9.7h in 3 days mostly in IMC

[genna]

That was fun and interesting and very educational.

First real trip since getting my IR. My wife and I went to visit a friend 400 miles away. KDMW - KIAD(overnight stop) - KSDF, then KSDF - KCKB(fuel stop) - KDMW.

Most of it was in and out of IMC conditions(first time for my wife).

We almost scrapped the trip due to the weather coming up from the south, but I had lots of outs and lots of fuel and forecast looked never really worse than MVFR at destinations. So my wife - who is not really a fan of flying - gave us a go. Bless her heart.

Few things I learned:
1. Need to practice more x-wind landings. Wife was not happy. Had to do 2 landings with wind at 10 at 90deg. First one was not good at all, slid and just held it together. Second was better, but hopped a lot.
2. KIAD and Potomac are great. I was flying into it on Friday evening and they closed one of the runway just that day. So, here were are trying to stay not blown off the 19C localizer into a busy 19R while 19L is closed. All the traffic is routed to 19R and controller is calmly helping me with course and altitude while asking to give him my best speed. I did my best while giving up on the AP trying to capture the localizer after KIAD changed from 1C to 19C and I was given that info a little late. I caused quite a bit of traffic. Wife was a little scared.
3. Portable radio is great for getting clearances at towered airports. Probably will pay for itself in a few flights
4. From now on, i'm just filing DIRECT. Maybe in other areas around the country it works differently, but here it seem to make no difference. You file one thing(airways), you get something else(or DIRECT) and you end up getting DIRECT in real life anyway just a few minutes after take off. Those three had nothing in common at all except the destination.
5. Longer flights are easier to handle. More time to get your thoughts together and transition from departure to cruise to approach.
6. Real life is easier than checkout. AP rocks, so does GPS.
7. Caught a few rainbows. That made my wife very happy


Always learning....

 

[Chip Sylverne]

Nice job. I don't program more than 3 wpts ahead around here anymore. Last week I coming north from RIC Potomac gave me a 7pt reroute, took me a good 5 minutes to punch it in. Just as I finish the last change, I swap to Pax Appch, he gives me direct.

Sheesh.

Yes, a/p's rock. Did without for my first 100 or so hours IMC. Now, I wonder how I survived without...so much easier, and safer to check charts, freqs, and situational awareness when you can focus on the big picture and let Otto do the grunt work.

And geo referenced charts are the bomb too.

 

[Chip Sylverne]

Nice job. I don't program more than 3 wpts ahead around here anymore. Last week I coming north from RIC Potomac gave me a 7pt reroute, took me a good 5 minutes to punch it in. Just as I finish the last change, I swap to Pax Appch, he gives me direct.

Sheesh.

Yes, a/p's rock. Did without for my first 100 or so hours IMC. Now, I wonder how I survived without...so much easier, and safer to check charts, freqs, and situational awareness when you can focus on the big picture and let Otto do the grunt work.

And geo referenced plates are the bomb too.

 

[genna]

Yes. Foreflight with geo-ref plates is great. And I got to test the 113$ adsb receiver. Not bad

 

[frfly172]

Do a lot of single pilot IFR,wouldn't attempt a lot of the flights without an auto pilot. Most of the time I file direct and get it,unless your going near the NY class B.

 

[genna]

I got everything direct except in and out of Dulles. Took me 10 min to figure out and enter route Clearance gave me including SID(runway heading), only to get left turnout on takeoff from tower and immediate direct from departure

This is when I decided to start using portable for clearance. A lot cheaper than 2$/min I pay for Hobbs )

 

[jordane93]

I always look to see if there is a TEC route since I'm in the NE. If there is no route I'll just file direct even though I know I won't get it. I'll become familiar with nearest VORs and victor airways but I know if I try to file a route, NY will give me something completely different. I don't even waste my time so I'll just file direct.

 

[Bill Watson]

Nice job!

 

[DeckardTrinity]

Dunno if you use Foreflight, but it lets you lookup ATC cleared routes between two airports. My call-ups to clearance are now usually "cleared as filed".

As for your $2/min Hobbs problem, probably better in the long run to find a local club that charges tach time. Then you can just sit there for 10 minutes and take your time copying the clearance, punching in the first few waypoints, and spending $0. (or close to it)

 

[genna]

Dunno if you use Foreflight, but it lets you lookup ATC cleared routes between two airports. My call-ups to clearance are now usually "cleared as filed".

Yes, I do. But I don't see that available often. If it is, I chose it.

As for your $2/min Hobbs problem, probably better in the long run to find a local club that charges tach time. Then you can just sit there for 10 minutes and take your time copying the clearance, punching in the first few waypoints, and spending $0. (or close to it)

No clubs around here that I can find.

 

[StinkBug]

There's a better solution for that, buy a handheld and use that for your clearance call. Get your clearance before even flipping on the master. There's nothing saying you have to depart immediately anyways. On occasion I've gotten my clearance while sitting in the FBO. If they ask if I'm ready to depart I just tell them I'll need 10min or whatever and call ground when I'm up and running.

If it's an untowered field this may not always work since sometimes they will want you to call when holding short, but most of the time it works.