Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Second solo x-country is done!

I finally got around to doing my second cross country solo.

After my last flight I wanted a day without an overcast, or at the very least, a high overcast. I didn't mind if it was a bit windy but I wanted better than 7 miles of visibility that I had during portions of my last cross country. My patience finally paid off and I got what I asked for, it turned out to be a beautiful cold clear day with visibility as far as the eye could see.

I took the morning off work and went out to the airport, I breezed through my preflight paperwork (nav calcs etc.) much faster this time. I called for a weather brief and was told exactly what I already knew, I then submitted my flight plan. I checked in with Dave then went out to the hanger to preflight Fern and add some oil. Marc (the school's owner) helped me get her out of the hanger by moving a few pieces of equipment and other aircraft, then I pushed her out to the pump and filled her fuel tanks in the -15c morning sun.

A few minutes later I taxied out to the runway and I was quickly off. During the run-up and taxi I had alot of frost form on the inside of the windscreen, but it soon cleared as I climbed up to my cruise attitude of 4,500 ft. I called tower and told them that I was clearing the zone and requested flight following , tower then gave me the frequency for Moncton center which I called next. Centre gave me a code to squak and then had me do a squak ident, which I did, then they asked me to confirm my altitude.

The flight to Moncton was slow and cold but uneventful, centre had me adjust my altimeter to that of Moncton's as I crossed over the Confederation Bridge. I fine tuned my heading indicator every fifteen minutes and enjoyed the scenery scrolling by underneath at 80 kts. I grabbed the ATIS about 20 minutes out, the active was very close to my current heading which meant that I'd likely have a straight in approach. About ten minutes out I thanked centre and then switched over to Moncton tower.

Flip flopping between frequencies and talking (and listening) on the radio is second nature to me now, no more "stage fright". I remember back to my first few calls on the radio and simply chuckle to myself about how nervous I was. I called tower and as expected was given a nice straight in approach behind some other traffic. I performed a nice touch and go then turned to my next leg's heading, using my heading indicator this time. I called clear of the zone and requested flight following, then switched over to the frequency I was given for centre. Interestingly, the frequency is not always the same, it must change based on my direction of travel or something, I'll have to remember to ask Dave about it sometime.

This 105 mile leg was done at 120 kts ground speed, gotta love a nice tail wind. The trip to Trenton was uneventful and cold, I was given a "heads up" a couple of times for other traffic in the area but no worries. I'm glad I took Marc's advice and left my heavy fall coat on for the flight, it was a wee chilly even with the sun. The 172's heater seems to be to better suited for more fair weather flying. Every few minutes I leaned over to make sure it stayed opened all the way, as it has a tendency to close over somewhat after a few minutes, (probably vibration related). I started noticing that my left knee/leg was getting pretty cold from a draft. I had plenty of time on my hands so I had a in-flight snack, then a few minutes later I bid centre farewell and switched over to Trenton unicom where I broadcasted my location and intentions.

I came in on final high but quickly brought it under control with some slip, my touch and go was decent. During my climb out I broadcasted my position and intentions, waited about 15 seconds for anyone to respond then started a lazy right turn to a heading that would bring me back home. A few minutes later I called clear of the zone then switched over to centre and requested flight following. I climbed up to my cruise altitude of 5,500 ft and I could easily see the Charlottetown harbour 50 miles distant. I brought up the airports VOR and then practised staying on the proper radial, which wasn't too hard.

About 15 miles out from Ch'town, centre called and asked me if I could see the airport, which I could, then they requested that I switch over to Ch'town radio for the rest of the flight. I thanked centre and did just that. Next I did some descent calculations in my head, which brought me down to circuit height as I entered the pattern. I still had some time left on my booking so I decided to do some touch and goes for practise, all of which went well.

All in all a perfect cross country flight of 3.1 hours, no problems, no issues and no mistakes.

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