John J
Line Up and Wait
I found some notes about a flight my son and I made not long ago. He tells me it was the best one we had together. It all began when I flew him to his home in New London, CT. on a hazy warm summer morning. My son was a young lad of 14 and loved to fly with me when he could.
We went out to the airport and did another check of the weather. It was calling for 300 and one at Groton with rising ceilings as the day wore on. I set up the flight plan and had my son practice calculating the times, fuel needs to GON and the alternate. He enjoyed helping out and loved to track the time of all of our flights together.
We took off just after 10 in the morning from ODW for the 40 minute flight to GON. The sky was milky white with no horizon with maybe 2 to 3 miles of visability. The routing of our trip was changed many times for traffic. My son worked the E-6B, my old elasped clock, and made sure my old stop watch that he wore around his neck was ready for the approach. He had my approach plates out, in order and ready for me.
Soon we were flying over a deck of very smooth stratus clouds. Tops had to be just over 2,000. We were at 4,000 looking down on this solid undercast. My son tuned in the ATIS at GON and no change since we left OWD; 300 and a mile were the conditions. I told him it was just above minimums. He said "Gee I hope we do not have to go to Providence". He always had a sense of humor. The controller told us to fly to the VOR that is co located at the airport and hold. We were just 10 miles from there still at 4,000. I told my son we were going to hold for traffic. I mentioned to him that we would need to be real carefull recording time while in the hold. He was ready as I backed off power and retrimed the plane to holding speed.
Around and around we went for 10 minutes in the hold. Then came the magic words. "Cleard from Present Position to Pinet at 4,000". I locked the plane onto the Loc and flew outbound to the final approach fix. My son set up the second nav for all the cross fixes and gave me distance from the GPS. I had the plane all set with fuel tanks switched, power set.
As we passed over the final approach fix outboud we got the clearence for the approach, contact the tower etc.. My son, as we passed over the fix, hit the stop watch and called time for me as I began the precedure turn to reverse course. He also called altitude as we decended toward the murk below. As we came out on our final heading I mentioned to my son that we were going to have about 10 knots of tailwind. He told me he knew for he had be watching our relative headings and speed. I felt so great to have him there next to me. He was so observant.
Soon the glide slope came alive just before the final approach fix. As we crossedthe fix, he started timing and put his eyes to the wind screen to look for the runway. The air was smooth as we decended. My son called out time to go, and altitude. I called out "3 in the green and power set." Our cocpit was a happy one,voices full of teamwork. The air was moist and it was getting darker as we decended. My son called 500 feet and thenhe said "I see boats" as well flew over the water toward the runway. He called 400 feet, and I had my hand ready on the power. At 350 feet, he said in his calm voice; "I see the runway" I looked up and there is was. He then said we are on time as we crossed the MM. We landed easy and just let the plane roll out gently and lightly using brakes to make the turnoff.
I let my son taxi to the ramp after the turn off. His face said it all. It was all lit up full of pride and accomplishment. As we got out of the plane, his grand father asked him who flew the plane and I told him we both did.
Thank you for reading
John
We went out to the airport and did another check of the weather. It was calling for 300 and one at Groton with rising ceilings as the day wore on. I set up the flight plan and had my son practice calculating the times, fuel needs to GON and the alternate. He enjoyed helping out and loved to track the time of all of our flights together.
We took off just after 10 in the morning from ODW for the 40 minute flight to GON. The sky was milky white with no horizon with maybe 2 to 3 miles of visability. The routing of our trip was changed many times for traffic. My son worked the E-6B, my old elasped clock, and made sure my old stop watch that he wore around his neck was ready for the approach. He had my approach plates out, in order and ready for me.
Soon we were flying over a deck of very smooth stratus clouds. Tops had to be just over 2,000. We were at 4,000 looking down on this solid undercast. My son tuned in the ATIS at GON and no change since we left OWD; 300 and a mile were the conditions. I told him it was just above minimums. He said "Gee I hope we do not have to go to Providence". He always had a sense of humor. The controller told us to fly to the VOR that is co located at the airport and hold. We were just 10 miles from there still at 4,000. I told my son we were going to hold for traffic. I mentioned to him that we would need to be real carefull recording time while in the hold. He was ready as I backed off power and retrimed the plane to holding speed.
Around and around we went for 10 minutes in the hold. Then came the magic words. "Cleard from Present Position to Pinet at 4,000". I locked the plane onto the Loc and flew outbound to the final approach fix. My son set up the second nav for all the cross fixes and gave me distance from the GPS. I had the plane all set with fuel tanks switched, power set.
As we passed over the final approach fix outboud we got the clearence for the approach, contact the tower etc.. My son, as we passed over the fix, hit the stop watch and called time for me as I began the precedure turn to reverse course. He also called altitude as we decended toward the murk below. As we came out on our final heading I mentioned to my son that we were going to have about 10 knots of tailwind. He told me he knew for he had be watching our relative headings and speed. I felt so great to have him there next to me. He was so observant.
Soon the glide slope came alive just before the final approach fix. As we crossedthe fix, he started timing and put his eyes to the wind screen to look for the runway. The air was smooth as we decended. My son called out time to go, and altitude. I called out "3 in the green and power set." Our cocpit was a happy one,voices full of teamwork. The air was moist and it was getting darker as we decended. My son called 500 feet and thenhe said "I see boats" as well flew over the water toward the runway. He called 400 feet, and I had my hand ready on the power. At 350 feet, he said in his calm voice; "I see the runway" I looked up and there is was. He then said we are on time as we crossed the MM. We landed easy and just let the plane roll out gently and lightly using brakes to make the turnoff.
I let my son taxi to the ramp after the turn off. His face said it all. It was all lit up full of pride and accomplishment. As we got out of the plane, his grand father asked him who flew the plane and I told him we both did.
Thank you for reading
John
