First 50-Mile Cross-Country Flight

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Jason

Yesterday, after a few weeks of trying to do so, I was able to finally fly a cross-country flight down to Corvallis (CVO), up to Salem (SLE), and back home to Twin Oaks (7S3).  The flight was one of my longest to date around two hours, but great to be able to check off my list of things to do before getting my license.

I know what you’re thinking, “Corvallis isn’t cross-country”; however in aviation, a cross-country flight is considered to be a flight over 25 nautical miles from the airport where the flight originated.

Corvallis airport is 57.8 nautical miles from Twin Oaks giving the distance required to be able to mark off landings for my 50-mile cross-country flight.

I began my flight by pre-flight checking 2108Y, but as Rick and I were about to start her up, we found out the battery had died :(   Thankfully, we were able to hop into 734KU and continue the rest of the flight as planned.

The flight to Corvallis and up to Salem, I flew using the points I had marked on my map.  Points like airports and river bends to make sure that I’m on course.  The given name for this is dead reckoning.  The flight to Corvallis and then to Salem had some slight curves to the course, but overall I was able to get to my destinations with no trouble.

I flew two landings at Corvallis and Salem.  The Corvallis airport isn’t controlled (no tower), so it was just a matter of me announcing what I was doing on the radios to those in the area.  Salem is a controlled airport however and therefore around ten miles out I made a call to the tower requesting permission to enter the airspace and to land.

Heading into Salem I had my first experience with being told to fly right into the runway.  Every other landing before this I made a call, flew the pattern, and then landed.  I gave my location around three miles out and came in for my extended final.  I was higher than I should have been my first landing, but I had plenty of time to get down.   I landed with great success.  I followed this up by taking off and having one more successful landing before taking off back to Twin Oaks.

On my way to Twin Oaks, I flew with my foggles and flew using the VOR.  After reaching the south practice area around the location of the Newberg VOR, Rick had me perform some turns blind.  Along with trying to recover from conditions Rick put the plane into while I had my eyes closed.  I did a great job with my 180-turn, but my 360-turn wasn’t so great, also my climbing turn (I didn’t turn at all!)  The recoveries went well for the most part.

After the crazy flying, I flew and landed back at Twin Oaks with a great final landing.  For being one of my longest flights, not a lot went wrong.  There were a few critiques here and there by Rick, but in light of the crappy weather and conditions, I was quite pleased.

Logs:

Total Flight Time: 2.0 Hours
Simulated Instrument Time: 0.5
Landings: 5

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Until next time I report my flying (which probably won’t happen till I return from Hawaii!); take the time and enjoy the below video. DON’T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT!!!

This video is the chopped up version of my solo at McMinnville (MMV) which I did on the 11th of February.

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Short Flight

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Jason

Random picture of a bird

I went over to Twin Oaks today expecting the wind to stay around five knots, but as we took off to fly, the winds increased.  I was only able to do a couple landings that day, but since I was working to solo at Twin Oaks, I wasn’t able to do much more than that.

We landed, and cleaned things up, got out of the plane and went up to the classroom.  While there, the winds died down, and the sun came out.  I passed on continuing to fly (save on costs) and wait for a better day.

For the short flight it was, I was happy with the landings and my overall flying.  First attempt at landing I was too high because there was such a strong headwind.  My last two landings went great.

Logs:

Total Flight Time: 0.5 Hours
Landings: 2

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Over The Trees

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Jason

This last weekend I was supposed to fly with Rick on a cross-country flight from Twin Oaks (Hillsboro) to Corvallis, over to Salem, and then back home to Twin Oaks.  And to my dismay, it was another rained out weekend. L And even though I didn’t get to fly on Friday or Sunday (as scheduled), I did end up flying for a little under an hour this Monday.

For being a day with unfavorable weather conditions, the flight went very well.  I can’t say it was perfect, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give the day’s flight an 8.

I did four takeoffs and four landings.  One short field takeoff, two soft field takeoffs, one regular, and one aborted.  I felt very good about the fact that I was able to remember what was needed to be done for the most part on the short and soft field takeoffs.  Remembering to add my 10 degrees of flaps and either hold on the brakes till maxing out my power (short field) or rolling into the takeoff while pulling back slightly onto the yoke.  All three landings went quite well.  A little rough around the edges, but a success overall (as we can tell by the fact that I didn’t crash).

Landings this time around were over the trees onto Runway 20 instead of over the river onto Runway 02 which I am use to landing on.  The difference between flying into 20 and not 02 is that I have to make sure I am above the trees long enough before coming down for my landing.  Just like some of my takeoffs, my landings were rough around the edges, but as a whole, they all went great.  I just need to work on my rollout and make sure that I am flaring with a bit more impact.  If I get those down, then my landings will be SO much better.

For being quite a windy day and overcast, the flight couldn’t have gone much better.  I need to work on pitching out off the runway consistently and being sure that my pattern work gets me to my altitude soon enough and flying will go much better.

With the weather being such a hindrance and trying to save money, the next plan is to fly the cross-country flight on the next nice day.  Until this, I’ll be flying on Mondays, as long as the weather isn’t extremely awful, to keep up the skills.  Perhaps even be able to do my solo at Twin Oaks (which would be great to finally check off my list).

Until then, this is Jason, reminding you that you should always keep looking to the sky!

Logs:

Total Flight Time: 0.8 Hours
Landings: 4

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Double Rainbow

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Jason

My flight this Monday was both fun and humbling. And most of all it lead me to seeing a double rainbow!

I’m sure a number of you have seen the video below with the guy who saw a double rainbow.  Now whether he was on something or not is besides the point.  All I want to say, is I saw something like that, but instead of it being a stagnant double rainbow, it happened to be in view everywhere I flew within the rain coming down.  Pretty spectacular.

The flight was my first in a few weeks due to me being gone for a week at the end of February and the weather continually getting in my way.  I’m at that point where I am working on cross country flight preparation and getting soloed at the local airports I’ll be flying to and from.  Problem is that I am only able to fly once or twice a week if I’m lucky.  This is definitely extending the length of time it is taking me to get my license.  Then again, I did expect this a bit due to the time-frame on which I was getting my license, but not this bad.

The majority of this flight was getting back into the swing of things.  Didn’t learn much new, but focused on a few areas that I am lacking skills in.  Takeoffs and landings, after not flying for a few weeks, were fine.  One big area that needs to be improved is remembering to aviate before messing with everything else (like navigating and communication).  Mainly what I mean by this is getting the plane leveled off at the right altitude and flying steady before planning my next move.  Not that it isn’t a good idea to know where I am going first, but more important to know the plane isn’t descending or ascending without me realizing it.

Coming up this weekend is a chance for me to do a cross-country flight to Corvallis (weather providing).  I need to do some preflight planning though involving a course with dead reckoning.  Mapping out all the points along my path that will get me to my destination and back.  I’ll also be messing with VOR during this flight to navigate home.  Should be a great flight with some interesting predicaments.

Logs:

Total Flight Time: 1.3 Hours
 Landings: 4

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Short and Soft Field Takeoffs

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Jason

I went flying yesterday after work over to Aurora (UAO) with my instructor.  He had me learn about soft and short field takeoffs.

Rick showed me a short field takeoff on Monday, but I never had a chance to perform it myself.  This flight we started my flying with this.

Short Field Takeoff

The idea is to get to flying speed in the shortest distance.  To do this, we take as much runway as possible, set flaps to 10 degrees, apply the brakes, add full power, release brakes when full power is reached, at our rollout speed, VR,begin climbing and increase our speed to best angle of climb, VX.  Once clear of all obsticles, lower the nose slightly and accelerate to best rate of climb, VY.  With postive rate of climb established, lower the flaps and continue flying as normal.

I was able to do this my first attempt and was quite excited.  Not that it was perfect, but we did end up taking off!

After taking off from Twin Oaks, we flew  over to UAO.  Practiced some landings and another short field takeoff and we were then back off to Twin Oaks.

I did a few landings at Twin Oaks and did a soft field takeoff.

Soft FIeld Takeoff

The idea of a soft field takeoff is a takeoff when on grass or other fields that are not cement or asfault.  To perform a soft field takeoff, do the following:  after making a departure call, begin lining up with the runway (keeping in mind not to stop as the plane could get stuck on the turain), add 10 degrees of flaps, pull back on the control wheel, add full power.  The nose will want to leave the ground and as this occurs, begin flying in ground effect until our best rate of climb speed, VY,  is achieved, once this occurs, begin to pull back on the control wheel and climb.  Once a postiive rate of climb is extablished, retract the flaps.

Easy peasy.  Well, for the most part, it takes practice to get it down completely, however it is quite a lot of fun to do these.

After the takeoffs, I ended the lesson with a successful landing at Twin Oaks.

Logs:

Flight Time: 1.4 Hours
Landings: 7

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