Today was a huge achievement.  After much preparation I finally flew my long distance cross country flight.

Requirement: 1 solo cross country flight of at least 150nm total distance with full stop landings at 3 points and one segment of at least 50nm between T/O and landings.

I spent a chunk of my evening the day before the flight mapping it out and getting all my navigation points in check.  This made the flight itself so much easier the day of!

What a beautiful flight it was (look at the pictures below)!

The flight was to the gorgeous Oregon coast towards Tillamook, then north up to my fist stop: Astoria Regional Airport.  This section alone of the flight made the entire trip worthwhile.  It was such a lovely day that the water and the ground with the reflection of the sun just lit up.

After playing around the area of Astoria, I made my way over to another new airport for me: Kelso Airport (Southwest Regional Airport).  I followed this up by making a direct through the Battleground VOR (BTG) back home to Troutdale.

The flight was busy with new airports and procedures happening, however I was able to relax a bit to and take some great shots.

I feel navigating with VORs is much easier now than it was when I first started figuring them out.

Along with flying to some new airports, I also learned a new procedure: logging a flight plan in the air.

Using the McMinnville RCOs around the area, on my journey up from Tillamook over to Astoria, I logged a flight plan from Astoria to Kelso to Troutdale.  This was surprisingly easier than I was expecting.  I gave them all the information I already had written down and when I was taking off from Astoria I activated the flight plan.

My time was pretty much spot on when I landed into Troutdale, and though I forgot to close my flight plan before shutting the plane down, I did get the radios back on and closed my plan to avoid any rescue teams being called out.

The majority of my flight was navigating using VORs with the legs from Tillamook up to Astoria over to Kelso all being pilotage without using any aids.  Just comparing my navigational chart (map) to the ground.

This was by far one of my best flights I’ve ever had and though it wasn’t cheap, it was something I’ll remember for quite a while.  I realize even more that I can’t wait to wrap this license up so I can share it with my friends and family!

Until then – keep looking to the sky!

Logs

Flight Time: 2.5 Hours
Landings: 3

Since my flight to McMinnville, I haven’t flown a lick.  In between last flight and this one, I decided to take a couple weeks and go to Spain.  What a trip!

Well, with a month being away, I decided that doing a few practice landings and getting back in the air was much desired.  I just stayed around Troutdale Airport and did a quick solo run of three landings in preparation for my long cross-country solo coming up.

All went well and I had some of my best landings!

Logs

Flight Time: 0.3 Hours
Landings: 3

It’d been quite some time since I’d flown to McMinnville and this flight I was finally able to visit again.

McMinnville is an interesting city.  There isn’t a ton going on, but they have a cool restaurant called Alf’s that has a monkey most of the time who is named Elvis.  They also have a really cool aviation museum with a 747 on top and the home of the “Spruce Goose”!

Anyways, I flew on a nice day from Troutdale all the way there after taking almost three weeks from being able to fly.  It was great to be back behind the controls and it was nice to know that I didn’t forget everything!

The flight was a bit rough on the first landing, but the rest went smooth and it was great solo flight.

Jason

Logs

Flight Time: 1.3 Hours
Landings: 3

It had been over a week since my last flight where I took time to practice soft/short field landings/departures.  Today I did an unexpected solo flight as my instructor was preoccupied.

This flight was the first solo where the weather was nice and my instructor wasn’t free to fly with, so I planned a flight and handled everything myself.
I planned a flight to Aurora, and after some solid landings, I flew east to Mulino. I had one awesome landing which was enough for me so I departed the area and flew back to Troutdale.

My landing into Troutdale was an extended base which I set up for an excellent final landing of the day.

What a beautiful flight. Glad I made the effort to go fly after being home the last couple days with a sore throat.

So excited for my next couple flights which will include my long cross-country of three airports lasting over 150 nautical miles.

Jason

Logs

Flight Time: 0.9 Hours
Landings: 4

This morning flight was spent around Lenhardt Airpark (7S9) and Mulino State Airport (4S9). Both of these are small airports with the former allowing for grass landings and take offs.

It had been since May of 2011 since I spent time working in short-field and soft-field procedures. With almost two years between these procedures, the ones today I’m a lot more prepared for.

Nothing has changed since I past talked about them on how to perform them, but my confidence and skill level to do these landings and take offs has greatly improved.

My first landing at Lenhardt was rough as it had been so long, but I was able to correct myself and my last two were much better.

My last couple landings before heading off home was at Mulino where I practiced short-field landings to simulate a small runway. Again, my first I wasn’t pleased with, but my final was a success.

My approach to Troutdale was great allowing for a chance to practice and nail a short-field landing leaving me with a grin of success.

Jason

Logs

Flight Time: 1.6 Hours
Landings: 6

Friday afternoon I had one of the most amazing flights to date.  This flight was also an important one as it was my first solo 50nm+ flight to a brand new airport.  I’ve never flown to Tillamook Airport (KTMK)(or the coast for that matter), but had my opportunity to do so.  It was beautiful!

The weather was foggy in the morning, but it burned away and left me a nice opening to fly from Troutdale, to the Newburg VOR, over to Tillamook airport.  I flew using the Newburg VOR as a navigation aid and also with Flight Following to keep an eye on me as I made my way from Troutdale, through Portland over to the VOR.  After the VOR I was switched over to Seattle Center for Flight Following.

The ground elevation rises to around 4,000ft MSL on the way over to Tillamook from the Portland side, so I climbed to 6,000ft and had an easy time getting to TMK.  As I made my way over the hills to Tillamook I was amazed by a stunning view of the coast that I’ve never seen before.  It was amazing.

The air around Tillamook was quite which made my approach and landing quite peaceful.  After a successful landing I gave a call to my instructor that all was well and soon made my way back.

My trip back started with me making a spiral climb back up to above 4,000ft so I could get back over the hillside.  The climb up was exciting and allowed for a number of good shots.

From above the airport at 4,000ft I departed climbing to 6,000ft back direct to Troutdale Airport using Flight Following again with a direct return.

After a windy landing into Troutdale I landed, put the plane back, and had a good talk with my instructor.  What a great feeling to have that out of the way.  Since I finished this 50 miler, I can now fly to the airports under 50 miles without needing a sign-off and instead just a talk with my instructor.  Wow…this means I’m getting extremely close!!!

During this flight I realized that I can’t wait to share this with my friends and family.  It was too stunning to keep to myself!

Jason

Logs

Flight Time: 1.7 Hours
Landings: 2

Today was my first flight to Valley View Airport (5S9) near Estacada, Oregon.  This flight ended up being one of the most enjoyable and successful flights I’ve had in a long time!

My departure from Troutdale was south using the Boring departure to navigate to this tiny runway.  At only 32 feet wide and just over three thousand feet, this airport wasn’t the easiest to find.  However, once I was able to find out where it was, I got myself into position and had a few landings in the area.

My first was a wide pattern landing where I stayed high rather than low throughout and was able to have a much better site picture with a good landing.  The next two were a bit tighter of an approach doing my best to do a continuous descent landing which I’ve been missing in my previous landings.  The last landing I had was by far my best.  After Rick showed me a landing, I took over and had probably my best landing ever.  It was controlled, and smooth the entire way all the way to a good stall-warning landing.  Damn, did that feel good or what!  Rick knew I was happy with it as during the landing itself I had quite the smile trying to sneak out.

We finished out by departing back through the Boring arrival to Troutdale.  This was again a good landing, though I was high when flying over the bluff entering left base so it caused me to have to correct a lot more to get into position for the landing.  I pulled it off however and had another smooth landing.

When things go right, it feels amazing.  Definitely a flight that used a number of good practices and made me a lot more confident!

Logs

Flight Time: 1.5 Hours
Landings: 5

The last flight I had was soloing at Troutdale (TTD) on December 13th; two days before my vacation.  After finally soloing at Troutdale, rather than continuing to fly, I went on a vacation to Costa Rica.  The trip was awesome and not the worst of times to go, but there was some excellent weather here in Portland that I missed out on.

This flight was the followup to it which had me doing much more than I have in a long time.  Rick sent me a route and I had to work out getting through it.  As I had planned out the flight I missed some key points around actually navigating the flight.  Mainly, though I had my angles corrected, I didn’t really have any nav aids and so the flight was more or less based on my knowledge of the land, which in Washington towards Scappoose (SPB), wasn’t much.

My landing over into Scappoose was quite rough as I didn’t plan for how I was going to get into the landing pattern for this airport.  Scappoose has both a right and left pattern runway which requires me to land differently depending on where the wind is coming from.  I didn’t think this through as I was getting their and so I had quite a dismal entry.

The landing itself was also rough as I came in way too low causing me to stall just above the runway bouncing us.  I was quite upset with myself.  I realize that you can forget quite a bit when you don’t plan out everything and don’t fly for over a month.

The next two airports weren’t too bad.  Aurora we flew to and over.  I ended up doing a couple landings at Mulino (4S9).  My first attempt was a go-around due to the fact I didn’t give myself enough space for my pattern.  My turns were so sharp that I didn’t feel comfortable bout it.  My last was improved, but my landing felt rough for where I was in my training.

My return to Troutdale wasn’t too terrible, though based on how low I was, I didn’t know the look of the land well enough to know really where I was and I felt lost.  Rick showed me some tricks to use when this happens with regards to using my map to relate it to points on the ground and to simply fly higher to get a better view of the surrounding area.

I flew in using the Boring (city) arrival which brought me in on a left bank for runway 25 into Troutdale.

Overall, though I made it everywhere I planned to go, it felt rough and showed me things I needed to work on.  It was a long and expensive flight that will hopefully sink some knowledge into my head so it doesn’t happen again.

Logs

Flight Time: 1.6 Hours
Landings: 3

Overcast Portland

I love Portland. Though I’m sick of this weather we have here. Overcast almost every day with the primary cloud layer below 3000ft. WTF?!

I had an awesome time the weekend of New Years Eve in Colorado in Denver and Boulder. My friend lives in Boulder who recently received his recreational pilot license. I’m proud of the guy, however very jealous of the amazing flying weather in Boulder. Almost 300+ days with weather to fly in. Definitely not Portland. If I lived in Boulder, this license would have been done sometime ago.

Oh well, unless I move, I’m stuck waiting for clear days. So enough ranting.

Here’s hoping for some upcoming beautiful flying weather!

Jason

After a few attempts in weather that wasn’t so great, I booked a flight a couple days before I left to Costa Rica in anticipation of being able to go for my solo.  Well, the weather was cooperating and I was finally able to do my solo flight at Troutdale Airport.

Rick and I flew a few runs around the pattern, and after he was feeling confident that I was feeling confident, he hopped out and I took off.

The flight was great.  I wasn’t nervous and everything just kinda came into place.  My radio calls were much better than before and I was way ahead of the airplane in configuring her to landing.

As a reward, we took off east towards Mt. Hood and I was able to get a number of stellar shots for your enjoyment.