Richmond for a Stamp

N6017N - C172S - 2.3 hours

This flight came partially out a need to celebrate the great medical news of a friend, and partially out of my need to go play with my new toy.  In the end, it was a lesson in flexibility, and situational awareness.

From the very start, things were slightly hectic.  Roscoe wasn't going to be able to get back to me about the flight until after I left work, and I didn't want to reserve an aircraft until I was sure I'd be using it.  As I came up out of the Metro after work, I checked in with Roscoe to see what the story was, called the flight school to put the keys to one of the aircraft out in the lock box, and headed home to change and get my flight gear.  When we got out to the airport, the aircraft I had intended to take was down for maintenance, so I took one of the newer 172S models with a G1000, which was a decision that could have saved my life, along with the life of my passenger.

Not much to see.  Night is dark.

After a few minutes of readjusting to the the G1000, we were off.  The departure was normal, and the sky was really clear, with the moon lighting things up.  I didn't set the Contour up until after departure, which you can see in the GPS data on the right side of the image.  The cool thing about it is that you can very clearly see the profile ascent from under the Bravo.  In the future, I'll post a link to the video, but the flight was at night, and the camera didn't pick much up.  Looking at the map, you can see the recording picks up just west of Leesburg and continues all the way down to just north of Richmond.  The profile's first step is 2300, with the next step up 4300, and the final cruise of 5500.  In the end, the recording cut out at just under 42 minutes because of the limited 2GB SD card.  I ordered a 32GB card, so given 21 minutes per GB, the new card should give me about 11 hours, which will far outlast the battery.  If I bump the settings up, the battery and file size will suffer, of course.  I'll work on ways to get audio eventually.  I got flight following from Potomac TRACON on the way down, talking to the MANNE, MULRR and FLTRK (FLaTRocK) sectors.

As we got closer to Richmond (RIC), approach offered both Runways 16 and 20.  I took 20 because the taxi back from 16 would take forever.  The controller pointed the airport's direction out a few times, but I couldn't see a beacon or the airport in general, so I didn't call it in sight.  At about 12nm out, I was able to spot the beacon buried in a mass of airport lighting, and told the controller we had the field.  From there, he has us contact the tower, who cleared pretty far out to land on Runway 20.  Since I hadn't been to RIC before and it was dark, I had the tower controller turn up the runway lights for the runway so I could see exactly where it was (you can hear my request at about 14:08 in this LiveATC archive - you won't be able to hear tower, but you'll hear me).  Once I had a better idea of what I was aiming for, I brought it in on one of my better landings, despite a little choppy air on final.  The tower controller had me roll all the way down to the end of the runway for an easier taxi to Million Air, which was the FBO where we'd be parking.

My friend Mike, who lives around Richmond, met us there to give us a ride into town.  At first we thought we'd grab barbecue, but since we got in so late our options were pretty limited.  We ended up settling on Steak 'n Shake mostly because it was new in Richmond, and because I hadn't been to one since I was 13.  Despite being a chain (and the first chain mentioned in this blog), it was pretty good.  Even if it wasn't stellar, write-home-about-it, best-burger-ever, it hit the spot.  After the quick dinner, we trekked back to the airport to head back home.

Back at Million Air, Roscoe got his Richmond stamp for his Aviation Ambassador passport, I paid for fuel, and we set off for Leesburg.  I haven't flown into a Class C airport since the end of 2005, so I was a little rusty on the radio calls for a departure clearance, but after that I was set.  Holding short of the runway, I had to wait for an Air Wisconsin CRJ to land before I was cleared out.  The departure was pretty standard with a turn to a heading of 270 on climbout and departure with FLTRK (you can hear the departure at about 7:30 in this LiveATC archive).

Signal Mountain - In the way of anything south 

The way back to Leesburg was just a nice as the trip down, but it got interesting closer to Leesburg.  As I was nearing CSN (CaSaNova, a navigation radio down near Warrenton, VA), the controller asked if I was going all the way to CSN or if I wanted to go direct to Leesburg prior to getting there.  Because it was shorter, I advised him I'd be heading towards Leesburg just prior to CSN.  You've probably heard me mention Upperville (2VG2) a lot in my flights, and the reason is that it's a landmark I can use to help me avoid terrain, while still remaining under the Dulles Class B airspace.  Cutting in prior to CSN meant not using that landmark, and changing my game plan.  Because it was non-standard, and I knew there was terrain out there I would be flying close to, I enabled the terrain feature on the nav display of the G1000.  That, and keeping my head up and out probably saved my life.

As I descended to 1300 to get under the final shelf of the airspace, Roscoe and I spotted the radio towers on top of Signal Mountain, along with the silhouette of the mountain itself against the moonlit terrain on the far side.  The heading I was on would've kept me west of the range, but I dodged further west to remain on the safe side (you can see it in the FlightAware image at the top of the post just north of the thick grey line that represents I-66).  After we passed the range, I went direct to Leesburg, and set down on Runway 17.

With the plane back in its spot, we threw the book and keys in the lock box and headed home.  I learned a few things tonight that I won't soon forget.

No longer lacking Southeast destinations 

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.3 - 48.7 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.9 (of 40)

Going High Tech

One of my Christmas presents was a gift certificate to REI.  Now, I'm not the biggest outdoorsman out there.  If I spend any time in a store like REI, it's probably to look at the bikes and marvel at how pretty they are.  I'm not saying I didn't appreciate the gift, I'm really just saying I have a tough time spending money certain places, and REI is one of them.  Since Christmas, I've been thinking of what I want to get from there.  Some of my ideas were biking-related.  Like I said, I'm not the biggest outdoorsman, but I'll spend all day on a bike by choice, and a new helmet and gloves would be in order, but I don't need them.  Yes, I know some of you are thinking "man, I'd kill money there in seconds," and I did.

Phil, my pilot friend in the Charlottesville trip back in December, has a GoPro camera that he's taken on a few flights and it seems like it would be pretty cool to have on flights of my own.  It almost happened in a sort of epiphany the other night as I was trying to figure out what to get with this REI card.  I figured GoPro cameras and their ilk are things REI would have, so I checked the site this morning and sure enough, they had them.  As somewhat of a competitor to the GoPro, there's another camera out there called the Contour, which my roommate has.  I figured I'd have a look at both.

When I showed up at the store, they had both the GoPro Hero ($200) and the Contour GPS ($300).  At first, I figured I might as well take the cheaper option, thinking I wouldn't really need the GPS feature.  After thinking it through for a few minutes, though, I thought the GPS tracking would be pretty cool for the flights, so I took the Contour.  The Contour is also much more aerodynamic should I ever work up the courage to mount it externally.



The interface shows both the video and the GPS tracking with Google Maps, which is pretty awesome, no lie.  The days of me trying to grab a screenshot of my FlightAware track are over.  To be honest, I'll probably still include them if my flight gets picked up by the system (so far, only two have), but this will probably steal the spotlight.

The only disadvantage is that these newer smaller cameras use CMOS image processing, which is also commonly referred to as "rolling shutter."  If you're not familiar, and you have an iPhone or other smart phone, try taking a picture of something moving really quickly.  Here's an example from my dad's iPhone on my Luray trip back in October:

That rubbery line with the weird line above it is the prop.  If you YouTube it you'll see how ridiculous how these cameras make props look  Here's a video of it.  It looks pretty ridiculous.  One review said there's a setting on the camera that reduces the effect, but we'll see how it goes.  I'll have to get inventive with how I mount it to avoid too much exposure to the prop.  As boring as it sounds, I think for a lot of the training flights, I may mount it to look more at what I'm doing so I can review what I did and critique it.  Who knows.  We'll see how it goes.  My next flight should be in the next week or so with my dad out to Elkins, so I'll test it out then.

Charlottesville? Twist my arm...

N65410 - C172S - 1.7 hours

On my way out the door with my friends Ashley and Katelyn, I ran into my good friend Roscoe, as he was up at the airport to check out a Sport Pilot Seminar that was going on.  It was just about to start and would go for a few hours, so I told him I'd be glad to come back in a few hours to go on a flight if he wanted to.  He agreed, so I set off for a shopping experience with the girls to kill some time.  In that time, I also sent a message to a buddy who just moved down to the area, Aaron, to see if he'd like to join, which he did.

Still looks new

Back at the airport I was told I by Tim, one of the CFIs, that I should go collect Roscoe from the Landmark hangar where the event was going on.  On the way back from the hangar, we ran into Aaron in the parking lot, so we all ran in to prep for the flight.  The evening's flight would be in one of Av-Ed's newer (in terms of acquisitions) 172S models, N65410.  I've never flown this one before, so I gave it a closer look than I would N172DR or one of the other usual suspects, but it's newer and pretty well taken care of, so everything was in order.

After Roscoe and Aaron climbed in and got situated, I got the plane started and off towards Runway 17 for our southwest departure to Charlottesville.  Since Roscoe works out at Potomac TRACON, I made sure to give them a call as I was heading out.  I called up ASPER (Dulles' north-side departure sector that works JYO departures and arrivals) first, but he dumped me right onto CHOEA (CHarlOttesville EAst).  At this point, I was over Upperville, well north of CHOEA's airspace, but they must've worked something out.  Anyway, after giving me a code and a few more miles for me to get closer to his radar range, he picked me up and I continued on my way to CHO.

Heading down to CHO

As I got closer, the controller asked if I had the weather information for CHO, but because I was out of its broadcast range, I hadn't picked it up yet on my second COM radio.  Just to make sure it wasn't the radio, I told him I was going to jump off of his frequency to check it with my primary radio.  Getting nothing, I went back over to his frequency and told him the situation, which prompted him to rattle off the weather for me.  Of course, as soon as he finished, I picked up the information on the second radio, which was still tuned to that frequency.  Joking with him about it, I also called the field, as I had Piney Mountain in sight.  For those of you unfamiliar with that area down there, Piney Mountain is just north of the airport, and the TRACON actually has one of their radar sites on top of it.  From there, it was straight in Runway 21, contact the tower.  Tower advised me to let him know when I was on a 5nm file, and at that point I was cleared to land.  That landing was probably my best one that day.  I actually got the nose up some, and the stall warning horn went off right as we touched.

I shut down and the ramp guy must've recognized me because he asked if I would be needing the crew car this time.  Inside, the ladies at the counter got my information and made fun of each other for even making me go through the motions because I'm apparently a regular now.  Can you guess where we went with said crew car?  Timberwood Grill, of course.

Locking up in CHO

Roscoe and Aaron both got burgers while I got the crab bisque, half to change it up, and half because I promised a friend I'd cook her dinner when I got home, and I wouldn't live it down if I showed up full.

The flight back was pretty hazy, but it was getting dark, so it wasn't too bad.  The dusk actually made spotting traffic a lot easier, and there was a lot of it.  Before departing, I had tower coordinate flight following for us, and when I was cleared for takeoff I made a short-soft takeoff just because I could, and I find them fun.  After departure, it was CHO's normal "climb on course," so I turned downwind and climbed up out of the pattern heading back to JYO.

As we got closer to JYO, you could start to see some departures out of Dulles climbing above us, though we couldn't hear them on our frequency.  I did, however, hear an arrival check in past Winchester that would eventually pass right over me closer in.  At about that time, the controller also called another aircraft 800' below me, opposite direction, type unknown, which would have been startling, but the plane we were flying had a traffic display in it, and I had noticed the plane on the display a few seconds before.

The rest of the flight was pretty quiet.  The wind had shifted, so I made my way in to land on Runway 35.  The landing was pretty flat, as usual, but not bad.  After we shut down, we all put the plane back in its spot and headed home.

I think one or two more flights will put me right on the edge of the 50 hour pilot in command cross country (PIC XC) requirement.  Some of that time will come as part of a long cross country later on that's a requirement for the instrument rating, so I plan on cutting my cross country flights just short of the 50 hours and picking up some hours in the sim, with some regular flights in between.  I'll probably still make blog entries for the sim time, commenting on what I've learned, but don't expect anything really, truly interesting to happen in those posts.  Don't fret, though, because we all know I can't go too long without actually getting in a plane.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.7 - 46.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.9 (of 40)

Breakfast in Luray Part II

N172DR - C172R - 1.3 hours

Last week, when I was out with some of my pilot friends, we started talking about getting back into flying.  My friend Ashley, as you may know by now, has been a good flying buddy on a few of my flights, while her roommate and one of my friends, Katelyn, I haven't yet flown with.  Since it's been just shy of two months and the flight school I rent from requires a flight every 60 days for checkout currency, I figured it would be a good time for both of us to take a flight.

As usual, since I'm somewhat over the idea of trying to think up a destination, I put it off on Katelyn.  She's a pilot, so the idea of having her pick something off of a sectional isn't so unreasonable this time.  In the end she suggested Luray.

The weather was pretty awesome this morning, so I was pretty excited to get up in the air.  Since I'm such an addict, I ended up getting to the airport before the flight school even opened, so I had to sit pretty and wait for someone to show up.  Once it opened, I grabbed the book and headed out to preflight so that the plane would be ready for when the girls showed up.

My usual workhorse, N172DR, was the 'breakfast chariot' for the trip down to Luray.  After I got it all set and ready to go, I went back inside to meet Ashley and Katelyn.  Ashley was going to stay behind and get work done, so I showed her Landmark's crew room, and Katelyn and I went out to go get the flight started.

Upperville - 2VG2

Since she hasn't flown around this area, I described some of the procedures in and out of Leesburg and pointed out some of the landmarks to help in avoiding some of the less friendly airspace.  After crossing my southwest exit point, Upperville, we headed toward Front Royal and down the valley to Luray.

As we were heading down, I tuned in the Luray's common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF), which is a frequency shared by many airports out there because they don't draw enough traffic to justify having their own frequency.  You'll hear calls from all over the place because of that.  One of the calls I heard was from might-as-well-be-Delaware Harford County, Maryland (0W3).  The total distance that call traveled was slightly over 100nm.  Crazy.

With the wind from the south, I made for a straight in approach to Runway 22.  It wasn't my most stellar landing, but it certainly wasn't the worst.  As I was slowing the plane down and getting ready to taxi back to the tie downs, the airport attendant, John, asked what we were up to.  I told him we were headed into town and he met us with the van at the plane to drive us in.

Since Uncle Bucks turned out to be good last time, I figured it was worth another shot.  I'd say it was a good choice, but I was stuffed by the end of it.  After eating, we decided to walk back and get a couple laps around the pattern before heading back to Leesburg.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it back, it was getting close to the time we had to have the plane back home because someone had it after us.

That said, we set off towards Leesburg, this time with Katelyn at the controls as I played navigator.  As we got closer, I called headings and descents to keep us out of Dulles' airspace, and made sure everything was in order.  I also explained how to make the really awkward pattern entry to Runway 17 at Leesburg.  It's a really hectic approach because you really don't have much time to get situated on the downwind before you have to start your base turn.  You're boxed in by the SFRA to the southwest and east, and Dulles tower's airspace to the south, so you have to keep a tight pattern.  All of that worked against her, and the wind that was picking up only made it worse, but she salvaged the landing in the end.

We got in right before we had to have it back at 1230 so Katelyn ran the book in so that the next guy wouldn't be too delayed, while I made sure the plane was in order and locked up.  After taking care of the paperwork, we went over to collect Ashley from the crew room and head out for a little time at the Leesburg Outlets.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.3 - 44.7 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.9 (of 40)