3rd and Long Cross Country

I got lucky again with another solid sunny day in February to complete my 150 nm cross-country. The plan was Zelienople (PJC), as usual, to an interesting one, Punxsutawney (N35), down to Arnie Palmer Latrobe (LBE), to Butler (BTP) and then back home to PJC. This trip proved to be less "eventful" than the last one, with no problems (like getting lost) along the way.

Took off from PJC at ~3:30PM and climbed to 5,500 for the leg to N35, turned out to be a little hazier than expected but did not prove to be a real issue. Made the checkpoints with some augmentation from the cross checking VOR radials. I managed to locate the airport by first locating the town and noting that the airport was north-east on the map, it didn't exactly jump out but not too hard to find. When I did find it though, I guess I should have paid more attention to the Airport/Facility directory, I had forgotten how narrow 50ft wide looks, at least it wasn't Farm Show (38 ft). I did a quick touch and go, mainly because there were no turn-offs and there were snow banks 5 ft high on each side of the runway. Said bye to Punxsy Phil and was on my way over the town climbing to 4,500.

Next stop was Latrobe. I was a little nervous because this was my first solo to a towered airport. Being that, I was not as diligent in my checkpoint navigation and ended up checking the GPS to correct some errors in my track. It's hard to get too off track thought since you fly right by Homer City and their giant reactor cooling towers with steam billowing out of them. There is also a nice high ridge to the southwest that guides you into LBE. Luckily I successfully retieved the ATIS, my calls to the tower were no problem and the controller gave me a straight in on 23. Actually finding the airport while staring into the setting sun through the haze proved a challenge and I was grateful for the GPS to keep me on track. After landing at LBE, where the runway seemed about as wide as N35 was long, I asked the tower to stay in the pattern to perform my two more required landings to a full-stop at a towered airport, to which she happily obliged. The only "interesting" part was when I was on downwind for my second landing and the tower controller told me "you have the option." To which, wanting to sound like I knew what I was talking about, confirmed with a read back. Twenty seconds later, I felt I probably should find out what
the heck that means, and I radioed back, "student pilot, to be honest with you, I do not know what 'you have the option' means." She laughed and was extremely pleasant in explaining it meant I could do a touch-and-go, full-stop, etc.

The rest of the trip ended with a touch and go at Butler and then back to Zeli, touching down as the sun was setting. Logged 2.4 hours of hobbs time for the trip. I was a great feeling to have accomplished my solo cross countries and I am really starting to feel more comfortable on these trips. It also taught me there is nothing to fear with regard to talking to the tower, and it's ok to ask questions.

Whatever I feel like doing

Yesterday I got my first chance to take the plane up solo with no agenda in mind. What a blast! I ended up doing a little site seeing over Lake Moraine, practiced my turns across a road, worked on tracking the Ellwood City VOR, and did some pattern and landing work. The pattern was very busy at PJC. A bunch of club planes, a couple of twin engine Barons, and even a WWII restoration/replica. I hung around the pattern for five landings trying to get that perfect greaser with the stall horn whining, on the centerline. Getting there...

2nd Solo Cross Country

I suppose if January is going to give you a day as nice as it was this morning, you gotta go, Thursday or no Thursday. It was ice cold, about 15 degrees F when I arrived at the airport at 8AM, but sunny and calm. The airplanes were plugged into their block heaters which kick on at 6AM but I had the feeling that might not be quite enough. I went through the preflight in my down jacket, hat and gloves and everything seemed in order except that the engine needed a quart and the last guy to fly didn't fill the tanks... doh! At any rate, the plan today was to fly to a tiny podunk airport near Ravenna, Ohio called Portage County (29G). This would be somewhat of a two-legger as I planned to fly roughly a 300 heading, overfly the Akron VOR and, then head nearly north to 29G. I pulled the plane out of its hangar, got everything situated as far as the map, timer, E6B, etc, went through the pre-ignition checklist, turned the key and.... not much happened. The prop on 549, my 152 trainer, spun around a few times but it was clear the battery was pretty much frozen.

Oh well, I called Mike and let him know what happened, and proceeded to tell him I was going to head to work. "But hang on", Mike said, "we have another trainer!". "But Mike, 45M only has one radio, one OBS and no GPS!". "Well then it will be good practice for you"... So ok, I was planning on using ded reckoning and VORs for navigation anyhow but the GPS in 549 is certainly comforting to have. Besides, I was familiar with 549, as I had done just about all of my training in it. But before I could talk myself out of it I had preflighted 45M and pulled it out on the ramp. Don't get me wrong, 45M is a great 152, in fact to me it feels like the motor pulls a little harder than 549, but lets just say the cockpit is a little lacking in the avionics department, at least comparatively. Of course 45M fires right up, so no more chance for an excuse, and I'm off departing runway 35. I played it super safe by flying around the pattern, climbing above pattern altitude, and then overflew PJC to mark my time and get my heading correct.

Well it wasn't long before I realized something wasn't right, I hit Ellwood City as planned, but I soon realized that my checkpoints were not appearing. I did not know it at the time but Mike and I deduced later that the winds aloft had swung from being nearly from the west when I called the briefer and did my planning, to north-north east. Where I was holding a bearing of 300, my aircraft was heading more like 270 due to a lack of proper wind correction. I did get a little panicky particularly because I knew I was flying close to Pittsburgh International class Bravo airspace. I dialed in the Akron VOR and much to my surprise it was telling me to fly a much more northerly heading that I expected. This did not sit well with me as I had still not thought I was so far south of my plotted course. I was about to turn around not wanting to continue further without finding a recognizable landmark when I just happened to look straight down, and lo and behold, out of sheer luck, I was directly over Youngstown Elser airport (4G4) and one of my checkpoints! I immediately course corrected and dialed in my 300 radial on the ACO VOR and then, seeing how the needle was moving away I finally realized something was up with the wind. I course corrected and held the VOR heading and eventually overflew the VOR (my first TO-FROM flip experience) and then headed the last 7 miles up to 29G.

The airport was deserted and the runway in need of repair, but I swung the plane around after landing and navigated back home much more confidently using the landmarks and ded reckoning primarily with the VOR for backup. I would say all-in-all it was a great experience not to have the GPS on board as it showed me 1) how important it is to stay on your checkpoints and 2) I do have the capability to fly a fairly minimally equipped airplane X-country. I would recommend that every student perform their cross countries, at least one of them, with a heading change and ditch the GPS!

First Solo X-Country

Just had my first solo cross-country, and while everything went very smoothly and to plan, it was an incredibly exhilarating experience to fly by oneself to another airport and return safely back home. My instructor and I chose Port Meadville (GKJ) as it is almost a direct north heading and you can practically follow Route 79 all of the way from Zelienople to GKJ. The weather was a balmy 37 degrees F with virtually no wind to speak of but a rather low ceiling around 2,500 to 3,000 feet AGL.

I got to the airport around 9AM performed a very thorough preflight, called in for a briefing and calculated my wind correction angle and heading from the winds aloft the briefer gave me. I pulled the plane out and went through the checklists which always do a good job of smoothing out the butterflies. Before I knew if I was calling my departure and enjoying the great lift the cold air provided. The trip was rather uneventful and I was able to hit my checkpoints within 10-30 seconds or so. I also shot some radials from a few VORs to double check but with 79 off to my right, it was pretty easy to feel comfortable with the navigation.

Approaching Port Meadville, I left the view of 79 and followed Route 19 which according to the map would take me straight to GKJ. The airport is actually hidden from view from the south by a ridge but faith in the map proved to serve me well and the airport popped into view on time. I had check the ATIS, there was no local traffic announcing a runway so I chose runway 25 and announced my intentions. Downwind for 25 at GKJ is interesting in that you basically are heading into a mountainside and then parallel that on base right over Route 79, pretty cool. The landing was relatively decent and soon I was taxing back for the takeoff.

The trip back was just as uneventful as before and I played the "what-if-my-engine-were-to-quit-now" game a fair amount. Soon Lake Moraine was in view, I announced on the PJC frequency that I was landing and Mike chirped on his handheld to check in on me, he was there getting ready for a lesson with another student. After landing, filling up and shutdown, I joined Mike for a debrief and a taco at the local Mexican restaurant right on the airport. I wasn't able to dally long as I was scheduled to join the CEO of BitArmor and the wives for a little R&R at the Pitt-Seton Hall hoops game. A pretty darn good way to spend a Saturday!

Trip to Gettysburg - Third cross country and long night cross country

Yesterday Mike and I piled our gear into 684SP, our club's very plush Cessna 172SP decked out with leather seats, auto pilot, etc. All the stuff you love to see in a trainer... :-). This was to be my final long dual cross country and the trip back would be my night dual cross country. The trip from Zelienople (PJC) to Gettysburg (W05) measured 144nm weather looked very favorable, one of the nicest fall evenings in a long time with 10nm of visibility, winds 210@8 knots and zero turbulence. We took off about 4:30PM from Zeli and Mike showed me how to initiate flight following with ATC. Mike explained that "flight following" added a safety margin to the flight as ATC would warn us of traffic in the area, and should something go wrong, our whereabouts would be reasonably known. We started to tick off our check points passing by Butler Airport, over the Allegheny river, past Homer City, Johnstown (Murtha Airport), and on to Gettysburg. We also got some great shots of the windmills in Somerset as well as some of the stunning vistas of mountain ridges snaking their way along through Central PA.
<--- Mike Woods, CFI     Coming into W05 we needed to be very careful with respect to our position south of the airport due to a TFR related to the President's visit to Camp David. We touched down right about dusk after flying about a hour and fifteen minutes.

We caught the FBO owner right before he was leaving, and he let us fill up the plane and even gave us a ride into town to Mike's daughter's high school's football game. After watching Gettysburg High School clobber the team from Harrisburg, Mike and I walked back to the airport, fired up the plane, warmed up the plane (the temp was hovering at freezing at this point), and leaped into the dense air on takeoff.        Windmills Over Somerset--->


The return trip home at night turned out to be as uneventful as the flight out but interesting and packed with information as always. Mike put the foggles on me for half of the trip back and I got a chance to work on my IFR flying technique. ATC gave us the heads up that PJC was dead ahead of us, we
<--- Mountain Ridges Near Johnstown
thanked him for his help and signed off of flight following. We landed at a desolate PJC at about 1AM, fuel ed up in the freezing air at the depot, and taxied back to the hangar happy to be home again.

Flight Planning - preparing for a cross country

Just my notes for steps to prepare and plan for a cross country.
Mapping

• Draw course line
• Draw 10 mile wide swath (5nm to each side)
• Measure distance
• Determine altitude
• Determine checkpoints
• Note emergency landing airports

Airports

• Communications
• Runways
• Airport diagrams

Before Flight

• Get weather briefing
• Calculate heading/wind correction
• Calculate total time and checkpoint time
• Calculate fuel burn

Airplane

• Calculate weight and balance
• Calculate performance metrics (takeoff distance, etc)

In Flight

• File flight plan or initiate flight following with ATC
• Check heading vs ground track adjust if necessary
• Time first checkpoint

2nd Dual Cross Country

Today we flew from our home base of Zelienople to Latrobe Airport (AKA Arnold Palmer Regional, LBE). Due to a maintenance snafu with our standing N89549 C152, we ended up taking the only plane available, our sweet 172SP with the oh-so-comfortable leather seats. Mike and I had flight planned the night before (I received the longest weather briefing in my short flying career, 15 minutes?), and today I would get some more experience with the VOR navigation, pilotage and talking to the control tower. I've heard there is a decent restaurant at LBE but we were in a bit of a rush to get the plane back for our club president. The tower did hold us for an inordinately long period of time at the hold-short area, and we could not figure out why, but after 10 minutes or so, she let us get on our way. I also got some experience with getting cut off by another plane in the pattern. We were doing a straight-in on 35 at Zeli and another plane dove down to a lower elevation to get in front of us on final saying over the radio that he had the right of way. I will say though, he was a good guy, coming over later to apologize and saying that he was incorrect an that we indeed did have the right of way.

Final on Runway 35 at Zeli (PJC)