Lesson 19: Solo CC - I am four
07/18/2007 Filed in: Flying
Tuesday - 07/18/07
I was supposed to solo CC for the first time on Monday. You will all be shocked to learn that was canceled due to weather. Such a rare occurrence, I know. I figure the odds are on par with a male, albino California condor giving birth to live young. The mind boggles.
So I rescheduled that for Tuesday from 9am-12pm. I showed up and reviewed the planning and weather with CFI1 and he sprinkles a little holy water (read: ink) on my logbook and away I go for the preflight.
As I'm checking the airplane for signs that it will suddenly, and without warning, drop out of the sky on me I note some lowish puffy white things in the sky. I go back in to check the weather.
Ceilings around 3500 ft, which is ok, except my trip back is scheduled for 4500 feet. Hrm... I guess that's not going to work, but I've still got plenty of altitude over the plateau at 3500-ish so it's not a deal-breaker. I see CFI2 on the ramp and have him help me reach a decision. We decide it's a go, with the caveat that I may get some 180 practice on the way.
So I load up after the most thorough preflight ever, and having said my goodbyes to family and friends, I'm ready for takeoff. Case in point as I left the school's office:
Me <to school manager>: Manager, wish me luck. It's been nice knowing you!
Manager: Oh no you don't!
From KMQY I am to make my way towards KCSV, fully 70nm away. This is the same trip during which I become lost on my last dual CC. I decide this time to trust the collective judgment and experience of millions of aviators who have gone before me and simply point the airplane where I want it to go for the first 25 nm (without landmarks). The concept is just so foreign to me.
As I'm leaving the pattern I request a frequency change, open my flight plan, and proceed on course.
As I'm about to contact Nashville approach for VFR advisories, I burp loud and long enough that it overcomes the squelch control on my radio and rings in my ears. I consider how BNA approach would likely have responded to such an improper cold call, and I actually giggle out loud for a minute. I am four years old.
I am very, very proud to have shared that with you. Tune in next lesson for fart jokes.
So I contact BNA approach, refix the DG, point the airplane, do the cruise checklist, and pray to the dead reckoning gods that this works. Low and behold, 25 miles later I'm only a couple of miles north of my track. This I can handle.
At my next checkpoint I nearly have a minor coronary as I discover I'm just to the right of an airport.
Me: No way is that Cumberland... how in the hell did it get over there?!
<looking at map again, now thinking I'm 25 miles north of my track>
Me: WTF!
I deviate my course to the south and discover I'm also over a town. There's no town next to Cumberland airport. The plot thinkens.
I nearly have a brief meltdown as I'm eying the GPS with great desire. I overcome temptation and look one last time at my map to discover there's an airport I'd forgotten about just north of my checkpoint. I am 100% exactly on track. Sweet!
After that little bit of sightseeing, there was nothing of import to report on my trip up. I got there, found the airport without issue, descended to pattern altitude a few miles out. I even made a very nice 360 into a 45 entry on the downwind for my runway, and executed a brilliant approach.
I then summarily screwed the pooch on the landing. Not one of my worst, mind you, but definitely no good. I taxied to the ramp, shut down and took a picture with me in front of the FBO as proof. Then I found some guys working on their planes in the hangar...
Me: Sorry to bother, gentleman, but would one of you be kind enough to help a student pilot on his first solo CC?
Guy: Yeah sure, he's a CFI he'll sign for you.
Guy2: Was your landing good?
Me: Nope.
Guy2: Ok, I'll put "great landing".
Apparently they've done this before. Nice guys.
Me: Thanks... now I just hope I can start the airplane!
I hop back in and note a rather ominous-colored cloud just to the south. It's coming for me and it looks both ill-tempered and hungry. The airplane mercifully fires right up and I waste no time during the runup and departure. Homeward bound.
As I get near altitude again, I notice there are definite blotches of rain ahead of me. There are also plenty-wide holes through the blotches, so I'm not overly concerned, but I'm not thrilled either.
My checkpoints fall like dominoes and I get handed off from Atlanta center to BNA approach again just as I'm going way around a mean ole rain cloud.
BNA: 223NH, I show precipitation just ahead of you. Are you deviating around that?
Me: Yes sir.
BNA: Ok, no problem. Smyrna appears to be clear, and we have radar contact.
Glad to hear that. Ten minutes later he calls up and says they have lost radar contact just as I'm slaloming between more rain clouds. That's really kind of unnerving. They found me again several minutes later, but still.
So I make it back over no-man's land, they hand me off to Smyrna tower, and I have the airport in sight. I start my descent far enough out, get cleared to land, and then execute a really crap approach and greaser landing. I really don't know how that happened, but it did. If I ever pull off a good approach and good landing all in one shot, I may just wet myself.
After shutting down I closed the flight plan and CFI1 meets me in the office.
Me: What kind of CFI sends his student out in this weather? They should pull your license!
CFI1: <laughs> Yeah, came out of nowhere, huh?
Me: Sure did, but it wasn't a big deal. I think I've defined my current weather minimums though.
All in all, the trip was a great experience. I'm glad to have gone and I really can't think of anything I did horribly wrong. There exists the possibility that I forgot something or other that is horrible, but I'm giving myself a pass since I haven't yet thought of it.
Tomorrow is my long solo CC. If that comes to pass and goes as well as this one, I'm rewarding myself with some noisy bodily function into a keyed mike. Count on it.
Logged: 1.8
Comments
Tark
Member
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Arlington, MA
Posts: 34
I freely admit that at one point earlier today I was saying to myself, "when the hell is Sysvr4's next lesson???"
Love the write-ups. They are equal parts inspiration and torture (since I don't yet have the means to begin my own training).
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Re: Lesson 19: Solo CC - I am four.
Fun read.
Originally posted by Sysvr4
Ceilings around 3500 ft, which is ok, except my trip back is scheduled for 4500 feet. Hrm... I guess that's not going to work, but I've still got plenty of altitude over the plateau at 3500-ish so it's not a deal-breaker.
Friendly quiz questions (this is a learning site of course) -
The report ceiling of 3500 ft....is that MSL or AGL?
The intended cruise altitude of 4500FT....is that MSL or AGL?
What are the cloud clearance mininums?
How much clearance would you expect at 3500 ft cruise?
<cue Jeopardy music>
*not implying you did anything wrong.
__________________
Personal Photo/Aviation Website|FARs|AIM|AC|PCG|FAA Opinions
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Re: Re: Lesson 19: Solo CC - I am four.
Originally posted by Jeff S KDTW
The report ceiling of 3500 ft....is that MSL or AGL?
The intended cruise altitude of 4500FT....is that MSL or AGL?
What are the cloud clearance mininums?
How much clearance would you expect at 3500 ft cruise?
1) AGL
2) MSL
3) Depends on airspace, most commonly 500/1000/2000
Regarding clearance, I admit that I wasn't thinking about the above when I wrote what you quoted. It was on my mind while at the controls and during the preflight decision, however.
What I was recalling during the writeup was the experience of having the altimeter pegged at 3500 and me flying through an only slightly low tail end wisp of a cloud and immediately nosing over to make room
Jeff
__________________
"It's more art than science" simply means the speaker is unable to achieve consistent results.
rlight1
Low and slow
Registered: Jun 2005
Location: VKX/HEF
Posts: 62
Re: Lesson 19: Solo CC - I am four.
Originally posted by Sysvr4
I burp loud and long...
Ha! I do that on every flight. Except with passengers. Let's me know my headset is working.
- Bob
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Correct.
The questions were more for the benefit of other students (admittedly, I remember when the light bulb went off in my head that the METAR ceilings are AGL and I need to account for this in selecting my cruise altitudes which are MSL).
__________________
Personal Photo/Aviation Website|FARs|AIM|AC|PCG|FAA Opinions
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by Jeff S KDTW
The questions were more for the benefit of other students (admittedly, I remember when the light bulb went off in my head that the METAR ceilings are AGL and I need to account for this in selecting my cruise altitudes which are MSL).
Naturally. No one would dare question someone with as grand a pedigree and aeronautical experience as I :)
Btw, there may be a minor snag in the next writeup. It's looking like the long solo XC for my next lesson may be a while. I was *this* close to taking off for it today when I had a mag problem and by the time that got sorted out, weather changed. Not for the better. Grr.
I was supposed to solo CC for the first time on Monday. You will all be shocked to learn that was canceled due to weather. Such a rare occurrence, I know. I figure the odds are on par with a male, albino California condor giving birth to live young. The mind boggles.
So I rescheduled that for Tuesday from 9am-12pm. I showed up and reviewed the planning and weather with CFI1 and he sprinkles a little holy water (read: ink) on my logbook and away I go for the preflight.
As I'm checking the airplane for signs that it will suddenly, and without warning, drop out of the sky on me I note some lowish puffy white things in the sky. I go back in to check the weather.
Ceilings around 3500 ft, which is ok, except my trip back is scheduled for 4500 feet. Hrm... I guess that's not going to work, but I've still got plenty of altitude over the plateau at 3500-ish so it's not a deal-breaker. I see CFI2 on the ramp and have him help me reach a decision. We decide it's a go, with the caveat that I may get some 180 practice on the way.
So I load up after the most thorough preflight ever, and having said my goodbyes to family and friends, I'm ready for takeoff. Case in point as I left the school's office:
Me <to school manager>: Manager, wish me luck. It's been nice knowing you!
Manager: Oh no you don't!
From KMQY I am to make my way towards KCSV, fully 70nm away. This is the same trip during which I become lost on my last dual CC. I decide this time to trust the collective judgment and experience of millions of aviators who have gone before me and simply point the airplane where I want it to go for the first 25 nm (without landmarks). The concept is just so foreign to me.
As I'm leaving the pattern I request a frequency change, open my flight plan, and proceed on course.
As I'm about to contact Nashville approach for VFR advisories, I burp loud and long enough that it overcomes the squelch control on my radio and rings in my ears. I consider how BNA approach would likely have responded to such an improper cold call, and I actually giggle out loud for a minute. I am four years old.
I am very, very proud to have shared that with you. Tune in next lesson for fart jokes.
So I contact BNA approach, refix the DG, point the airplane, do the cruise checklist, and pray to the dead reckoning gods that this works. Low and behold, 25 miles later I'm only a couple of miles north of my track. This I can handle.
At my next checkpoint I nearly have a minor coronary as I discover I'm just to the right of an airport.
Me: No way is that Cumberland... how in the hell did it get over there?!
<looking at map again, now thinking I'm 25 miles north of my track>
Me: WTF!
I deviate my course to the south and discover I'm also over a town. There's no town next to Cumberland airport. The plot thinkens.
I nearly have a brief meltdown as I'm eying the GPS with great desire. I overcome temptation and look one last time at my map to discover there's an airport I'd forgotten about just north of my checkpoint. I am 100% exactly on track. Sweet!
After that little bit of sightseeing, there was nothing of import to report on my trip up. I got there, found the airport without issue, descended to pattern altitude a few miles out. I even made a very nice 360 into a 45 entry on the downwind for my runway, and executed a brilliant approach.
I then summarily screwed the pooch on the landing. Not one of my worst, mind you, but definitely no good. I taxied to the ramp, shut down and took a picture with me in front of the FBO as proof. Then I found some guys working on their planes in the hangar...
Me: Sorry to bother, gentleman, but would one of you be kind enough to help a student pilot on his first solo CC?
Guy: Yeah sure, he's a CFI he'll sign for you.
Guy2: Was your landing good?
Me: Nope.
Guy2: Ok, I'll put "great landing".
Apparently they've done this before. Nice guys.
Me: Thanks... now I just hope I can start the airplane!
I hop back in and note a rather ominous-colored cloud just to the south. It's coming for me and it looks both ill-tempered and hungry. The airplane mercifully fires right up and I waste no time during the runup and departure. Homeward bound.
As I get near altitude again, I notice there are definite blotches of rain ahead of me. There are also plenty-wide holes through the blotches, so I'm not overly concerned, but I'm not thrilled either.
My checkpoints fall like dominoes and I get handed off from Atlanta center to BNA approach again just as I'm going way around a mean ole rain cloud.
BNA: 223NH, I show precipitation just ahead of you. Are you deviating around that?
Me: Yes sir.
BNA: Ok, no problem. Smyrna appears to be clear, and we have radar contact.
Glad to hear that. Ten minutes later he calls up and says they have lost radar contact just as I'm slaloming between more rain clouds. That's really kind of unnerving. They found me again several minutes later, but still.
So I make it back over no-man's land, they hand me off to Smyrna tower, and I have the airport in sight. I start my descent far enough out, get cleared to land, and then execute a really crap approach and greaser landing. I really don't know how that happened, but it did. If I ever pull off a good approach and good landing all in one shot, I may just wet myself.
After shutting down I closed the flight plan and CFI1 meets me in the office.
Me: What kind of CFI sends his student out in this weather? They should pull your license!
CFI1: <laughs> Yeah, came out of nowhere, huh?
Me: Sure did, but it wasn't a big deal. I think I've defined my current weather minimums though.
All in all, the trip was a great experience. I'm glad to have gone and I really can't think of anything I did horribly wrong. There exists the possibility that I forgot something or other that is horrible, but I'm giving myself a pass since I haven't yet thought of it.
Tomorrow is my long solo CC. If that comes to pass and goes as well as this one, I'm rewarding myself with some noisy bodily function into a keyed mike. Count on it.
Logged: 1.8
Comments
Tark
Member
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Arlington, MA
Posts: 34
I freely admit that at one point earlier today I was saying to myself, "when the hell is Sysvr4's next lesson???"
Love the write-ups. They are equal parts inspiration and torture (since I don't yet have the means to begin my own training).
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Re: Lesson 19: Solo CC - I am four.
Fun read.
Originally posted by Sysvr4
Ceilings around 3500 ft, which is ok, except my trip back is scheduled for 4500 feet. Hrm... I guess that's not going to work, but I've still got plenty of altitude over the plateau at 3500-ish so it's not a deal-breaker.
Friendly quiz questions (this is a learning site of course) -
The report ceiling of 3500 ft....is that MSL or AGL?
The intended cruise altitude of 4500FT....is that MSL or AGL?
What are the cloud clearance mininums?
How much clearance would you expect at 3500 ft cruise?
<cue Jeopardy music>
*not implying you did anything wrong.
__________________
Personal Photo/Aviation Website|FARs|AIM|AC|PCG|FAA Opinions
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Re: Re: Lesson 19: Solo CC - I am four.
Originally posted by Jeff S KDTW
The report ceiling of 3500 ft....is that MSL or AGL?
The intended cruise altitude of 4500FT....is that MSL or AGL?
What are the cloud clearance mininums?
How much clearance would you expect at 3500 ft cruise?
1) AGL
2) MSL
3) Depends on airspace, most commonly 500/1000/2000
Regarding clearance, I admit that I wasn't thinking about the above when I wrote what you quoted. It was on my mind while at the controls and during the preflight decision, however.
What I was recalling during the writeup was the experience of having the altimeter pegged at 3500 and me flying through an only slightly low tail end wisp of a cloud and immediately nosing over to make room
Jeff
__________________
"It's more art than science" simply means the speaker is unable to achieve consistent results.
rlight1
Low and slow
Registered: Jun 2005
Location: VKX/HEF
Posts: 62
Re: Lesson 19: Solo CC - I am four.
Originally posted by Sysvr4
I burp loud and long...
Ha! I do that on every flight. Except with passengers. Let's me know my headset is working.
- Bob
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Correct.
The questions were more for the benefit of other students (admittedly, I remember when the light bulb went off in my head that the METAR ceilings are AGL and I need to account for this in selecting my cruise altitudes which are MSL).
__________________
Personal Photo/Aviation Website|FARs|AIM|AC|PCG|FAA Opinions
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by Jeff S KDTW
The questions were more for the benefit of other students (admittedly, I remember when the light bulb went off in my head that the METAR ceilings are AGL and I need to account for this in selecting my cruise altitudes which are MSL).
Naturally. No one would dare question someone with as grand a pedigree and aeronautical experience as I :)
Btw, there may be a minor snag in the next writeup. It's looking like the long solo XC for my next lesson may be a while. I was *this* close to taking off for it today when I had a mag problem and by the time that got sorted out, weather changed. Not for the better. Grr.