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.
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| Upperville - 2VG2 |
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)
