inav8r
Line Up and Wait
Yesterday, as mentioned before, was my long solo XC. The route that I had chosen was KAID->KVES->KAOH->KAID. This was to be my first trip to two new airports with out an instructor!
I planned the flight and picked out lots of waypoints along the way. My chart now looks like my son used it as a coloring book! But that's OK, it'll get reshuffled in a few months anyways.
The first leg of the flight over was some of the best flying that I've enjoyed by myself. I left almost an hour early so the skys were blue and beautiful and the air was really really calm. I spotted my airport about 15 miles out and just did a straight in to RY 9. I found a really nice airport manager to sign my log book and got back on my way.
The trip from VES to AOH took me over the Neil Armstrong airport and I could see Grand Lake off in the distance - very very easy landmark to spot - the only factor was that the haze was limiting visibitility to just about 15 miles.
Upon arriving at AOH I used the name on the sectional chart (Lima) and called "Lima Traffic" and continued to use that as I entered the pattern (nonstandard) and landed. After getting my log book signed and taxiing out to depart a couple of other planes came in and were all calling "Allen County". I wish the proper name could be printed SOMEWHERE!
After departing (Lima) Allen County for home I decided to climb up to 4,500 in search of smoother air (the thermals were starting down low). After getting up to 4,500 and levelling out I started to lean out the plane. I immeditatly noticed that the plane just started running rough. RPM's were going up and down by +/-50 and the cowling was vibrating like I've never seen before. I immedtialy pushed the mixture back all the way into full rich and it didn't stop. My heart skipped a beat when the vibration didn't stop. The RPM's continued to vary - so I turned for the nearest airport and started a descent. I then thought for a minute and decided to run a check of all systems. Throttle, mixture, fuel quantity, fuel selector, mags - MAGS - MAGS!! I had apparently not turned they key all the way back to both after doing my run up and sometime after departure if flipped back left. I turned the key to both and the engine smoothed out nicely, what a relief. I gave it a minute or two to make sure the problem was truly fixed and then turned back on course and climbed back up to 4500 for the rest of the trip home.
As soon as I crossed the Ohio border into Indiana it was like someone turned on the riding bull. My cell phone actually left the passenger seat and hit me in the arm (thank god it's a small bugger). I slowed down to Va and it calmed a bit. I hung with it as long as I could and then just let the plane slowly descend (about 150fpm) until I finally got home.
It was a great flight.
I planned the flight and picked out lots of waypoints along the way. My chart now looks like my son used it as a coloring book! But that's OK, it'll get reshuffled in a few months anyways.
The first leg of the flight over was some of the best flying that I've enjoyed by myself. I left almost an hour early so the skys were blue and beautiful and the air was really really calm. I spotted my airport about 15 miles out and just did a straight in to RY 9. I found a really nice airport manager to sign my log book and got back on my way.
The trip from VES to AOH took me over the Neil Armstrong airport and I could see Grand Lake off in the distance - very very easy landmark to spot - the only factor was that the haze was limiting visibitility to just about 15 miles.
Upon arriving at AOH I used the name on the sectional chart (Lima) and called "Lima Traffic" and continued to use that as I entered the pattern (nonstandard) and landed. After getting my log book signed and taxiing out to depart a couple of other planes came in and were all calling "Allen County". I wish the proper name could be printed SOMEWHERE!
After departing (Lima) Allen County for home I decided to climb up to 4,500 in search of smoother air (the thermals were starting down low). After getting up to 4,500 and levelling out I started to lean out the plane. I immeditatly noticed that the plane just started running rough. RPM's were going up and down by +/-50 and the cowling was vibrating like I've never seen before. I immedtialy pushed the mixture back all the way into full rich and it didn't stop. My heart skipped a beat when the vibration didn't stop. The RPM's continued to vary - so I turned for the nearest airport and started a descent. I then thought for a minute and decided to run a check of all systems. Throttle, mixture, fuel quantity, fuel selector, mags - MAGS - MAGS!! I had apparently not turned they key all the way back to both after doing my run up and sometime after departure if flipped back left. I turned the key to both and the engine smoothed out nicely, what a relief. I gave it a minute or two to make sure the problem was truly fixed and then turned back on course and climbed back up to 4500 for the rest of the trip home.
As soon as I crossed the Ohio border into Indiana it was like someone turned on the riding bull. My cell phone actually left the passenger seat and hit me in the arm (thank god it's a small bugger). I slowed down to Va and it calmed a bit. I hung with it as long as I could and then just let the plane slowly descend (about 150fpm) until I finally got home.
It was a great flight.
