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Happy Birthday To Me!
Monday was quite a lot for me. Not only did I have a great flight, I also turned 27, had my 1-yr anniversary living in the Portland area, and Tuesday brought 1-yr working at my job. What an awesome day.I’m now soloed at all three of the non-towered airports around Twin Oaks. Those are Aurora State (UAO), McMinnville (MMV) and Stark’s Twin Oaks Airpark (7S3). Since I’m soloed, I’m now able to fly between these by just renting a plane from the airport and taking off; which is quite a thrill in itself.
The flight between all three of these airports is nicknamed the “Triangle of Death”. Not that anyone has died during the flights in this triangle; however there is quite a lot to consider. For starters, there isn’t much distance between the airports, so planning ahead is important. Also, there are some small mountain ranges from Twin Oaks to Aurora State and from McMinnville back to Twin Oaks. The ranges are only around 2000ft, but important to keep in mind the amount of wind that can get kicked into the plane causing for some turbulent flying.
On Monday, Rick and I flew this course. Actually, he really just went along (off the clock) as a final unwritten check-off to make sure that I did just fine, and with no surprise, it went great.
The day was beautiful, not a lot of wind out, and just a few clouds to get in my way. I prepped Cessna N734KU, plugged in Aurora State, and got my radios ready. I took off out of Twin Oaks without a hitch and made my way on over. One area I know I need to work on are my outgoing and incoming radio calls when exiting and entering the different airspaces. The flight over to UAO was wonderful. Nice climbing speed, steady controls, and nicely directed. The first landing over at UAO ended up being a bit rough, but then Rick hopped out, I got going and flew a solo flight around the patter and had a great landing.
Rick then hopped back in and we did the same over at McMinnville. McMinnville was busier than Aurora that day, but I did just great. In fact, I had one of my best landings to date over there on my solo landing what made me extremely happy.
We took off and flew back to Twin Oaks, came in to land on runway 2, but as I was coming in for base, the other traffic switched things up on me, so we had to do a landing onto runway 20 over the trees. Unlike before, after Monday, I felt just great about landing into runway 20. Everything kinda just clicked and I came down with ease and had a fantastic landing with how many times I’ve landed on runway 20 (not many at all).
The flight ended on a very positive note, and made me feel great about soloing the entire triangle. Working on my radios and also working on my entries/exits into/out of the patterns is something I’ll continue to practice, but I’m feeling a ton better about how my progress is coming.
What a stellar birthday flight! Here’s to next year when I’ll make my birthday flight as a private pilot. Awesome stuff!!!
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On a side note, gas prices are getting expensive, therefore costs to rent went up. Renting a 172 is now $115, while renting a 150 went up to $85. My plan over the next couple weeks is to get soloed in a 150 with James. Hopefully that makes things a bit more affordable!—
Logs:
Flight Time: 1.4 Hours
Solo Time: 0.4 Hours
Landings: 5April 20, 2011 / Jason / 1
Soloed at Twin Oaks! I Can Fly A Cessna 150!
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One thought on “Happy Birthday To Me!”
Cool! Glad you found a fun hobby not computer-related as I do often.
Fred