daghis

I've been quite busy over the past month since I passed my checkride. I've made a few cross-countries on my own, including one the day after my checkride to State College, PA, to visit a friend I'd not seen in several years, and another from my old flight school up to Las Vegas (Henderson), NV. That was my first time taking a passenger who wasn't a CFI, too!

I've started my instrument training with Shannon. We've only gone up a couple of times, and my very first instrument lesson included about 0.3 hours of "actual" time. I wasn't expecting to get that so early in my training, that's for sure! It's definitely going to take some time to learn about flying the plane without looking out the window, but I've got plenty of time to work on those skills.

I had an exciting opportunity yesterday to take Barry up as a passenger during a quick tour around the airport area. It was the first time we'd flown together, and I really enjoyed having a chance to show him what I've done ever since he got me that gift certificate for flying lessons a little over a year ago.

Tomorrow is another momentous day. Barry and I are taking the kids up and the four of us are going on a little cross-country flight to Carroll County-Tolson Airport. Barry is going to PIC on the way there, and I'm going to do it on the way back. I've never been a passenger in a little Cessna before, so this'll be extra exciting!

Thursday proved to be an excellent day for the checkride. The sky was clear and the winds were quite acceptable, although they did favor runway 31 more than usual.

I arrived at the flight school before 8:00 so that I could, I hoped, get some solo time down in the practice area before Tom showed up at 11:00. When I got there, I saw that the plane I was going to use was sitting outside, so I would have to get it into the hangar and thaw it out. Unfortunately for my plans, there were a couple student pilots going on solo cross-countries, so I thought it would make sense if they got their planes in the hangar since they needed to leave sooner. It turned out, however, that they didn't get a CFI to review their flight plan and sign them off until well after 9:30, so I didn't end up having enough time to do my solo practice. I did get the plane in the hangar around 10:00, so I had plenty of time to get it heated up and get the frost wiped off before the checkride.

Tom arrived shortly after 11:00 and he quickly reviewed my flight plan. He didn't seem all that concerned about it, but he did double-check my first couple choices of landmarks. At 11:00, we pushed the plane out of the hangar and the checkride was beginning!

At this point, the nerves really kicked in. During the morning I wasn't feeling all that nervous, and I had even slept reasonably well the night before. Now I'm being very vocal and pointing out each item on the checklist as I'm doing it. He's playing along, pretending like he hasn't heard these things hundreds of times before. I didn't really offer him a briefing, but I saw that he had his seat belt on, so I commented that he seemed to know how to operate his seat belt and door already and he agreed, so we left it at that.

I got the plane started easily enough (part of my fear was that the engine wouldn't start well and that would put a serious damper on the feeling of the checkride), I got ATIS, and before long I was taxiing off to runway 31.

As we approached the threshold, Tom asked me to do a soft-field takeoff, so I put in my 10º of flaps and waited until tower gave me my takeoff clearance. I did a reasonable-enough soft-field takeoff and we were headed off. As we started flying, I forgot that he was an examiner and it felt more like a regular lesson.

The cross-country flight had me heading off to the east and it went well enough. I noted my times as we crossed the river and the I-76. At this time, he asked me to look and see if I could see Monroeville airport. I looked at my sectional to get an idea of where it should be off to my left, but after trying for some time, I had no luck at all in finding it. With the ground being snow-covered, everything had this high-contrast black and white look to it, and it was hard to discern different things. I was worried about how he perceived my lack of ability to find Monroeville, but that feeling was only going to get worse.

We continued on toward a lake that was my next checkpoint and he then told me that due to bad weather ahead (fictional, of course), we'd divert to Greensburg-Jeanette. I made my approximate heading, noting that I'd be following a major interstate almost directly there. As I started flying south, I'm looking around, and I'm not seeing the airport. I continued flying until I saw a very large urban area coming up. According to the sectional, that meant that I had gone too far. I told him that I must have passed the airport and I turned back to the north to try again.

I also tuned in a VOR to help me find the airport by looking off the 90º radial, but before long, I was up at the 70º radial, so I knew I had gone too far again. At this point, Tom was starting to help me a bit by pointing out on the sectional the layout of the lake that had been my earlier checkpoint and how it points right to the airport. I had known that, but I just wasn't seeing it. So, I turned back to the south yet again and began my search. At this point, for the very first time in all my training, I was having trouble finding a destination airport and I was beginning to believe that I was going to fail my checkride right then and there.

As we flew a bit further south, I noticed what appeared to be a road off to the left that wasn't connected to anything. I surmised (aloud) that it was probably the airport's runway I was seeing, so I headed off in that direction. As I got closer, I was able to identify that it was, indeed, the airport I was looking for. It was at this point that Tom pulled my power and had me set up for an emergency landing there.

Here comes failure point #2... I pitch for 65 and get the plane nicely set up for best glide. I'm flying along, trying to stay near the airport while I lose altitude and get myself lined up for a final approach. I made a bad decision to go ahead and start heading toward the airport too soon. Even though I had full flaps, I had too much altitude and there was no way that I'd be able to land on the runway. He had me do a go-around and that was that. Now I was sure that I had another big black mark that would doom me to failure.

At this point, the concept that he was just another instructor had left my mind and I was acutely aware that this was a checkride.

From there, we started heading back to Allegheny County and did the maneuvers. He took control of the plane and had me put on my hood. The instrument part of the checkride was very basic. A couple quick turns left and right, and then a longer turn 120º turn to the right to simulate getting out of bad weather conditions.

He then directed me to put my head up or down, my choice, while he set the plane up for an unusual attitude recovery. When he said to recover the plane, I was shocked. I looked at the attitude indicator and I didn't see a horizon line. Heck, I couldn't even tell whether I was seeing brown or blue, so I quickly looked over at the airspeed and saw it dropping rapidly. At that put, I shoved the nose down, added power, and levelled the wings. Recovery was done in probably just about 4-5 seconds, but it sure was scary. I told him that was the severest unusual attitude I had ever done. He had me look up or down while he set up a second unusual attitude. The plane bounced around for a short while and he told me to recover. I was shocked again, but this time I saw that the attitude indicator was showing straight-and-level. I figured it was either a reward for doing the prior one well, or a check to find out whether I'd always push the nose down to recover. :)

I took the hood off and we continued on. He had me do slow flight, power-off, and power-on stalls. They went well, and my confidence slowly started to rebuild. I did feel a bit funny that during the slow flight, he told me to set up for a power-off stall, and I recovered all the way back into normal cruise flight before slowing the plane back down into the power-off stall maneuver. I rationalized to myself that if I want to spend the extra time setting up the maneuver, that's my choice and it's okay.

Next came steep turns. I screwed this up by not getting the plane properly set up before starting the maneuver. I had slowed the plane down below Va, but I neglected to get the plane configured for straight-and-level at that speed before starting the turns. I started turning toward the left, adding a bit of power into the turn, and that went okay, but my turn to the right dropped about 200' and wasn't as smooth.

After I rounded out from the turn, Tom pointed out that I had not done that well and offered me a second chance. I configured the plane properly this time and did the two steep turns quite well, keeping my altitude just fine.

At this point, I'm starting to feel really stupid. He has me track the Allegheny VOR and then to head back to the airport when I get there. I'm feeling drained by this point and not sure what to think. I start engaging in casual conversation since it's going to take about 5 minutes to get to the VOR and that makes me feel better. During all of this, he never got judgmental or angry. If anything, he was supportive and helpful, and I really appreciated that.

Upon reaching the VOR, I headed toward the airport. I tried calling tower, but didn't get a response. He asked me what the tower frequency was. I double-checked the number on the radio display, 121.0. I confirmed that was the number, then got a puzzled look, and said, "No, that's not it. It's 121.1." I tuned in the right frequency and did call tower properly.

As we approached the airport, he directed me to do a precision (short-field) landing. I was especially worried about this because I knew that short-field landings were my weak spot. When it came time to land the plane, it floated... and floated... and floated. I had obviously carried in too much airspeed to the landing. If I had realized what was going on and did a go around, I would have been okay, but the plane touched down halfway down the runway and that was that. As we were climbing after the brief touch-and-go, he told me that I had failed, but that he'd wait for me at the flight school, saying that he had nothing else planned for the day, while I went up with an instructor to work on that. He said that he's willing to pass with a couple minor problems, but I had needed a second chance on the steep turns, and I wasn't able to complete the emergency landing, so the failed landing messed that up.

I felt really down and dejected at this point. We went around the pattern, landed, and headed back to the flight school. I went inside and saw Shannon, a CFI I had flown with before, and asked her if she was available for my remedial training. Fortunately, she was. Before too long, she and I went up and she helped remind me about the power controls required for a short-field landing and getting the plane set up properly. I did a couple good ones (and one go around when I realized it wasn't set up right), and we went back to the flight school.

Tom came back out to the plane and we were off. At this point, the winds had shifted slightly and tower was using runway 28, but I didn't want to change anything, so I required runway 31 for my closed traffic pattern and got that (much to my relief). I took off and headed around the pattern, extra conscientious about my airspeed. This time, as we approached the runway, things looked much better, and at the appropriate mark on the runway, I nailed the short-field landing.

This was a touch-and-go, so we went back up and as we climbed, he told me that I had passed and congratulated me. I felt very relieved that it was finally over.

As a bonus, he took the next trip around the pattern to demonstrate a way to drop altitude more rapidly of one is very high on final. He had me keep pattern altitude through the base leg, although we did slow the plane down. He then put in full flaps, power to idle, and pitched the nose down to get the airspeed at the top of the white arc (85 knots). That was kind of scary and was a serious nose-down attitude.

It turns out that doing that, we lost a lot of altitude and didn't gain that much airspeed due to the high drag of the full flaps. We set up the plane back to nearly level flight as we crossed the numbers and the plane landed just fine.

He explained that the white arc is a guideline of the full range of the flaps. I hadn't been taught any more than you don't put more than 10º of flaps in unless you're in the white arc, but not using full flaps at that upper end. I really appreciated Tom taking the time to give me that lesson.

He said that he'd be willing to go up with me to show me some other safety maneuvers (such as a power-off emergency landing when you're directly over the airport instead of while in the pattern). I think that it would be very wise for me to take him up on that offer.

He also demonstrated, as we taxiied back to the flight school, about trying to brake on ice as we hit a large icy patch on the taxiway. Obviously, the plane didn't stop. :)

Once the plane was stopped, he signed and then had me sign my Temporary Airman Certificate that he had already filled out, shook my hand, and headed out. I noticed that he had a similar form that was a different color. I suspect that was the infamous salmon colored one in case I didn't get that short-field landing done right the second time.

All in all, I felt kind of wiped out, but mostly I felt relieved that it was finally done and I didn't have to worry about that checkride off in the distance... at least until I get well underway in my instrument training. :)

Like many people in the midst of anxious anticipation before their checkride, I slept very poorly last night. I think I got an unusual amount of exercise from the amount of tossing and turning I did, all the while trying not to think about my checkride.

I had stayed up late last night to see the 12:30am update to the TAF. Since the checkride wasn't until 11am, I could still get plenty of sleep and do everything I needed to get done in the morning. The TAF showed that the clouds were going to be at 2,500'. While not terribly desireable, it was certainly doable, and this DE (Designated Examiner) apparently has a reputation of being willing to fly in less than perfect conditions, making appropriate accomodations for the applicant.

I woke to a phone call from Tom (the DE) wanting to know how the weather was. From what I had seen of the METARs last night, everything should be okay, but I double-checked by stumbling out of bed and checking the morning TAF. The weather condition had worsened with a ceiling at 1,500'. He wanted to know what I wanted to do, and I said that we should at least do the oral today and get that out of the way, so that was the plan.

In case the TAF lied and conditions improved before the afternoon, I still completed my flight planning with the forecast winds aloft. Once that was done, I headed out to the airport with plenty of time to get my stuff in order before Tom arrived.

I got there around 10:15. Donovan, the chief flight instructor, helped me organize everything and gave me a last minute run-down of the various topics to be covered. It was my first opportunity to see a plane's logbooks, so that was educational in itself.

As we waited for Tom, I grew increasingly nervous. One would think that I would consider myself well-prepared by this point, especially after I had essentially proven that I was ready during the stage check, but it's hard not to be nervous in this situation.

Shortly after 11, Tom arrived and we headed back to the conference room. My nerves were kicked up a notch when I saw a sign taped to the conference room door stating "Checkride in progress", and I realized that it was MY checkride.

We sat down and Tom began the formality by reviewing my 8710 with me checking the spelling and accuracy of my name, address, and other pertinent information. He then confirmed that each of the numbers listed for the various hours of training all met the FAA minimums. He verified my photo ID and student pilot/medical certificate. He then checked my logbook for the appropriate CFI endorsement for the checkride, and then checked my entries for my most recent 3 hours of training in the past 60 days and my long cross-country. I gave him the $200 fee, and we started on the oral.

He had a little booklet from the FAA establishing the procedure for the checkride. One of the items listed there was something like "Make the applicant feel comfortable." He pointed at that item, and turned to me to ask, "Am I making you feel comfortable?"

I replied, "Not yet," with a smile on my face.

He looked at the results of my written test where I had achieved 100%. He commented, "So, I guess there isn't anything I can ask you." Apparently, he uses that test result as a metric of areas to check to see whether the applicant had improved their knowledge in those areas.

He went through the various sections of the Practical Test Standards, sometimes simply reviewing the topic with a quick overview, prompting me for a little information here and there, and other times giving me a scenario and having me tell him what I'd do. He also quickly reviewed various airport markings, noting some that he hasn't even seen at any airports around here, perhaps except Pittsburgh International.

At one point when we were discussing the electrical system in the airplane, he asked what controls the output voltage from the alternator. I didn't realize that the alternator required such a control and my answer to him was mostly a verbal dial tone ("Duhhhhhhhhhhh...") He talked with me about this and prompted me in such a way that led me to the right answer ("voltage regulator"). Fortunately, the majority of the oral part wasn't this bad.

I wish he had asked me more questions about things like airspace, the sectional chart, or cross-country planning because I know those so well, but given that I do know them and I did get that 100%, I guess he didn't see the need to do so. He did confirm that I knew what kinds of clearances I needed to enter B/C/D airspaces, but that was about it.

All in all, the best part of the oral was him sharing his information about real-world situations that exemplify the FARs... and sometimes the fact that they may be insufficient for real-world needs. He talked about a variety of items that could be carried by a Private Pilot to help in the event of an emergency, such as a pocket knife (like a Leatherman, which I recently purchased) or even scotch tape to help hold charts in place. He recommended getting a hand-held transceiver, which I plan on getting, in case of COM failure. The best recommendation was a simple, hand-held GPS. Not one with maps and routing capabilities, but simply a basic one with programmable waypoints. If you have a waypoint set at the airport to which you're flying, and you should lose your electrical system, you can use that GPS to point you in the right direction as well as have it tell you which way you're headed currently and even your altitude! That's a pretty cool idea!

We then looked at the pencilled line I had drawn from Allegheny County to Williamsport. He gave me a rough idea that we'd be heading out for the first couple of checkpoints and then he'd probably divert me to Greensburg or Monroeville. After that, we'd do the maneuvers and then he'd have me track the Allegheny VOR and return to AGC.

Now that the oral was done, he pulled out his hand-held transceiver and tuned in the airport's ATIS. He was concerned about ice conditions, and the ATIS reported only 6 miles visibility with fog. At these temperatures, fog can easily cause structural icing, and that would definitely be undesireable. We came to the obvious decision that we'd have to discontinue the checkride for now and continue on another day.

He told me that I did very well on the oral part of the exam, and he filled out the discontinuance form, the magic piece of paper that give me credit for that half of the checkride. We scheduled Thursday morning at 11am to do the flying portion of the checkride. On the good side, the weather is supposed to be fantastic on Thursday... on the bad side, it means another sleepless night.

I guess I'm a tiny bit closer to being a Private Pilot, but I'm just not there yet. I'm worried about my abilities in terms of getting my stall procedures right on, or nailing the 1000' marker for a short-field landing. I'm going to do the best that I can. If the weather really is that good, I'll get to the airport early and get the plane signed off for me to take it out solo to the practice area and get some last minute practice in. It'll give me something to do, at least, and I'll have the peace of mind that at least I tried to refine my skills just a little bit more.

So, until Thursday...

On Friday, I went up with Chris to finish off my checkride prep time. As we taxied down to runway 10, I commented that it was a shame that both Greg and Donovan weren't available that day since the weather was so gorgeous. Chris had said that although I was studying under Part 61, he still would prefer that someone else do my final stage check. Given the wonderful weather, though, he said he'd be willing to do my stage check that afternoon!

I had a two hour break between that morning lesson and the time I'd be doing my stage check, so that gave me time to plan a cross-country to St. Mary's. I've done so many flight plans that it was really straightforward to do.

Shortly after noon, we sat down and he began grilling me on a variety of topics. The oral part of the stage check went pretty easily and I only messed up on a couple topics, but nothing major at all. We went over the sectional and we talked about a variety of topics ranging from different airspaces to an MOA and a wildlife area on the chart.

All in all, this part of the check went just fine. Before we could go flying, Chris had to sign off a couple students (finally) taking advantage of the good weather to do their solo cross-country flights. (These were students who didn't go the prior Friday when the weather was just as beautiful.) Once that was done, we hopped back into the plane and took off toward St. Mary's.

The first 20-30 minutes of the flight were just fine, no surprises at all. My flight plan matched reality, as I kept my right index finger pointing to the invisible spot on my pencil line that showed where we were at that time. I moved my finger along as the scenery changed around me.

We kept flying on this course longer than I had anticipated. I was expecting to be diverted to Greensburg-Jeanette, but as we past that point, I thought perhaps we were going to go all the way. About ten minutes later, he borrowed my sectional to see where we were and then diverted me to Indiana.

I had made a mental plan about a diversion to Greensburg-Jeanette since that was pretty likely, but it wasn't a big deal to go to Indiana. I turned the plane roughly in the right direction, plotted my new path, and then flew the corrected path. I made an estimate for when we'd be arriving there while double-checking the scenery to the sectional. I asked Chris whether we'd be landing and he said just for me to identify the airport when I saw it. I looked at the sectional and saw a large city area coming up, so the airport should be off to the left. Sure enough, there was a large black line off to the left that was the Indiana airport. I pointed it out and we then headed off toward the west.

On the way back toward Allegheny County Airport, Chris had me do some stalls. As it was getting late in the afternoon, doing stalls while flying southwest was a really bad idea as the sun was shining directly in my face. My stalls really sucked. We adjusted our course to a northwest heading (much to my eyes' relief) and did more stalls. I had some trouble recovering from the power-on stalls while maintaining my heading, but Chris noticed that I need to make sure that I'm applying enough right rudder when coming out of the stall and immediately correcting the heading. We did a few more stalls after that and they were much better.

Steep turns were pretty good, although I need to add a bit of power after I start into the turn to help keep my altitude and airspeed up. Other than that, they were okay.

After that, we headed back to the airport, landed, and that was that.

Once we got inside, Chris double-checked my logbook for any endorsements that he thought I was missing. He signed one saying that we reviewed the deficiencies from my written test and that my knowledge was now passable, which seemed like a mistake to fill out since I did get a 100% on that test. We then filled out the magic 8710-1 form that will be used for my checkride and we both signed it.

I called the DE and scheduled 11am on Tuesday for my checkride. If the weather isn't good enough, we'll at least do the oral that day, but otherwise that will be the day!

I can't believe I'm at this point. The past few months have been somewhat of a blur. I hope it goes well on Tuesday as I would love to go back to California as a PP-ASEL!

After waiting weeks for the weather to be passable for my long cross-country flight, a day suddenly appeared nearly out of nowhere on Saturday with calm winds and blue skies... nearly unheard of this time of year in Pittsburgh.

I had been scheduling a plane for all day, every day, for the past several weeks. Unfortunately, I stopped the scheduling on January 14, and January 15's schedule was pretty full. I talked with the Chief Flight Instructor who said that I would probably be able to go. The flight school realizes that getting good weather around here is challenging enough, so students trying to make their solo flights get priority in scheduling.

I double-checked the weather on Friday night and saw that everything looked good pretty much in every direction. Given that I figured I'd have a limited amount of time, I chose a couple of airports that would be close to keep the trip as short as possible, yet at least 150 nautical miles as per the FAA requirements. I planned my trip going from Allegheny County Airport to Johnstown Airport, up to Du Bois/Jefferson County Airport, and back to AGC. The total trip would be about 165 nautical miles.

I got up early on Saturday morning to do a final check on the weather and compute the final numbers for the trip. I left earlier than usual so that I could arrive at PFTC and start preflighting the plane I thought I'd be flying before 8am so that I could leave as soon as possible.

I preflighted N430U that I thought I'd be using, but the wings had frost on them, so I knew the plane would have to go into the hangar for awhile to melt that off. It goes fast, but it adds time. Fortunately, the dispatcher arrived quite early herself, so I went in and checked the schedule. There was some flexibility, so I swapped to use N172RQ instead which had been in the hangar all night. I preflighted that plane (much easier indoors in the warmth!) and while there, I ran into another CFI who had scheduled a different Cessna 172 for the whole weekend and she told me that trip had been cancelled, so me scheduling a plane for my cross-country was no problem.

A CFI reviewed my flight plan and the weather, prompted me about my procedures, and sent me on my way!

All in all, the trip was fantastic! It went very easily, and the weather couldn't be better.

I started my trip off to the east toward Johnstown. I got a friendly Pittsburgh Approach controller who cleared me into the Class B airspace (fortunately before I climbed above 3,800' where the Class B starts at 4,000') and I climbed up to 5,500' for the trip. The air was smooth and the it went great. Before long, I saw Johnstown off in the distance and I called up Johnstown Tower. As I was coming in for the left downwind for runway 33, another (faster) plane was also coming for 33. The controller asked whether I'd like runway 5 instead, but I didn't feel comfortable making a change like that, so I asked to use 33. The controller then directed me to make a right 270 (and then corrected herself to make a right 360) for spacing. After I finished the 360º turn, I saw that the incoming plane was still on the base leg, so I asked the controller whether I should do another 360, and she said that I'd be okay as it was.

The other plane arrived and landed ahead of me and as I was turning onto the base leg myself, the controller asked me to check that my wheels were down (standard practice at this airport, even for fixed-gear aircraft) and cleared me to land. My landing was good, and after talking with Ground, I taxied over to the large parking area. After stopping the plane, an electric cart pulled up to take me over to the general aviation lounge where I could wait while the plane was refueled and take an opportunity to check the weather again. It was a nice lounge where one could relax, get something to drink or a snack, use the weather computer. In general, a nice place to hang out.

I called up Barry and he suggested that if a plane and instructor are available, I should schedule some additional checkride prep time while the weather was good. I told him that I was only concerned about my cross-country at this point and would think about that when I arrived back at Allegheny.

On the way back out to the plane after it was refueled, I saw the Johnstown VOR which sits on the middle of the field. It looks like a large, white, traffic cone (or otherwise the top half of a bowling pin).

With the plane refueled, I started the plane up again and began my trip north to Du Bois. I climbed up to 5,500' again and the trip was going well. I called Cleveland Center to get flight following, but they were too busy to deal with VFR aircraft, so I wasn't able to get traffic advisories for this leg of the trip.

As I got about halfway toward Du Bois, I noticed that there were some clouds below me. They looked much denser further north, but that's partially the effect of seeing them edgewise rather than straight down. I listened to the ASOS and found that the clouds were, indeed, a bit denser at 1,700' AGL. Given that, I used the opportunity where it was easier to descend before the clouds got thicker. I headed to Du Bois (passing near Punxatawney airport on the way), found the airport, and landed.

Although this was an untowered airport, it was a nice airport terminal with a good general aviation area adjacent to a small commercial area for US Airways. I requested that the plane be refueled and I hung out and looked around the terminal.

US Airways had a nice little passenger area with a very small security gate for their commuter flights into Pittsburgh International.

Outside, the "General Aviation" and "Airline Passenger" entrances were right next to each other. This was slightly humorous since the two doors end up at nearly the same place on the inside.

I called Barry to let him know that this leg had gone well, and he suggested again that I see about getting some checkride prep time. I said, again, that I was only concerned about completing the cross-country flight.

Once the plane was topped off again, I got ready to depart again. I double-checked the clouds above and they were scattered at 1,700'. Fortunately, that's not a ceiling and I checked the clouds down at Allegheny County and there it was completely clear. These were lake effect clouds and given the wind coming from the west, they wouldn't extend that far south. I started to taxi up toward the runway behind a twin Cessna. I was somewhat disappointed that the twin Cessna wasn't self-reporting as much as I would have liked. They didn't call out their taxiing intentions and only announced that they were "rolling" for takeoff. As I was holding short of the runway, I was hoping to hear that they had left the pattern or at least turned crosswind, but they remained quiet, so I had to wait awhile and make sure that the other plane was definitely out of the way before taxiing onto the runway since I didn't have good visibility from the hold short line.

The other plane had departed and was far enough way so that I was able to take off and begin my trip back to my home airport.

After takeoff, I flew under the clouds for awhile until I got sufficiently far away from the airport and the clouds were spaced far enough apart for me to get above them safely. I climbed up to 6,500' for the trip back (my first time ever at that altitude). Calling Cleveland Center was much easier this time and getting the flight following went as expected.

As I flew further south, the clouds below me cleared up and although there was a slight haze to the sky, it was otherwise clear. I continued on my trip and about halfway there, I got handed off to Pittsburgh Approach. They cleared me into the Class B (so I wouldn't have to descend early), but they advised me to let them know when I was going to descend into Allegheny County.

I realized upon retrospect that I made a mistake when I began to descend. Given that I was in controlled airspace, I should have asked Approach to descend before starting my descent, but instead I started descending and then advised Approach that I was descending. It all was fine in the end and the controller cleared me with "Altitude your discretion" so I could descend as necessary and to let them know when Allegheny County was in sight.

I still had about 15 miles to go, but about 10 miles away from AGC, I could see the airport so I let Approach know. They terminated the radar service and I called up Allegheny Tower. They directed me toward final for runway 28. I landed, although this was my worst landing as I ballooned some just before I touched down.

Once inside, I decided that Barry's suggestion was a really good idea, so I checked and found that they had scheduled me to have N172RQ all day. A CFI was available to spend some time with me and we worked a bit on soft- and short-field landings and takeoffs. He helped me with some good tidbits.

All in all, I'm just about completely done with my training. I have 47 dual hours (20 required) and 14.6 solo hours (10 required), totalling 61.6 hours (40 required). I have 4.2 dual cross-country hours (including one done at night also giving me my 10 night "full stop" landings and totalling 4.9 night hours) and 6 solo cross-country hours including this recently completed trip. I have way more than the 3 required landings at a towered airport.

I have 2.7 hours of simulated instrument ("hood time") and need 0.3 more, and I have 2.1 checkride prep hours and need 0.9 more. I'm scheduled to fly tomorrow afternoon, so I should be able to finish up these last two requirements and then I'll be all done!

Once that's set, I'll sign up for my phase check, probably with the chief instructor. Assuming I do well enough there, then it's on to the checkride!

I'm going to be going back to California in two weeks, so I'm really hoping that I'll have my temporary PP-ASEL certificate so that I can fly as a Private Pilot back at my old flight school. That'd be way cool!

The weather here in western Pennsylvania just hasn't been that great lately. I did manage to get a cross-country trip down to Clarksburg in, so that just leaves my long cross-country. I would have flown that today (going to Clarion and then Port Meadville), but not only was the weather uncooperative in the morning, but the plane I had reserved had developed a problem with its nosewheel tire and there wasn't another plane available.

My trip to Clarksburg had a couple notable points. First, it was my first "winter" trip in that the ground was somewhat snow covered, making the ground scenery very black-and-white. That helped in some cases, but didn't in others. More importantly, though, I tried navigating a bit more "on the fly" on this trip. I had planned a trip following major roads down there, but Chris suggested that in the future I should fly directly. There are advantages to going direct including avoiding the airways that will tend to have more traffic.

So, I decided that I would go ahead and fly direct. I used my GPS to ensure I was going in the right direction, but I used the VORs for primary navigation. It turned out just fine, and I got there (and back) with no problems whatsoever. Since I had to wait for fuel, I got back to AGC a bit late, but it worked out just fine in the end.

I've been flying at least every couple of weeks so that I can keep my 14-day "currency" up as the school requires that students fly with instructors and do at least 3 landings within the 14 days prior to a solo flight. On my last trip, I started working on my 3 hours of checkride preparation that are required for my checkride. It's good that I'm not wasting my time waiting for the weather to improve and can still make some progress. Nonetheless, I do hope that I can get this cross-country done soon.

Barry passed his checkride on Tuesday. He still doesn't believe that he is now a Private Pilot. Congratulations, Barry!

After waiting over a week since my phase check, the weather was cooperative this morning (winds running about 130@10, OVC250 going down to OVC060) and my cross-country was finally on!

I chose to go to Harrison County instead of Clarion due to the winds. At 10 knots, that'd be too much of a crosswind on runway 6/24 than PFTC would allow, but Harrison County's runway is 13/31, so it was perfect to go there.

I woke up early this morning to finish up my flight planning with the latest winds aloft and a final check of the weather. The forecast had improved slightly since last night, so that was promising. The winds aloft were a bit brisk at 210@31, but that seemed manageable with only a slight crab angle of 13°.

I arrived at PFTC shortly before 8am and finished up the last parts of my flight plan. After calling Altoona Flight Service, getting a weather briefing, and filing my flight plans, I was ready to show Chris what I had. He and I sat down and reviewed my flight plan. Everything seemed fine and he signed my logbook authorizing the trip. We chatted for a bit about Harrison County Airport. He said that he'd only been there once and he had trouble finding it, so I should be careful. I didn't know how concerned I should be, but I kept that in mind.

With that, I headed out to the plane, N172RQ, and preflighted. The fuel was full, but the oil was low. I added a quart and finished my preflight inspection. Everything was fine, so I was ready... at least I think I was. :)

After a minute or two arranging my papers, I started the plane up and got rolling toward runway 28. The ATIS had reported that the winds were 190@12, which was more of a crosswind than I was expecting, so I called the AWOS to double-check the number, and it reported the winds at only 5 knots, so I felt better. Right before I took off, I called Altoona Radio and opened my flight plan.

Now was the moment! I was cleared to take off and was shortly heading toward the Allegheny VOR. I got permission to change frequencies and contacted Pittsburgh Approach to set up my flight following. The controller was really friendly and upon my request, he even cleared me through the Class B airspace so I could fly at 4,500' instead of going below at 3,500'. He did ask me to fly direct toward the Wheeling VOR which wasn't in my plan, but I didn't perceive any problem with that, so I adjusted my course accordingly, especially since I didn't have to skirt around Pittsburgh's airspace.

I started to get a little nervous when I looked ahead and saw that I was going to be flying adjacent to what looked like a river bend, and there wasn't supposed to be a river like that ahead of me, so I double checked my heading and the VOR radial to make sure of where I was. After I got a bit closer, I realized that it wasn't a river bend but instead a lake that I was expecting to fly by, so I felt much more assured that I was heading the right way. Whew!

After crossing the river into Ohio, I was handed off to Cleveland Center who continued my flight following to Harrison. I paid close attention to the sectional and where I thought I was. I had my GPS next to me, but I only used it a couple of times to confirm my initial headings; I didn't actually use it for navigation.

I passed a small city on the left that matched the area of one of my checkpoints (Adena). At this point, I was only about 8 miles away from the airport, and shortly, I thought I could see where it was. I confirmed that the airport should be there with the city of Cadiz off to the right, just like it was supposed to be. Center suggested that the airport was ahead of me and I confirmed that I had it in sight. Center then terminated my radar service and set me off on my own.

I had begun my descent from 4,500 down to around 2,000, and I was concerned that this wasn't the airport. The terrain shape suggested that there should be an airport there (a few buildings stretched out in a line against an imaginary taxiway), but I couldn't see the runway. I called Unicom for an airport advisory, but no one answered, so I made my Traffic calls starting with entering on the downwind for 13. A little bit of me prayed that the runway was actually there!

About a mile away from the airport, I could finally see the taxiway and runway just where I thought they were. The terrain here is such that the runway is in the middle of a small valley so the hills hide the runway at the bottom. That and the runway is very faded asphalt and doesn't stand out much from the adjacent ground.

I flew my pattern pretty well and was on final for runway 13. This runway has a pretty long displaced threshold (the first I've ever actually noticed), so I flew a bit down the runway before getting to the numbers. My landing was beautiful, and without any problems, I taxied off the runway and up the taxiway toward a BP sign where the fuel pumps were. PFTC requires that student pilots on their solo cross-country flights refuel at every stop. This is done both for safety (more fuel is better in case you get lost) and also to bring back a receipt as proof you were actually at that airport.

This was my first time refueling the plane myself. It seemed to go pretty well, and I was able to pump in 5.7 gallons. Of course, I climbed up on the plane the hard way (using the handle and the little step on the fuselage) and it wasn't until later that I saw that there was a large, rolling step ladder available next to the pumps. Oh, well, I know for next time!

I also took the opportunity to call up Flight Service and close my flight plan. I had some trouble with cell phone reception, but I finally got them to understand what I wanted.

The FBO at Harrison County Airport is in a quaint little building that looks more retrofitted to be at an airport than an actual airport building. The woman inside who rung up my $14 worth of 100LL was very nice. I took a moment to wash up after getting dirty from messing with the fuel hose and get some water before heading back out to the plane.

Before long, I was taking off on runway 13 to head back to AGC. I started my takeoff at the numbers, so I climbed out at Vx to ensure I'd avoid any problems with the hill that was at the end of the runway. Once up in the air, I called Cleveland Flight Service and attempted to open my flight plan back to AGC. Unfortunately, the guy who put it into the system said that I was going from Harrison County to Harrison County, so I had to fill in some of the errant blanks. Once that was done, I contacted Cleveland Center to get flight following, but they didn't want to talk to me and advised me to go with Pittsburgh Approach. Pittsburgh Approach gave me a transponder code, but couldn't find me on the radar yet since I was still out of their area.

As I got closer to the Wheeling VOR, Pittsburgh found me. I was flying at 5,500' and wanted to be cleared through the Class B airspace again. I did get clearance, but was advised that they might have to have me descend for traffic. Sure enough, not long after I had entered the Class B airspace, they had me drop down to 3,500', so I spent the next couple of minutes dropping down. Once at 3,500' they had me continue flying on my own navigation and to report when the airport was in sight.

Once I saw Allegheny County Airport, I told them and they had me go ahead and switch to Allegheny Tower. I had gotten the Alpha ATIS, but it was just about the time to get a new ATIS, so I listened again and got the Bravo update. The winds in the freshly updated ATIS were indicating a rather strong crosswind, so I was planning on being very careful.

The winds in the pattern were definitely pushing me to the side, so I was paying extra attention to my approach. As I was on final, things seemed pretty smooth, so I was hoping that the ground winds were less. The wind sock showed stronger winds than I felt, but all in all, it was another great landing! This time, not only was it smooth, but I got the stall horn to sound as the plane was gently touching down.

After exiting the runway and having Ground direct me to taxi back to PFTC, I called up Altoona Radio and closed out my flight plan. As I pulled into the PFTC parking area, I saw that Chris had just returned from his flight with his student.

Once I got the plane lined up where I wanted it, I turned it off and hopped out. Chris was surprised that I was back already. I guess he thought it'd either take me longer or I would have stayed at Harrison County longer.

I cleaned up my stuff from the plane and once inside, I was able to make that important entry in my logbook: 1.5 hours of PIC X-C time! 3.5 hours to go!

I saw Shannon and Marlon inside. Shannon also commented that Harrison is a hard airport to find. It makes me feel pretty good to know that I was able to do this cross-country flight so well without any problems and even finding this difficult-to-find airport so readily.

The weather is icky for the next couple of days, but I've signed up for a plane on both Sunday and Monday at 8am. The weather might be okay then, but we'll have to wait and see what it actually turns out to be. As I was driving home from the airport, it started raining, although rain wasn't in the forecast until 5 pm, about four hours later. I got lucky with a good spot of weather finally.

I guess I'm a pilot now since I'm actually going to different airports!

The weather in southwestern Pennsylvania isn't cooperative when you want it to be. I'm set to do my solo cross-country, but the winds have been a bit too wild to go.

I was at PFTC yesterday because I thought it would be good enough, but a combination of weather-related factors crept in and cancelled my plans. We even considered going to Johnstown instead of Clarion, but the winds aloft were quite fast. According to various weather web sites, it's going to continue to be windy for awhile, so I'll just have to be patient and remind myself that "It's far better to be on the ground wishing you were flying, rather than to be flying and wishing you were on the ground."

There is another consolation to all of this. I saw a student pilot taking his pre-solo written test. That means that when he's ready for his very first solo, he'll have to find a time when the winds are much more cooperative than what I need for my trip.

Right now, Sunday afternoon is looking really good and I'm scheduled to try again then.

I called Chris this morning and confirmed with him what was next for me to do. He said that I should schedule a 4-hour block with him at some point to do the phase check. Since he's my primary instructor, it would typically be a different instructor for the phase check (one of Gregg, Donovan, or him), but since I'm Part 61, he could do it. I figured that since I hadn't flown any of the cross-countries with him, he'd have a good third-party perspective anyway. All I'd need to do is plan a trip to Mansfield, OH (not that we'd fly the whole trip, just for the planning).

I received a call a bit later from Barry who was at PFTC. He said that Chris was available this afternoon, and that I could do my phase check TODAY at 2pm. Given the way the weather is around here, I figured it'd be good to take advantage of a good weather opportunity. So, I headed back home (I was busy buying some stuff for our furnace that had broken down yesterday), plopped onto DUATS, got the weather information for the route to MFD, and started planning. It took me about 45 minutes to prepare the plan, and I headed on into AGC, arriving right at 2pm.

After Chris finished up with Barry, we sat down and looked at my plan. It was good, although he commented that I shouldn't use the VORs for the entire trip as it would be better, once clear of PIT's Class B shelf, to go direct to MFD and fly it VFR. For our purposes, since I'd be diverted early on anyway, it would work well enough. He also confirmed that I knew how to activate a flight plan and get flight following.

After chatting a bit more about various flight planning tidbits and stories, I finished up my calculations and copied down some radio frequencies I'd need and then headed out to preflight the plane. Preflighting was, as usual, uneventful and so we started off!

I had a new experience while taxiing to runway 10. (By the way, PFTC is close to the departure end of runway 28, so it's quite a schlep down to runway 10.) I had just pulled out onto taxiway Alpha when another plane that had gone to runway 10 requested a taxi back to PFTC (I guess they encountered a plane problem). Ground cleared them to taxi back to PFTC via taxiway Alpha.

Ground then told me to hold short at Charlie and directed the other plane to turn right on Charlie to go around us. After waiting a short while at Charlie and seeing the other plan pass beside us, I called up Ground to remind her that I was holding short at Charlie. She apologized and directed us back on our way to the runway.

After the run-up, I called Tower and said that I was ready. I had to wait while a couple of other planes landed, but then I was able to go.

After I took off, I started the stopwatch (built into the dashboard of the cockpit), and headed off toward the Allegheny VOR. I reached the VOR more or less on time (it took a bit longer than expected to climb to 3,500', but that's not terribly surprising given that these planes don't necessarily conform to the perfect performance as documented). From that VOR, I headed toward the Wheeling VOR and reset the timer. About half way toward the VOR, I noted that I crossed a road and confirmed that on my sectional. I reached my next check point, a lake, right on time. I was surprised that I thought it would be on my left, but it was on the right instead. Chris gave me some suggestions for VOR navigation (that I should have followed the AGC VOR "From" for half the way toward the HLG VOR before switching to its "To" for better accuracy).

Shortly after the lake, Chris diverted me down to Washington. I approximated a heading and turned the plane that way and reset the stopwatch. Then, I took out the plotter and got a more realistic heading and turned the plane toward that heading. A quick calculation on the E6-B gave me a flight time of about 5 minutes to AFJ.

About 2 minutes into the diversion, I noticed a very large city coming up on the left that was clearly Washington. I saw a small lake straight ahead, and saw that on the sectional the airport should be right in front of it. Sure enough, I was heading straight toward Washington airport, just like I was supposed to.

I asked Chris if he wanted me to land there. He said that I should just let him know when I see it. I pointed straight in front of us and said, "There it is!" He was satisfied with that and "diverted" me back to Allegheny.

Following the AGC VOR back was trivial and we got back without incident. The Allegheny Tower frequency was very quiet and that made it even easier. My landing was BEAUTIFUL! It was smooth as silk!

We got back to PFTC, and I got a couple new autographs in my logbook authorizing me for solo cross-country flights! When the weather is good enough (winds up to 12 knots with up to a 5 knot crosswind component, and a 5000' AGL ceiling), I'll be able to go on a cross-country by myself!

My first trip will be back to Clarion County. That was my first dual cross-country, and was really easy since I followed a river nearly all the way there. After that, we'll have to see where I want to go.

Who knows... I might very well be able to finish my training this year!

I've been very busy in the past few days!

Last week, I managed to go up with Shannon to start the cross-country flight to Carroll County. It was not a flight that was meant to be, I guess. It even started off badly when I called Allegheny Ground and told them that I was at PFTC and wanted to taxi for departure. They directed me to taxi to PFTC. A second call restated my request and I was on my way.

The flight started off well enough, but I have to admit that it was somewhat difficult managing my flight planning materials in my lap, along with a red flashlight (a really nice Inova X5 LED light in "Night Vision Red"), and still fly the plane. Nonetheless, it started off okay. In fact, when I called Pittsburgh Approach to set up flight following, they offered me to go direct to Carroll County through PIT's Class B. I had to decline since I had my flight planned via the VORs, but it was still nice to have had the option.

Things went downhill when I got to the Allegheny VOR and started heading toward the Wheeling VOR. Instead of putting in the right heading toward Wheeling, I put in the heading that I would have needed to go from Wheeling to Carroll County! I was further confused by the fact that in N430U, a nice fuel-injected 172 that's only a few years old, the first NAV setting corresponds to a display that's integrated with the heading indicator, rather than its own dial.

About 15 minutes into the flight after all this, we saw that there was some light snow, and I had said that I was not going to be flying in temperatures this close to freezing with precipitation, so we headed back to Allegheny.

We got back to the airport and that was that. We'd have to try again.

After feeling bad about the failed experience on Friday, I scheduled to go solo out to the practice area on Monday in order to improve my confidence. While there, I saw that the weather was going to be quite decent Monday evening, so I popped on the schedule with Marlon.

I determined that Carroll County was obviously not a good place to go. The weather forecast for Akron showed light rain in the future (they must get a lot of precipitation from nearby Lake Erie). Given that, I chose a new destination. At first, I was going to go to Johnstown, but it only read about 49.5 nm from AGC, and I didn't want the cross-country not to count for only half a mile, so I instead chose to go pretty much straight north up to Franklin County (Verango Regional).

I arrived around 5pm and sat down with Marlon (who was surprised that I was there because there was miscommunication and he didn't realize that I was on his schedule but he was fortunately able to stay and fly with me). We went over the plan and the weather and it all looked good.

One of the particular weather aspects we discussed was "freezing level". He confirmed that flying in precipitation below the freezing level is generally safe, so with the freezing level at 8,000' and above and us flying along at 3,500', we should be okay.

All in all, the flight went great! I had a smaller lap-board which was easier to manage. My landmarks worked out well, and while en route, Marlon had put do some hoodwork (a lot, actually, about an hour combined for the trip there and back) and work on various navigation and a lot of slow flight. Do you know how hard it is to make a Cessna 172 climb while in slow flight with the stall horn blaring?! Do you know how much right rudder you need doing that? My right leg was tired!

On the way back, Marlon had me divert over to Clarion which was really quite easy thanks to the Clarion VOR, and then we headed back toward Allegheny. We passed over Butler, and spent some time comparing airports we saw versus what was on the GPS display. One of the airports that the GPS showed but we couldn't find was Rock airport which we remembered was all torn up when we had gone to Clarion on the prior cross-country.

We got back to Allegheny, landed, and taxied back to PFTC. There was a large BFI refuse truck parked in the middle of where we'd taxi in to park. I actually had to taxi the plane around that truck while it just sat there. When I finished taxiing, the plane was facing the truck. After I shut off the plane, they finally moved!

Marlon and I reviewed the flight and he said that I did everything very well. He commented that I was very methodical and that was the makings of a good pilot.

Now all that was left was scheduling the next phase check...