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)
