As I mentioned in the last post, I've always wanted to fly down to Virginia Tech for a football game. The campus has an airport on it, which happens to be right next to the stadium, making things really easy and convenient. When I was a student there, I worked at the airport on game days to help with parking and fueling aircraft, and most of the time, I was plotting in my head how to make it work, and what the whole experience would be like. I finally got to live out those day dreams from years ago today.
The build up to the flight was pretty rocky, because weight caused troubles, as usual. I got a C172S in hopes that the larger engine and higher payload would allow us to bring a fourth person with us, but the G1000 equipment weighs a little more, in addition to some of the extra equipment that's installed in this plane. With that, I had to cut us back to three people. Originally, my friend Ashley's roommate, Megan, was going to bring one of her friends, but he backed out and Ashley took his spot. Once that was all settled, things got back to the norm.
I showed up at the airport a little earlier than normal to run the weight numbers one last time, check the weather, file a flight plan, and get everything else set up. When Ashley and Megan showed up, we headed out to the plane to preflight and get ready for the flight down. I ran through my normal preflight, while Ashley went through her own, explaining the whole process to Megan so she knew exactly what we were checking and why. After the plane was thoroughly shaken down, we set off to the southwest.
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| Southwest of Staunton, VA |
Just as soon as she jumped on, she had to head off, and we had to go talk to Roanoke Approach on the way into Blacksburg. For those of you who are familiar with that area of the state, we flew west of McAfee's knob, down Blacksburg/Catawba Road, over the campus, and then made our way in for a landing.
Luckily, having worked at Tech's airport, I knew how the whole game day show went. We parked on the closed runway, wing to wing with a Cirrus, and headed inside for a much needed bathroom break. Mat and my friend Jeanne, who had come in Thursday night from Denmark, had driven down and met us in the terminal.
After that, it was Jimmy John's, begging for tickets, Tech slipping one by Miami for the win, and a walk back to the airport to head home.
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| Lane Stadium |
I had thought we'd have more daylight by the time the game ended, but as we were walking back to the airport, it was very clearly dark outside. Luckily, Tech has an obstacle departure procedure that can be followed, to ensure we remain clear of terrain, which helped any apprehension of the terrain to a certain degree, I think. To be honest, I think we were more distracted by the King Airs and Citations that came screaming out of the airport on their way home. Tech being uncontrolled, it's up to the pilots to coordinate not hitting each other, and two of them came pretty close to each other. I wouldn't say they came dangerously close, but too close for my own comfort. Luckily, none of them were too close to us.
After that, it was a long and dark, yet calm flight back. After departing Tech, we talked to Roanoke, then Washington Center, and lastly Potomac. For whatever reason, the controllers in Potomac seemed off on the way home, just in the manner of phraseology. After making sure I'd be okay with the SFRA with CHOWE, I got dumped on MANNE, where I asked for a clearance into Dulles' airspace, so that I didn't have to fly so low over the terrain at night. Instead of bothering with the coordination, MANNE dumped me on ASPER to ask him. Long story short, they kept me out, but it wasn't a big deal.
Pass up the bird!
Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 3.7 - 35.5 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.2 (of 40)
