Did another dual X-Country last night!

[Owad1971]

So last night I took another XCountry Dual- so my instructor would sign me off for a "stage check" with another instructor. On my first second waypoint I was a little off and had to use dead reconing to find it (of course I recieved no credit for the effort). Anyhow- there was a great deal of haze over CT as the sun was setting and it made finding my ultimate destination quite challenging! I fly out of FRG (class D airport) and was going to 4B8- WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE. Had to execute lost procedures since I did not know what to look for at that tiny strip after the sun went to bed.

I kind of felt that this could have been avoided if;

1-Some local night flying was part of the school sylabus,

2-I was allowed to practice landings (dual then solo) at an uncontrolled field closer to home frequently throughout my training,
​

Overall I felt like I got my teeth kicked in- @$200/hr

Thoughts? Anyone have a similar expierence?

 

[david0tey]

Don't get frustrated about night flying. It's a completely different ballgame at night. Did the field have pilot controlled lighting? Click the mic seven times for the high intensity lights and keep your eyes open for them to come on. Sometimes if you don't see them actually come on, the lights just blend in with everything else.

 

[eman1200]

I'm trying to determine if it was a 'good' teeth-kickin or bad kickin. sometimes when I feel like I had a good beatdown on something new, the next flight I'm that much better at it, and I feel like the original beatdown paid off.

 

[jpower]

Had to execute lost procedures since I did not know what to look for at that tiny strip after the sun went to bed.

I was based at 4B8 over the summer, and the best thing about it was how easy it is to find! There are two 2050 ish foot flashing towers just a couple miles from the field. You can see them from faaaaaar away, especially at night.

 

[Owad1971]

I was based at 4B8 over the summer, and the best thing about it was how easy it is to find! There are two 2050 ish foot flashing towers just a couple miles from the field. You can see them from faaaaaar away, especially at night.

Yeah...I realized that. I circled over the lakes that are conveniently illustrated Under the class echo shading on the sectional- interior lighting in the Piper did not help!

I also learned that the CTAF is shared with 30 different fields... I was hearing tons of traffic yet saw JACK SQUAT!!!

 

[Owad1971]

I'm trying to determine if it was a 'good' teeth-kickin or bad kickin. sometimes when I feel like I had a good beatdown on something new, the next flight I'm that much better at it, and I feel like the original beatdown paid off.

It felt like a bad beatdown...but it probably was a good one.

 

[AggieMike88]

I also learned that the CTAF is shared with 30 different fields... I was hearing tons of traffic yet saw JACK SQUAT!!!

I remember learning that lesson on the day that I was out with the CFI At an uncontrolled field north of D/FW and was hearing radio traffic from the Houston area The atmosphere was lining up just right to bounce that signal all that way

 

[Aviatrix]

I have my first night XC tonight out of FRG, but going to HFD. I know we also have interior lighting but they are working on getting the plane just to have lights on the instruments instead. I haven't gone to an uncontrolled field yet but glad that's not being dumped on me as well. We'll probably go to Bayport and practice that as well as soft field landings on their grass strip. I fully expect to have my ass kicked tonight by night flying. We haven't done any local night flying, that'll be the second night flight to finish up the hours.

 

[MAKG1]

You learned several important lessons!

Stuff happens on cross-countries. I had no less than four unusual occurrences during my long solo, including a near miss in the pattern as another aircraft executed an instruction intended for me. Another was a nav failure (DME inop) requiring recalculating the leg in flight to determine start of descent. I learned from that flight not to depend on DME for anything VFR, but to use it instead as a secondary confirmation of position and ground speed. Dead or marginally functional DMEs are really, really common.

The biggest lesson from your experience is to plan for night or twilight work. You also learned what not to look for. Both of these are highly valuable lessons.

Remote airports can be hard to spot sometimes. Even sometimes if they are big. It's amazing how much a large airport with steel hangars in factory-farm country looks like, well, a factory farm.

The conditions you describe do not sound even slightly unusual for your neck of the woods.

It may seem expensive at $200/hour, but you're likely to learn these important lessons much faster in this manner than you would otherwise. And a few hundred bucks is cheap compared to defending your certificate over an airspace bust, or worse, encountering obstructions or terrain you didn't expect. One student not long ago crashed an airplane solo high in the Montana mountains due to getting lost.

 

[Owad1971]

You learned several important lessons!

Stuff happens on cross-countries. I had no less than four unusual occurrences during my long solo, including a near miss in the pattern as another aircraft executed an instruction intended for me. Another was a nav failure (DME inop) requiring recalculating the leg in flight to determine start of descent. I learned from that flight not to depend on DME for anything VFR, but to use it instead as a secondary confirmation of position and ground speed. Dead or marginally functional DMEs are really, really common.

The biggest lesson from your experience is to plan for night or twilight work. You also learned what not to look for. Both of these are highly valuable lessons.

Remote airports can be hard to spot sometimes. Even sometimes if they are big. It's amazing how much a large airport with steel hangars in factory-farm country looks like, well, a factory farm.

The conditions you describe do not sound even slightly unusual for your neck of the woods.

I got spoiled with POU,SWF & GON (those are easy at night..IMO) Oh well.

 

[redtail]

I have my first night XC tonight out of FRG, but going to HFD. I know we also have interior lighting but they are working on getting the plane just to have lights on the instruments instead. I haven't gone to an uncontrolled field yet but glad that's not being dumped on me as well. We'll probably go to Bayport and practice that as well as soft field landings on their grass strip. I fully expect to have my ass kicked tonight by night flying. We haven't done any local night flying, that'll be the second night flight to finish up the hours.

Just did this same flight last week (day vfr). One of my favorite short hops. Go to "Wings Bar & Grill" while you're there, great place with good food!

The view over the Connecticut River is spactacular!

HFD has a grass strip also, but I haven't used it yet.

 

[jpower]

Yeah...I realized that. I circled over the lakes that are conveniently illustrated Under the class echo shading on the sectional- interior lighting in the Piper did not help!

I also learned that the CTAF is shared with 30 different fields... I was hearing tons of traffic yet saw JACK SQUAT!!!

I remember learning that lesson on the day that I was out with the CFI At an uncontrolled field north of D/FW and was hearing radio traffic from the Houston area The atmosphere was lining up just right to bounce that signal all that way

Yup...it gets pretty busy. I learned at Bay Bridge W29 on the Eastern Shore, which used to share its CTAF with about a bagillion other airports, plus or minus. Especially Pennridge. They were ALWAYS doing skydiving up there! They finally switched to a new CTAF, but I haven't been over there much since.

 

[jpower]

Just did this same flight last week (day vfr). One of my favorite short hops. Go to "Wings Bar & Grill" while you're there, great place with good food!

The view over the Connecticut River is spactacular!

HFD has a grass strip also, but I haven't used it yet.

I never got to try the restaurant while I was up there! What a shame. I did do some T&Gs at HFD once just to say I did, and I talked to them a couple of times for a flight up the river and over downtown and the Pratt facility. It was pretty spectacular!

I have my first night XC tonight out of FRG, but going to HFD. I know we also have interior lighting but they are working on getting the plane just to have lights on the instruments instead. I haven't gone to an uncontrolled field yet but glad that's not being dumped on me as well. We'll probably go to Bayport and practice that as well as soft field landings on their grass strip. I fully expect to have my ass kicked tonight by night flying. We haven't done any local night flying, that'll be the second night flight to finish up the hours.

Make sure you don't land at Rentchler! It's the closed field at the Pratt facility just across the river. Apparently people do it fairly regularly. You'll know if you end up on final and a football stadium is staring you in the face. Oh, and those big Xs.

 

[redtail]

I never got to try the restaurant while I was up there! What a shame. I did do some T&Gs at HFD once just to say I did, and I talked to them a couple of times for a flight up the river and over downtown and the Pratt facility. It was pretty spectacular!

Yes the view is amazing!

Make sure you don't land at Rentchler! It's the closed field at the Pratt facility just across the river. Apparently people do it fairly regularly. You'll know if you end up on final and a football stadium is staring you in the face. Oh, and those big Xs.

Seriously?
If you study the sectional and stay along the river (which is also the noise abatement procedure), I don't see how it could be all that difficult to find HFD. It's right along the river.

 

[jpower]

Seriously?
If you study the sectional and stay along the river (which is also the noise abatement procedure), I don't see how it could be all that difficult to find HFD. It's right along the river.

Yes seriously! That's what I heard at least. I don't remember where or who from, so it's possibly embellished hearsay. To be fair, Rentschler is right along the river too. But it's charted as a closed airport, so you'd think anyone with a little bit of sense would be able to see that. Or the big yellow Xs on the runways. Or the lack of airplanes. Or the stadium at the end of the runway. Etc.