Commercial Long Solo Cross Country

N571DS - DA40 - 5.1 hours

One of the requirements of the commercial certificate is to fly a 350 nautical mile flight to three points, with one of the points being 250nm or greater from the original point of departure. I work in DC, but since the pope is visiting DC from Vatican City, we were advised to avoid the area since roads and public transit would be packed. What better reason to get as far away as possible, and knock out a requirement in the process?

Back in June, I joined one of the DC-3 crew members on a flight in his Baron down to Elizabethton, TN (0A9). The airport is nestled in between a few ridge lines, with one right under the base turn to 24, making it slightly more challenging to get in and out of. The flight down in the Baron left enough of an impression on me that I figured it would be fun to visit again. Its distance from Leesburg (JYO) being 273nm made it perfect for the long cross country. As if any more reasons were needed, I also remembered that the airport had a pilot shop, and I was in dire need of a replacement mic muff, since the one on my now 12 year old Clarks had all but fallen apart.

I had the tanks topped off as I got myself situated, briefed, and so on. While I'd initially given them a hard time for being slow, ProJet has definitely improved on its timeliness of getting out to fuel planes. In any case, I knew I'd be spending a lot of time in the plane alone today, so I spent a while getting everything situated so that I could reach it - iPad, charts, pen, paper, and various things to take pictures with. Once everything was set, I brought the plane to the runway and headed toward 0A9.

The flight down was a long one, which I helped pass by calling Potomac for flight following around the time I passed by Shenandoah (SHD). Despite being above clusters of scattered clouds, I was still able to pick out several landmarks on the way down: JMU, Virginia Tech, Mountain Lake, and the scenic mountains in general. As I got closer to Britol (TRI), I dropped flight following and brought the plane into 0A9.

After refueling, getting a new mic muff, and expressing shock over the low fuel price they had down there, I set back off toward Pulaski (PSK) and Blacksburg (BCB). To be honest, the stop through PSK was simply to "connect the dots" if you will. Back in college, I'd flown with Phil from PSK to Pineville, WV (I16), so my flight map had a random flight that had been seemingly orphaned from the rest. After an admittedly firm and ugly landing at PSK, I hopped over to BCB to visit Virginia Tech and grab food.

The walk around campus took up a decent amount of time, but it was worth it. Owens dining hall hasn't changed much, and the food was still as good as I remembered it being (not even kidding - it's nationally recognized).

The final leg was relaxing, but also interesting. In order to take advantage of the wind I saw in the forecast, I brought the plane up to 11,500. While I'd been about that high in a Cessna 207 before, I'd never taken the DA40 that high. After a little while, though, I brought it back down to 9500 as the wind was actually stronger there. Closer to JYO, Potomac asked me to drop it a little lower to get under the arrivals for Dulles (IAD), which also set me up to stay below the Class B airspace.

With the plane back in its spot, I had 5.1 hours more time under my belt, along with the long solo cross country requirement of the commercial certificate.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 5.1 - 122.3 (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: 5.1 - 191.0 (of 250)

Virginia Tech versus Miami

N6017N - C172S - 3.7 hours

As I mentioned in the last post, I've always wanted to fly down to Virginia Tech for a football game.  The campus has an airport on it, which happens to be right next to the stadium, making things really easy and convenient.  When I was a student there, I worked at the airport on game days to help with parking and fueling aircraft, and most of the time, I was plotting in my head how to make it work, and what the whole experience would be like.  I finally got to live out those day dreams from years ago today.

The build up to the flight was pretty rocky, because weight caused troubles, as usual.  I got a C172S in hopes that the larger engine and higher payload would allow us to bring a fourth person with us, but the G1000 equipment weighs a little more, in addition to some of the extra equipment that's installed in this plane.  With that, I had to cut us back to three people.  Originally, my friend Ashley's roommate, Megan, was going to bring one of her friends, but he backed out and Ashley took his spot.  Once that was all settled, things got back to the norm.

I showed up at the airport a little earlier than normal to run the weight numbers one last time, check the weather, file a flight plan, and get everything else set up.  When Ashley and Megan showed up, we headed out to the plane to preflight and get ready for the flight down.  I ran through my normal preflight, while Ashley went through her own, explaining the whole process to Megan so she knew exactly what we were checking and why.  After the plane was thoroughly shaken down, we set off to the southwest.

On the way out, I tried to pick up flight following from Potomac Departure (ASPER), but they dished me off on another sector of Approach (MULRR), who then dished me off on another sector (MANNE), who finally set me up with flight following.  I'm definitely not complaining - especially since they were able to accommodate me - I just thought it was comical (note the KOKV departure point - apparently there was something wrong with the way the flight was entered, because Center saw an oddity with it as well, not that it really matters).

Southwest of Staunton, VA

Further down the line, I talked to Center, Potomac again (CHOWE), and then back to Center (Hot Springs).  While with Center, one of my friends jumped on the position to say hi, and ask if we could take a few pictures so she could see what this area of the scope actually looks like.  If you think about it, they just stare at a screen with some lines on it all day, and the terrain and the colors all go unseen.  It makes sense you'd want to see what it looks like from the pilot side, just so you can get a feel for what's really there.


Just as soon as she jumped on, she had to head off, and we had to go talk to Roanoke Approach on the way into Blacksburg.  For those of you who are familiar with that area of the state, we flew west of McAfee's knob, down Blacksburg/Catawba Road, over the campus, and then made our way in for a landing.

Luckily, having worked at Tech's airport, I knew how the whole game day show went.  We parked on the closed runway, wing to wing with a Cirrus, and headed inside for a much needed bathroom break.  Mat and my friend Jeanne, who had come in Thursday night from Denmark, had driven down and met us in the terminal.

After that, it was Jimmy John's, begging for tickets, Tech slipping one by Miami for the win, and a walk back to the airport to head home.

Lane Stadium

I had thought we'd have more daylight by the time the game ended, but as we were walking back to the airport, it was very clearly dark outside.  Luckily, Tech has an obstacle departure procedure that can be followed, to ensure we remain clear of terrain, which helped any apprehension of the terrain to a certain degree, I think.  To be honest, I think we were more distracted by the King Airs and Citations that came screaming out of the airport on their way home.  Tech being uncontrolled, it's up to the pilots to coordinate not hitting each other, and two of them came pretty close to each other.  I wouldn't say they came dangerously close, but too close for my own comfort.  Luckily, none of them were too close to us.

After that, it was a long and dark, yet calm flight back.  After departing Tech, we talked to Roanoke, then Washington Center, and lastly Potomac.  For whatever reason, the controllers in Potomac seemed off on the way home, just in the manner of phraseology.  After making sure I'd be okay with the SFRA with CHOWE, I got dumped on MANNE, where I asked for a clearance into Dulles' airspace, so that I didn't have to fly so low over the terrain at night.  Instead of bothering with the coordination, MANNE dumped me on ASPER to ask him.  Long story short, they kept me out, but it wasn't a big deal.

Once we got back, I shut the plane down, parked it and headed home.  I know I was tired.  Hand flying for 3.7 hours will do that to you, especially when combined with the jumping and yelling that go on at Tech games.

Pass up the bird!




Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 3.7 - 35.5 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.2 (of 40)