For those of you scratching your head, wondering what the heck the title is supposed to mean, it means "Instrument Rating Pilot in Command Cross Country Complete." Basically, in order to get the rating, the FAA wants you to have 50 hours of flight time to destinations more than 50nm (57.5 "regular" miles) away.
After the last flight, I was looking at the numbers and noticing that I was only 1.4 short of the 50 hour requirement, so I figured I might as well put that one out of the way. At first, I'd assumed that I'd leave a few hours in there for the long cross country, but I just wanted to get it all over with. That requirement is now out of the way, so all I have to do now is knock out a ton of sim time, along with a ton more time in the aircraft with horse blinders on, and then go take a checkride. Easy, right?
We'll see how it goes.
On the way down, I talked to the MANNE and CHOEA sectors of the Potomac TRACON, along with Charlottesville Tower of course. As soon as I checked in with CHOEA, I was given the ATIS info and the arrival runway, which was Runway 3. Once I was on tower's frequency, I was instructed to make right traffic, and flew over Route 29 to enter on the downwind. As I entered the pattern, the tower controller, who was working a combined tower and ground, was giving instructions to a Colgan SAAB 340. As usual, I don't like to be the little plane that gets in the way, I made a closer turn in to the runway, came in a little fast, and bled off the speed over the runway so that I could land, slow and exit the runway quickly. That all worked out pretty well as I exited right before they called ready for departure. Given the amount of wind, I'd say it was a pretty good landing.
The camera recorded nearly the whole flight, before it died on right base into Charlottesville. Oddly enough, it actually split it into two videos. I'm not sure if that was a file size limitation, or if it somehow got bumped in the turbulence, but it split the file. Oh well. Weird things always happen when adapting to new technology.
I took my normal taxi route to the Landmark ramp, which apparently somehow confused the tower controller, as he revised his earlier taxi instructions for Landmark. It was the same tower controller I always talk to and I was in my normal plane, but I guess he had never paid attention to what I'd done before. In any case, I made it in, parked and shut down. The ramp guy parked me right in front of the door to the building (I felt a little first class right about then, no lie), and as I opened the door I was greeted with "the crew car should be here - no fuel?" Even though our flight school worked out a deal to avoid the ramp fee at Landmark - CHO because the aircraft is based at a Landmark at JYO, I felt like I should give them something for letting me borrow their car all the time, so I had them put some fuel in it. When I walked inside, Keya met me with similar, in that I knew the drill for taking the car, and we were off.
I haven't yet decided if I like the fact that I've come here so often that I'm recognized and understood or not. On the one hand, I like being a regular because it's nice to actually develop relationships with people, even if only simple ones, and it's nice to have a go-to. On the other hand, being a regular means you're also somewhat predictable (evidence in the comments when I got out of the aircraft and walked inside), and I'm not sure I like being predictable like that. It's not a big deal, really, but it's something I've obviously thought about.
At the grill, Melissa noticed the kid's menus had horses on them, and asked if I wanted to take one to color. Of course, being an occasional large child, I did. The hostess made note of the move and gave me a hard time about it as well. At the table, I colored the horses while Melissa chastized me for my lack of proper shading - with Crayons, mind you - while the server, Chris, got the drinks and took the food order. Melissa tried to steal my burger twice in the time we were there: once when we were ordering, and once when it came out. In the end, I managed to end up with my Clint Eastwood burger, despite her efforts. As we got ready to leave, I decided to finally get the names of the servers I liked and write them down so I can request them next time, which Chris helped with. As a thanks, we left the drawing. He said they'd hang it up if we left it, so we'll see what happens with it next time I'm there.
After taking care of the fuel and getting the plane set, we were off again. Tower got us set up with flight following from Potomac while we were still on the ground, waiting for a US Airways regional jet to land. As the RJ was exiting, we got the standard on course takeoff clearance, and we were off. As usual with my departures out of CHO, I made a short field takeoff. I find them fun and they keep my skill up for if I ever need to do one in the future. I kinda want to see what it looks like from the ground, though.
The flight back was calmer, though still bumpy in parts. As we got closer to JYO, I asked Potomac (ASPER), if I could get cleared into the Bravo. The controller let me know she'd advise me as I got closer, and eventually cleared me in, VFR at or below 5500'. Keeping it up at 5500' was nice, as we had a 20 knot tailwind, which put us up at about 140 across the ground. Once we were about 20 miles out I called the field in sight, but she held on to us until we were about 5 out. From there, I made a non-standard left base entry (nobody was around) and landed on Runway 35.
You know the rest of the story.
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| Yeah. That's the runway, and that's the end of the video. |
50 hours of PIC XC done. Now it's just the instrument time, and the long cross country with multiple approaches.
Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.7 - 50.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.9 (of 40)
