First solo XC

mmilano

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Messages
242
Location
Temecula, CA
Display Name

Display name:
Mike Milano
Well I did it, and everything went pretty smooth till I got back to the airspace of CRQ.

I departed CRQ (carlsbad) for RAL (riverside).

Shortly after departing, I got my frequency change and opened my flight plan. Then I called So Cal approach for flight following. They advised me that 4500ft was below their radar and to call on another freq a few miles north of F70 (french valley)

Conditions were great, and by the time I was where they told me to call, I would only have been using FF for a few minutes, so I opted to go without.

I found RAL pretty easily and had an uneventful landing, just as I had hoped. I parked in transient, got a drink, and departed back to CRQ.

Everything is just great until I get about 3 miels from the field. This was my 4th flight from this airport, so it is not as familiar as the one where I did most of my training. I knew the basic route to get me headed toward the field, but I could not see it.

CRQ can be a very busy airport at time. It's class D, but they do have commercial jet traffic there a lot.

I'm entering the pattern on right base ( as I was supposed to ) but I had inbound traffic to my right, my left, and other traffic on long final.

When he called me #3 to land, I embarrasingly admitted I do not have the field in sight. He tells me to make a 90% left for the downwind at which time I saw the field.

So I do, but here's where it gets a little fusterating. He told me turn base, so I did. Then he tells me to make a box turn following with the instructions "that is a sharp 90 degree turn" .. so I did and immediately realized this turn put me facing into downwind traffic .. I was not on base long enough. As I start making the correction to aim toward the runway, he sternly tells me to make my turn wider.

Ok, I'll live with the embarrassment that I kind of screwed up his flow by not seeing the airport immediately, .. but then I get close and he tells me to start doing S turns to slow down so traffic in front of me can land and get off the runway.

I've never done this before, but ok, I know what he means... I'm about 1/2 miles from the runway and traffic in front of me was just touching down .. As I'm realizing there is no way this is gonna work, he tells me to go around, make left traffic and move south of the runway over the tower.

After extending downwind a little, things got back to normal and I landed just fine.

This landing experience definately knocked my confidence down a few knotches. I have mixed feelings about it. I think that I should have known exactly where the field was in the first place, .. but then, it was probably some real good experience with knowing instructions the tower might ask me to do in the future.

This XC helped with both my confidence and humbled me a little at the same time. I'm still looking foward to my next XC which will be a lot longer.
 
Sounds like a good learning experience to me!

In time your ability to spot airports will get better and better. When I was a helicopter student will about 500 hours total time, I was flying in the winter with my instructor who had around 6,000 hours at the time. We were looking for a grass strip about 20 nm from our home airport. Neither of us could spot it. I said to him this is BS! I'm going to zoom in the airport on the GPS and fly right over that sucker. I did, and it suddenly dawned on us where the airport was when we spotted hangars. The field was snow covered!

And you're not the first, believe me, to screw up at a towered field. I once called the tower and told them I was 10 to the west. He gave me a seemingly overcomplicated approach, but I didn't think too much of it at the time. A few minutes later he asked me to ident. He pointed out that I was to the east of the field, not the west. I was 10 to the east when I called him up initially...

I guess he didn't think I was a total idiot, though -- he did let me land directly on the ramp instead of a runway :yes:
 
As you get better at NAV, don't forget to rudder the nose left & right to look directly under your plane, as that is often where the airport will be hiding.
 
Gosh, Mike - first off, I'd forget about any "should have" stuff! Heck, this stuff is why they call us "students"!! :rofl:

Second, I would feel proud of all that - I mean, heck's bells, that was pretty complicated with lots of stuff from the tower and things to fix and just all sorts of stuff to keep track of!! And ya did it!! Way to go!

Best I can tell, it's not about whether we make a mistake - we're guaranteed to do so . . . all of us - it's about what we do in the aftermath. Ya did good. ;)
 
Not to worry, you did pretty well. I especially liked the part where you told ATC you didn't see the field, way better than just driving along without giving them a call.

"Box turns" doesn't sound like standard phraseology to me, but I suspect he simply wanted you to make 90 degree turns (across the ground, heading changes won't be 90 if there's wind). The more common phrase is "square your turns to final". The idea is to put a little more space between you and the plane in front of you by avoiding gradual "rounded corner" turns from downind to base and base to final. IOW don't cut the corners.

It also sounds like you recognized that the spacing was falling apart, which is also good. Anytime you see that developing you should be prepared to go around whether or not the tower instructs it.
 
Learn what you can from the experience and move on. These things happen to everyone, even those with lots more experience than you. The essence of becoming an experienced pilot is learning to deal with the unexpected. You just had a lesson. There will be more. Don't berate yourself.
 
i do feel a lot better thinking about it after reading all the comments :) thanks everyone.
 
It sounds to me like you rolled with the punches. You did great, and you'll do even better with more experience.
 
Back
Top