Flying to me is like being a kid and wanting to go out and play. At first you are allowed to open the door and stare outside, BUT you can’t actually go outside. This was the first few days of my training. I read the books, sat and starred at the airplane, but it was just there…tempting me. Eventually, you are allowed to venture into the yard, but are kept under close supervision by Mom, or in my case Josh Smith, my instructor at the West Valley Flying Club. I went up with Josh and we stayed in the “yard” and learned the basics. And eventually the time came that I was allowed to play in the “yard” all alone. This was once I solo’d! I could be out there alone, but still, I could only go up the the fence of the front yard.

I could fly within 25 nm of my home airport, Palo Alto, but I was only allowed to be in the front yard. I could see the street, but I was not allowed to step outside fence and cross the street alone. I saw the other “big” kids playing, and I wanted to go too!! But “Mom” wouldn’t let me. Well, not yet at least. Soon the time came for my cross country training, and Mom would take me out of the yard and I’d get that little taste of freedom.   But not by myself.

And as with all things, it just takes time. Eventually I had my cross country solo phase check ride with Dave Zittin, WVFC CFI and a fellow blogger. Check out his site for some great flying tips! He quizzed me, tried to trick me, but with Josh’s help, I was well prepared. We flew far, got “lost” and yet I still managed to bring Dave back safely to Palo Alto Airport. And with that, I was cleared to go out passed the yard and see what was down the “street.” All by myself!

And yesterday, I took my first cross country solo flight. It’s important to note that “cross country” is defined at a flight greater then 25 nm away from my home airport. So while I could fly to the east coast and truly cross the country, it may not be the best idea to do it on my very first flight alone. For this first one, Josh had suggested that I get a feel of being alone in the plane on a long flight to Merced, CA, just over an hour away from Palo Alto in the Cherokee. So I filled out my flight plans, got a weather briefing and got ready to meet Josh to sign off on the route.

But unfortunately Mother Nature wanted to throw me a curve ball. While the weather was perfect all week, the morning I was scheduled to fly, a sudden marine layer developed and pushed my flight back by 2 hours. Josh was on vacation all week, but was nice enough to meet me at his local airport, Livermore, to go over my flight. Eventually the clouds cleared and I was good to go!  Just like dozen’s of times before, I took off from Palo Alto Airport and headed east! But this time I was all alone up there.  And after a quick 20 minute flight, I was already cleared to land at Livermore Airport. I taxied to the “Guest” parking and walked into the terminal. Fancy!

After getting some water and going over my papers, I met up with Josh. He gave the route a look, verified that I was aware of any airspace requirements, frequencies, how to pick up my flight following with NorCal Departure (so they can keep an eye on me  during my flight in case I fly too close to another airplane, or get lost, or can get help if something worse happens), how I am planning on entering the airport pattern at Merced, my fuel calculations, expected weather enroute, how to come back home, and where to divert to in case something goes wrong.

Everything checked out, and one last thing, be sure to stop and get lunch in Merced. Flying over 2 hours non stop, alone was going to be taxing on my mind and body. And that little break would help me get through it. So Josh signed my flight plans and off I went!

With a right upwind departure from Livermore, I was on my way to my first way point, VPALT, or in non pilot terms, the numerous windmills on Altamont Pass. This is an easily recognizable landmark from the air, and one way to make sure I was on course.

As I passed over VPALT, I was to make a right turn to a heading of 105, and go straight for 51 nautical miles. Cross country navigation is a combination of Pilotage (finding your way by reference to landmarks, such as windmills, large lakes, freeways, or airports), Dead Reckoning (navigating by keeping track of time, rate of travel, and direction of travel), and Navigating by Instruments (using VORs, and other instruments to get where you need to go).  And my flight was going to combine all three of these techniques.  Using my map, I calculated the course heading, distance from VPALT to Merced Muni Airport, approx how long, given the winds at 3,500 feet, it would take me to get there, and major landmarks along the way. And my first landmark was Tracy Airport. After I made that right turn at VPALT, Tracy Airport would be 13 miles away and just off to my right. with the given winds, I would be doing approximately 112 kts, and it should take me just about 7 minutes to get there.  With a quick glance at my watch, I knew when I was to expect the airport, and thanks to my map, approximately where to look. 8 minutes later, I saw Tracy Airport off to my right and 3,500 feet below me.

With my VOR tuned into the El Nindo VOR, located just 6 miles south east of Merced Muni, it was a straight shot there. Keeping an eye out for my landmarks, it was a quick 30 minutes there. And with NorCal Departure keeping an eye out for me on the radar, I felt a bit safer being out there all alone. So I took the time to keep an eye out for any other airplanes near me, and to review what I was going to do once I got near Merced Municipal Airport/Macready Field (MCE). At approx 15 miles out, I would tune into the MCE ASOS (Automated Surface Observing Systems) and figure out what runway they were landing on. At that time I would also do my pre landing checklist. Verify my fuel was switched the the fullest tank, my brakes were working, mixture was on full rich, fuel pump on, and seat belt was secured.

Having looked at the airport facility directory before hand, I knew that pilots were going to use a left traffic pattern at the airport and that the airport elevation is 155 feet. That meant that the traffic pattern altitude (TPA) would be at 1,200 feet (1,000 feet above field elevation) and I could safely overfly the airport at a 1,000 feet above TPA, or 2,200 feet.

At about 10 miles away from the airport, I tuned into the Unicom frequency to see if there were any other airplanes in the pattern. MCE does not have a control tower to help guide the airplanes in landing and taking off. So you have to communicate on one common frequency and make sure that everyone else knows what you are doing and avoid crashing. And that’s exactly what I did. I called in on the 45 and announced my intentions to land on runway 30, and kept a close eye on the 2 airplanes flying around the airport as well as for any potential other airplanes that were flying around. Field in sight, verify my altitude was 1,200 feet, enter the downwind, call “Merced traffic, Cherokee 47540, downwind for runway 30, Merced traffic.” Pull the power back, add a notch of flaps, slowly descend. “Merced traffic, Cherokee 47540, left base for runway 30, Merced traffic.” Turn left, add my second notch of flaps, pull the power back again. Descend. “Merced traffic, Cherokee 47540, final for runway 30, Merced traffic.” Final notch of flaps, airspeed at 65 kts, rate of decent 500 feet per minute. Everything looked good. Now I just needed to get on the ground.

Whew! good thing it was a long runway! Not my best landings, but not bad for an airport I have never flown into, or even knew existed till 2 days before. “Merced traffic, Cherokee 47540, clear of the active runway, Merced traffic.” I found the “Guest” parking and shut down. Time to take a break.

One of the best things about these small little airports is that there is generally a restaurant right there with some amazing food. And Merced had the Hangar Cafe.

Amongst private pilots, there is a thing called the “The $100 Hamburger“.  A private pilot will go for lunch to some non local airport and have lunch there. While the lunch is normally a few dollars, factoring in the rental of the airplane, fuel, etc, that lunch ends up costing $100. Well, at the Hangar Cafe, I had what ended up being a $280 avocado and cheese sandwich with a side of curly fries and a coke. $10 for the lunch, $270 of airplane rental, and it was the coolest meal I have EVER had in my life.  This is what being a pilot was all about!

With my stomach full, it was time to fire back up and head home. While taxing to the runway, I was behind another student pilot. I guess this was rush hour at Merced.

The flight back went quickly. I hit a little bit of a head wind and that slowed me down, but before I knew it, I was flying over Lake Del Valle and about 20 minutes from Palo Alto Airport. Almost home.

With the airport in sight, I got my final landing checklist done and just had to get her down.  Palo Alto Tower must have known I was tired because they made me #1 to land.

And with that, my first cross country flight alone was over. I had gone over 180 nautical miles and it had take, with all of the stops over 4 hours. But I had finally accomplished my first solo cross country.   I went “across the street” all by myself!  And I did not get lost! Next will be my “long” cross country. I wonder what I will have for lunch on my next flight? Hmmm…Mexican in Paso Robles or Italian in Sacramento?

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Adventures, Aviation, Life, Photography, Soaring With Sagar, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.