Flight 2
I've been signed off for my short XC for two weeks, but the weather has not cooperated. Finally, Saturday I got up, called flight service and ran off to the airport to meet my CFI. I finished my flight plan, Dan looked it over and sent me on my way. As I walked out to the clubs C150,

I noticed two people in the airplane. I got on my cell phone and called the club scheduling system and confirmed I had the plane reserved. As I got closer to the plane, the engine started! I managed to get their attention and they shut down the engine. It turns out the other club member had reserved the plane for Sunday, but thought he had it for Saturday. He and his son were just going out for a joy ride, but they were happy to let me have the plane for my XC. I pre-flighted and taxied over to the fuel pump to fill up. Topped off the tanks, called ground and was cleared to taxi, and headed for the runway. Did my runup, had to run it at 2000 rpm leaned to burn the crud off the right mag plugs.

Got a good mag check, set my frequencies in the radios, got out the lapboard and sectional and called the tower. Cleared for takeoff, I scooted on to the runway and off I went. I was headed to Emporia KS (EMP), from Johnson Co. Executive AP in Olathe KS (OJC). OJC is situated just SW of the Kansas City metro area and is right next to another class D airport IXD. In fact thier class D airspaces overlap.

So, as soon as I was able to turn on course, I requested a freq change and called the IXD tower for clearance to transit thier class D south of the airport. Once I cleared their airspace, I called up flight service and opened my flight plan. Then it was on to Kansas City approach for flight following. They took my info and then told me to call KC Center and ask them. Center gave me a squawk, and it was time to look for my first checkpoint. This is an easy XC to do, I did it once with my instructor a couple of months ago. Plus you can follow I-35 all the way. Plus, there is a VOR on the field at OJC and a VOR a mile or two from EMP. It doesn't hurt that the plane is equipped with some of Garmin's best in the panel.

However, I did follow my flight plan and ded reckoned the trip to EMP. I was hitting my check points quite late however. I checked one of the gps's and found that my ground speed was hovering in the 60-65 mph range. Wind was worse than forecast, but on this short a trip (75 nm) it wouldn't be a big deal.

Got to EMP, it was bumpy at pattern altitude and the wind was up higher than forecast, but straight down the runway. Made an ugly, but safe landing, taxied over to the FBO. Closed my flight plan, called my wife, got a weather briefing, planned the flight home, used the bathroom, paid for gas, and headed off.

Ground speed hovered around 105-110 mph on the way home, made for a quick trip. Made an ugly but safe landing. Parked the plane, tied it down, headed home with a smile on my face.

Later that day a severe t-storm rolled though town. Sundays paper had a picture of an airplane that had been flipped over at OJC. I recognized it as the derelict Piper Apache that was parked across from the club's two planes. The brief article said that two planes were flipped over, and several were torn loose from tie downs. I was the last one to fly the 150 before the storm, so I was wondering all day if our planes were ok.

I finally had a chance to drop by the airport. Our planes were securely chained to the tie downs. The Apache had be blown to the east crashing into a very nice Beech Sundowner, mashing one wing tip, collapsing the main gear on the opposite side and crunching the top of the vertical stab. They were in the process of disassembling and cutting up the Apache. It had been sitting at the airport without engines and various other parts for several years. Worse yet was the Cessna 206 that was flipped into a slight ditch at the edge of the tie down area. It was thrown at least 75 feet from it's original tie down spot. I'll be surprise if it flies again. All of the planes that were torn from tie downs were using ropes of various quality. Our planes, and a few others are chained to the tie downs.

Flight 3
Solo Cross-Country.
I flew the same route we dual flew two weeks ago, but in the opposite direction this time. The flying is pretty tame compared to the maneuvers we do around here. Cross-country flight is really point-and-sit. Slipping out under the Class Bravo is the immediate challenge. I started off by climbing into it, caught myself, and was dropping back out when the tower alerted me to ro my transgression. Once out from under the local shelf, I climbed out over the bay, over my office and Fremont, found Sunol, turned East, crossed the hills and hung-out over the Central Valley until I could see the Merced airport.

My one mystery was how to get flight-following started. I opened my flight plan with no trouble, having carefully written down the frequency. I discovered I'd written everything about getting flight-following except the frequency (I had subsequent frequencies for Stockton and Montery Approaches) but not for Oakland. I looked in the AF/D, found three frequencies, and picked one (I expected it was wrong, but they'd tell me the right one.) I requested FF on that frequency, the controller asked where I was, I told him and heard one of those pregnant pauses that made think I might have said "Arkansas." Once he recovered, he told me the correct frequency as I expected. I thanked him and moved on. I could hardly get a word in on that frequency, then bungled the transmission when I did, and never got FF. By then I figured I'd take my chances and call Stockton Approach when I was closer to Merced. I did so and FF was no trouble after that.

Loran makes things pretty easy. I had computed my course, tuned in the VOR's and was watching the towns in the distance ("there's Turlock, that must be Atwater, then that's Merced but is that the Airport?"), but watched the good-old Loran (18.2 nm to go, steer a bit to the left) also. I stayed high because visibility was better and I wanted to be certain I saw the airport before I dropped into the haze. I did a right-360 to get down to pattern altitude, did the radio work, and squeeked my best landing in weeks. I got more fuel, ate and drank a bit, called for weather, and took off for King City.

That was the first time I've shared an airport with a commercial plane. I taxied out behind a United Shuttle (twin prop), did my run-up and pre-takeoff checks parked next to them (there are two guys flying that plane, one flying mine, and I could imagine the passengers looking out at this little plane next to them.) United was still sitting there, so I rolled on out and took off.

The ride over the hills was pretty bumpy, but I knew it was coming. The puffy clouds over the ridges were a pretty good sign that there would be some bouncing going on. I slowed down a bit in the bumps, rode with it, and it never made me nervous. I got a bit tired of it as I descended to King City, since someone down there told me winds were calm and I was still getting bounced around at 1700'.

I watched a dog cross the threshold while I was on short final, didn't embarrass myself too much on the flare, but I was a bit fast and long. I extended my flight plan by phone, then took off to the North. It was a pretty ride up the valley, with views out to Monterrey. I crossed over Salinas and Watsonville airports, bounced over the hills to the "bay area," extended my flight plan again, and found my way home.

In classic get-home-itis I convinced myself I was over Canada College and reported to the tower I was there. They cleared me into their airspace, and after flying for a few minutes I spotted Canada College in the distance (whoops.) I admitted to SQL's tower I had reported the wrong position, they weren't perturbed, and I came on down and landed.

My CFI was there, on his way out, so he pushed me back and I gave him a quick report. It's great to have that behind me.

Solo Cross-Country #1
I went up today for my first flight in almost 4 weeks, a long cross-country (178nm). I found myself totally unprepared. It was a last-minute go decision due to marginal weather, and though I had plotted the course and picked out waypoints I hadn't calculated all of the course and ETE numbers because I had only just gotten the weather info, and really wasn't expecting to go at all. Also, got there and realized I didn't have
(1) my flight computer,
(2) my calculator,
(3) a timepiece of any kind, since I don't own a watch and haven't worn one for 15 years,
(4) knee-board,
(5) flashlight (we got back at dusk),
(6) my laminated checklist, and
(7) sunglasses, for a late afternoon flight. By the end of the day I felt lucky I had remembered to wear pants.

Needless to say, I was distracted. En route I was all over the map, though I only got really disoriented once and got 5-8 miles off-course. (We were under flight-following, and I probably should have asked when I missed my checkpoint.) Most of the time it was just poring over my haphazard preflight notes or trying to figure out why I had chosen waypoints every 6 miles.

I might have salvaged some face, but we were already running late because we had waited for weather to go from MVFR to VFR (we were still over the top at one point), and my instructor was working a very long day and was very fidgety. I think he was pretty pissed off, and I think he had a right to be... I screwed up, showed up unprepared, and pretty much wasted the afternoon for both of us. At least he got paid for it.

In retrospect, I should have made my own no-go decision. I wasn't mentally prepared, and obviously hadn't prepared physically either. Granted, this was only my 2nd cross-country and I didn't know I needed to show up with a watch and lapboard; instructor had provided them last time and didn't mention that he expected me to have them this time. There are also other distracting mitigating circumstances, of course--out-of town weddings, family with a cold and my company went public last week--but there always will be other things going on.

I'm going to re-do the entire flight on Thursday, hopefully it'll go a little easier. I know everyone has bad days, and I have been very lucky so far. 22 hours and this is really the first flight where I felt behind both the plane and the process for the entire flight. And on the whole it wasn't bad, I knew where we were most of the time, I squeaked all three landings, even the one directly into the setting sun with no shades (ouch!), and the afternoon was beautiful, lots of big puffy clouds to fly around and post-low-front clear except for the Sacramento valley (crop burning). We even got back on time, more or less. But I felt like a screw-up.
Lessons learned:
1. show up prepared
2. Buy a watch, a kneeboard, a flashlight, sunglasses, ...
3. Make my own no-go decision if I don't feel capable of being present
for the entire flight
4. Don't take 4 weeks between lessons

Probably more, but I'm tired of thinking about it right now. Off to bed, then down to the airfield pilot shop in the morning...
Jefro

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