Sinistar
En-Route
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2016
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Display name:
Brad
First off, thanks to others pitched in on the other thread regarding flight following:
https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/new-to-flight-following-questions.108717/
Well why not just throw it all in at once. On Saturday we decided to fly to a new restaurant directly on the other side of the KMSP bravo. I had called FSS in advance for a full briefing, mainly looking for any funky NOTAM's, especially TFRs since it was St.Paul and St.Patty's day. It was a perfect flying day: temps in the 40's, clouds at 15000, winds calm, unlimited viz. No excuses!
Departed our little airport. Climbed up to 3500 and was about 10 miles outside the Mode C veil before making the call. Now, during training with CFI#1 we had tried to get into the Bravo twice...no joy. I had a hunch it was because we were under the Bravo already and our destination would take us directly across the KMSP, possibly while climbing. But this time we were a ways out, altitude established and it was clear from our calling location that going around would be a PITA.
After the initial order to squawk XXXX followed my ACK and his "Radar contact" the Bravo entry clearance was literally just like 30 seconds! During my training attempts they always waited until we had just about hit the ring. It actually took about 10 minutes of flying until we actually entered the bravo.
Vectoring was rather simple. He inquired if I was familiar with Flying Cloud (where I trained) so instead of just "affirmative" I said something dorky like "affirmative, flew there a lot last summer". Too much chatter. But thankfully it was a bit quiet on frequency at the time. Anyway, he just said to maintain altitude, alter course to overfly FCM and expect vectors then - did that, first time I had ever flown over the old stompin' grounds.
I was most apprehensive about two things.
First: When could I sneak in listening to the destination ATIS in advance since I knew it would be needed. After we were instructed to overfly the Delta I tried but nothing. Then duh, pulled out the squelch...got it! Whiskey...fitting for St.Pat's day.
The second thing I was apprehensive about was the final vectoring into the destination. I had been there twice but never landing from the North. I didn't know how they would get me down and how far east I could get of the downtown and Capital. Well that was worrying about nothing. About 3 minutes after we had flown over the north end KMSP (that was cool!!! - Southwest plane on final right below us!) he just said "Maintain VFR, descend at your discretion and contact STP on XXX.XX".
We probably flew right over the capital! My wife was like "you probably want to start descending now." I was like "This is new to me, its all city, the river isn't iced up anymore and the runway is like 8000ft long. So I came in a little high and brought on flaps at the last minute. I wanted to be able to glide to that airport
One the way out I requested FF and bravo entrance from Ground. We got the FF but not Bravo. I think I was too polite. Plus I didn't have my exact on-course heading so I guessed it. Had I said 270 I think we would have got it. But I guessed 220 (which was more accurate) and got the "Remain outside the bravo".
To end FF on the way back they terminated a bit earlier than I expected. I was gonna go with it about 5 more miles. I could tell my wife was getting itchy to hear the AWOS and Unicom traffic. My goal in learning FF was to end it myself. Now I have an idea of where they might close it out now.
This was also our first flight with the GDL 39 3D. Wow, was there traffic! At one point we counted over 40 planes. I would say about 10 at any time were the big guys. The rest were probably GA. We don't have ADS-B out yet so probably even more. Approach probably called traffic to us 3 times on the way in and 4 times on the way back. On the way back was a great example of not trusting ADS-B in. He called out another plane 500 ft above and about a mile ahead. We passed fairly close. Definitely was not on the traffic display. And other times my wife would look at the traffic display and find the traffic immediately. So we're not dissing it either.
It was great having my wife with. She hasn't flown for the airlines in many years. And probably only flown in the Bravo (or whatever it was before that) just once. I think she was more nervous that me. But she was writing down everything for me which was great. It was a bit hard to hear approach about 40 miles out but she heard it fine. So maybe my hearing, weaker signal and the QT Halo's had me at a disadvantage. Still thinking about that???
FlightAware: Yep we showed up and I could see our return track afterwards. But I couldn't see the first flight there. I have an account but I'm thinking you need to pay to see anything past an active or most recently completed flight.
https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/new-to-flight-following-questions.108717/
Well why not just throw it all in at once. On Saturday we decided to fly to a new restaurant directly on the other side of the KMSP bravo. I had called FSS in advance for a full briefing, mainly looking for any funky NOTAM's, especially TFRs since it was St.Paul and St.Patty's day. It was a perfect flying day: temps in the 40's, clouds at 15000, winds calm, unlimited viz. No excuses!
Departed our little airport. Climbed up to 3500 and was about 10 miles outside the Mode C veil before making the call. Now, during training with CFI#1 we had tried to get into the Bravo twice...no joy. I had a hunch it was because we were under the Bravo already and our destination would take us directly across the KMSP, possibly while climbing. But this time we were a ways out, altitude established and it was clear from our calling location that going around would be a PITA.
After the initial order to squawk XXXX followed my ACK and his "Radar contact" the Bravo entry clearance was literally just like 30 seconds! During my training attempts they always waited until we had just about hit the ring. It actually took about 10 minutes of flying until we actually entered the bravo.
Vectoring was rather simple. He inquired if I was familiar with Flying Cloud (where I trained) so instead of just "affirmative" I said something dorky like "affirmative, flew there a lot last summer". Too much chatter. But thankfully it was a bit quiet on frequency at the time. Anyway, he just said to maintain altitude, alter course to overfly FCM and expect vectors then - did that, first time I had ever flown over the old stompin' grounds.
I was most apprehensive about two things.
First: When could I sneak in listening to the destination ATIS in advance since I knew it would be needed. After we were instructed to overfly the Delta I tried but nothing. Then duh, pulled out the squelch...got it! Whiskey...fitting for St.Pat's day.
The second thing I was apprehensive about was the final vectoring into the destination. I had been there twice but never landing from the North. I didn't know how they would get me down and how far east I could get of the downtown and Capital. Well that was worrying about nothing. About 3 minutes after we had flown over the north end KMSP (that was cool!!! - Southwest plane on final right below us!) he just said "Maintain VFR, descend at your discretion and contact STP on XXX.XX".
We probably flew right over the capital! My wife was like "you probably want to start descending now." I was like "This is new to me, its all city, the river isn't iced up anymore and the runway is like 8000ft long. So I came in a little high and brought on flaps at the last minute. I wanted to be able to glide to that airport
One the way out I requested FF and bravo entrance from Ground. We got the FF but not Bravo. I think I was too polite. Plus I didn't have my exact on-course heading so I guessed it. Had I said 270 I think we would have got it. But I guessed 220 (which was more accurate) and got the "Remain outside the bravo".
To end FF on the way back they terminated a bit earlier than I expected. I was gonna go with it about 5 more miles. I could tell my wife was getting itchy to hear the AWOS and Unicom traffic. My goal in learning FF was to end it myself. Now I have an idea of where they might close it out now.
This was also our first flight with the GDL 39 3D. Wow, was there traffic! At one point we counted over 40 planes. I would say about 10 at any time were the big guys. The rest were probably GA. We don't have ADS-B out yet so probably even more. Approach probably called traffic to us 3 times on the way in and 4 times on the way back. On the way back was a great example of not trusting ADS-B in. He called out another plane 500 ft above and about a mile ahead. We passed fairly close. Definitely was not on the traffic display. And other times my wife would look at the traffic display and find the traffic immediately. So we're not dissing it either.
It was great having my wife with. She hasn't flown for the airlines in many years. And probably only flown in the Bravo (or whatever it was before that) just once. I think she was more nervous that me. But she was writing down everything for me which was great. It was a bit hard to hear approach about 40 miles out but she heard it fine. So maybe my hearing, weaker signal and the QT Halo's had me at a disadvantage. Still thinking about that???
FlightAware: Yep we showed up and I could see our return track afterwards. But I couldn't see the first flight there. I have an account but I'm thinking you need to pay to see anything past an active or most recently completed flight.
