To Athens, No, The Other One... - 2/15/2012

Headed Eastward today to Athens, GA (for the 3rd time.) My second solo cross-country trip. Is uneventful a good thing? Sometimes, but when you are piloting a plane, it definitely is!

Taking off from runway 9 at KRYY, we had a wind at 120 @ 5kts. Nothing major, really didn't feel it while taking off either. Flew eastward at 3,500feet. Smooth as silk. Going to Athens, didn't see any other aircraft in the area. I was only given one traffic advisory, but didn't see him (he was below me anyways.)

Landing in Athens on runway 9 was decent, it seemed a bit bouncy, not wheels leaving the runway bouncy just... well, it didn't feel like a normal landing. It wasn't a high flare landing nor a low one, not really sure how to describe it. Taxi back to the start of 9. There is this lady in ATC, who I've talked to before, who has an awesome personality. Very friendly, kind of brings a smile to my face. You can tell she enjoys her job.

Leaving Athens, flew westward at 4,500feet. Again, smooth until I was about 15 miles from Cobb County Airport, or about 5 miles north of KPDK. It started to get bumpy up there. Was given two traffic advisories... One was for another Cessna landing at KPDK, and another was a C-130 coming straight at me landing at Dobbins. We were both descending, so we saw each other. There was no conflicting issues with spacing, we were far enough away, but still, he is huge!

Landing on runway 9 at KRYY was a bit of a challenge. While landing, winds started to pick up, and we had a recorded gust of 14 knots. Unfortunately, it made for a bounce landing, the second part of the landing was what a landing was suppose to be like, but the first part ticked me off. All pilots have their “not perfect” landing, but when the FAA Examiner is in there with me, it needs to be perfect!

So, what's next? Tomorrow, Thursday, I was going to do some solo work in the area, but due to weather moving in, I'm going to cancel it. Instead, still going into the flight school, but will be doing a practice written test. If I pass that with an 80+, I'll be signed off to take the actual test. These test are haunting me, I've already started to dream about them. I'm not a good test taker, I'm more of a project type person.

So, I need to get 5 hours of solo cross-country time down, right now, I'm right below the limit, so I need to get one more flight in. I'm thinking it will be Friday, and heading up to North Carolina for that one. Winds are looking good, North @ 5.

Happy Flying!

Night Cross Country - Athens' Style! 1/24/2012

Today was my first night cross country to Athen's. Originally, it was suppose to happen tomorrow, but due to the possibility of rain, my flight instructor came in on his weekend so we could go up tonight. Beautiful night! Pretty much cloudless until we were about 25 miles coming to KRYY, and then I just saw some high cirrus clouds. Couldn't figure out which planet it was, but heading west, towards the Southwest was this bright star, it was beautiful! You can see a lot more stars up in the air, than on the ground at night. A lot more easier to see other aircraft too. Atlanta, and northern Atlanta is beautiful at night (wish I could say the same for the day, lol!) Who's ready to join me in a flight at night?

Coming out of KRYY we took off from runway 27, so about 300 feet from pattern altitude, we started to make our right turn to get on course and to get to our altitude of 3,500 feet. At first, it was difficult for me to find Gwinnett County Airport, but I finally spotted it. Overflew that (as planned.) Flew south of the Winder Airport; was able to turn on the runway lights via our radio, which is pretty cool. Made it to Athens with no problem. Landing was kind of fast, but the recovery from it was pretty good. We landed on Runway 9, and took off from runway 27. The air traffic controller sound so sleepy. I felt sorry for her. According to my flight instructor, most of his students have a problem landing for the first time at night, as they are wary of where the ground is (making sure they don't crash into the ground,) and do a high flare. He said besides the fast landing, it was overall impressive. Coming back we were at 4,500. Going and coming, smooth as silk up there, didn't feel a single bump. (I know this might sound weird, but turbulence, within reason, is kind of fun, but there's a limit of course.) Landing on 27 at KRYY was pretty much flawless. Flare was good, and smooth touchdown. Winds were very light.

So, what's next? Next Wednesday (weather permitting) is another night flight. This time, we are staying local. Per FAA regulations, you must get at least 10 night landings completed, well, I've gotten 2 down, and my night cross country completed. So, I have to do 8 more. The plan is for us to do 4 at Cartersville, and 4 at KRYY. After that, I have to do a cross country stage check with Hutch (who is our ground instructor,) to make sure I know how to do a flight plan (all students have to do this.) After that, will be my first solo cross country, which I think will probably be to Chattanooga.

Bookwork is coming along. I'm still having problems with the mathematics of it all. I will have to take my time, and go step-by-step/equation-by-equation to get it. Still planning for late-March or April to get my license. First trip: Myrtle Beach, SC. Anyone wanna join me?

Jet outside the gate to get into the airfield. N227LA - 1976 Gulfstream Stream II... has 22 seats, weight is over 20,000lbs. Two Rolls-Royce engines, horsepower: 1140 (Turbo-jet.)

Notice the military helicopter in the distance, he took off while we were preflighting our plane at 6:45PM.

To Athens and Back - 1/19/2012

We went to Athens, GA yesterday in good ol' 707PD, but I marked a first yesterday, as it was the first time I had a passenger (besides the instructor) with me... my buddy Adam. God bless his soul, he is a nervous flier, but he got up the nerves and flew with me to Athens. Going there, we were cruising at around 3,500 feet (non-autopilot.) It was a bit choppy, but not the worst chop I've been through. The Flight Service Station was having major issues yesterday, and apparently they were going old school when we called to get our Weather Briefing, and took one hell of a long time to get them on the radio to open up our flight plan. We flew out of KRYY on Runway 9, headed East, south of Roswell, just north of KPDK, right over Gwinnett's airport, south of Barrow County airport, and landed on Runway 27 in Athens. We decided to take a quick break at the Athen's FBO, Athen's Flight Center. The lineman was very nice, and so was the young lady at the front desk. Usually on cross-countries we don't make a stop at the FBO, but I'm glad we did this time. For some reason, my back was getting very tense, so I need to get out anyways. My instructor informed me, that this was the busiest that he's ever seen Athens. A bit later we took off from Athens Runway 27 and went to a cruise altitude of 4,500. Much smoother ride at that altitude, and I decided to engage the autopilot for a bit. We did some autopilot work all the way till we got about a mile from runway 27. Atlanta Center was one of the busiest that I've heard it in awhile, no issues though, but we had to pay extra close attention while listening for our call sign. We had a nice crosswind landing, and a smooth touchdown. Pretty nice in my opinion.

We saw a Mitsubishi MU-2 at KRYY, that thing is so freaking cute! It was on the South Ramp.

Looks like some nasty weather will be moving in the next several days. Rain moving in this afternoon, and a chance of rain all the way up until Monday night. A chance of storms tonight, and a better chance of severe thunderstorms tomorrow. I have some solo work on Sunday (707PD, I believe) but with the rain chances, I might just can it, and do some extra studying. The written test is getting much closer, but even though I've been studying and using practice test, I'm still not happy yet with my score. Right now, we do seem to be on track for taking the test in March or April (I'm hoping March.) I'd love to start the second phase of everything before June.

There is a concern that I'm having though... I'm wanting to go commercial with my pilot's license. The thing is, you need to build up hours. I've been reading post, that people say the best way to do this is via CFI. Well, I don't think I would be a good teacher, so this brings up a concern on what would be the best way to get my hours built up. I'm wouldn't say no to doing "regional" cargo flights, to build up the hours at first.