Hobobiker
Line Up and Wait
I keep my progress thread updated to a degree, but thought I should do a quick writeup of tonight's Night XC. Going in to the flight tonight I had 31.2 hours and still needed my night cross country and an hour under the hood to meet all the logbook requirements for my PPL. Tonight's flight was 1.8 hours, and an hour of that was under the hood, so we knocked out the last two "check boxes" that I needed, which means at 33 hours I have a LOT of practicing to do before my checkride.
First off, I haven't flown in three weeks and the rust definitely showed. I botched some simple things that I usually have down cold. The weather tonight was wonderful though! Calm winds, clear skies, and cool temps. My XC would consist of departing IDI, flying under the hood down to AGC while getting flight following from JST and also tuning in a VOR near the Allegheny County airport. Went from there to BVI over Pitt and through class Bravo, then back to IDI. My CFI warned me that it was going to be a busy night and he was throwing a lot at me at once. He was right, because maintaining altitude, heading, talking on the radio, and trying to keep ahead of the plane with my next moves was definitely approaching task overload. Had some trouble picking out AGC with all the lights around but with a little coaxing from my CFI I found her. Being handed off from JST to Pittsburgh Approach made my life a little busier and I even learned a new term from my CFI as he had me tell Approach that I would be leaving AGC and heading for BVI "in the midst". Received approval to pass through class Bravo in Pitt and got to fly right over the city. BEAUTIFUL at night and my CFI let me lose the hood so I could take in the scenery...as long as I maintained altitude, heading, and kept ahead of the plane. LOL
I botched a few things, and although I HATE that feeling I also know it's pretty normal in a lower-time student pilot. I forgot to start my timer for my tanks and probably went 45 minutes before my CFI reminded me to switch. (A reminder from my CFI about anything, for me, means I failed and need some remedial training or a slap upside the head NCIS-style). ALL my landings included me flaring too high tonight, which isn't usual and my CFI said that it could be the night playing with my mind. Also, my last landing at home was high and I had to slip down and STILL flared too high. To top things off, I went to add full throttle on one of my touch-and-go's tonight without dumping the flaps first. I NEVER do that, but decided to have a brain fart tonight.
All in all a great flight and few complaints. The Pitt scenery was awesome with the clearance through Bravo, most of my radio work was good, and I'm very solid on holding a heading, altitude, VOR navigation, etc. Keeping ahead of the plane proved somewhat challenging with all the new radio work, not seeing the airports/runways until I was about 5 miles out was frustrating, and the high flares and approach just flat out bugged me.
First off, I haven't flown in three weeks and the rust definitely showed. I botched some simple things that I usually have down cold. The weather tonight was wonderful though! Calm winds, clear skies, and cool temps. My XC would consist of departing IDI, flying under the hood down to AGC while getting flight following from JST and also tuning in a VOR near the Allegheny County airport. Went from there to BVI over Pitt and through class Bravo, then back to IDI. My CFI warned me that it was going to be a busy night and he was throwing a lot at me at once. He was right, because maintaining altitude, heading, talking on the radio, and trying to keep ahead of the plane with my next moves was definitely approaching task overload. Had some trouble picking out AGC with all the lights around but with a little coaxing from my CFI I found her. Being handed off from JST to Pittsburgh Approach made my life a little busier and I even learned a new term from my CFI as he had me tell Approach that I would be leaving AGC and heading for BVI "in the midst". Received approval to pass through class Bravo in Pitt and got to fly right over the city. BEAUTIFUL at night and my CFI let me lose the hood so I could take in the scenery...as long as I maintained altitude, heading, and kept ahead of the plane. LOL
I botched a few things, and although I HATE that feeling I also know it's pretty normal in a lower-time student pilot. I forgot to start my timer for my tanks and probably went 45 minutes before my CFI reminded me to switch. (A reminder from my CFI about anything, for me, means I failed and need some remedial training or a slap upside the head NCIS-style). ALL my landings included me flaring too high tonight, which isn't usual and my CFI said that it could be the night playing with my mind. Also, my last landing at home was high and I had to slip down and STILL flared too high. To top things off, I went to add full throttle on one of my touch-and-go's tonight without dumping the flaps first. I NEVER do that, but decided to have a brain fart tonight.
All in all a great flight and few complaints. The Pitt scenery was awesome with the clearance through Bravo, most of my radio work was good, and I'm very solid on holding a heading, altitude, VOR navigation, etc. Keeping ahead of the plane proved somewhat challenging with all the new radio work, not seeing the airports/runways until I was about 5 miles out was frustrating, and the high flares and approach just flat out bugged me.
Just add a lil power.
