The last time I posted, it was about my trip to California to look at a perspective airplane for purchase. On Tuesday, May 5, my aircraft partner and I closed escrow and Cessna 7049R became ours. The next task was to get the airplane from Livermore, CA (KLVK) to McKinney, TX (KTKI).
We were a bit pressed for time because of the fact that I was tagged, just last week, to go out to Beale AFB, CA (KBAB) for work. Because of this, I had to leave on an American Airlines flight out to Sacramento on Sunday afternoon. Also, it was looking like we would have to dodge the weather as we got closer to the DFW area.
The original plan was to do the flight in two days, first flying from Livermore, CA (KLVK) to El Paso, TX (KELP), staying overnight and leaving early, early in the morning to get from El Paso to McKinney. As it turned out, we were making such good time during the day and were feeling so good physically, that we decided to continue flying all the way back to McKinney in one day. This worked out on a number of levels, not the least of which was my time crunch. Also, the bad weather that would have shut us down was moving easterly, out of the DFW area. We all wanted to get home to sleep in our own beds. For me, it would be the last time in a couple of weeks I would be able to.
So, we flew out on American Airlines, Friday afternoon (May 7), arriving at about 5pm local time and made our way to the hotel near KLVK and then went to check out our plane, which was arleady parked on the ramp with transient parking. We actually fueled it up and re-parked it so we would be ready to go right away. We all awoke (my partner, my flight instructor, and me) before 5am the next morning to get ready and to get some breakfast at the local IHOP and then headed out to the airport to pre-flight the plane and embark. After all that we were wheels up (literally... it's a retractable gear aircraft) at exactly 7:03am and made it to Blythe, CA (KBLH) 3 hours and 1 minute later.
After a 40 minute break, during which we topped off the fuel tanks and stretching our legs... along with a quick bathroom break, we were off, this time with my partner, Ben in command. From KBLH to KELP. The flight was more or less uneventful, but very scenic as we started flying over some really nice sized mountains, we arrived at KELP in almost the exact amount of time as the flight to KBLH. The climb out was interesting. We were at max weight with full fuel and it was starting to warm up in the California desert. It took us awhile to get to our assigned altitude (11,000 feet MSL). As the day grew later and the mountains more rugged over Arizona and New Mexico, the air was quite a bit choppier. The autopilot did a great job of maintaining our altitude within a couple of hundred feet and staying on course.
After landing at KELP, we took a lunch break. The line service people at the FBO were great. They gave us a ride to the closest Subway sandwich shop and waited for us while we ate. Meanwhile, they filled the fuel tanks and tied down the airplane. We ate and then went back to the FBO to visit the restroom and plan our final leg. Originally, we were going to stop in Big Spring, TX to switch, but we wanted to get home and when we discovered, that because of a nice tailwind, we could make it in about 3 and a half hours, we went ahead and scrapped the stop in Big Spring. It had been crappy all day in the DFW area where the forecast was chance of isolated thunderstorms, but other than the ceilings being low there wasn't much meteorological activity. The thunderstorms in the area were staying pretty much to the north and east of KTKI and were moving eastward, so we decided to go ahead and take off. In any event, we had XM weather on board, so we could always decide to land before getting to Dallas if the conditions changed. Again, I was in command and we took off out of KELP I found out what it meant to fly high and hot. It was over 90° Fahrenheit at the airport in the late afternoon, which yielded a density altitide about 3000 feet above the field elevation. In a typical Cessna Skyhawk, with a 160hp engine, this would spell trouble, but with our airplane and it's 235hp engine and turbo charger, it should not be a problem. That's relatively speaking, of course. We were able to rotate in short order at 55knots, but had trouble climbing. So, I kept the nose low, got the gear and the 10° of flaps for takeoff up, to build some speed before pulling back on the elevator. We were near the end of the runway when the plane just started to lifting away from the ground. After that, we enjoyed a nice 700-1000 foot per minute climb to 11,000 feet, riding thermals up the entire way. Of course, it didn't hurt that we had the throttle at 31 inches of manifold pressure for the entire climb either. We burned a little more fuel than normally we would normally, but I think, under the circumstances, that's okay. Normally, after initial climbout, you want to settle into a cruise climb at 25 inches of manifold pressure. However, getting up to 11,000 as fast as possible was more critical on this occasion.... and we got there in from about 3900 feet (our takeoff elevation) in about 10 minutes. Try to do that in a C172!
Overall the flight was pretty simple. We stayed on victor airways and were instructed to use the KNEAD5 arrival by Air Traffic Control. After passing Abilene, TX we encountered the cloud cover that was causing the IMC conditions in the DFW area. We flew over the tops for awhile and then were instructed to descend as we grew closer to DFW Class Bravo airspace. When we hit 4000 feet, we were "in the soup" for the last 45 minutes of the flight. Again, with the autopilot, this was an easy task, however, I still kept my instrument scan going, just in case anything went wrong. The wind dictated that we would need to land on runway 35 at KTKI, however, we were not equipped with a valid GPS approach database. So we were instructed to use the ILS17 approach and then circle to land on runway 35 after breaking through the clouds. It was quite a good feeling as we descended to see, first the PAPI for runway 17, then the runway lights, at about 1100 feet, allowing us to get into the pattern and make a visual approach to 35. We landed and let the plane roll out without using too much braking and taxied her back to her new home, Hangar 212.
I went flying this past weekend... in California. I've posted about the plane I'm looking into buying. This past weekend I looked at N7049R, which you can see here.
So, as a result, I have two new airports to add to my list of airports at which I've landed, for a total of 30 airports. Livermore Municipal Airport (KLVK), where the above aircraft is based, and Harris Ranch Airport (3O8).
Below is a map of with marking of where I've landed...
Overall, the plane is really nice. It is a Cessna Skylane TR182 RG. It is a little bit roomier than a Cessna 172, the engine puts out 235hp and it is a retractable gear airplane. The plane has a lot of really cool equipment, including an autopilot (with flight director), a stormscope (which finds lightning strikes), and an electronic engine monitor that helps determine how much to lean the mixture. Additionally, if you look at the pictures, the plane has an HSI. I've heard many good things about HSI. An HSI is an intimidating instrument when you first look at it. There is a lot of information available in the instrument and does not look like that information is easy to interpret. The instrument takes some getting used to, but after a few minutes it's actually easier to read and understand than a standard CDI instrument and is much more comfortable to use. Especially during an instrument scan during IFR flight. The additional information means there is no need to add instruments to your scan when you are navigating by GPS or VOR and when you are on the glideslope during an approach to landing.
Lastly, this plane will cruise at 160 knots, but on our flight we were easier on the power and loafed along at about 150 knots over the ground at 6500 feet. In contrast, a standard Cessna 172 will cruise at about 100 knots, so the 182RG will get you there much faster and allow you to fly further with its 88 gallons of fuel capacity. By flying this plane, I was able to log 1.4 hours in a high performance and complex aircraft.
Alright, I haven't been to that many places, but it has been awhile since I last blogged.... So below, I offer for your edification, an update on what I've been doing in the pilot world.
Aside from the one or two rides I gave to friends and the solo flights for proficiency or just to go have fun, I have gone on a few cross-country flights. I took Mrs. Dirk L'Orange and her mother to Fort Worth to have dinner at a restaurant in the Stockyards. I flew with a new friend, fellow pilot, and possible partner in an aircraft purchase to Stephenville, TX to have a BBQ lunch at the Hard Eight BBQ. I flew a solo cross-country flight in a Diamond Star DA40/180 to have lunch at the Red Barn Cafe in Sulphur Springs, TX. I also began receiving instruction again and building hours to obtain a Complex Aircraft Endorsement in my logbook.
First, the trip to Fort Worth. We got to the airport at around 7pm and got Mrs. L'Orange and her mom situated while I pre-flighted the aircraft. We got underway about 15 minutes later and started out heading West tracking highway 380 which stretches between McKinney and Denton. I called Regional Approach to request traffic advisories so that they could route me on the most direct path to Meacham Airport (KFTW) over in Ft. Worth. I got Flight Following from Approach and proceeded only to discover that my transponder was not reporting altitude properly. As a result of that malfunction I was asked to maintain my altitude at or below 2500 feet, but to proceed on course. The flight was more or less uneventful except for two incidents. First, as we passed Fort Worth Alliance Airport (KAFW) we were told to watch out for an F-18 on a VFR flight plan landing at Alliance and to be careful in the event that he decides to do a touch-and-go. Second, on final for Meacham, we had to switch runways at the last second because a King Air (twin turbo-prop) was coming up behind us on landing. We parked at Texas Jet, who provided us a spot and courtesy car at no charge for the evening. If you get a chance to go to Meacham, stop by Texas Jet for really good service.
We arrived and had a good meal at the H3 Ranch at the Stockyards and headed back to the airport where upon takeoff, we were cleared to transition Class Bravo to return to McKinney and had no problems with the transponder. Mrs. L'Orange was a little nervous about this, but enjoyed the views as we passed directly over DFW Airport (KDFW). She also had an issue with landing back at McKinney without the tower being open. It had closed about 30 minutes earlier, but her fears were allayed when I explained that this was common and we just make calls to all the traffic in the area and report our position.
Next flight was to Clark Municipal Airport in Stephenville, TX (KSEP) with pilot friend, Ben. Ben is a private pilot who is currently working on his IFR rating... so, decided to split the flight time and cost. I flew from McKinney to Stephenville by heading south and going around the DFW Class Bravo airspace to the east and south. We arrived and I impressed Ben with a nice crosswind landing on Runway 32 (Wind: 340@16G22). His exact quote was, "Uh oh, you've set the bar pretty high." We had a really good lunch and overall, I have to say this is the first place I flew to on a "$100 hamburger run" that I really want to go back to.
On the flight back to McKinney, Ben took over and we flew north and east to return to McKinney. As Ben is an IFR Student, he decided to fly this next portion of the flight while referencing instruments while I acted as his safety pilot. Basically, he was allowed to fly with a view limiting device and log simulated instrument time while I kept my eyes open for traffic and also watched to make sure we didn't get turned around or into a bad attitude. This was advantageous for me too as I was allowed to log time as PIC (pilot in command) while in the right seat as long as Ben was "under the hood". I was impressed with his ability to control the plane and keep us on-course while we flew under these conditions. Ben is pretty close to taking his checkride and his skill definitly shows. We were running behind and landed at Bridgeport Municipal Airport (KXBP) to get some cheap fuel ($2.34/gallon) and were able to fuel up, and get back in the air in record time... I think it took at total of 10 minutes to land, taxi to the gas pump, get 20 gallons of fuel, and take off again. This time Ben flew the aircraft VFR back to McKinney and we were able to get back without any problems. Ben's landings were good, but he didn't have the crosswinds or gusts I had to deal with, so he did acknowledge that I won our unofficial landing contest.
A week later I had some free time and decided to fly out to try the food at the Red Barn Cafe in Sulphur Springs. None of the club aircraft were available, so I checked with the flight school up in Denton Municipal Aorport (KDTO) where I have privileges to fly their Diamond Star DA40. It was available, so I reserved it and flew out to Sulphur Springs Municipal Airport (KSLR). The Diamond cruises at about 125 knots and has an autopilot. I enjoyed giving that a try and watching the plane hold its course without having to touch any of the controls.
I landed at Sulphur Springs, parked, and walked over to the Red Barn, located just across the main highway from the airport and had a really nice lunch. This too is a place I would return for another lunch. Not just because of the food, but the people there are really nice.
After my meal, I made the walk back to the airport thinking, I would just do a quick pre-flight, and be on my way. But when I came back a very interesting and unique aircraft had arrived, so I decided to take a couple of pics and talk to the owners. The plane is a DeHavilland DHC-3 "Otter". They landed there to refuel and take a bit of a break. They were very nice and allowed me to climb up into the cockpit and the back cabin of the aircraft and told me a little bit about the plane. After that, one of the pilots took an interest in the Diamond I came in on and asked me a bunch of questions about it. We had a nice conversation and said our goodbyes so I hopped in the plane, having completed my pre-flight and returned to Denton.
Finally, it looks like I may own an aircraft soon. I and a partner are going to go "half-sies" on an airplane and we have found one that looks like it meets our criteria for a reasonable price. We are looking at a Cessna Skylane RG TR182. It is a Cessna 182 with retractable landing gear and a turbo charger on the engine. It cruises at about 160 knots and holds 92 gallons of fuel. This gives the airplane a range of about 1000 miles. The plane has an autopilot, which should help on those longer flights.
In anticipation of getting this airplane, which I should have in the next month or two, I have been flying in the flying club's Arrow. The Arrow, by definition, is a complex aircraft. A complex aircraft is an aircraft with a constant speed propeller, retractable landing gear, and flaps. In order to act as Pilot in Command of a complex aircraft, a pilot must have a logbook endorsement from a CFI (Certified Flight Instructor). I actually have to obtain two endorsements to fly the plane I might buy. The C182 has a 235-hp engine and anything over 200-hp also requires a logbook endorsement. Anyway, you can see pictures of the airplane I'm planning to buy by clicking on the plane's tail number, N7049R.
My friend Scott and I flew up to Ada Municipal Airport in Ada, OK (KADH) for the $100 Hamburger. Why Ada? Well, it was the right distance away (about an hour) and was a place I had never landed before.
We took off from McKinney (KTKI) and were able to fly directly there. Once again, I had an interesting interface with regional approach when I called them up to ask for flight following. I asked for flight following and was never responded to again. Rather than bother with repeated contact with them and being stepped on by other pilots, I decided to fore go the request since I was on an active flight plan anyway. I wish I could say that the trip up was exciting, however, it's North Texas and Southern Oklahoma. It's pretty flat with a slight upslope in the terrain as you fly north.
Scott was interested to see Lake Texoma from the sky, he commented that he didn't realize how huge the lake is. I hadn't thought about it before, but I did note that on the way back, we could see Texoma from 5500 feet pretty quickly after taking off from KADH.
We ate at Bob's "world famous" BBQ. It always amazes me how many world famous eateries I've never heard of in these little tiny towns. Anyway, the BBQ place was walkable, but we decide to take the courtesy car from the FBO just to see what the courtesy car was like....
I'm getting ahead of myself. We landed the plane and entered the FBO and were greeted by an interior with low ceilings, wood paneled walls, and long shag carpet. We got the key to the courtesy car, which happened to be a Chevy Suburban with wood paneled interior and long shag carpet. It also came with a complimentary (plastic) can of Lay's Stax potato chips. We rolled up to Bob's, parked and enjoyed an above average lunch. During lunch, I got a call from the 1970's, the 70's were very angry, they wanted their decor back from the restaurant, the car, and the FBO. I told them I would see what I could do.
After a hardy meal, we headed back the 1/8 of a mile to the airport and returned the car and disembarked to the south. We made a landing at Sherman Airport (KSWI) for some cheap fuel from their self-serve pump, then returned to McKinney. I was a bit disturbed by the happenings at KSWI. I made my radio calls on their CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) and neither heard nor saw any other KSWI traffic, and I landed without incident. However, after re-fueling, I taxied to the end of the runway and did my pre-flight engine run up, the entire time with the Frequency set to the KSWI CTAF. I completed the run up, then turned the plane toward the approach end of the runway to watch for incoming traffic prior to entering the runway. I wasn't expecting to see anything since I had been monitoring the radio. So, I look up and much to my surprise, there's a Cessna 172 on short final for the runway I was about to enter. I waited until the Cessna exited the runway and looked up again and saw a Bonanza on short final. None had made any radio calls. I checked my radio, made sure I was on the correct Comm and made sure the Freq was correct... everything looked right. I was a little upset, not one, but two aircraft were not observing proper safety protocol while landing at a non-towered airport. What it did do was reinforce my paranoia about staying alert and checking and re-checking for traffic around a non-towered airport.
We were able to take off without any trouble and lined ourselves up for a straight in a approach to KTKI. Scott wanted to see what it looked like to intercept an ILS and what it looked like, so showed him how to capture the localizer and even punched up the RNAV approach on the GPS in the aircraft. We contacted KTKI tower at about 12 miles out and were told to come straight in. We landed and parked without any problems called it an end to our fun afternoon.
A filmmaker by the name of Brian Terwilliger made the video embedded below. Most of you probably haven't ever heard of Brian, but he is the producer and director of one of the best aviation documentaries ever made. One Six Right is movie that captures the romance of flight in a way that most of us who love flying cannot express in words. It features what we "airplane geeks" consider a magical place, the local airport. If you haven't gotten a chance to see it, it's a very well made documentary whether you're into flying or not.
Enjoy the short, entitled, "Flying Full Circle"...
Friday was the big day for our trip to Austin. The weather was perfect as there wasn't a cloud in the entire state of Texas and the wind was pretty calm. The first leg was a short one to Mesquite Metro Airport (KHQZ) to pick up Tim, friend who was to join me on the trip. Shortly after takeoff from McKinney (KTKI) I opened my flight plan with Fort Worth Flight Service, and made my way to KHQZ, landing shortly after for a quick restroom stop and to pick up Tim. From there was set off direct to Georgetown Municipal Airport (KGTU) which I planned to overfly and use as a checkpoint before contacting Austin Approach and heading toward Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (KAUS).
All went well with the flight except for two things. First, after taking off from KHQZ, I asked for flight following from DFW Regional Approach, which was granted, however, after clearing the Class Bravo shelf to the south, I told them I was climbing to 6500 feet for the remainder of my flight. It was at that point that I was contacted by Approach and given the following instruction, "Three-November-Bravo, radar services terminated, squawk VFR, frequency change approved, have a good night." They just cut me off without handing me off to Fort Worth Center (ZFW). I was a little miffed, but no problem... I found the frequency for ZFW and switched over. Just as I was about to contact them, I heard one of the controllers over the radio say, "Any VFR flight asking for flight following, don't bother, we're too busy tonight." Well.... too busy.... well screw you too!!!! Ah well, at least I was on an active flight plan. So we continued our flight from KHQZ direct to KGTU.
We were having a nice, smooth flight enjoying the views of the various Friday Night Lights along the way when we came upon KGTU and it was time to call Austin Approach. I did so reporting the following, "Austin Approach, Cessna Seven-Three-Three-November-Bravo is a Cessna 172 Slant Golf, VFR at six thousand, five hundred, heading south, inbound for Austin-Bergstrom International, requesting traffic advisories". I was given a new transponder code to squawk and asked to turn to heading 120°. A short time later I was asked to descend to an altitude at or below 2000 feet. Basically, the routed me to the northeast of the airport, then turned me toward the airport until I made visual contact (i.e. located the beacon). They then turned me south, paralleling the runways, turning me to the base leg of the pattern before handing me off to Austin Tower.
This is where it got interesting. I was on about a 2 mile final when I was waived off and told to turn east and climb to an altitude at or below 2000. In fact, they closed the airport to all traffic because of an aircraft that rolled onto the grass when it was turning to a taxiway. Once I got a couple of miles away from the airport, I was asked to make a "racetrack pattern" to the east until further notice. They got the plane cleared and had some trucks roll down the runway in search of FOD (foreign object debris). After that, the tower controller asked me to contact approach again to get re-lined up for landing. They wanted to get a couple of planes down before us that were low on fuel. I did as they asked and got sequenced again behind a 737 and handed off to the tower again on the base leg of the pattern, then came in and landed on the big runway (35L) without incident and without, once again, a landing light, which seems to have a problem working on the plane I flew. Unfortunately, the flight was extended from about 2 hours to about 2 and a half hours.
From the airport we picked up our rental car, checked into our respective hotels (Tim and I), and then hit Sixth Street for some good music and food. This place was amazing. We had some dinner at the Iron Cactus and then found an Irish pub where a really cool band was playing some texas blues was playing. Then found very bluesy-R&B sounding band was playing at a place called the Dirty Dog. We stayed there for about an hour and then called it a night and returned to our respective hotels to get some rest for the big game against Baylor.
The game was interesting... I've been to college football games before, but none with the pageantry and presentation that this one had. The band was huge, the crowd was huge... and really into the game. We were in the upper deck, but I still felt like, from our seats, our view was pretty good. Below are a couple of photos from the iPhone. In the end, the good guys won, but most people in attendance agreed that the team wasn't playing up to its potential and were still critical... and for the most part, they were right. I also see why most of the players at UT end up staying for all four years of their eligibility. They are treated like absolute royalty in Austin, both as a team and as individuals. As big a city as it is, they are the only game in town and they are beloved... and most people followed the mantra, "Come Early. Be Loud. Stay Late. Wear Orange." We left the game when the team hit 49 about midway through the 4th quarter.... obviously we didn't stay late. But we did so to have time to enjoy another big Austin Institution, the original Chuy's Tex-Mex Restaurant on Barton Springs Road (where, incidentally, Jenna Bush was arrested for attempting to buy alcohol under age). We made it to Chuy's and had a great meal, then headed back to the airport, where I did some flight planning and we got under way.
This time, I skipped overflying KGTU in favor of a direct route to KHQZ and the flight was done entirely under flight following, so I had air traffic control eyes on me just about the entire way until I cancelled flight following within 10 miles of KHQZ. Since my flight was done under flight following, it was tracked by flight aware, just like all the big airlines. You can see my route by clicking here. The really nice thing about the trip was my fuel burn was really good. I was able to lean the mixture using the technique relayed to me by Robert, who learned it from our CFI, by paying attention to the EGT indicator (Exhaust Gas Temperature) and leaning the mixture to slightly below (on the rich side) the peak EGT. With this method I estimate my fuel flow was just under 9 gallons per hour, which is pretty good for a 180 horsepower engine.
We landed at KHQZ so that I could drop off Tim and refuel for $3.30/gallon before returning to KTKI and buttoning up the plane and going home. The weekend could not have gone better in terms of making a cross-country flight and having a good time at sixth street and a football game.
It has been awhile since my last entry. Since I lasted blogged I've flown a few times.
I took another night flight across to the west side of the area, landing at Fort Worth Meacham Airport (KFTW). Then On the return leg, I requested transition of Class B airspace, which was granted, and got to fly among the big boys. I was routed to the north end of Dallas-Ft. Worth International (KDFW) and overflew the approaches to 17 runways from east to west. After that I was routed to the southeast to get close to Dallas Love Field (KDAL) and overflew the approach end of runway 13 at KDAL. The entire time, American MD-80's and Southwest 737's and learjets and the like were passing underneath me. It also felt kinda cool to be in contact with Approach Control for that long of a time and get calls to change headings regularly. It made me feel like a real pilot.
A week or two later I went down to Mesquite Metro (KHQZ) to meet with Chris, my best friend from high school (who just so happens to live in Dallas), and introduce him to flight in a single-engine piston aircraft. We took off from KHQZ after a quick meet and greet with his wife and kids, and overflew his east Dallas home. Then up north to the frisco/prosper area for the standard tour. Then a quick touch-and-go at McKinney (KTKI) then back to KHQZ to drop Chris back. We got a chance to talk a bit and catch up and fly.
Last week I made a quick solo flight at night where I tried and aborted two attempted touch-and-goes at Caddo Mills (7F3) before giving up and returning back to KTKI. Then I took another friend, Tim, up for his first time in a Cessna in anticipation of a cross-country with Tim and the lovely Mrs. Dirk L'Orange to Austin to attend a University of Texas football game. Tim handled it well, had a lot of fun and we're all looking forward to the trip on 8 Nov.
On Tuesday, this past week, Robert and I flew to Arlington Municipal Airport (KGKY) via Mesquite (KHQZ) and Lancaster (KLNC) and took a crew car up to the Arlington Sheraton to see Phil Boyer (president of the AOPA) speak at a Pilot Town Hall. It was fun and interesting and gave us material for a new website that Robert came up with to rate crew cars from various GA airports. The website is http://crewcars.blogspot.com, if you're interested.
Finally today, I drove up to Denton Municipal Aiport (KDTO) to fly in get checked out in a Diamond Star DA40. For those of you who are not familiar, it's really cool looking airplane and it flies really smoothly. Even in turbulence, the plane wants to fly pretty true. The wings don't pop up on you nearly as much as they might in a Cessna 172. It flies faster and is a low wing aircraft, but the approach speeds are almost the same as the 172. This is also the first time I flew in an airplane with a constant speed propeller. There are a few rules to keep in mind and some additional checks on the engine run up before flying but in general it's not that difficult to fly. This plane had a stick instead of a control yoke, it was pretty easy and fun to fly with. Also, the visibility in the plane was outstanding. All in all, I'm going to enjoy flying in it again. It's a lot o fun.
Next scheduled flight, probably a refresher with my instructor before I go on the long cross-country and then to Austin-Bergstram International Airport (KAUS).
I was out at the Annual Texins Flying Club Fall Picnic this morning and took the time to experiment with my the voice recorder that works with my 60GB iPod w/ Video... the voice recorder has a line-in feature, so all I tried a 1/8" - 1/8" cord along with a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter to plug into the aircraft headset input. I wasn't optimistic about it working because I was worried about attenuation and gain and other audio issues that I no nothing about, but I thought I would try it anyway.
I just went into one of the club planes while on the ground and flipped a couple of switches to get power to the control panel and attempted to record some audio of the tower talking to aircraft in the area. Click below to listen to the results.
Listen Now:
Success!!! I did do a little bit of editing to cut out some of the dead air between transmissions.
This means that, in the future, I should be able to paint an audio picture of what it's like to go on a flight from beginning to end.
I haven't mentioned my last few flights... two flights to Paris , TX and a local flight around dallas. The flights to Paris were pretty much uneventful, other than the happenings on the ground. The night flight yesterday around dallas was fantastic. Here's how they went.
First, a week ago from last Sunday, I flew with my friend to take his kids back to their mom near Paris, TX. The kids had never been on any kind of plane and they had a blast. We did have a bit of a problem finding his wife's house, but once we figured out where we were, we found the house pretty quickly.
One thing about my friend's ex-wife.... she is a bitter, bitter woman. Now she's even more of a country hick than before now that she lives out in the sticks. My complaint about her -- and this is a complaint that my wife shares with me dating back years -- is that she sets up these expectations of others without checking to see if those expectations are realistic or agreed to. If you don't meet said expectations, she has a fit. And when she wants things to go a certain way, she doesn't take others into consideration.
So, we're running late and my friend had told his wife that he would get his kids fed before dropping them off. Because of the timing of the flight and the lack of civilization between the airport in Paris and my friend's ex-wife's home, we couldn't really stop. We were lost, Google maps didn't help... nor did the paper map we had in the courtesy car from the FBO. It was quite annoying... so we're trying to find recognizable landmarks and back track when his phone rings... after some complaining about being late, not feeding the kids, etc etc... we hung up and found our way. My friend delivers the kids while his ex-wife berates him some more and we head back for an uneventful trip back.
One thing happened though... I left my iPhone in the courtesy car in Paris at the airport. I called them the next morning and sure enough, they had it and said they would hold onto it for me. So, I took the plane back on Monday and picked up my phone... safe and sound.
Last night I decided to fly with another friend (who happens to be a student pilot) to maintain my night currency. He came along because flyin's fun and because he hasn't done his night time training and wanted to see what he was in for. Even though he couldn't log any time I think he got quite a bit out of it. We took off from mckinney and tuned in the ATIS at Addison to get the weather info, then contacted regional approach. They gave us a squawk and instructions to head toward addison and then handed us off to the tower who gave us instructions on the direction of approach (we were to enter left base for runway 15 and descend at our discretion). We did so, touched down once we found the runway (which was a bit trickier for me than the other times I've been there) and taxied back to tell them we wanted to transition class bravo airspace enroute to dallas-executive airport.
We were told by ground, squawk 4673, after takeoff, turn right heading 180, climb and maintain at or below 2000 feet, expect to contact love tower at 123.7 for further instructions after handoff by addison tower. After my readback was confirmed, i switched over to addison tower to let them know we were ready to go, they handed back to ground to give me some additional info, which turned out to be nothing, ground handed back to the tower who finally released us. We took off, climbed out and turned to 180 when we heard the tower say, "Cessna 3-november-bravo, you're cleared into class bravo contact love tower at 123.7, have a good evening."
When I switched over to love tower, before I got a chance to contact them to report in, I heard, "cessna 3-november-bravo, are you with me yet?"
To which I replied, "Love tower, cessna 3-november-bravo has you."
Followed by, "Cessna 3-november-bravo, maintain 2000 feet, overfly runway 18-36, maintain heading until cleared direct to dallas-executive." I repeated the instructions and we had an outstanding view of dallas right in front of us.
As we flew over the runway, we watched a Southwest Airlines 737 landing to our right, we was pretty impressive. Once we passed love, the tower called and said, "cessna 3-november-bravo, proceed direct to dallas-executive." I started looking for the dallas-executive beacon and waiting for the next instruction, which came after I inquired, "3-november-bravo, you are clear of class bravo airspace, radar services terminated, squawk vfr, frequency change approved." I set my transponder back to 1200, tuned in the Dallas-Exec ATIS only to find out the tower was closed. So, we switched to common traffic advisory frequency and started making traffic calls to the airport in anticipation of our arrival. Since, no one else was around, we got in and out of there pretty fast.
We made our way over Lancaster airport and played with the pilot controlled lighting, then turned toward mesquite and noticed their runway lights were turned off, so I turned them on and made my calls to mesquite traffic on their frequency. We landed nicely, taxied back, and took off again, this time, to go back home to McKinney.
As we approached McKinney, I started lining up for runway 35 guessing that they would probably have us land to the north since the wind was calm and we were heading north anyway. Sure enough, when I called them they told us, proceed direct to runway 35. I lined us up to the runway center line and we were called back a couple of minutes later when we were still 6 miles out, and was cleared to land... I pulled in the carb heat, slowed us up when we were on a 2 mile final, and put it down nice and easy flaring as we passed over the numbers. We extended our landing rollout to taxiway C to that we could go directly across to parking from there.
Upon checking the mail today I got an interesting piece of correspondence.
That's right, I got me my permanent private pilot certificate. I feel much more official now. I actually have a certificate that doesn't expire within a few months (the temporary certificate expires within 120 days of issuance).
That is all for now.
