Archive for the ‘Flying’ Category

After all my fretting about not flying for a month, the flight was easy. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred, although Stillwater Regional is under crazy construction. Runway 17/35 used to be 6100ft, but they extended it on the north side to 7400ft. The extension is concrete whereas the original runway is asphalt, so it looks like a patchwork quilt. To make things more amusing, they close all but the north 4,000ft during the afternoons and evenings to work on it. It’s tricky to figure out just what the north 4,000 ft is until you get pretty close to it.

It was a beautiful day for flying, temperatures in the low 70s, no clouds, smooth air.

While flying by Tinker AFB on the way back to Norman, I spotted a line of F-15’s a few thousand feet below me. Actually, what I saw first was a shadow… “Hmm.. something triangle-shaped is making that shadow…” After the first one whizzed by, there was another…. I saw 5 of them– there were probably six.

I’m on the schedule again tomorrow. I think I’ll go to Duncan, OK. I’m running out of approved airports just over 50NM away– I’ll probably have to start revisiting before I finish.

Scheduling flights in is proving to be a major headache. I haven’t flown in the month of October. I intended to take a week-long break, but it’s turning into permanent retirement.

When I called my instructor on Wednesday morning, he said the earliest he could get me in was Friday at 4pm. It’s Friday around noon, and the OKC Terminal Aerodrome Forecast isn’t pretty. In fact, just to annoy Sydney, I think I’ll subject you guys to it.

TEMPO 2024 3SM TSRA BR OVC020CB

That means that from 3pm-7pm they’re predicting 3 miles visibility, thunderstorms and rain, mist and an overcast layer of cumulonimbus clouds at 2,000ft. So I don’t think I’m going anywhere today.

I’m on the schedule for tomorrow at noon, and possibly Sunday as well.

All these flights are solos. Ought to be fun since I haven’t flown in several weeks, and have only flown solo once in the last 3 months or so.

All I’m really worried about is getting lost. I don’t know why, but finding my way around just by looking at a sectional in the middle of Oklahoma scares me. It all looks the same.

I think that tomorrow I’ll fly to Stillwater, which is north of OKC, so I’ll be in fairly populated areas which means lots of landmarks. The tricky thing about that is that I have no idea how OKC approach will route me since the direct course goes right over Tinker AFB. And in the middle of the day, that’s not usually permitted, at least not at 5,000 feet or so.

There’s a VFR corridor through the OKC/Tinker airspace, but you have to remain below 2,500ft in it. And there are 2,000 ft towers at the end of it. I don’t much like being that close to big scary-looking towers.

It’s funny, I’m an instrument rated private pilot and a big baby when it comes to VFR navigation. Instrument flying is so nice because I don’t have any trouble knowing where I am. Most people are actually just the opposite– they’re leery of instrument navigation but have no problem looking at a collection of buildings that looks just like every other collection of buildings and saying, “That’s the town of Dibble.”

I’m also annoyed that I sit at home all day while wifey works, and it seems like the only time I can fly is when she’s home.

My instructor called me yesterday and told me that the only time he could get a plane for us a do a 100NM cross-c0untry was 6am. I’m not a big fan of morning. I got there at 6:30am and it was still dark. My instructor didn’t show up for another few minutes. We’d have had to wait around for the sun anyway, since it was supposed to be a day flight. I don’t like getting up early.

It was a nice, cool flight. I picked Sayre because I’d never been there, it’s an approved field, and it was on the same sectional, so I didn’t have to plot a course on the backside or buy another chart.

The air was perfectly calm, something that’s not been too common around here. The mornings tend to be calmer, though, because there’s no thermals rising from the heated ground. It was nice almost being a little cold at 6,500 feet.

There’s only one flight left in this stage with my instructor. It’s a 100NM night VFR flight. The rest are about 12 solos.

I’m planning on knocking the first one out tomorrow afternoon. It’ll be my first solo flight since my private cross-country. Since I’m a little nervous about it, I’m going to fly to Ardmore again. It’s easy to find. I’ll go to different places for my other flights.

Eventually I’m going to have to make a 250NM cross-country. I get to pick either Little Rock or Dalhart, TX. I’m thinking about Dalhart just because I like it out west. Most of the students pick little rock because it’s greener and landmarks are easier to find.

I finally got my first commercial flight lesson out of the way today. Nothing exciting or new, just a review of private maneuvers, mostly so my new instructor can see that I can, indeed, fly. Stalls, steep turns, slow flight, emergency procedures and a few landings.

Picking a spot to pretend to land in is the only hard part of a simulated engine-out. Once I pick one, it’s all easy. In many places of the world, the best choice is typically fairly obvious. In Oklahoma the problem isn’t finding a field, but deciding on a field. My instructor’s only complaint about my choice of field was that it “was too green” and had some fairly high vegetation. I will admit that the surface of the field didn’t enter into my decision at all.

(Joanna says that if I don’t put this sentence in herepeople will think that I actually landed in random fields. Now you know that’s not the case.)

My first landing was a very nice, normal landing. My second landing was supposed to be a soft field, but a gust of wind left me high and slow, and I bounced on the mains a little after dropping out of the sky a good six inches over the runway. Last landing was my first short field in ages, and I nailed it. Cleared my imaginary obstacle and touched down not 10 feet of my assigned touchdown point, and so stopping in the allotted space didn’t even require brakes.

It was weird looking outside the plane again. I’m so used to staring at the instruments now that I have to try hard not to look at them. Steep turns at 50 degrees of bank were pretty easy, I guess I’ve finally gotten over whatever issue I had with them before. Turn coordination still isn’t wonderfull. I’ll be able to feel it one day.

I’ve got a 50NM cross country to fly tomorrow.