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, 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.

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.

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.

Enjoy the short, entitled, "Flying Full Circle"...

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.

Updated Pilot Log

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.

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).

Updated Pilot Log

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.

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.

Updated Pilot Log

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.

We landed and hung out in the FBO for about 15 minutes, chatted with the guy manning the FBO, and watched clouds get a little taller and decided to leave. On the climb out I called flight watch for a report and they told me there were pop up cells all around my area and to be on the lookout, but that McKinney was clear. As we flew, we saw two menacing clouds just to the south and to the north of my flight path. In both of these clouds there seemed to be a wall of condensation that extended down to the ground so we made sure we were clear of that and continued southwest. We actually flew in between both "walls" toward the clear skies just beyond this cloud. I told my Mark to keep his eyes open for any lightning and tell me immediately if he sees any. Just as we got past the bad stuff, mark saw a bolt of lightning far away to the North. Since we were past it already and past any menacing clouds I didn't worry about it. That's not to say I wasn't more than a little nervous. Let's put it this way, I was flying a plane that has a brand new engine in it. The break-in instructions call for the pilot to fly at 75% cruise... let's just say that I was flying at a little bit more than 75% power on my way through this area of the sky.

Anyway, we made it back to McKinney in short time and landed with the wind 110 at 8 knots (a nice little crosswind) and landed without any problems.

I decided that I needed some practice just landing the plane. Since I received my private certificate I haven't worked performed more than 3 landings in one flight so I felt I my technique was a bit rusty and my decision making could use some work. So, I got in the plane yesterday after getting off work and stayed in the pattern and just did landings. In almost an hour I was able to get in 10 landings. I didn't try to do any special landings (like a soft field or short field). I just wanted to do normal everyday landings. After finishing, I felt like I had made progress and had sharpened the rough edges that had developed from not having nearly as many landings since my check ride.

The other thing working landings helps with is sharpening your maneuvering. Doing touch and goes and working in the pattern allows you to practice the four fundamentals of flying. In flying there are only four things you really need to know how to do. Those four things are climbing, descending, turning, and flying straight and level. When working in the pattern you put all four of those fundamentals into practice. You climb out as you take off from the runway and turn to crosswind. You level of and fly straight and level on downwind, you start descending as you turn from downwind to base and from base to final approach. Being able to control the plane under these four fundamentals is essential to all the other maneuvers you perform.

All in all, it was a good hour and I felt like I made some progress in sharpening the rough spots that had develped over the past couple of months where training has not been my primary purpose in flying.

The flight out took about an 1 hour, 20 minutes because of a headwind just about the entire trip there. The total distance was 98 nautical miles because we had to fly around the DFW Class Bravo shelf, so, our route of flight was McKinney to Mesquite, to Lancaster, to Midloathian/Waxahachie to Granbury.

The city is nestled nicely against a really pretty lake (Lake Granbury) and seems like a nice little town. The airport is nice and the people there were friendly. We landed without too many problems (having a GPS/Transponder that displays traffic came in handy) and parked the plane on the grass in-field just off the parallel taxiway and had some good and an inexpensive food.

At around 10am, we got back in the plane and headed back the way we came and stopped at Mesquite Airport for some cheap AVgas and headed back to McKinney, arriving 15 minutes ahead of schedule aided this time by a tailwind.

Updated Pilot Log

... and here's a list of the places I've landed.

View Larger Map

Yesterday, however, was special. It was my first real cross-country flight that was not associated with meeting a requirement for my private pilot certificate. My Friend Robert and I both had the day off work and decided to go on a so called "$100 hamburger" run up to University of Oklahoma Max Westheimer Airport (KOUN) in Norman Oklahoma, to eat at a small diner next to the control tower called Ozzie's. The food was okay. It was not bad, but edible... the airport was outstanding and line service at the FBO was excellent.

On trip up to OU, we decided to use victor airways, so we took off from KTKI and flew due north until we intercepted the Victor Airway 573 at the YOGVA fix, flew that to the Ardmore VOR-TAC, then turned to Victor Airway 17 toward Oklahoma City. When we got to the WETIX fix about 15 south of Norman we turned toward the airport and landed on runway 21. We had trouble getting flight following from regional approach on our way out, so we just monitored the Dallas-Fort Worth Approach frequency and kept our eyes open. On the way back we flew direct KOUN to KSWI for some cheap AV gas before heading back to KTKI. Leaving Norman was very easy and we were able to get flight following down to KSWI.

The total flight time was 3.1 hours, counting all the time on the ground getting ready the trip took a little more than 5 hours. That included the pre-flight stuff, lunch, and our side trip to KSWI in order to refuel with much cheaper AV gas than KTKI sells. Overall, the trip was a blast! Robert and I had a lot of fun and we look forward to going on the next cross-country.

Updated Pilot Log

The simple answer is, everything comes back to flying.

Enjoy...