Looking To The Sky

First Flight Into KHIO

After almost three weeks without flying, I finally got to go up again yesterday afternoon. What a thrill it was to get back in the cockpit and up in the air. Almost the entire flight was a success minus some rough stalls, but nothing I can’t fix with a bit more practice. The end of this flight I was able to talk with James about what is next and figured that I really only have a month and a half to go before I get my license, that is if I can get myself to studying as much as I should.

What is left you may ask? Well, I have to rack up some solo hours, practice maneuvers I’ve learned, do some cross country flights, take my ground test, and then do my check off ride. Doesn’t sound like too much, but I know it’ll be a lot of work (and money). While I write about solos, I’m excited to show in the above/below pictures that I’m now checked off to fly from Twin Oaks (7S3) to Aurora State (UAO) with just me, myself, and I sitting in the cockpit. So freak’n awesome!!!

Onto the flight:

We flew from Twin Oaks over to the West Price Area. I did a bit of “foggle” (IFR) flying and then did some new approaches to flying. James had me close my eyes and try to feel how the plane is flying. He would then get the plane in odd configurations, have me open my eyes, and get the plane corrected. For being my first time I felt I did pretty great at it.

After this we took off to fly into and land at Portland-Hillsboro Airport (HIO). HIO is one of, if not, the busiest class D airports in the Pacific Northwest. And by the traffic that was happening yesterday, I see why it is considered so. Unlike Twin Oaks, Aurora, and McMinnville, Hillsboro airport is a towered airport. This means that before entering the traffic pattern to land, the tower needs to give permission for entry. This doesn’t sound too bad, except that means that there is a lot of traffic happening with acknowledgments back and forth. Since I had never flown to HIO, James had me just listen to the communication and fly the plane. One more thing about HIO is that it they have a right traffic pattern which I have never flown. Most airports have a left traffic pattern.

Though I could hear the communication, it definitely was chaotic. I’m surprised that the towers are able to make sense of everyone coming and going. Speaking of tower controllers, my cousin, Nathan is a control tower operator at SeaTac airport in the Seattle, Washington area. Pretty cool stuff. Good work cousin, you do something not a lot of people can or would want to do!

We did a couple landings at HIO before taking off back to Twin Oaks. After flying at HIO and getting to Twin Oaks, I was doing pretty great with my flying and my landings were spot on. I was very happy with the entire flight overall.

Until next time, keep dreaming about doing incredible things.

Logs:

Flight Time: 1.2 Hours
IFR Time: 0.2
Landings: 5

New Airports:

Portland-Hillsboro Airport, Hillsboro , OR (HIO)

Categories: Private Pilot Completion

Tags: Cessna 172, flying, IFR, James, K7S3, KHIO, Maneuvers, N2108Y, schedule, Slow Flight, Stalls, Training, Vision

Chris Guillebeau’s New Book Cancelled Flight