7N8

There was no weather! Miraculous! After weeks of cold, blustery, wind swept winter days with cold front following cold front, today there was no weather. The temperature must have reached the high 40s with virtually no wind. One high over Maine, another over North Carolina left Pennsylvania VFR. Time to go out to the airport.

Another first, with her busy schedule actually clear for the afternoon, my wife was able to come with me for her first flight in the Cirrus. That raised the stress factor a bit as I was very excited to show off this wondrous airplane. She is prone to motion sickness, so for her to get near an airplane takes courage...and flying with me, well she is one special lady.


I took my time with all the ground procedures and let her see what I was doing as I explained the "why" behind each task. Start up was a bit long as I didn't want to flood the engine. I was stingy with the primer and fuel pump, anticipating a warm start. Once I primed her a bit she jumped to life. Taxi and run up were normal. The first attempt at take off was aborted (wind noise - door not latched properly). That gave us a bit more time to get comfortable and enjoy the other aircraft using the field. The second attempt went well.


Butter Valley is within 3 miles of our house, but the tiny field won't support a Cirrus. I could land but would not get off again.(Runway 34 1535 x 24 asphalt, remainder turf). We headed in that direction for some sight seeing and a low approach. Along the way I proudly demonstrated the avionics and pointed out familiar landmarks. We finished up with obligatory fly by the house and headed back to Wings.

Mission accomplished. We had fun. Hopefully this will lead to some more significant adventures when the winter weather subsides.

Sr20

Time = 1.1 hours

N47

I stood outside the new BestBuy and watched the Cessna 172 fly overhead. "You could almost touch his wheels" said another shopper. "Isn't it Great!", I replied.

Thursday saw the high pressure area arrive bringing some cold crisp air and beautiful clear skies. I have learned to really appreciate VFR weather here as it is seldom seen. However I was a bit discouraged when I checked local METARs and found that many local airports were reporting winds gusting over 20. Wings was still 'blue' but there were a lot of 'pink' airports displayed nearby. TAFs looked promising.


The preflight was cold. I was sorely tempted to skip the fuel sumps as thought of getting that cold fluid on my hands was not at all appealing. Too much training and safety seminars quickly put that foolishness out of my head. (I was careful.). Start/taxi/run up were all normal. It was gusty and the T.O. required a bit of dancing on the rudders but nothing too difficult. Wow, visibility was probably a hundred miles, just gorgeous.


The mission was a simple one. VFR over to Pottstown Muni, and check out the landing pattern to see how it looks from a pilot's perspective flying over BestBuy. The winds weren't too bad, and the 'nuclear windsock' at Limerick they were mostly out of the north west, Unicom confirmed they were using RWY26 with one in the pattern. I flew just a bit deep to enjoy the view, and rolled out on final just prior to the store, about 500 feet or so. People are still very tiny at that height.


Full stop, taxi back, checks complete and off again. Wind was not a factor. Departed to the south to go and find KLOM. Philly could easily be seen in the distance. CTAF had a few doing some work there. I made my call, flew over the field at 2500' outbound to the quarry and turned back inbound descending to pattern altitude. One in the pattern in front of me, I waited until abeam him on final to turn base. The low sun on the horizon made glare a factor, but what a beautiful sunset. So pretty I had to have another view. So once more round the pattern and touched down just before the sun went below the horizon. aahhh.


Sr20
Time = 1.1 hours.

*  It was 17 December 1903 at Kill Devil Hills that Orville took to the skies in the first powered flight. Wilbur would fly later that day setting a distance record. Today we should all take a moment to thank them for what they did for our obsession.

Cold Front

Two weeks ago I scheduled some time with the CFII to practice some IFR procedures (primarily ATC communications). Some of the GPS approaches at KACY looked interesting and I wanted to see how the avionics would handle the missed approach and holding with multiple way points. I planned a cross country that would take me around and through the Philadelphia Class B into a towered airport.

The weather was IFR. A real cold front was moving in from the west and the rain showers and low ceilings arrived by mid morning. Just perfect for the exercise I had planned. A preflight briefing with the CFII cleared a lot of misconceptions (what does pressing the OBS button do?) and refreshed a number of concepts about GPS navigation. I got a weather brief from Flight Service and filed a plan down and another back from KACY. Preflight was soggy but normal.

An idiosyncrasy at Wings is the need to use a cell phone to call Clearance Delivery from the run-up area. My headset allows a cell phone to be attached, but I was unable to get a call out until I disconnected it and called directly. I made a mistake. Cleared as filed, I thought my Void time was in 5 minutes, instead he said call back in 5 minutes. So, I took off without a clearance. Never a good thing to do as it tends to annoy the Air Traffic Controllers.

As I started to enter the overcast at about 3K, the CFII told me to look out at the wing. Ice. A call to (my now friendly) ATC got an immediate clearance to descend and assistance to execute the GPS RWY24 (Mazie). My transitions were sloppy but I made a nice landing back home.

So in addition to getting a release form ATC before T.O, I should have been aware of the OAT on the ground and not relied so heavily on the wx briefing (frz lvl 9k), especially since I knew the weather was related to a winter cold front. Situational Awareness.

An excellent training flight.

Sr20
Time = 1.0 hours
Actual = 0.2 hours

N31 - 69N

The weather has been lousy. It was already bad before the remnants of Hurricane Ida pushed north and damaged the Jersey shore. I had hoped to join the Northeast Flyers for a lunch at KLNS, but flying was out of the question for me and I just wasn't up for a rainy day drive. It wasn't until mid-day on Sunday that I finally saw the Sun.

Monday morning looked good; blue skies and moderate winds with temperatures close to 60, and when a late afternoon conference call got canceled I decided to call Wings to see if the Cirrus was available. It was all mine for the afternoon.

My objective was to visit some old 'haunts'. The very first entry in my (now well worn) logbook was a local flight out of Slatington (69N). I was asked if that flight included two wings, goggles and a leather helmet, but the truth is it was a grass strip with one hanger and an airplane I would later fly did have to be prop started. My instructor used Kutztown (N31) as 'checkpoint' before letting his students solo. It was noted for the large hump in the runway. I guess he figured if you could land there then you could handle 80% of the runways you might encounter as a student.

While this was essentially just a daytime tour, I wanted to get some practice using all of the systems so I set N31 as a way-point and used 69N as my final destination. All ground procedures went well and I felt very comfortable in the cockpit. I waited at the hold short line for an Eclipse Jet to land and clear the runway. Autopilot was set for a climb on course Heading (060) at 900 fpm and target altitude of 4500'. Passing 1300' I dialed in North and announced my departure. With everything "green" I switched to the map on the MFD, confirmed that N31 was my next on the GNS430, hit direct/enter/enter and engaged GPSS with the Nav button. A slight turn to the left and I was riding on the purple line...pretty slick.

The plane leveled at 4500' as programmed, I checked the gauges and completed checklists and enjoyed the ride. I loaded an approach but had no intention to activate it. I just wanted to mentally brief what was needed and do the set up. It was about this time that I remembered to turn on the hand-held to get the picture at the top of this post. (I'll have to make this a part of my preflight checklist.) A right turn at N31 and off to Slatington. (I didn't see Kutztown since I was right on top.) I switched to Allentown Approach to listen in and when close gave them an advisory that I was in the area. 69N is right on the northern boundary of the Class C and I wanted to sight see just a bit. They now have a paved runway, about a dozen hangers and a bunch of airplanes tied down. They grew up.

Unfortunately Kutztown didn't. I found the airport on the way back and was sad to see the big yellow X's down the runway. The diner is still there, but no cars in the lot. I don't know when the property will be developed.

A quick turn around my house (still there), and time to return to wings. I hand flew it the rest of the trip and found KLOM to be pretty busy with two in the pattern and 3 more entering from the south. They gave way to me and I entered on the 45 to RWY 06 without any problems. My pattern was a bit tight, speed a little fast but a nice landing (on center-line) and easy roll out. As I started back a helicopter announced he would be landing on the taxi way. A brief chat confirmed he would land well clear of me as I told him I would take the throat up to the terminal.

A nice flight.

Sr20
Time = 1.2 hours

Alone

It had been awhile. The last time was more of an after thought as I was running out of currency in the Tiger. That was then. Now, this flight was important to me. I've been so focused on flying the system, I needed a chance just to fly, to enjoy the freedom of being alone in the airplane.

The weather was good, but as I have come to learn living in the Northeast, it is always a factor. A low overcast had many of the airports to east listed as marginal VFR, and as I watched the clouds from my office move in I wasn't sure I would be able to go. By 2:00 it looked a little bit better so I packed my bag and started the 45 minute trip to Wings.

As I walked out to the airplane my instructor was helping another student with his preflight for a Cessna. Only a brief greeting as I focused on the work at hand. Preflight, start, taxi and run up were all normal, although much quieter. My confidence level was very good and I was actually quite relaxed. Take off and departure were fine, and I did use the autopilot for the climb and level off. I flew north and dialed in Butter Valley (7N8) to let the airplane fly by my house (it was still there), disengaged for some hand flying, easy turns, climbs and descents, and then headed back to Wings.

I got the weather, listened for traffic and entered via the 45 for a full stop RWY 06. Very good speed control, nice pattern, but landed left of center line. A familiar voice keyed "nice work" from the Cessna at the hold short line.

It had been over three years since the last solo flight. All who read this take note...don't wait that long.

Sr20
Time = 0.8 hours.

*Note: It took less time for this entire evolution (out and back) then it took to drive out to the airport.