cowman
Final Approach
I thought I'd write this up because it's something nobody really discusses. Basically you've passed your check ride and now you're a private pilot.... so now what?
Well if you're like me you want to go somewhere. Some friends were meeting up for a week back where I grew up. 315nm in my Archer, ground transport available from multiple people, a place to stay, no particular need to get there or leave any specific day. Perfect trip. My wife was busy so I went alone.
Forecasts looked ideal for the departure date until right when I was getting ready to leave ceilings were coming down. I had planned a flight at 5500' but there were scattered and broken layers along the route in a lot of places around 4000' (across the midwest with the surface being 600-1000' MSL). After some dithering I determined it would be safe to still make the flight at 3500. I'd also been waffling on getting flight following or not... I had done it during my training and at the time had a lot of trouble keeping the frequencies and squawk codes straight long enough to read them back and put them in the radios. Because I wasn't going to be at a "cruising" altitude anymore I decided to do it anyway. Got a simple notepad and pen to write down what I needed.... I guess I'm a better pilot now because none of this was difficult this time around. Also glad I did it, at one point in the flight center directed me to change heading as someone was coming at me head on at my altitude. Pretty quickly after starting the turn I saw him zoom by at maybe 1/4 mile away. We probably still would have missed, but that would have been way too close for comfort. The only other noteworthy thing that happened on this leg was I thought I had an aux cable to play some music from my phone on the flight in the airplane and discovered I didn't when I got out to the hangar. Not a big deal but after about 2 hours I was wishing I either had someone to talk to or some music. Not so bad though- I was busy flying and spotting all the towns I normally drive through. Had a headwind so what I expected to be around a 2:45 flight was more like 3:15. I knew that was a possibility and knew I was carrying more than enough fuel. I did note I burned more than expected... I plan 10gph and expect about 8. On this trip I did burn pretty darn close to 10... a non issue since that's what I planned on and landed with almost 2 hours of fuel remaining but worth noting. I had once thought I could make this trip starting with fuel at tabs if I needed to carry a full load of passengers or baggage... I no longer believe that's safe without a stop to refuel.
Landed safely, tied down the airplane and locked it. Spent the week with friends with the intention of coming home thurs afternoon and getting home before dark. I had little to no internet access that week but I kept pulling up forecasts all showing good conditions for my planned return time. I had planned to leave early or late to avoid weather if need be but everything showed clear. The day I planned to go I again checked forecasts... all clear. Had lunch with someone I hadn't seen in a few months, ran around town, came back to get my stuff. While packing I opened up foreflight to see if I could get weather radar...terminal forecasts all still clear. With the signal I had it took nearly 5 minutes to get a weather picture but there it was... big bunch of precip with convective activity a few miles west of my flight path and moving SE. Called a weather briefer who confirmed what I already knew... I'd be flying right into it. The briefer also thought it was odd all the terminal forecasts showed clear.
I thought I could delay until it passed by... an hour passed, then another with it not moving. Annoyed, I realized if I'd gone at my planned time I'd be past it by then. It never moved it just dissipated.... got a new weather briefing to confirm this. Ended up leaving after dark which isn't what I'd wanted but weather was pretty ideal, I was awake enough, and more bad weather was on it's way for the morning.
I had to fuel the airplane still, so without doing a preflight or checklist I fired it up to taxi over to the fuel pumps. While rolling up I noted the engine was running rough.... not what I wanted to have a problem with in the middle of nowhere with a tight window and a wife at home really wanting me back that night. Tried to shut it off by moving the mixture knob to idle cutoff like normal but it wouldn't stop. Played with the throttle but it just kept running roughly at idle cutoff. I finally just turned off the mags and that killed it.... quickly figured out I'd not locked the primer knob after I started up and fortunately that was the problem. Fueled up, did a pre-flight by flashlight and I was on my way.
I have foreflight on an ipad and my iphone... I keep the map up on the ipad so I had pulled up the phone to get a departure frequency. On my iphone it had "Kansas city center" on 135.525... didn't say departure just kansas city center for the airport I was departing. I tried multiple times to raise them on that frequency... hit my squelch and listened to the static and no dice. A while later I was passing another airport that listed Chicago center instead and I was able to contact them and pick up flight following from there. Later, apon reviewing the AF/D for my departure airport it did list Kansas city center as the departure contact but on a different frequency than I'd been using which explains why nobody answered but then I have no idea what foreflight on my phone was giving me then. Anyone know? Nice lesson to file away for the next flight. Not much else to say about this return flight... very slight tailwind so I cruised along at a good 120-124kts ground speed and made it home closer to my planned time. Should have done 2 more takeoffs and landings on arrival to get my night currency back but I was tired and ready to go home at that point.
So that was pretty much it... some over-caution and some mistakes were made but I had a safe relatively stress free trip. Will do it again as soon as possible.
Well if you're like me you want to go somewhere. Some friends were meeting up for a week back where I grew up. 315nm in my Archer, ground transport available from multiple people, a place to stay, no particular need to get there or leave any specific day. Perfect trip. My wife was busy so I went alone.
Forecasts looked ideal for the departure date until right when I was getting ready to leave ceilings were coming down. I had planned a flight at 5500' but there were scattered and broken layers along the route in a lot of places around 4000' (across the midwest with the surface being 600-1000' MSL). After some dithering I determined it would be safe to still make the flight at 3500. I'd also been waffling on getting flight following or not... I had done it during my training and at the time had a lot of trouble keeping the frequencies and squawk codes straight long enough to read them back and put them in the radios. Because I wasn't going to be at a "cruising" altitude anymore I decided to do it anyway. Got a simple notepad and pen to write down what I needed.... I guess I'm a better pilot now because none of this was difficult this time around. Also glad I did it, at one point in the flight center directed me to change heading as someone was coming at me head on at my altitude. Pretty quickly after starting the turn I saw him zoom by at maybe 1/4 mile away. We probably still would have missed, but that would have been way too close for comfort. The only other noteworthy thing that happened on this leg was I thought I had an aux cable to play some music from my phone on the flight in the airplane and discovered I didn't when I got out to the hangar. Not a big deal but after about 2 hours I was wishing I either had someone to talk to or some music. Not so bad though- I was busy flying and spotting all the towns I normally drive through. Had a headwind so what I expected to be around a 2:45 flight was more like 3:15. I knew that was a possibility and knew I was carrying more than enough fuel. I did note I burned more than expected... I plan 10gph and expect about 8. On this trip I did burn pretty darn close to 10... a non issue since that's what I planned on and landed with almost 2 hours of fuel remaining but worth noting. I had once thought I could make this trip starting with fuel at tabs if I needed to carry a full load of passengers or baggage... I no longer believe that's safe without a stop to refuel.
Landed safely, tied down the airplane and locked it. Spent the week with friends with the intention of coming home thurs afternoon and getting home before dark. I had little to no internet access that week but I kept pulling up forecasts all showing good conditions for my planned return time. I had planned to leave early or late to avoid weather if need be but everything showed clear. The day I planned to go I again checked forecasts... all clear. Had lunch with someone I hadn't seen in a few months, ran around town, came back to get my stuff. While packing I opened up foreflight to see if I could get weather radar...terminal forecasts all still clear. With the signal I had it took nearly 5 minutes to get a weather picture but there it was... big bunch of precip with convective activity a few miles west of my flight path and moving SE. Called a weather briefer who confirmed what I already knew... I'd be flying right into it. The briefer also thought it was odd all the terminal forecasts showed clear.
I thought I could delay until it passed by... an hour passed, then another with it not moving. Annoyed, I realized if I'd gone at my planned time I'd be past it by then. It never moved it just dissipated.... got a new weather briefing to confirm this. Ended up leaving after dark which isn't what I'd wanted but weather was pretty ideal, I was awake enough, and more bad weather was on it's way for the morning.
I had to fuel the airplane still, so without doing a preflight or checklist I fired it up to taxi over to the fuel pumps. While rolling up I noted the engine was running rough.... not what I wanted to have a problem with in the middle of nowhere with a tight window and a wife at home really wanting me back that night. Tried to shut it off by moving the mixture knob to idle cutoff like normal but it wouldn't stop. Played with the throttle but it just kept running roughly at idle cutoff. I finally just turned off the mags and that killed it.... quickly figured out I'd not locked the primer knob after I started up and fortunately that was the problem. Fueled up, did a pre-flight by flashlight and I was on my way.
I have foreflight on an ipad and my iphone... I keep the map up on the ipad so I had pulled up the phone to get a departure frequency. On my iphone it had "Kansas city center" on 135.525... didn't say departure just kansas city center for the airport I was departing. I tried multiple times to raise them on that frequency... hit my squelch and listened to the static and no dice. A while later I was passing another airport that listed Chicago center instead and I was able to contact them and pick up flight following from there. Later, apon reviewing the AF/D for my departure airport it did list Kansas city center as the departure contact but on a different frequency than I'd been using which explains why nobody answered but then I have no idea what foreflight on my phone was giving me then. Anyone know? Nice lesson to file away for the next flight. Not much else to say about this return flight... very slight tailwind so I cruised along at a good 120-124kts ground speed and made it home closer to my planned time. Should have done 2 more takeoffs and landings on arrival to get my night currency back but I was tired and ready to go home at that point.
So that was pretty much it... some over-caution and some mistakes were made but I had a safe relatively stress free trip. Will do it again as soon as possible.