My friend Christina helped kick this blog off with Let the Cross Country Begin, but she hasn't flown since for a number of reasons. Earlier in the week, though, she asked if she could bring a friend along for a trip down to Charlottesville (CHO). Part of it would be something to do while their respective guys were out for their own entertainment that night, and the rest of it was to introduce her friend Brittany to flying. This flight would make two introductions to small planes this week for me, and it was really a first time in a plane of any size for her.
As life is always interesting for me, we showed up to the airport with my request of two headsets sitting in the lock box, but no keys or book for N172DR. Luckily, there were a few planes that would be back slightly after we'd intended to leave, so I we waited until one got back and just took that one. The one that came back first, however, was of course one of the G1000 172s that I love so much. As you may remember, I've come to terms with them because of the cool technology (and it could've saved my life), but for my average flying I still find it unnecessary. In any case that's what we had, and I would, of course, live it up. I had one of the nicest planes in the fleet. Why not?
Just to ease any nervousness that might be building closer to departure, I made sure to explain what I was doing as I walked around, taxied out, checked the engine, and put the plane up in the air. After departing, Christina asked if we'd be able to see Upperville (2VG2) as we flew out, so I adjusted course to overfly it. Naturally, comments were made about RESTRICTED being written all over the runway.The sky was remarkably clear, so I pointed out a few planes on the western arrivals into Dulles, aided by the G1000 traffic display. They were all RJs of some sort, but Christina and Brittany were both able to spot one of them as it passed over. The delay earlier had also put us closer to sunset, so we got to watch that on the way down. Sunsets are so much better up in the air, as you can see evidenced to the right.
On the way down, I called Potomac Approach to get flight following, which makes the whole flight into CHO a little easier. As usual, I talked to ASPER, MANNE and CHOWE before getting passed on to tower. The wind at CHO was from the south, so I was instructed to make a straight in approach to Runway 21. The straight in approach really makes the flight all too easy, but I'm not complaining. The landing is below. As usual, I'm pretty proud of myself for landing with enough nose up attitude to get the stall warning to go off (that's what that annoying sound is right before I touch down, if you didn't know already), since that's not a norm for me. The large plane on the ramp is a C130. I have no idea why it was there.For the first time ever, I walked in and Keya wasn't there, but the rest of the ramp crew was. By now, you know the story. We stole the car, drove to Timberwood, and a Clint Eastwood was eaten. I also asked the waitress if the picture my friend Melissa and I had drawn last time we were there was up somewhere, and it apparently made an appearance for a while at the server station. I'll admit to being a little proud of that one, too.
After dinner, we headed back to the airport, paid for fuel, and set back off towards Leesburg (JYO). By that time, it was dark, but we were off in no time, after a quick wait at the end of the runway for a landing ERJ for American Eagle. On the way back, Christina made a comment about how it would be cool to land at Dulles (IAD), which I took and ran with. I had checked the ATIS a few minutes earlier and they were in north ops, so it wouldn't have been out of anyone's way, necessarily. I don't have the LiveATC recordings, but it went something like this:
N1090V: "Hey Potomac, Cessna 1090V, how busy are you guys right now?"
CHOWE: "You're only in my airspace for another few miles. What do you want?"
N1090V: "I'm just checking to see if I could get a touch and go at Dulles."
CHOWE: "Cessna 1090V, contact Potomac on 126.65. I've passed your request on to him."
N1090V: "Awesome. Thanks. Potomac on 126.65, Cessna 1090V."
N1090V: "Potomac, Cessna 1090V, 5500."
TILLY: "Cessna 1090V, Potomac, roger. Confirm your request for a...touch and go at Dulles?"
N1090V: "Affirm, Cessna 1090V. We can take 1L to stay out of the way."
TILLY: "1L is closed, but you might be able to do 1C. I've passed it on to a Sup. Can we even do that? We'll let you know."
TILLY: "Cessna 1090V, Dulles tower said they'd take you on 1C. Expect visual 1C, fly heading 060, descend and maintain 5000."
N1090V: "Expect visual 1C, heading 060, descend and maintain 5000, Cessna 1090V.
TILLY: "Cessna 1090V, fly heading 090, descend and maintain 3000. I'm sequencing you number 3 behind a 757 and an ERJ."
N0190V: "Heading 090 and down to 3000, Cessna 1090V."
After unkeying the mic, I laughed about being behind one of the most dangerous aircraft to possibly be behind, in terms of wake turbulence. At least I had a buffer with the ERJ between me and it.
TILLY: "Cessna 1090V, traffic 9 oclock, 3 miles, eastbound turning to final, ERJ, 3000. Report traffic in sight.
N0190V: "Traffic in sight, Cessna 1090V."
TILLY: "Cessna 1090V, follow that traffic, cleared visual approach Runway 1C."
As I got closer, I heard the controller ask a Southwest 737 if he wanted Runway 1R or 1C. The pilot took 1C so I kept my speed up on the way in, which you can hear in the video. You can also hear a few remarks by me, along with Christina and Brittany. One of them is me explaining why the G1000 kept yelling TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC (plane in the Runway 30 hold block left had its transponder on - comment at 01:45), and the other one is me confirming that, yes, we are, in fact, a big deal (comment at 2:10). For those familiar with the area, the video starts over Westfield High School.
The rest of the flight was remarkably short. The tower controller had me fly heading 330 until I had JYO in sight, and even so, he kept me on the frequency until pretty close to turning final. At that point, I was turned over to JYO's frequency. You know the story from there. The FlightAware track is below. For the record, I'm not a fan of the new high contrast lettering, and it's clearly the end of the world. The circles around JYO are from the previous flight, which was all pattern work.
Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.9 - 58.2 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 6.6 (of 40)
