Real Flying for Sim Flying

N430AV - P28R - 4.4 hours

Some of you may recall that I outed myself as a nerd a while back, by noting the fact that I grew up using Flight Simulator, and continue to do so as part of my code job. Over the years, I've met quite a number of people through the aviation community, but also as part of the sim community. One of my CFI friends is in the section of that Venn Diagram where the circles overlap, and he had some sim hardware to sell. One of our mutual friends - also in the overlapping segment - was interested in buying it, but all of it was still up in New Jersey. My CFI friend and I flew up to coordinate all of that. Unfortunately, given the weight requirements, and the size of the hardware, our friend had to drive up.

It was an incredibly cold and rather windy morning, which made getting the aircraft ready a chore, to say the least. Luckily, my brother had given me some cycling leg and arm warmers for Christmas, which I wore under a few additional layers of clothing. I was thinking that I would need to be able to strategically pull the warmers off without even messing with the other layers once the heater warmed us up at cruise. I was wrong. I just left them on the whole time.

Since the trip up to Morristown (MMU) would require flying around a whole bunch of busy airspace, we filed and flew IFR. The controllers brought us west of most of the airspace around Dulles (IAD), and then turned us back east toward Philadelphia (PHL), where we followed our route up toward MMU. I know I make that sound simple, and the flying part of it was, but the mental part was not. The cold temperature up at that altitude was tough to handle, even with the heater going full tilt. The heaters in small planes are selectively effective. My upper body was quite warm, but my left foot was pretty close to entirely numb toward the end of the flight. The wind was still pretty strong when we got up to MMU, but it wasn't unmanageable. After we parked, we set off to take care of handing hardware over, and warming ourselves back up.

After getting back, we filed our flight plan to get back home and set back off that way. It wasn't too much warmer, but it was just warm enough that the flight back home wasn't as rough. Closer to HEF, the controllers vectored us right over IAD, which was a pretty cool vantage point. A few large aircraft flew under us on approach there. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. A few minutes later, we were back on the ground at HEF putting the plane away.

With these 4.4 hours in the books, the complex requirement for the commercial rating is complete. Only 3.4 hours left of the instrument requirement.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 128.8 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 3.0 - 35.6 (of 40)
Dual Complex: 4.4 - 12.1 (of 10)
Total Time in Aircraft: 4.4 - 203.1 (of 250)

Taxiway to the Edge of the World

N430AV - P28R - 2.7 hours

As the weekend approached, a flight instructor friend of mine asked if I'd want to split time in an Arrow to enjoy the nice weather. Not one to pass up an opportunity to fly, but also be able to log time toward the instrument rating requirements, I took him up on it. I had been wanting to get out to Hot Springs (HSP) for quite some time. It's a unique airport, being on top of a mountain, and is actually the highest airport east of the Mississippi River. This spot also causes it to be subject to various wind hazards to challenge you on approach. Today, being a windy day, meant that those challenges would be present for my first visit.

Since my friend is based out of Manassas (HEF), I got a break from Leesburg (JYO), and a refresher on the procedures down there. Apart from having to talk to controllers in the tower, and filing a flight plan, it really isn't too different. After departing, we flew directly out to HSP, and I was able to throw the blinders on to log instrument time. Closer to the field, I flew the ILS approach for practice, beginning with a hold for good measure.

Just before landing, the wind started to play games with my approach path and I ended up pretty low. It wasn't the prettiest final approach, but it got the job done. As soon as we exited, we brought the plane back to the runway to head back home. I have been into some pretty unique airports in my years of flying around, but I was not prepared for what I saw as I rolled up to the hold short line. The taxiway comes right up to a sharp drop off, giving you a pretty spectacular view as you prepare yourself to depart.

Once back in the air, I put the blinders back on to log some more time on the way back home. It was a pretty simple flight, but quite a visually memorable one. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was able to log time toward the simulated instrument, and complex requirements.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.7 - 127.1 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 1.9 - 30.7 (of 40)
Dual Complex: 2.7 - 7.7 (of 10)
Total Time in Aircraft: 2.7 - 195.8 (of 250)