A Flying Lunch

N728SP - C172S - 2.7 hours

While my parents have, in the past, given me money towards flying for my birthday, they've never joined on one of those flights. This year, though, the present was a flight to one of the local airport food spots for lunch. While my dad has flown with me before, this year also added the opportunity to bring my stepmom along.

It took me a little while to figure out where I wanted to go, since the logistics of getting to spots surrounding an airport can occasionally be tough (or expensive, as Phil and I found out a few years ago), but I eventually settled on Kay's At The Airport. I'd never been, but the DC-3 crew went there a little while back, and they gave it a good review so I thought we should try it out. As the name implies, it's at the airport, which in this case is Cambridge (CGE).

The flight out was a little bumpy in the climb out, but once we got a little altitude we were fine. It was in the climb that I decided against the VFR corridor between DCA and BWI, as that wouldn't have been pleasant. Instead, I asked Potomac for a Class B transition over Baltimore (BWI), which was approved and we were on our way.

Closer to CGE, we had to time our approach in between some jumpers using the landing area adjacent to the runway. I've never had to do that before, so that was new. It added a little stress to the approach, but having my parents tasked with sky watch made things easier.

Lunch took a little while since I hadn't called ahead for reservations, but it was good. Being in Maryland and quite near the Chesapeake Bay, I had to go with crab cakes. I highly recommend them.

After lunch, we jumped back in the plane to head home. This time, though, I decided to take the southern route back home, slipping between Patuxent River airspace and the SFRA. Unlike the VFR corridor, it has no altitude restrictions, and it avoided the alternate attempt to get a Class B clearance during the busy international arrival times for Potomac. It was slightly longer over the ground, but it didn't add to much more time in the air.

So. Much. Airspace.

Definitely a good flight, and a good opportunity to share my enjoyment of flying with the parents.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.8 - 114.5 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 28.8 (of 40)
Dual Complex: 0.0 - 5.0 (of 10)
Total Time in Aircraft: 2.7 - 185.9 (of 250)

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)

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)

Charter Day

N677JA - C172S - 3.2 hours

"Any chance you are flying to Philly today [laughing emoji]"

As a pilot, a text like that is a great way to start a morning. Of course, after figuring the details out, we planned to meet up at my place to drive to Leesburg (JYO) and fly up to Philadelpha (PHL) so that my two friends could attend a fashion show and avoid having to drive on 95 with an impending snow storm the following day. The end plan was for me to fly them into PHL, drop them off in town in the crew car, head back to the airport to eat and sleep some, and then drive back out and pick them up whenever they were ready.

To keep things easy, we all met at my place and drove together to the airport, stopping by Starbucks for some caffeine. This proved to be somewhat of a critical error, as the coffee made the last part of the trip up to PHL rather painful as we were getting vectored around instead of finding a restroom. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We'd originally been scheduled to fly the DA40, as it is slightly faster than the C172, but the cold weather can take a toll on the battery, making it a tough plane to start. Since neither I nor one of the other instructors could get it started, we swapped the DA40 out for one of the newer 172s and we were on our way. Our route of flight brought us up toward Frederick, over Baltimore, towards Havre de Grace, and then over southern New Jersey before being turned in towards PHL and landing on Runway 35. The ground controller was really helpful in directing us toward Atlantic Aviation. While I knew where I was going, I'd never seen the airport from the ground, so the extra attention from the ground controller was a reassuring as taxiways at larger airports can be slightly tougher to navigate as there are more of them, and more aircraft on them.

It was pretty cold out, so I sent the ladies inside to warm up, and change for the show while I closed up the plane and prepared everything for the late night departure. Despite needing to run inside myself, I stayed out to take in that odd sense of familiarity juxtaposed with the strong foreign feeling that you get when flying small planes into larger airports. Even so, the plane seemed to fit in nicely as I appreciated the cold bite in the air, the moon hanging low, the warm glow of the sunset, and the APUs howling away in the distance.

After they had changed and were ready, I snagged the crew van and we set off into the city. The van being a typical soccer mom minivan, we joked about dropping them off around the corner so that nobody would see them, but the part of town wasn't the best so it ended up being door-to-door service. On my way back, I stopped off at the apparently famous Tony Luke's to grab the necessary Philly cheesesteak, and when I finally got back to Atlantic, I devoured it. The place definitely lived up to all of the hype from the locals. With the hunger satisfied, I grabbed my laptop and took care of work for both the day job and for PMDG before taking some time to lay back, relax, and rest for the trip home. My experience with Atlantic the whole night, I might add, was rather good. I'd definitely go back if I ever have a need to go back to PHL.

I started getting texts around 0230 to coordinate being picked up, and ended up making it into town around 0320. We departed a little after 0400 and made it back to JYO just before 0600 as the sun was just breaking over the horizon. Needless to say, the flight back was rather quiet, both on frequency and in the plane. Despite being incredibly tired and in need of warmth and a bed, I'd say that it was an enjoyable day for all of us.

I have a feeling that if you ask me several years from now how I feel about airport appreciation time - the time spent at an airport while being on call, or waiting for your next flight - I probably won't be as enthusiastic, but this time I actually enjoyed it. I had a 'mission' and I was able to help some friends get to where they needed to go. I don't think I could ask for more than that.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 3.2 - 93.2 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 14.7 (of 40)

A Day of Flying

N571DS - DA40 - 0.6 hours || N677JA - C172S - 1.8 hours

After the wind foiled a couple of attempts to get back up in the air - a typical late winter issue in the DC Area - I finally met up with an instructor to get my insurance ride out of the way. For those unfamiliar with aviation, the main entities to keep satisfied are the FAA and the insurance company. The FAA only requires me to fly with an instructor every two years, while the insurance company requires that I fly with an instructor if I go two months without flying. I've been enjoying the DA40 since initially getting checked out in it, so I decided to use it for my ride with said instructor. The original plan was to use it again in the evening to fly some friends around. Unfortunately, someone beat me to the later reservation, but I at least took the DA40 around the pattern for a few laps to get reacquainted. The later flight would have to be in one of the 172s.

After taking the plane around the pattern five times, I brought it back to its spot, tied it down, and ran off to get lunch. With food in hand I began to plan the next flight, which I'd be flying some friends. The original plan was OXB, but we ended up heading down to CHO to watch a UVA basketball game in Historic Downtown with another group of friends.

While I've been to CHO more times than I can count, I hadn't flown with my friends Saba and Kristin before, so I was excited to be able to share the experience. We departed into one of the best sunsets I've ever seen - on the ground or in the air. Pictures, as always, don't do it justice, but Kristin and Saba both took a bunch of great shots. I often brag about how much better flying is than just about anything else, and this was certainly something to be added to the list of experiences in support of that.

The flight was short, made slightly shorter by the straight in landing on Runway 21. The landing was one of my better ones, and I'm pretty sure I caught it on one of the cameras. I'll have to take a look and add it later (I have a lot of catching up to do with the video, as Contour's temporary disappearance ended up deleting all of the videos I had uploaded there). After letting Landmark know our fuel order, we went inside to catch a cab to Historic Downtown to meet up with some friends at Citizen Burger. The food was great. The company was even greater. To cap it all off, the Cavaliers managed to win as well. While I'm no avid UVA fan (go Hokies), it was nice to see an in-state school win against a basketball powerhouse like Louisville.

After the game, we got a ride back to the airport, paid for fuel, and set off back to JYO. The flight back was a little more bumpy, but not terribly so. The highlight of the flight back was when Potomac Approach pointed our airplane out to a Dash 8 who was on approach to CHO. While I wasn't in contact with Potomac, I was listening in, I chimed in after the controller and the pilot of the Dash had finished their exchange to let them know that it was likely me that was being referenced. The controller checked and verified that it was my aircraft that he'd seen on the scope, and then gave both of us pilots an update on what each plane would be doing. While neither of us were at all close to each other, it's an anecdote supporting the use of flight following, or at least paying attention to the air traffic frequency for the area, if it's known.

The rest of the flight was very normal, and actually pretty quiet. I set the plane down on Runway 35. It definitely wasn't one of my best landings. As usual, I caught the nosewheel before settling down on the mains. Typical. It wasn't too bad, though. After putting the plane back in its spot, we braved the cold back to our cars and set off to warmer beds. We were all pretty worn out.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.8 - 90.0 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 14.7 (of 40)

Freezing and Flying

N172HF - C172S - 1.1 hours

When I went up for my BFR, my intention was to fly down to Raleigh (RDU) for another ice hockey game, but the weather didn’t end up looking too great. In order to make sure a plane was available, I had booked the flight well in advance. I felt bad having reserved the newest plane in the fleet for a flight I wouldn't be taking so I ended up just editing the reservation to push it back by about a week. Luckily, my pilot friend Katelyn wanted to join, so I could continue to get more simulated instrument time. We flew together nearly two years ago, on a quick flight down to Luray (LUA).  Even though she had flown more recently than that flight, it had still been a while so she wanted to go back up and get the feel for it again. That said, we worked it out where I would get simulated instrument time and approaches in between Leesburg (JYO) and Winchester (OKV), and she would get some landings in to get the feel for it again.

I was able to escape work a little early to make the long trek out to JYO (it takes forever now that my office is in DC), but Katelyn ended up getting stuck in traffic. Jokingly, I told her that I would sit there and pass the time taking pictures of myself with the plane. Once I finally got to the plane, however, that joke actually sounded like a good idea since I’m pretty sure this blog now has over 200 photos in it (the videos take that number even higher), and I’m pretty sure I’m in maybe 10 of them. In an effort to make said author less faceless, here’s a picture of me and an ironic statement all in one.

If you're not getting the ironic statement, look at the tail versus my apparel

I was able to get the plane all set up prior to her getting there, which ended up working out, as we departed as night time officially started (for logging it, anyway). As soon as we departed, we went directly to CLADD to fly the ILS Runway 32 approach into OKV. On the way, I pointed out some of the features of the G1000 as we both joked continuously about how it really felt like cheating based on the equipment we learned to fly with. Since she’d flown with Garmin equipment, though, she picked it up pretty quickly.

I flew the approach down near the minimums, but with the flight path vector (FPV) and runway showing up on the Synthetic Vision display, it really felt like I was just flying in a low detail version of Flight Simulator (side note, I was recently part of a Washington Post article on that very topic). I made the first landing since I flew the approach down so low.  After the landing, I took back off, and passed the controls over to Katelyn for a few laps of her own.  Three landings later, I took the controls back to fly the LOC Runway 17 approach into JYO (the glideslope has been out for a while, so it’s LOC only for now).

Compared to the approach I flew at the end of my BFR, this one looked really good. Then again, the approach I flew during my BFR wasn’t aided by Synthetic Vision displays, or a cue that factors in wind drift for you. I seriously feel like I’m cheating using something like that. Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s an awesome tool for the practical environment, but I think I’m going to stick to doing it the hard way for my training. It’ll help me appreciate the G1000 with SVT more, and it’ll keep my skills sharp for all of the fleet.

In the end, it was 1.1 total and 0.7 of that with the blinders on. Not bad since the only major obstacle between me and the instrument rating is all of the simulated instrument time.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 88.2 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.7 - 14.7 (of 40)

Quick CHO Trip

N677JA - C172S - 1.7 hours

Flying time: the ever-present Christmas list item for me.

This year was no exception, and it was with that in mind that I was sitting with a friend discussing plans Christmas night.  Originally, we were all going to try to do something after everyone was done visiting family (or working).  In the end, we decided on doing something on the weekend instead.  My suggestion, of course, was flying.

Since her sister was visiting from out of town and she wanted to get back to see her after the flight, I wanted to keep the flight short.  Charlottesville (CHO) is both a short flight and a good destination to get out and have dinner, so that's what we went with.

After we got to the plane, I started going through the preflight, explaining some of what I was doing in the process.  Also during said process, I went back into the plane to get something and ended up smacking my head on the extended flap.  That, of course, drew a few laughs as we waited for the fuel truck to show up.  Once the fuel truck had departed, we were on our way to CHO.

The weather was really clear, and the wind mostly calm.  I pointed out a few landmarks, and explained how to find airports at night.  Nearing CHO, I checked the weather, called into Landmark to check on the crew car, and then called the tower. The dinner spot was the usual: Timberwood Grill, where good food was enjoyed before we trekked back to the airport and headed home.

The flight back was the standard trip back from CHO, and after stashing the plane in its spot we headed home for warmth.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.7 - 88.2 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 14.0 (of 40)

Comfort Food in Charlottesville

N1090V - C172S - 1.9 hours

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.


[Video was here until Contour closed down for a bit, and the video was lost.]

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.


[Video was here until Contour closed down for a bit, and the video was lost.]

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)

Dulles? Yep.

N65410 - C172S - 1.5 hours

Throughout my training as a student pilot, my instructors always made Dulles (IAD) out to be a looming and ominous land of inevitable doom, should you ever wander in its direction.  To their credit, airspace busts are a big concern around here.  First, Leesburg (JYO) is right under the class Bravo shelves, and second, when I started training we had something called the Washington Area Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which you didn't want to mess with.  The simple explanation of that is that if you violated that airspace, you had at the minimum a Blackhawk helicopter as a personal buddy to escort you to an airport for questioning.  The ADIZ is now the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA), which is smaller and somewhat easier to work with (at least out of JYO, since it has a slight exemption), but the issue remains that a lot of the airspace around here is very much less than friendly.

If it looks confusing, it's because it is

Beyond the airspace issue, the airport is busy and should be treated with a healthy amount of respect when flying the smaller stuff.  Class B airports in general are very busy and if you're not on your game, you can cause issues for yourself or other people.  Because Class B airspace is positive control, you're essentially considered an instrument flight rules (IFR) aircraft, where controllers provide you with altitudes to maintain and headings to fly, so you need to be on top of your radio work and your aircraft.  All that said, I can understand why most instructors make it out to be a big deal.  Even if they didn't, most larger airports have ramp and service fees that would drive you somewhere else.



Because I'm stubborn, I like challenges, and my roommate works at Dulles, I went in anyway.

My excuse for the flight was that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assocation was having a seminar up in Frederick, Maryland.  I figured I'd fly up there because the trip up Route 15 is particularly painful if you get stuck behind someone slow, and it's just an awkward route from where I live.  From there, it morphed into a Dulles trip because my roommate Mat works the evening shift, and I figured it would be easier for him to escape work if I got the plane first and picked him up straight from work, instead of having him meet me at JYO.

The flight began with a little homework to make sure I had all of my bases covered.  First, I worked at Dulles long enough to know when the busy times were, so I planned to avoid those.  Second, I made sure to talk to contacts at Potomac TRACON (thanks Roscoe) to figure out the best way to get cleared in.  Finally, I made sure to write myself a briefing sheet with airport sketches, frequencies and so on ahead of time to make sure I could keep up with the faster pace because I'd be on my own.

Before departing, I called up Potomac on the RCO frequency (118.5) to get my initial clearance.  Despite a little difficulty with the aircraft's mic jack, I was able to get the controller the proper data.  The initial clearance was to remain outside of the Bravo, contact Potomac on 126.1 (MULRR) after departure and expect an east side transition for Runway 1C.

Once I departed, I called Potomac and was cleared into the Bravo after being identified on radar.  At first, I was given a heading of 090 (due east) and an altitude of 2500'.  Nearing Germantown, MD, the controller had me proceed direct to an airspace fix called TICON, which is down near Dale City, VA.  That put me on a downwind, parallel to Runway 1R, directly underneath the HYPER arrivals.  While on the downwind, I ended up flying over the Wiehle Avenue Metro Station construction, my house, and a few other landmarks around the area.  As I got closer to TICON, the controller had me switch to the final approach controller on 125.8 (IADFE combined with IADFW).  That controller turned me to a heading of 250 (southeast) and advised me that I had an Airbus ahead of me, 500' above, inbound to land on Runway 1C.  When I advised the controller I had the aircraft in sight, he cleared me for the visual approach behind the Airbus, and had me switch over to tower.

Tysons, and another landmark you may recognize at the top right

My old high school

After switching over to tower I was cleared to land, number two behind the Airbus.  I actually ended up flying over my mom's house and my old high school, adding to the list of landmarks.  In order to not be a complete pest, I kept my speed up all the way in.  I crossed the threshold at about 120 knots, and then bled off speed over the 11,501' runway, landing long in order to cut down on taxi time.  Landmark Aviation - IAD is on the north side of the field, so the long landing helped in more ways than one.  The landing wasn't my best, but I managed to exit onto taxiway Y2 as I'd planned, so all was not lost.  I'm sure the passengers on the Airbus that had just exited the runway were entertained by it.  It's not the worst high-speed Cessna landing I've seen, either.  As I exited, tower told me to continue taxiing onto Y and to contact ground for the rest.  Ground had me continue on Y to Landmark, and on the way, I contacted Landmark to let them know I would be there in a few minutes to pick up Mat.

At Landmark, I shut down and ran inside to file a flightplan back out.  When I got back in the plane, I called up Dulles Clearance to get cleared back out of the Bravo and up to Frederick (FDK).  Since I had filed a flight plan, the controller was able to clear me on the spot without a lengthy initial call by me stating who I was, what type of aircraft I was in, and where I needed to go.  The clearance out of the Bravo had me VFR at or below 2500', runway heading after departure, and departure on frequency 125.05 (ASPER).  After I read it back, I managed to blank on ground's frequency (at a Class B airfield, they assume you have your information handy).  Even though I had a spot on my briefing sheet for the frequency, in my excitement on the way in I managed to forget to write it down.  Thanks to technology, I pulled up a diagram on my phone with the information, and was all set.

A 767 to chase me down

Ground had me taxi to Runway 30 initially via Z, short of A, meaning I had to stop before crossing the intersection of Z and A.  After I called short of A, I got cleared a little further to F, where I had to hold to let a Cessna Citation taxi in front of me.  From there, I just followed the Citation to the runway.  There was a United A320 holding in the holding area near Runway 30, waiting on some sort of departure time restriction.  Because I'm me, I popped my window open and waved to the passengers as I taxied by (you can see it in the picture at left, facing away from the camera, in front of the 767).  Shortly thereafter, an Austrian Airlines Boeing 767 joined the line behind me.  As soon as I departed, the tower controller had me turn to a heading of 350 (west of due north) to get me out of the way of the much faster 767 that would be departing behind me.  Thereafter, he had me essentially fly directly above Runway 1L and then contact departure.  I can assure you, there were no comments about the Austrian crew's accent at all during this time.

The departure controller climbed the Austrian flight well west of me, while I stayed below the initial altitude for Dulles, which kept me mainly out of the way.  After I was north of the airport, the controller placed the responsibility of navigation on me to get to FDK, meaning I no longer had to wait for him to provide me headings.  On the way up, I passed over Sugarloaf Mountain.  For as long as the 9nm trip to IAD from JYO took, the trip to FDK was a joke.  The whole trip took me a half hour, covering about 30nm.  Closer in to the field, I called it in sight and the controller dropped me to the airport's advisory frequency.  There were a few people in the pattern, but as I entered the pattern, they had all landed.

After landing, I taxied in to the ramp and attempted to get some direction from Landmark Aviation - FDK on where to park, but they weren't listening to the frequency.  Because of that, I just shut down right in front of the FBO and walked inside to ask inside.  Inside, I was told that the plane should be in the transient spots, which were right next to where I parked, so I dragged the plane over there with a tow bar and help from Mat.

Back inside, the attendant called a cab for us to get over to the conference center.  You'd imagine that, having its headquarters at FDK, the AOPA would just host the event at the airport, but for whatever reason it was at a Holiday Inn in town.  Interestingly enough, I'd been to the same conference center for work training late last year, so I knew exactly where I was headed.  On the way over there, we passed a Fractured Prune donut shop, but it had closed for the day.  I haven't had any since the last time I was at that Holiday Inn, so I'll have to make another trip soon.

We arrived about 20 minutes into the seminar, unfortunately, so Mat and I slipped in and tried to grab the easiest seats available.  The accidents mentioned as part of the seminar seemed to be pretty obvious, and the speaker kept asking for audience input, which got old quickly.  Most of the crowd could have been my grandparents, so a lot of the input got to be long-winded stories of "back in the day."  The guy next to me kept making comments, and his wife apparently didn't know how to whisper, either.  By the first break, I'd had enough of it all, so Mat and I slipped out to grab coffee (luckily, I remembered where they kept it from when I had been there previously) and left.

It got dark, so no pictures.
Here's a picture of my track into IAD instead.

The seminar could have been really good, but the crowd killed it, so I opted to get dinner which I had yet to eat.  Since my boss, Jason, lives in Frederick, I called him to see if he wanted to join us.  It turns out he was at the mall right next to the conference center, so we met up at the Red Robin right there for some food and then headed home.

The way back was uneventful.  Before departing, I followed a Diamond who was going out for some night landings in the pattern.  I flew my signature short field takeoff just to amuse myself and get more altitude quickly to avoid ticking off people living around the field, as it was pretty late when we left.

On the approach into JYO, I was showing Mat how the pilot-controlled lighting worked through clicking the transmit key of the comm radio.  Unfortunately, after I'd set it to high, it wouldn't go back down to low again.  I normally land with the lights on their lowest setting because the lights outline the runway enough, but don't blind you.  With the lights on high, I felt like I was trying to land on a brightly-lit Christmas tree.  Following with the trend of the other two landings, I landed a little too flat.

Where's the video, you ask?  I left the camera plugged in at work.  Genius, I know.  At least I thought to grab a camera.  I'll have to do it again and get it on video.  That would have been my first flight since I got the camera's mount, too.  Oh well.  Next time.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0 - 50.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.9 (of 40)

Richmond for a Stamp

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)

Charlottesville? Twist my arm...

N65410 - C172S - 1.7 hours

On my way out the door with my friends Ashley and Katelyn, I ran into my good friend Roscoe, as he was up at the airport to check out a Sport Pilot Seminar that was going on.  It was just about to start and would go for a few hours, so I told him I'd be glad to come back in a few hours to go on a flight if he wanted to.  He agreed, so I set off for a shopping experience with the girls to kill some time.  In that time, I also sent a message to a buddy who just moved down to the area, Aaron, to see if he'd like to join, which he did.

Still looks new

Back at the airport I was told I by Tim, one of the CFIs, that I should go collect Roscoe from the Landmark hangar where the event was going on.  On the way back from the hangar, we ran into Aaron in the parking lot, so we all ran in to prep for the flight.  The evening's flight would be in one of Av-Ed's newer (in terms of acquisitions) 172S models, N65410.  I've never flown this one before, so I gave it a closer look than I would N172DR or one of the other usual suspects, but it's newer and pretty well taken care of, so everything was in order.

After Roscoe and Aaron climbed in and got situated, I got the plane started and off towards Runway 17 for our southwest departure to Charlottesville.  Since Roscoe works out at Potomac TRACON, I made sure to give them a call as I was heading out.  I called up ASPER (Dulles' north-side departure sector that works JYO departures and arrivals) first, but he dumped me right onto CHOEA (CHarlOttesville EAst).  At this point, I was over Upperville, well north of CHOEA's airspace, but they must've worked something out.  Anyway, after giving me a code and a few more miles for me to get closer to his radar range, he picked me up and I continued on my way to CHO.

Heading down to CHO

As I got closer, the controller asked if I had the weather information for CHO, but because I was out of its broadcast range, I hadn't picked it up yet on my second COM radio.  Just to make sure it wasn't the radio, I told him I was going to jump off of his frequency to check it with my primary radio.  Getting nothing, I went back over to his frequency and told him the situation, which prompted him to rattle off the weather for me.  Of course, as soon as he finished, I picked up the information on the second radio, which was still tuned to that frequency.  Joking with him about it, I also called the field, as I had Piney Mountain in sight.  For those of you unfamiliar with that area down there, Piney Mountain is just north of the airport, and the TRACON actually has one of their radar sites on top of it.  From there, it was straight in Runway 21, contact the tower.  Tower advised me to let him know when I was on a 5nm file, and at that point I was cleared to land.  That landing was probably my best one that day.  I actually got the nose up some, and the stall warning horn went off right as we touched.

I shut down and the ramp guy must've recognized me because he asked if I would be needing the crew car this time.  Inside, the ladies at the counter got my information and made fun of each other for even making me go through the motions because I'm apparently a regular now.  Can you guess where we went with said crew car?  Timberwood Grill, of course.

Locking up in CHO

Roscoe and Aaron both got burgers while I got the crab bisque, half to change it up, and half because I promised a friend I'd cook her dinner when I got home, and I wouldn't live it down if I showed up full.

The flight back was pretty hazy, but it was getting dark, so it wasn't too bad.  The dusk actually made spotting traffic a lot easier, and there was a lot of it.  Before departing, I had tower coordinate flight following for us, and when I was cleared for takeoff I made a short-soft takeoff just because I could, and I find them fun.  After departure, it was CHO's normal "climb on course," so I turned downwind and climbed up out of the pattern heading back to JYO.

As we got closer to JYO, you could start to see some departures out of Dulles climbing above us, though we couldn't hear them on our frequency.  I did, however, hear an arrival check in past Winchester that would eventually pass right over me closer in.  At about that time, the controller also called another aircraft 800' below me, opposite direction, type unknown, which would have been startling, but the plane we were flying had a traffic display in it, and I had noticed the plane on the display a few seconds before.

The rest of the flight was pretty quiet.  The wind had shifted, so I made my way in to land on Runway 35.  The landing was pretty flat, as usual, but not bad.  After we shut down, we all put the plane back in its spot and headed home.

I think one or two more flights will put me right on the edge of the 50 hour pilot in command cross country (PIC XC) requirement.  Some of that time will come as part of a long cross country later on that's a requirement for the instrument rating, so I plan on cutting my cross country flights just short of the 50 hours and picking up some hours in the sim, with some regular flights in between.  I'll probably still make blog entries for the sim time, commenting on what I've learned, but don't expect anything really, truly interesting to happen in those posts.  Don't fret, though, because we all know I can't go too long without actually getting in a plane.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.7 - 46.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.9 (of 40)

Charlottesville? Again?

N144ME - C172S - 1.6 hours

A few weeks ago, when I met up with my Washington Center (ZDC) controller friend, Julie, we decided she needed to get back up in the air.  At first, my plan was to meet a friend for breakfast, then run to the airport for a flight out to Luray or similar, and then run out to Strasburg to visit the grandparents.  Breakfast ran late, so I was late to the airport, and I had booked the plane later than I had thought, so I royally screwed up there.  After calling the grandparents, though, they decided that it was better to visit another weekend anyway, which freed up more time for a longer flight and a longer trip in general.

During the week, we were looking at several destinations, but the last two we were looking at were Luray (W45) and Cumberland (CBE).  Cumberland looks like a nice flight with some cool terrain around the airport, and I know Luray has a few things in town, but I wasn't sure about the availability of cars to get us around on a Sunday.  I did know, however, that my frequent flight spot Charlottesville would definitely have a car for me, so we headed in that direction.

Rolling on 17 JYO

The guy in N144ME before us got back a little early, but something happened to the software the school uses to track its aircraft, so that ended up negating an earlier departure.  In the end, I just grabbed the keys so that I could preflight while they worked out the computer issue.  Everything checked out with the plane and Julie managed to grab the book while I was finishing up, so we jumped in and taxied down to Runway 17 to head down to Charlottesville.

Final 21 CHO

On the way down, Julie got some time on the controls and called a few co-workers up in a few different sectors of ZDC.  The trip down was pretty smooth, but smooth means hazy, as the pilot folk reading this should already know.  I kept it high and fast coming in to Charlottesville to see if I could beat my time from the last flight.  I managed to make it in at 0.7 hours, tying the last flight.  As we walked in, I grabbed the crew car from Landmark to head into historic downtown for the first time in a long time, and grab food.

Charlottesville Historic Downtown

Driving towards downtown, I remembered why I hated the drive down to Charlottesville: stop lights, and an endless amount of them at that.  In any case, I managed to remember how to get downtown without too much of an issue, even though I hadn't been there in three years (not that it's too hard anyway).  I'd forgotten how short the walk is from end to end, but I missed the local feel of the whole thing.  We walked in a few stores to look at what they had, and ended up running in to Great Scott's Popcorn to get a snack.  I think I've only added butter, Old Bay, and maybe salt and pepper to popcorn, so the flavors they had there were quite the experience, and they were actually rather delicious.  Definitely worth a stop if you're down there.

Can you see the excitement?

When you have the crew car, you're only supposed to have it for two hours, max, so we made our way back towards the airport, stopping at Timberwood for lunch.  Our server, who I've had before but have forgotten her name again, made sure we were in and out and back to the airport with a little time to spare on the two hour mark.  It isn't that she's not memorable, it's that I'm horrible with names.  I guess I should work on that.

Unfortunately, when we got back, there was a crew waiting on the car.  We were definitely back within the two hour limit, but the guys seemed pretty irritated.  I can understand that to a certain degree, but relying on the crew car is luck of the draw.  I flew down to CHO and flew back without having ever left the FBO because someone took more than the two hours (Turning into a Charlottesville Regular has that story).  Stuff happens.  Even so, I still feel slightly bad, because some pilots get worked hard, and the last thing they want to do is sit in an FBO waiting on someone else to give them an escape.

Before we left, Julie, being a controller, was able to get us up in the tower last minute for a quick tour.  The controller there had been there forever, and had his quirks, but he also had cookies and a cool view of the airport.  We stayed up there for a few minutes and then decided to head back home while there was still a little daylight left.  On the way out we had to hold short for an inbound SAAB 340, but after they were off, we were off.  The trip back took just under an hour, and I got a few minutes of night PIC.  As an added bonus, Julie handled all the radio work and some of the flying until we got back closer to Leesburg.  I think the next time we head out, we'll have to hit somewhere northwest, or southeast.  Looking at my flight map, it's decidedly lacking in those two directions:

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.6 - 40.2 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.2 (of 40)

Breakfast in Luray

N329ME - C172S - 1.4 hours

In an earlier post, I mentioned there were people I hadn't taken flying since getting my license.  Several of those people are in my own family.  While I've taken a few family members up - my grandma, my aunt and uncle, to name a few - none of my immediate family had been up with me until today.

A little while back, my dad proposed that my brother and I set up some activity for each month so that we actually see each other regularly.  What better to draw my attention than flying?

Originally, we'd planned on flying the day before, but it was supposed to be windy, so we delayed until today in hopes that it would be better.  I'd also planned on trying to get out earlier rather than later so that we could fit in an early lunch, or breakfast, and not get in the way of plans later in the day.  Luckily both of those worked out. It wasn't too windy and we were able to get out right on time to head down to Luray.

Front Royal - FRR

The departure was standard, with a little turbulence over the mountains.  On the way out, I pointed out Upperville (2VG2), Mount Weather, Front Royal (FRR), Skyline Drive, and a random assortment of other roads and landmarks.  The turbulence really didn't let up in the valley, but it didn't bother me too much.  Being a frequent flier of the commercial sort, it didn't bother my dad much either.

Final into Luray - W45

The approach into Luray ended up being a little high, so I ended up slipping the plane in during the approach.  I'm not sure how my dad had heard of that before, but when I mentioned what I was doing, he was familiar with it.  I also explained the whole "barn door" approach path indicator system and how it would let me know if I was high or low with about as much technology as smoke signals for communication, but it works, right?  The slip worked out well, and I ended up greasing in a nice landing on Runway 22.  Despite the nice landing, I ended up locking the wheels up slightly as the runway dips right after the touch down zone and we ended up getting airborne for a few feet.  Since I was braking and we lost contact with the ground, the wheels didn't have to work against the aircraft's weight and locked.  When we settled back on the runway the locked wheels took a second to catch back up.  In the end it wasn't a big deal, though it did catch me off guard.  In any case, I turned around and taxied back to the tie downs so that we could run into town for a few hours.

John, the airport attendant on the weekends, suggested a place called Uncle Bucks for breakfast.  Initially, I thought we'd just go back to Artisans Grill, but it was early enough that we could get breakfast.  Despite the wait, it was actually pretty good.  I had corned beef hash, and it was awesome.  I really can't remember what my dad ate, but my attention was taken by the amazingness of my own dish, to be honest.

After breakfast, we figured we'd walk around town before calling John to pick us back up, but the quick walk ended up being all the way back to the airport.  It was nice out, so why not?  The town is pretty small, and had some interesting small town sights.  On the outskirts of the town, we passed the entrance to Luray Caverns, and then continued past a petting zoo and corn maze back to the airport.  I still have yet to actually go into the caverns, though I've driven by them several times.

The flight back was uneventful.  I ended up filing a flight plan on my cell phone using DUATS, instead of bothering with Flight Service, on the phone or in the air.  Closer in to Leesburg, past Front Royal, the turbulence started to get worse, and my dad got to run his own mini-experiment with the altimeter, where he watched to see how much we actually "fell" when we dropped in turbulence.  It's really not that much, even though I explained that basic altimeters have some lag in their indication.  Unfortunately, when we made it back to Leesburg, I proved planes can fall quite quickly - onto the runway.  It wasn't a terrible landing, but compared to the nicer landing into Luray, it wasn't nearly as graceful.

I'll have to dream up an interesting destination for next time.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.4 - 38.6 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.2 (of 40)