Hobobiker
Line Up and Wait
It's not that exciting of a writeup compared to others, but I wanted to document it for my progress thread and there might be a couple things for other students to learn from my mistakes:
Planning: It was over 90-degrees much of the afternoon, and the flight was scheduled 5-8pm to avoid some of the thermals. No one had the plane scheduled after me, so I changed the reservation to 5:30-8:30 just to give me a little more evening flight in calmer winds. Plane had been in use all day, so the cockpit was already nice and hot when I began the pre-flight.
KIDI – Takeoff:
Wind was 140@5. I pulled out the little E6 calculator on my phone during preflight weather check, which gave me a crosswind of 3.2 and a tailwind of 3.9 taking off on 28. I didn’t think that would be very noticeable and lined up on my “familiar” runway of 28. I checked the density altitude which was 3000 so, again, I didn’t think the tailwind would be that noticeable. My CFI happened to be flying in to the airport and made his 5-mile call to use runway 10. I knew then that I should have opted for the 3.9 headwind from 10 instead of the tailwind from 28. My instructor and I shared some radio calls after he landed. While he left the decision to me as PIC, I should have known better and gladly performed a short-field takeoff from 28 upon his “hint” to do so. No issues with takeoff, and I got to practice another short-field takeoff. Lesson learned: don’t let a “familiar” airport or runway interfere with the common sense of flying the plane.
KIDI-KFKL Leg:
I planned this leg at 4500 with an estimated ground speed of 105, and estimated the winds aloft to be 11.5. Other than the clouds appearing to be right at my head, pilotage and dead (ded) reckoning went well. For a student pilot fairly inexperienced with clouds, seeing the “flat” bottoms of the clouds where the ceiling began was an interesting site. Transitioned to the weather and CTAF of KFKL about halfway through the leg and checked the weather as soon as possible. No real changes from the pre-flight weather so my planned runway of use still remained. There was, however, considerable traffic and an ILS approach at the same time I was positioning for the downwind. I informed everyone that I would make a 360-degree turn southeast of the airport and allow others to land. Maybe not the best approach to use, but I got to enjoy a little “relaxed” flying time while others cleared the pattern. Landing went well, although not a smooth as I would have preferred but I got to practice another transition from crab to slip.
KFKL-KFIG Leg:
Couldn’t hit my planned 5500 altitude on this leg without getting into the clouds. I kept it down to 4500 again, hit my large city markers on the chart and began my descent into KFIG. This is a mountain/hills/valley area, and it was a little unsettling seeing towers to my left that were higher than I was not too far away, which really made me keep a sharp eye out for obstructions. Wind was variable and knocked me around quite a bit during my base-to-final. I thought I would be too high and off to the side and was ready for a go-round, but I put her into a slip with FULL left rudder and she lost altitude quickly and fell into line with the centerline. I owe my CFI a big thanks for all the slip practices up to this point.
KFIG-KIDI:
The stretch home. No really great markers on the chart and this was the only leg where I snuck a peak at the purple line on the GPS a little more often. 4500 kept me clear of clouds, wind had died down and the ride was pretty smooth and comfortable. I was able to enjoy some scenery, dialed-in the weather and CTAF for KIDI, and about 20 miles out I was seeing some familiar sites. Did a turn-around-a-point over a large pond “just because” I was enjoying the flying and I knew that I was just about to finish my first solo long XC. Wind was about the same as before, so I chose runway 10 to land. X-wind let me practice that extreme rudder slip again, and I floated this landing down to be the best one of the day – which was very fitting for ending my first solo long XC!
Planning: It was over 90-degrees much of the afternoon, and the flight was scheduled 5-8pm to avoid some of the thermals. No one had the plane scheduled after me, so I changed the reservation to 5:30-8:30 just to give me a little more evening flight in calmer winds. Plane had been in use all day, so the cockpit was already nice and hot when I began the pre-flight.
KIDI – Takeoff:
Wind was 140@5. I pulled out the little E6 calculator on my phone during preflight weather check, which gave me a crosswind of 3.2 and a tailwind of 3.9 taking off on 28. I didn’t think that would be very noticeable and lined up on my “familiar” runway of 28. I checked the density altitude which was 3000 so, again, I didn’t think the tailwind would be that noticeable. My CFI happened to be flying in to the airport and made his 5-mile call to use runway 10. I knew then that I should have opted for the 3.9 headwind from 10 instead of the tailwind from 28. My instructor and I shared some radio calls after he landed. While he left the decision to me as PIC, I should have known better and gladly performed a short-field takeoff from 28 upon his “hint” to do so. No issues with takeoff, and I got to practice another short-field takeoff. Lesson learned: don’t let a “familiar” airport or runway interfere with the common sense of flying the plane.
KIDI-KFKL Leg:
I planned this leg at 4500 with an estimated ground speed of 105, and estimated the winds aloft to be 11.5. Other than the clouds appearing to be right at my head, pilotage and dead (ded) reckoning went well. For a student pilot fairly inexperienced with clouds, seeing the “flat” bottoms of the clouds where the ceiling began was an interesting site. Transitioned to the weather and CTAF of KFKL about halfway through the leg and checked the weather as soon as possible. No real changes from the pre-flight weather so my planned runway of use still remained. There was, however, considerable traffic and an ILS approach at the same time I was positioning for the downwind. I informed everyone that I would make a 360-degree turn southeast of the airport and allow others to land. Maybe not the best approach to use, but I got to enjoy a little “relaxed” flying time while others cleared the pattern. Landing went well, although not a smooth as I would have preferred but I got to practice another transition from crab to slip.
KFKL-KFIG Leg:
Couldn’t hit my planned 5500 altitude on this leg without getting into the clouds. I kept it down to 4500 again, hit my large city markers on the chart and began my descent into KFIG. This is a mountain/hills/valley area, and it was a little unsettling seeing towers to my left that were higher than I was not too far away, which really made me keep a sharp eye out for obstructions. Wind was variable and knocked me around quite a bit during my base-to-final. I thought I would be too high and off to the side and was ready for a go-round, but I put her into a slip with FULL left rudder and she lost altitude quickly and fell into line with the centerline. I owe my CFI a big thanks for all the slip practices up to this point.
KFIG-KIDI:
The stretch home. No really great markers on the chart and this was the only leg where I snuck a peak at the purple line on the GPS a little more often. 4500 kept me clear of clouds, wind had died down and the ride was pretty smooth and comfortable. I was able to enjoy some scenery, dialed-in the weather and CTAF for KIDI, and about 20 miles out I was seeing some familiar sites. Did a turn-around-a-point over a large pond “just because” I was enjoying the flying and I knew that I was just about to finish my first solo long XC. Wind was about the same as before, so I chose runway 10 to land. X-wind let me practice that extreme rudder slip again, and I floated this landing down to be the best one of the day – which was very fitting for ending my first solo long XC!
