I had just too much fun to not share this with you all. I've now got 10hrs logged towards the commercial stuff and my boyfriend got some good instrument training in along with commercial stuff (his instrument ride is next week)
On Tuesday my CFII friend flew in to help me with some commercial stuff. My flight school lost a few instructors, so they basically said if I used another CFI for half the training they'd finish me up sometime in April. As soon as he got here Tuesday afternoon we were going to head to the airport and knock out some commercial maneuvers. Well, instead we (CFII, boyfriend and myself) ended up at KHND and spent the night in Vegas instead.
(Just leaving KCHD, IFR to KHND going over KPHX)
Getting into KHND
On the way home we got vectored everywhere. It sucked, especially when our original clearance read "Cleared direct PSP VOR, then direct as filed". We thought we were going home direct! We were wrong. Such is the life of an instrument pilot.. BUT it was 110% worth it, because as it happened, we were taken right over the Grand Canyon. I've never been to the Grand Canyon even though I live in AZ. I was amazed! I hope to go back soon and land at the airport. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me. By the way, when you're at KCHD don't depart from the taxiway.
We finally made it home, something like 5 hours on the hobbs give or take. We left the airplane outside and headed off to dinner. After dinner, I was pretty spent but needed to fly more. So we headed back to the airport and did a few trips through the pattern. This girl is night current again, and I will be flying at night more frequently. It's so beautiful over the city. It helps I greased in the first two, and the third wasn't bad either.
The following day we spent doing commercial maneuvers... after lunch of course. For lunch we flew into KPHX (yes, we FLEW into KPHX!) and went to Cutters monthly BBQ. A+ folks at Cutter, along with PHX approach and PHX tower. A stream of us little guys showed up and they were great to us! Don't be afraid of class B
Departing 7R, vectors direct KCHD
Then more maneuvers. Not very exciting to talk about commercial maneuvers, but I did them. I'm not very good at chandells yet, but I'm alright at lazy eights and really good at eights on pylons. I also did a few power off 180 to landing that were stellar. Like, I made the runway every time and not barely.
Friday we planned to go to KSNA. We departed around 2pm after a great lunch at our local hangar cafe with another friend. We had a horrible head wind. The photo that I got wasn't even the worst. At one point we were doing something like 109kts and our TAS was 135. Almost a 30kt headwind. At least we didn't get too screwed in our routing. Going into unfamiliar areas IFR is my preferred way (that and there was a coastal layer of fog that had we landed the other runway we would have been descending into) even though you run the risk of getting horrible routing. KSNA's 19L is only 2700x75. So I made a "short field" type landing. It wasn't too pretty, but I did put it on the numbers where I wanted it and I was off at the first taxiway with 2000+ feet to go!
Spent the night in Huntington beach with friends. Departed back to KCHD on Saturday. This is Bijan (boyfriend) and I next to a Global Express 550. Yeah, our little Skylane isn't quite big enough...
And a few hours later, with ground speeds over 150 we made it home and put the airplane away. I'm a little sad I never got a photo of the three of us together, but that's OK. We are already all planning a lunch run to KAPA this May or June. We put over 20 hours on the airplane (maybe about 25) this week and she didn't give us a HINT of trouble. Only took 1 quart of oil too. My iPad mini was our only source of current charts (and our ONLY charts for California). It's the way of the future. I love my little airplane and adventures like this. We are the luckiest people, getting to fly around the country at 10,000 feet or lower. I can't put into words right now how much I love flying and how much fun I had this week while learning more about flying. For those of you students out there, this is what you have to look forward to. And it's all worth it. It's worth every horrible landing and moderate turbulence. It's worth the mechanicals, the missed days of class or work and the hours of preparing for the practical exam. It's all so worth it.
On Tuesday my CFII friend flew in to help me with some commercial stuff. My flight school lost a few instructors, so they basically said if I used another CFI for half the training they'd finish me up sometime in April. As soon as he got here Tuesday afternoon we were going to head to the airport and knock out some commercial maneuvers. Well, instead we (CFII, boyfriend and myself) ended up at KHND and spent the night in Vegas instead.
(Just leaving KCHD, IFR to KHND going over KPHX)
Getting into KHND
On the way home we got vectored everywhere. It sucked, especially when our original clearance read "Cleared direct PSP VOR, then direct as filed". We thought we were going home direct! We were wrong. Such is the life of an instrument pilot.. BUT it was 110% worth it, because as it happened, we were taken right over the Grand Canyon. I've never been to the Grand Canyon even though I live in AZ. I was amazed! I hope to go back soon and land at the airport. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me. By the way, when you're at KCHD don't depart from the taxiway.
We finally made it home, something like 5 hours on the hobbs give or take. We left the airplane outside and headed off to dinner. After dinner, I was pretty spent but needed to fly more. So we headed back to the airport and did a few trips through the pattern. This girl is night current again, and I will be flying at night more frequently. It's so beautiful over the city. It helps I greased in the first two, and the third wasn't bad either.
The following day we spent doing commercial maneuvers... after lunch of course. For lunch we flew into KPHX (yes, we FLEW into KPHX!) and went to Cutters monthly BBQ. A+ folks at Cutter, along with PHX approach and PHX tower. A stream of us little guys showed up and they were great to us! Don't be afraid of class B
Departing 7R, vectors direct KCHD
Then more maneuvers. Not very exciting to talk about commercial maneuvers, but I did them. I'm not very good at chandells yet, but I'm alright at lazy eights and really good at eights on pylons. I also did a few power off 180 to landing that were stellar. Like, I made the runway every time and not barely.
Friday we planned to go to KSNA. We departed around 2pm after a great lunch at our local hangar cafe with another friend. We had a horrible head wind. The photo that I got wasn't even the worst. At one point we were doing something like 109kts and our TAS was 135. Almost a 30kt headwind. At least we didn't get too screwed in our routing. Going into unfamiliar areas IFR is my preferred way (that and there was a coastal layer of fog that had we landed the other runway we would have been descending into) even though you run the risk of getting horrible routing. KSNA's 19L is only 2700x75. So I made a "short field" type landing. It wasn't too pretty, but I did put it on the numbers where I wanted it and I was off at the first taxiway with 2000+ feet to go!
Spent the night in Huntington beach with friends. Departed back to KCHD on Saturday. This is Bijan (boyfriend) and I next to a Global Express 550. Yeah, our little Skylane isn't quite big enough...
And a few hours later, with ground speeds over 150 we made it home and put the airplane away. I'm a little sad I never got a photo of the three of us together, but that's OK. We are already all planning a lunch run to KAPA this May or June. We put over 20 hours on the airplane (maybe about 25) this week and she didn't give us a HINT of trouble. Only took 1 quart of oil too. My iPad mini was our only source of current charts (and our ONLY charts for California). It's the way of the future. I love my little airplane and adventures like this. We are the luckiest people, getting to fly around the country at 10,000 feet or lower. I can't put into words right now how much I love flying and how much fun I had this week while learning more about flying. For those of you students out there, this is what you have to look forward to. And it's all worth it. It's worth every horrible landing and moderate turbulence. It's worth the mechanicals, the missed days of class or work and the hours of preparing for the practical exam. It's all so worth it.
(forecast again today, but no joy, and none all year)
