Steve's Flying Journal

Table of Contents

• Lessons 1-19 (Pre-solo)
• Lessons 20-45 (Pre-cross country)

  Solo Cross Country Lessons (total dual hours):

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• 46. First solo Cross Country (62.8)
• 47. Second solo Cross Country (66.3)
• 48. A Little Review (67.3)
• 49. Short and Soft Field Landings> (68.8)
• 50. Solo Touch and Goes (69.6)
• 51. A Mini Cross Country (71.6)
• 52. Stalls and Steep Turn practice (72.6)
• 53. Puget Sound Tour Cross Country (74.6)
• 54. More touch and goes (75.5)
• 55. Long cross country phase check (76.7)
• 56. Long Cross Country (81.9)
• 57. Steep Turns, Spiral Dive, Stalls (83.0)
• 58. MCA, Instrument work, Stalls (84.0)
• 59. Short/Soft field, Instrument (85.3)
• 60. A Lesson in Cloud Avoidance (84.9)
• 61. Short/Soft field landings, hoodwork (86.1)
• 62. Steep Turns, MCA (88.3)
• 63. Quick Cloud Avoidance (89.0)
• 64. Short/Soft field landings, hoodwork (90.0)
• 65. Check ride - I get licensed (91.7)

Lesson 46 -- First solo cross country

After getting the plan approved by the CFI, I head over the the airport. Trying to arrange all the papers, maps, and other paraphenelia in a logical sequence was just one of the challenges. But finally I felt ready to depart. Winds were calm and skies were 20000 broken. The takeoff was southbound, so I entered the right pattern, and started heading north from Paine (PAE - Everett) to Bellingham (BLI). Climbing up to 4500, things went really well. I contacted Seattle Radio and opened my flight plan just after leaving PAE's class D airspace. Then I contacted Seattle Center and asked for flight following, and got it.

Oops, forgot to note the start time... well let's guess... and off I go to see how well I can predict. I decided to travel slightly slower (to get more XC hours!) at 85 kt, which was a slightly pitch-up attitude. But the visibility was excellent. I could see my checkpoints from way away, and I got there pretty much on time.

I got passed to the next air traffic controller east of Whidbey Naval Air Station, which went well, and before I knew it, BLI was in sight. I decided to enjoy the view a bit, since the Cascades were clearly visible, with the glorious snow-capped peak of Mt. Baker in view. But time to descend, and I got a straight-in landing to runway 34 at BLI.

They decided to change to runway 16 as I was on final, due to a wind shift, but the slight tailwind posed no problem. But now for the hard part. BLI is a class D airport with some commercial traffic, and I had no idea what to do now that I was on the ground. Where the heck should I go now? I sat there, trying to figure out which frequency to talk to ground, when the tower asked if all was ok. "Yes, taxi to tower". Sounded kinda dumb... but they told me to switch frequencies and gave me a place to park for 10 minutes. Hey, I can handle this air stuff, but get me on the ground and I'm out of my element!

Somehow I managed to salvage this terror-filled experience and wander into the airport terminal area for a quick toilet break. But first, I called the FSS to close my flight plan. I got a rental agency woman to sign my log book (although CFI never asked me to). Then tried to get back to the airplane, but the gate was locked. OK, we'll just reach through, unlatch it... great security system here... and be off.

Since they switched runways, I had a southbound departure on runway 16, so an easy climb and off to a slightly different route back to PAE. I cleared the Class D airspace and called up Seattle Radio and opened my flight plan, then called up Vancouver Center. I totally forgot to mention flight following, but he gave me a squawk code and I figured I was set. Soon I was flying straight into the Whidbey Class C airspace again, so they had me contact them. I got a second squawk code and proceeded on in. I found the first checkpoint airport no problem, and saw Whidbey NAS in the distance. The controller said a C-141 was off at 10 o'clock 500 feet below, in the traffic pattern to land. Sure enough, there was a humongous jet off to my left. He looked awfully close to my altitude, and I decided to avoid.

So I veered right off of my beautifully sculptured flight plan. Of course, he just followed me. "Say type of airplane, 704ML." "Cessna 150, cruising at 85 kt." I looked out the rear window and couldn't find the jet. Hmmm... where'd that guy go? Several minutes later I saw him past me, so I turned left. Still think they could have given me more room.

I watched him land as I headed back from over the water to Whidbey Island to continue that flight plan so eloquently mentioned in the previous paragraph. I was about to leave the Whidbey Class C airspace, and the controller said to squawk VFR and radar service was terminated. This was when I finally realized I hadn't properly set up flight following. Oh well, I know where I am, close to home anyway. Flight following is an optional service anyway. Live and learn.

I found the next airport/check point and headed for the last one. By now I was in familiar territory and could see Hat Island in the distance, a check point for PAE. Unfortunately, I could not find Whidbey Airpark, my last checkpoint. So I circled around, checking my VOR and studied the ground intently. Finally I got out my Washington Dept of Transportation picture book of the airports and compared it with the view. Nope, that couldn't be it... it LOOKS like an airport... no, maybe it isn't... finally I gave up and headed for home.

I was cleared for an approach into downwind for runway 16, so another simple entrance into the airport. Except I ended up on mostly a straight-in approach. This is a bit unfamiliar (as was the landing at BLI), but I never seem to fly consisten traffic patterns anyway. So I can handle most any descent angle!! ha! One of the other airplanes in the pattern mentioned it was getting turbulent. So far the entire flight had been really smooth. That changed! Major tossing around on final approach.

The tower recognized my tail number and said I could have a long approach to taxiway A3, which is quicker to get to our hangar. So with the combination of turbulence and trying to "land long", I managed a pretty hard landing. But I don't feel too badly about it, I can blame the turbulence! I closed the flight plan by telephone again (forgot both ways to do it in the air) and gassed up 9.5 gallons. Now to check my gas calculations, and plan the next cross-country trip.
2.2 hours solo Contents

Lesson 47 -- Second solo cross country

The ride to Port Angeles was pretty uneventful. The weather was fantastic (in fact it had been for several days, a very unusual thing in the Seattle area!), with the clear skies and great visibility. I took in some pretty good views of the Olympic mountains on the way in, although it's really tough to sightsee while messing around with all the required elements of student flying. Look for traffic, check the map, look for traffic, check the time/log, look for traffic, check the gages and instruments, look for traffic, talk/listen to radio, look for traffic, doze off, fall asleep.... oops, never mind that last one!

My landing at Port Angeles would not exactly inspire passengers of my great piloting skills. It got a bit turbulent down low and I was bouncing around all over the place. But somehow I made a passable landing out of it. There was a pretty decent crosswind. I parked in the main parking area like I owned the place, and wandered in to a gift shop and got the clerk to sign off my log book. Then I moseyed on back out, took a quick documentary photo of the airplane in front of the Olympic snow-clad peaks, and took off east again.

This flight was also pretty uneventful. I headed towards Whidbey Island, and traveled up it through the class C airspace. A lot of airplanes were out, but even though it was super busy I got flight following. Eventually I found all my checkpoints and made a slightly better, but not great landing at Friday Harbor. I got gas, forgot to get anyone to sign my book, and headed north towards East Sound. The air was pretty turbulent down low (but very smooth up high). Approaching East Sound from the west, I got tossed around pretty badly, probably the most I've ever been in in my short "career" as an aviator. Hoping it would be sheltered and smoother near East Sound airport, I tried to land.

Unfortunately, on short final, I was being tossed around even worse. Several other airplanes were doing touch and goes there, but I was not able to observe how they were doing. By the time I got to 200 above the runway, I decided my approach was just lousy, and didn't really care for the bobbing-all-over-the-place either. So I put in full power, gradually reduced flaps to 0, and tried to climb. It sure wasn't climbing too well. After a slow climbout, with lots of that lovely turbulence, I realized carb heat was still on. Pushing that back in helped, but it still didn't want to climb too well. At least we weren't dropping. Enough of this, I won't try again, homeward bound!

I ran out of time, planning to do a touch and go at Bay View, and just headed back. The landing at Paine went ok, and I was another 3.5 hours towards my license.

Lesson 48 -- A Little Review

So we took off at dusk and did some stalls. They went quite well in general. It had been a while, so I had to think how to set them up. But I'm not at all nervous about stalls, which is good! Then a few touch and goes. Those went fairly well. At one point, some guy appeared out of nowhere flying right over the runway at pattern altitude. I veered off to the right as I've been taught. He circled around several times, never talking on our frequency. This airport is class G after 9pm, and has a left pattern instead of right.Well, we survived that one, and did some lost engine landings. Not much to add

Except one notable thing: we did some departure stalls while turning right. Man, can you turn on a dime at 40 kts! It was just spinning around up there, or so it seemed. If I ever get caught in a valley, I'll just stall the airplane, and turn! Just kidding... 60 kts works almost as well and is a lot safer!
1.0 hours dual Contents

Lesson 49 -- Short and Soft Field Landings

So at Harvey we asked if the grass runway was open. "Yup". So we did 3 grass landings. I need practice at all kinds of landings!
1.5 hours dual Contents

Lesson 50 -- Solo Touch and Goes

Lesson 51 -- A Mini Cross Country

Next to fly to Renton. Off I go, found the callin point over the East Channel Bridge (forgot to mention "have Quebec", but otherwise ok), and did a straight-in touch and go on runway 15. Then off for Auburn. I was really trying hard not to penetrate the S eatac Class B airspace and totally forgot to time the rest of the trip. Oh well, so much for flight plans! All of a sudden, there's an airport down there. Nah, that can't be Auburn already! Sure enough, it was. I had to fly way off to the west, barely un der the class B airspace, to get into their west pattern. Finally I did a pretty long landing, intending a touch and go. I heard some guys laughing on the radio, and wonder if it was me they were laughing about?!

Now to find Crest. CFI says don't land there, too narrow for my skills yet, so I just wanted to find it. So I found a great airstrip. Hey, there are cars down there! Course, I had already called on the radio to say I was overflying the "runway". Nope, it was a drag strip. OK, let's find this airport! So off I go, and found it ok. Then off north over Lake Youngs to call up Seatac and transition the class B airspace.

Boy, it sure is fun to fly the little Cessna 150 over the big guys, and I search for that opportunity! Tower gave me the squack code and 1500 altitude, fly over north end of the runway. That went well, and over the shoreline of Seattle he released me and I climbed up to 2500 and headed back home. I had to dodge a cloud that was pretty low, the the rest of the trip went well. Did a couple touch and goes and went home for the night. Good flight, I learned a lot.
2.0 hours solo Contents

Lesson 52 -- Stalls and Steep Turns practice

Lesson 53 -- Puget Sound Tour Cross Country

Then off to Auburn, which I entered much better, and landed much better, than last time. Then headed back north to cross over SeaTac's class B. That went very smoothly. I'm almost getting good at that! Then a left turn south towards Tacoma Narrows, where the landing went well except way off the left side of the runway again. Up and over to Bremerton for another touch and go, again straight on runway 1, but I consistenly drift to the left side. Bad habits having this 150' wide runway at Paine. Up and back to Paine, good landing there, and home free. Still using way more fuel than I thought, but all those climbs sucked down 3.1 gals of gas I figure. So not too far off the calculations, I suppose. I'll definitely use 6 gal/hour for calculations from now on.
2.0 hours solo Contents

Lesson 54 -- More touch and goes

Lesson 55 -- Long cross country phase check

He finally shows up nearly two hours late. He asked a bunch of questions about the charts, Pilot's Operating Handbook, and other things, which I did well on. He reviews my flight plan, and says he'll put me under the hood as soon as I figure out my ground speed.

Oh boy... that didn't go well. Under that hood I was all over the place. Up, down, right, left. It was not a pretty sight. There wasn't even much turbulence. I did ok at following various headings after a while though. The real problem was when he said I was in a cloud, and to do standard turns while figuring out where I was. Man, I had a tough time. I was all over the place, and not getting to that chart to triangulate much at all. Of course, the air got turbulent too. Well, I figured out where we were, and the course to the nearest airport (Arlington, 11 nm away).

So off I go under the hood on my calculated course to Arlington. Somehow I got totally lucky, because I wasn't exactly following the course, and flew right over the field. I call it beginner's luck, no doubt about it. The trip back to Paine field went ok until the landing. It got very bumpy and there was a strong crosswind. Right before getting to the runway, the thermals were throwing us up and I couldn't get the thing down, even with 40 degrees of flaps! Finally a bumpy landing and it was over.

Boy do I need practice... practice... practice...
1.2 hours dual Contents

Lesson 56 -- Long Cross Country

By the time I was signed off, it was 10am and I rode my bike to the airport and did a quick preflight. Naturally, there had to be a big delivery truck in the way, so instead of taxiing past it, I pulled the airplane past it. And in the process, left the f uel strainer on the engine cowling. This I discovered much later, to my chagrin. I finally took off from Everett (PAE) at 10:45 or so, naturally forgetting to write down the time on my navigation log per my usual habit.

The first thing I ran into was a cloud in the way. I elected to go to the right and slightly duck under it. I'll bet the controllers watching the radars were amused at the wandering blip on their screens. There went that perfectly crafted flight plan that was changed over and over on the spreadsheet until it was a true work of art! But a minor detail, and the route over Jefferson County airport to Port Angeles (CLM) was uneventful. After all, I'd done it before, so I are an expert! (yeah, right). I did a great landing, for me at least. The first leg was 0.8 hours.

Although it's only a 50 nm flight, I needed fuel for the next long leg. So I wandered all over the airport, talking in confused jibberish to the Unicom guy. Well, they were painting on the taxiway and I was cornfused (I'll take any excuse!) Of cour se, he probably knew I was a neophyte by some of the ridiculous things I jabbered when 10 miles outside of CLM. Fortunately, I recovered by the time I got closer to the airport. But I'm backtracking; back to the fuel. All fueled up, ready to check the fue l. Hey, where's that fuel strainer? Uh-oh...

While flying into CLM, I noticed the very thick, overcast clouds just south over the Olympic mountains. Dang, I was really looking forward to some great views since this flight is costing me so much money. So much for the view. But more importantly, those clouds looked way below my minimums. Right on the coastline of Puget Sound, they looked ok though. I thought about turning back for home and trying another day. But then I got the bright idea to go up, stay to the north slightly where the skies were open or just few clouds, and peeking around the corner to see how it looked further west.

Sure enough, it looked ok. The clouds weren't all that low, so there was a way out if I had to turn back. So I kept going, and they broke up nicely as I headed towards Cape Flattery, the furthest NW tip of Washington state. Still, it was pretty den se overcast over the land, although at 4700' according to the Quillayute (UIL) ASOS reports. My flight plan was to do a touch and go at UIL, but due to my late start I decided just to overfly it. So I jumped inland and checked it out (gotta go there somet ime for sure) and popped back over to the better skies on the coastline. All the checkpoints were coming in consistently all day, which was great. I had actually remembered to start the clock this leg at the airport, instead of the usual "estimated 4 minu tes ago" method.

So now it was time to enjoy the coastline and head south. Past Queets, over Copalis "airport" (just a sandy beach as far as I could tell), then I turned inland to Hoquiam (HQM). The winds must have been strong, but right down the runway, because I really greased that landing. Second leg was 1.9 hours. I ran over to get fuel. Sure would have been better to have that strainer. I hoped it was near that parked truck at PAE!

Back up in the air to head south again. I headed back towards the ocean, to "Leadbetter Point". All I could think of was "Bedwetter Point", but that's another story... then down to Cape Disappointment, the furthest SW point in Washington state. From there it was an easy 10 miles with into Astoria, Oregon (AST). For such a large airport, there wasn't anybody flying except one large helicopter. I managed to find the right runway at the last moment (the other one sure looked right until I noticed the numbers painted on the runway -- gotta work on that!) and did a so-so landing. For some reason I touched down before I was expecting, but the angle was so slight I barely felt the landing. Need to work on keeping it straighter, though. This third leg was 0.9 ho urs. And off for fuel and to call my instructor.

After several unsuccessful attempts to call, with not enough change, no calling card, a refused billing to another number, I got fed up and hopped back into the airplane. Although the scenery wasn't all that interesting compared to the coast, this proved to be the most interesting leg from a pilot's perspective. I took off and headed over the Columbia River. It didn't seem all that wise to be at 600' altitude over all that expanse of water, but I kept climbing anyway. After all, the Cessna 150 doesn't cli mb all that well, so I should be able to turn around, right? Probably not, but things went well. Except those darned clouds over the route to Olympia (OLM). I had hoped to climb to 9500 just for grins on the way back. But I left AST at 3:15 and was due ba ck for another student by 4pm 125 nm away. There was no way I could make it, and then these clouds were blocking my view.

The clouds looked like they were about 3000-4000 altitude, and the hills along the route got as high as 2000 elevation. That didn't make me too comfortable. The clouds looked like few or scattered, so maybe I could climb way high and take a peak down. I g ot up to 8000' and saw Mt. Rainier off in the distance. But the clouds looked pretty solid from this view. So I dove back down to 5000' where it looked like I could sneak below them. In doing this, I had gone up the Columbia river and way off course. Fort unately, the VORs were working great, plus the visibility under there was a good 50 miles, so it was no problem. I did learn that the mountaintop checkpoints I selected between AST and OLM were useless. They weren't all that much higher than the other baz illion hills out there, all covered with trees or clearcuts.

That altitude sure felt good up there due to no places to land. At 8000' it felt really good. I had leaned the mixture per the book to save fuel, and was diving down lower when the engine decided to sputter. Uh-oh... hm... did I let the engine cool too m uch on the descent when I applied power? I didn't use carb heat! OK, turn that on. Oh! Mixture! Shove that baby all the way in to mixture rich! The engine never really did give up but I got a nice dose of reality up there. You have to pay attention to eve rything.

I followed the VOR to OLM but had a great view of Interstate 5 off to my right. I managed to fly right over Olympia, totally missing all my checkpoints since AST, but things were going well. During my dive to 5000, they lost radar contact with me. Closer to Olympia, I got it back. By this time I had descended to 3500. They didn't mind me flying right over OLM in their airspace, but further north had me turn away from Seatac's Class B area. No matter, the rest of the route was easy to follow with all the b ays and islands of Puget Sound. The only problem was I was so derned late for the next guy. I landed 45 minutes late, apologized, and found the fuel strainer right there on the taxiway where I thought it might be! The fourth leg was 1.6 hours, so my total flight time was... well, read it below so I can be consistent with this log!
5.2 hours solo Contents

Lesson 57 -- Stalls, Steep Turns, Spiral Dive

Lesson 58 -- MCA, Stalls, Instrument work, Engine Out

Lesson 59 -- Short/Soft field, Instrument

Lesson 60 -- A Lesson in Cloud Avoidance

Lesson 61 -- Short-Soft field landings, hoodwork

Lesson 62 -- Steep turns, MCA

Lesson 63 -- Quick CLoud Avoidance

Lesson 64 -- Short/Soft field landings, hoodwork

Lesson 65 -- Check ride - I get licensed

On the check ride I managed to do fairly well for the first 90% of it. Even my first turns around a point went well. My 45 degree bank steep turns lost altitude as usual, but I barely squeaked into the requirements. The first landing was a short field at Monroe. I came in way too high but managed to drop it on the numbers due to luck, a headwind, and those 40 degree flaps.

Then we headed back to Paine for a short field landing on runway 29. I've never landed on that one, but no biggie... do a straight-in approach. That went ok, but the crosswind component was a little strong. Mostly my timing was way off and I had the hardest "soft-field" landing ever witnessed by seismic senors. He said to me on the climbout after that touch and go "did I hear you say you wanted to try soft field landing again?" Well, no (I thought he was trying to distract me on the takeoff). After being asked a couple more times, I got the point and asked for another try. Unfortunately, two more tries were pretty bad too (on runway 34L, the long runway) with hard landings. Probably my hardest landing ever was that one on 29! Oh well.

Somehow he let me pass and after a debriefing it was a done deal. I had my temporary license. Somehow, those last 10 minutes really dampened any sense of achievement but writing this a week later I'm feeling a little better about it.

Things to change: do 45 steep turns sitting straight, but leaning forward. I was leaning inwards to see better. Nope, keep the body straight. Look outside during stalls, not on the instruments! Give shorter responses on the radio. This isn't IFR flying, be concise and just acknowledge quickly. Get a pad and sit higher in the seat for better visibility (I'm 5'7" flying a Cessna 150). Identify that VOR before trusting it! Check power first on unusual attitudes.

This checkride was one of my best lessons. Now to go practice some more!
1.7 hours "solo" (more like "dual"! Final stats: 92.3 total hours, 7.1 night, 3.6 hood (instrument), 18.7 cross country, 57 dual, 35.8 solo, 412 landings (same as takeoffs, luckily). Contents

More flights, as a private pilot

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