they did not see any traffic in the area.  Traffic is usually pretty light at night which makes night flying more pleasurable.  This night I flew within 5mi of GAI before I could pick it up visually.  I notified the controller I had the airport in sight and they cleared me to switch frequencies.  I notified them I was going to do some traffic pattern practice (as I had noted in my original flight plan with the briefer) and that I had the phone number to call once I was done.

I practiced two landings so that I had a total of 3 landings at night, which would make me night and daytime current.  The wind felt much gustier at GAI compared to BWI.  The AWOS reported winds from 330 at 13 kts gusting to 20kts.  You could feel it while trying to land.  The wind would push you into the runway while you were on a downwind leg and it was just different than all the other times I practiced in nicer weather.  This was the practice I wanted to have:  windier conditions.  My first landing had a downwind (and hence final approach) that was far too long because of the wind.  When I landed the airplane wanted to fishtail around the runway a little which was unnerving if you’ve never experienced that before as the pilot in command.  While I was taxiing (all night) it felt so foreign because the nose of the airplane would push much harder than normal one way and then the other way.  I had to use some force to (try to) keep it on the taxi center line.  Then, it hit me:  I was fighting the effects of the wind on the tail trying to weathervane the  nose into the wind.  THIS is what it feels like.  I’ve read about it, but now I got to experience it.

My second landing was much like the first, but I wonder if I got a nice big gust of wind as I was rolling out.  At first the plane was on the runway but then it felt like the wheels lifted up and the airplane’s lift just wouldn’t dissipate.  Our speed felt higher than normal too.  Once the plane slowed down and we were firmly on the runway I was able to use some brakes to slow us down the rest of the way and turn off.  I could have gone for another landing, but frankly I was tired.  It was 10PM and a lot of goals were accomplished in one flight.  I decided to call it a night.

I logged 1.7 Hobbs hours at night with 3 landings as the PIC.  One of the landings was at BWI, a class Bravo airport.

June 29, 2011:  I had fallen out of day and night currency.  The last time I flew was with my kids at the end of March.  There are many reasons this happened.  Some of it was because of work, some of it was because of being busy with 3 kids, and some of it was maintenance and/or weather related issues.  A couple of pilots told me this happens to new pilots because you are suddenly “without a mission” like you had when you were a student.  I think they are right.  I need to find a mission.

This night I went up with Rich to become day and night current once again.  We took off around 9:15-ish PM and flew to Tipton airport (KFME) to get gas for the plane because it was only about half full.  It was an uneventful flight to Tipton and we were heading straight into the downwind leg for runway 28 without much effort.  Only one other plane was in the pattern.  After we landed, I realized how nervous I was because it had been so long since I last flew.  It was also really weird having Rich as more of a passenger than a full time CFI.  He was a lot quieter than when I was in the middle of my training. That was not a bad thing… it just took some getting used to.

We took off for Gaithersburg (KGAI) to practice some night landings.  No one else was in the pattern, but the DC SFRA frequency was pretty busy.  I also had a plane pass me closely (but legally) going the opposite direction.  Once we made it to GAI, my first couple of landings were a little flat.  Well, strike that, my first landing attempt was a go around because I was hugging the runway too closely on downwind and when I turned from base to final I had greatly overshot the runway.  THEN, my first few landings were a little flat.  Rich was encouraging me to keep the nose up more when I was trying to land.  One of my landings wasn’t bad, so I said “Let’s do one more”.  On my last landing I had the nose wheel off the runway almost all the way to the turnoff to the taxiway.  I put the plane to bed after that.  It was hot, late, and I was really to head home.

I logged 1.7 hours (1.4 of night), 1.7 dual, and 5 full stop night landings.  Yay!  Now I can take passengers again!  Now, I am planning a long cross country flight to hopefully pick up my kids from their grandparents in MI in a few weeks.  I hope the weather works out!