Fighting Weather

N329ME - C172S - 2.6 hours

As I've been in an endless struggle to accumulate more simulated instrument hours, I plotted out a couple flights that would help me to that end. Given the weather we've been having lately - lower clouds with rain - I figured a route to the south and a route to the north would give me the best chances. The mountains to the west could get dicey if the clouds got too low, the airspace to the east is relatively foreboding, and the north/south option gives me an option to use the opposite direction if we departed and found the weather to be less than desirable in the initial direction (it's summer, and storms are regular).

Of course, that plan of having a backup worked in our favor, as a storm began to develop over Warrenton (HWY), which is where we were headed. Phil pointed this fact out to me since I couldn't see it under the blinders, so I turned back to the north to pick up the Martinsburg VOR (MRB) and continue in that direction to Reedsville (RVL). Unfortunately, weather developed in that direction, too, and cut us off from the airport as we began the instrument approach to the field.

Nope...

After turning back around to head home, I decided to pick up an ILS approach into Hagerstown (HGR) to get a break and use the facilities, and then head back to fly the ILS into Leesburg (JYO).

Despite not accomplishing the goal of flying the approach into RVL, I still picked up 2.4 hours of simulated instrument, so I'm now over half way there.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.6 - 104.0 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 2.4 - 20.2 (of 40)

Anyone Available for a Ferry Flight? Yep.

N950ME - C172M - 1.4 hours

There are some times during the weekend where you simply find yourself with nothing left to do. Granted, this doesn't happen often for me between my day job forcing a lot of my activities to the weekend, my PMDG job contributing to that, PMDG Flight Ops activities (flying around in a DC-3, obviously, usually takes priority over just about anything else), and various other activities like visiting family and keeping the fridge stocked. To be clear, I have nothing against any of those things (besides maybe my day job), but it does mean that I'm rarely simply sitting there trying to come up with something to do.

Luckily, today was one of those days, and I saw an email go out from the school I got checked out with back in April. They needed a pilot to help chase an aircraft from Manassas (HEF) to Stafford (RMN), in order to bring him back from his ferry flight. I immediately called the school to offer to help out and was told to head down to the field and coordinate with the other pilot.

Once there, we waited out some isolated, typical summer storms and set off to RMN. The weather on the way over was still pretty hazy, and there were still isolated rain showers in spots, which was an interesting experience, and offered some pretty cool sights.

On the way back, the other pilot offered to let me log hood time, both to help me get the time, and to help him log time and not just sit there. We were nearly all the way back to HEF when we decided to see if the controller could give us a practice approach to the field, which actually took us all the way back over RMN. It was extra time, though, and time that I needed, so neither of us complained.

After bringing the plane back in and getting it tied down, we added our entries to the logbooks and then headed home. I, of course, stopped by to say good night to the 3 on the way out.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 101.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.7 - 17.8 (of 40)

OC Day Trip

N571DS - DA40 - 3.9 hours

Today's trip was a change from the original plan of flying to Lynchburg (LYH) on somewhat of a mission, to a trip to the beach. Since there aren't any pictures and nothing truly interesting happened, I'll keep it brief:

• The wind in the morning was ridiculous: 31015G21KT at Hagerstown (HGR), and similar at Leesburg (JYO) and Ocean City (OXB)
• The route of flight was JYO-HGR-OXB-HGR-JYO
• I finally met the guy I've been renting cars from each time I've flown over to OXB after hours
• Potomac TRACON's (PCT) radio coverage between BWI and Salisbury (SBY) - a new sector for them, taken from Washington Center (ZDC) - is weak to the point where I had to relay radio messages from a military helicopter conducting low altitude operations to PCT. Hopefully that brings good pilot karma for later.
• I also learned that P-40 has a cap of 5000 feet as long as it isn't "supersized."
• The Shark on the Harbor is as good as I'd remembered it.

Oddly enough, this flight was longer than some of my other flights recently, and it's probably one of the shorter posts. Still, the in-depth play-by-play gets old to write, and it's probably tiring to read, so I had to shake it up a bit and just hit the highlights. I'll save detail for the more interesting and technical flying.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.9 - 101.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 17.1 (of 40)

Dinner and an Approach

N5165M - C172R - 1.1 hours

Today was primarily a last minute decision to take advantage of nicer weather and fly. This time, the plan was to fly up to get dinner at a restaurant in Hagerstown (HGR) that the DC-3 crew frequents with Phil and his friend Brittany. The flight up to HGR is pretty simple as you don't really have to even turn much if you're departing Runway 35. There is a tower there, though, so there is a little extra radio work. The flight up and back was barely 1.1 hours total, and part of that time was added by flying an approach to Runway 17 at Leesburg (JYO).

Phil, in keeping with his constant challenges (makes him a great safety pilot), "failed" my GPS and had me keep the blinders on until right above minimums. Despite chasing the needles some when I got closer to the airport, I ended up settling on the localizer and glideslope nicely and removed the blinders with the field right ahead. Can't argue with that.

Short flight - short post.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 98.5 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.5 - 17.1 (of 40)

Renting from Redshirts

N950ME - C172M - 1.3 hours

For Christmas, two of my friends got me a gift card for flying time at a flight school one of them uses. While it is a competitor to the flight school I've used for nearly 12 years now, said other school has a location at Manassas (HEF), while my long time flight school does not. The convenience here is that the DC-3 got moved to HEF, and there have been days when we've returned from a trip and I stop and think "you know, I really want to go flying on my own now." Until recently, that would have meant driving all the way up to Leesburg (JYO), but these thoughts usually came at a time too late to request that the keys to one of the aircraft get left in the lock box. With a checkout at HEF, it would mean walking across the ramp and right into a plane.

With that in mind, I scheduled a checkout with one of the instructors at the school to get checked out in their C172M. The checkout itself was the standard flight school checkout of taking the plane out, doing some slow flight, stalls, landings, and then bringing it back in. The addition of the flap 40 setting in the older M model was now, along with the flap toggle instead of the flap lever. Other than that, the main challenge was the wind of 21015G22 at Culpeper (CJR). Bringing it back in to HEF was a little more challenging as the wind of 19014G22 meant a 30 degree crosswind. I forgot to hold the crosswind correction in on the rollout, so the wind came up a bit, but the reminder from nature was enough to get me to do it from then on.

Nice and simple, and now I'm set and ready to use their aircraft to build time and enjoy some flying of my own after the DC-3 trips.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 98.5 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 16.6 (of 40)

A Night Trip to the Beach

N677JA - C172S - 2.9 hours

Today was planned to be a quick flight out to Ocean City (OXB) with friends for dinner, a trip to the boardwalk, and then back home. It was also planned to be in the DA40, but it was being fussy and wouldn't start, draining the battery in the process. Luckily, other aircraft were available, so I was able to swap into one of the 172s.

Taken before the change in plans...

The trip out brought us up toward Frederick (FDK), above some of the Dulles (IAD) arrivals, but below some of the departures. That was definitely a cool experience, as we had an Icelandair 757 fly under us, and an Air France A380 pass over us. Passing Baltimore, the Orioles game was clearly visible, though not in any detail since the stadium is pretty far from BWI, and the fact that games merit a temporary flight restriction (TFR).

After landing at OXB we snagged the rental car I'd arranged, drove to a restaurant on the bay called The Shark on the Harbor and stuffed ourselves full of good seafood. After consuming everything from oysters to shark, we made our way for a quick trip to the boardwalk. Since it's April, though, just about everything was closed, and it was eerily quiet.

The flight home was similarly quiet, as we were all pretty tired. The controller gave us a slightly quicker route through the airspace over Baltimore, which saved us some time and allowed us to get back home sooner in pursuit of sleep. Great flight, and if you're ever out by the airport in Ocean City - admittedly not quite near the rest of the touristy stuff - check out The Shark on the Harbor.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.9 - 98.5 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 16.6 (of 40)

Practice Approaches

N571DS - DA40 - 2.4 hours

I've been wanting to get some time under the blinders, along with some approaches in recently. With that in mind, I sent a message to Phil to see if he'd be up for sitting right seat while I attempted to follow imaginary lines in the sky by reference to the instruments inside the airplane alone. The route I came up with was Charlottesville (CHO), a hop over the Blue Ridge Mountains and an approach into Shenandoah (SHD), and then a trek back to Leesburg (JYO). Through all of this, the plan was to just string it all together without getting out of the plane. Luckily, that all went as planned.

Departing JYO, we flew to the Casanova VOR (CSN) and followed the V140 airway to just prior to WITTO, where we were cleared to the HOODE intersection and onto the RNAV Z Runway 21 approach at CHO. After briefly setting the wheels down so that I could log the flight as cross country time, we were vectored to OLAJO and onto the RNAV Runway 23 approach. We flew the missed approach toward GABEL, but Potomac vectored us back toward JYO before we got there to avoid wasting time. Closer to JYO, the controller vectored us in for the ILS Runway 17 approach to round out the flight. Luckily, Phil took a few pictures of the flight as having the blinders on makes for boring imagery and flight narratives.

Here is one crossing the ridge between CHO and SHD:

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.4 - 95.6 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 1.9 - 16.6 (of 40)