rpadula
En-Route
Well, since I see lots of trip reports, here's mine:
Last Thursday, I made my first flight in the Commander since I took ownership. Got up very early and launched on a beautiful 3 hour flight from LZU to ORL. I had a completely smooth IFR flight and loved every minute of it. Man, what a gift to be able to fly! Even got about 15 minutes of actual instrument time in central Florida.
I surprised my best friend (that's him in the pic below) with the news of aircraft ownership, gave him a quick tour, then we went for a bagel. He thought there'd be room in there for him. He's 6'6" and we both crammed into a 152 once! An hour and a half later, I took off to head back home. Again, I got another 20 minutes of instrument time while being vectored until I broke out over Ocala.
Amazingly, I very easily spotted both the traffic ATC called to me. First was a Learjet at 9k (I was at 8k) waiting until we had a visual on each other to descend into Gainesville, FL. Was called as 2 o'clock and 1 mile. I looked up and there it was. Hmmm... so that's what RVSM tolerances look like.
Second one was over southern Georgia. I was still at 8K, on top of a fairly solid layer and they call traffic a few miles converging, at 7500. That got my attention. I wasn't really sure how high I was above the clouds (later I thought it might be 1500 feet), so I didn't know where the heck that guy would be. Sure enough, I spotted him off to my left. I'm not great at judging distances, but I gave him a wave just in case.
I made it home in 3.5 hours.
Friday morning, the weather was still great, so I decided to file quickly and fly to Jacksonville for my new niece's Baptism. I asked both my parents to pick me up at HEG (so I could spring the surprise on them). Can't believe it, but from that one nugget of info, my mom had guessed that I bought a plane!
Again, it was a pleasure to fly just 2 hours instead of drive for 6.5. And I'll be darned if this Commander doesn't make my landings look good! I was behind a Warrior who landed on 25 (4000') and he had to back-taxi to get off at the half-way point. Not me. You bring a 112 in a little slow and you can get it down for a sweet stall-horn-sounding-landing and stopped in no time.
Unfortunately, this was a 1/2 trip, because the weather at LZU was right at minimums on Monday. I knew I'd be in trouble when I saw the winds were out of the east. The ceiling never lifts at LZU when that happens. Add to that: (1) I've only had the plane 2 weeks, (2) haven't practiced any approaches in it yet, (3) don't know how to use the GPS in approach mode either, and (4) the GS at LZU was NOTAM'ed out of service, I decided to hitch a drive home with my brother. The completely right decision. Once we passed Macon, the ceilings and vis came down exactly as forecast. Yuk:
KLZU 302145Z 05006KT 5SM BR BKN008 BKN020 17/16 A2996
KLZU 302045Z 09008KT 3SM BR OVC006 17/16 A2996
KLZU 301945Z 00000KT 4SM BR BKN008 OVC015 17/16 A2998
KLZU 301845Z 07008KT 2SM -RA BR OVC002 17/16 A2998METAR
KLZU 301745Z 07006KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 17/16 A2999
KLZU 301645Z 08005KT 3SM -DZ BR OVC006 17/16 A3001
KLZU 301545Z 12004KT 2SM -DZ BR OVC004 16/15 A3002
KLZU 301445Z 09004KT 2 1/2 -DZ BR OVC006 16/14 A3001
KLZU 301345Z 10005KT 3SM BR BKN005 16/14 A3001
KLZU 301245Z 08005KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 14/13 A3001
KLZU 301145Z 07004KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 14/13 A3001
KLZU 301100Z 08007KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 14/13 A3000
So, now I have a brand new problem I've never had before: having to retrieve my stranded airplane!
Thank God I put the outside cover on it when I got there.
But what a blast!
-Rich
Last Thursday, I made my first flight in the Commander since I took ownership. Got up very early and launched on a beautiful 3 hour flight from LZU to ORL. I had a completely smooth IFR flight and loved every minute of it. Man, what a gift to be able to fly! Even got about 15 minutes of actual instrument time in central Florida.
I surprised my best friend (that's him in the pic below) with the news of aircraft ownership, gave him a quick tour, then we went for a bagel. He thought there'd be room in there for him. He's 6'6" and we both crammed into a 152 once! An hour and a half later, I took off to head back home. Again, I got another 20 minutes of instrument time while being vectored until I broke out over Ocala.
Amazingly, I very easily spotted both the traffic ATC called to me. First was a Learjet at 9k (I was at 8k) waiting until we had a visual on each other to descend into Gainesville, FL. Was called as 2 o'clock and 1 mile. I looked up and there it was. Hmmm... so that's what RVSM tolerances look like.
Second one was over southern Georgia. I was still at 8K, on top of a fairly solid layer and they call traffic a few miles converging, at 7500. That got my attention. I wasn't really sure how high I was above the clouds (later I thought it might be 1500 feet), so I didn't know where the heck that guy would be. Sure enough, I spotted him off to my left. I'm not great at judging distances, but I gave him a wave just in case.
I made it home in 3.5 hours.
Friday morning, the weather was still great, so I decided to file quickly and fly to Jacksonville for my new niece's Baptism. I asked both my parents to pick me up at HEG (so I could spring the surprise on them). Can't believe it, but from that one nugget of info, my mom had guessed that I bought a plane!
Again, it was a pleasure to fly just 2 hours instead of drive for 6.5. And I'll be darned if this Commander doesn't make my landings look good! I was behind a Warrior who landed on 25 (4000') and he had to back-taxi to get off at the half-way point. Not me. You bring a 112 in a little slow and you can get it down for a sweet stall-horn-sounding-landing and stopped in no time.
Unfortunately, this was a 1/2 trip, because the weather at LZU was right at minimums on Monday. I knew I'd be in trouble when I saw the winds were out of the east. The ceiling never lifts at LZU when that happens. Add to that: (1) I've only had the plane 2 weeks, (2) haven't practiced any approaches in it yet, (3) don't know how to use the GPS in approach mode either, and (4) the GS at LZU was NOTAM'ed out of service, I decided to hitch a drive home with my brother. The completely right decision. Once we passed Macon, the ceilings and vis came down exactly as forecast. Yuk:
KLZU 302145Z 05006KT 5SM BR BKN008 BKN020 17/16 A2996
KLZU 302045Z 09008KT 3SM BR OVC006 17/16 A2996
KLZU 301945Z 00000KT 4SM BR BKN008 OVC015 17/16 A2998
KLZU 301845Z 07008KT 2SM -RA BR OVC002 17/16 A2998METAR
KLZU 301745Z 07006KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 17/16 A2999
KLZU 301645Z 08005KT 3SM -DZ BR OVC006 17/16 A3001
KLZU 301545Z 12004KT 2SM -DZ BR OVC004 16/15 A3002
KLZU 301445Z 09004KT 2 1/2 -DZ BR OVC006 16/14 A3001
KLZU 301345Z 10005KT 3SM BR BKN005 16/14 A3001
KLZU 301245Z 08005KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 14/13 A3001
KLZU 301145Z 07004KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 14/13 A3001
KLZU 301100Z 08007KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 14/13 A3000
So, now I have a brand new problem I've never had before: having to retrieve my stranded airplane!
Thank God I put the outside cover on it when I got there. But what a blast!
-Rich
I would like to try that 12k foot runway though.