One of those perfect nights to fly

I recently had one of these nights. I was scheduled to take an an IFR training flight with my CFII, Tommy. I have been doing most of my instrument training flights at night because 1) Like most places in the summertime, the weather here in Colorado is generally better early in the day and late in the day (less turbulence, lower chance of high-based TStroms, calmer winds, etc.) and, 2) that's about the only time in a day that I can manage to find the free time to fly. 

One recent evening I was out at the airport getting the plane ready before Tommy showed up and caught this beautiful sunset. It seemed to frame the plane perfectly against the pink clouds and backdrop of Colorado's Front Range mountains. 

The night air was cool and relatively crisp for a late June evening, around 65° or so, with a light 7 knot breeze out of the east. We left Erie (KEIK) and I picked up our IFR to Cheyenne (KCYS), 45 minutes north. We had filed KEIK LPORT V81 CYS KCYS and, of course, received "present-position direct" GLL V89 CYS KCYS, which took us a bit out of our way but it's always good practice dealing with an ATC re-route. Half way to Gill (GLL), ATC gave us a direct CYS which would work out nicely for the DME arc to the ILS27 at Cheyenne.

The routing put us about midway between CIKNU and LECID on the 15 nm DME arc, which was different than what we had planned but it still worked well. I intercepted the arc and was able to track it well within the required 1 nm despite the ever-present Wyoming wind. The lead radial on the ILS 27 at CYS is the 104° and it dumps you out on a LOOONG 15+ mile final, at 7,800 feet MSL mind you (airport elevation is 6100 feet MSL) - plenty of time to get stable and make the approach. A touch of the wheels and we were on the go, VFR this time back to Erie in the smooth, cool mountain air.

Cross Country Flight Log: EIK-TAD-EIK

Last week, I took N733XB on a long cross-county from Erie (KEIK) to Trinidad (KTAD) and back, solo. This was my first trip southbound over the Denver metro area solo so after consulting Foreflight, I talked through my plan with the FBO's front desk guy (who's working on his commercial rating and has a lot more experience than me - never be afraid to ask questions in aviation). 

Click for larger version

My route would take me from Erie over the Rocky Mountain Metro (KBJC) class Delta airspace, then south over the Palmer Divide and it's associated high MEAs, through Colorado Springs Class Charlie, over Pueblo and then finally onto KTAD. A lot of airspace to deal with so I figured the best bet would be to get flight following as soon and use ATC as a helping hand.

I departed Erie to the north and did a wide semi-circle until reaching 8500 feet MSL on a southbound heading. Fortunately, N733XB is a Penn Yann Aero 180 hp conversion so she climbs pretty well even out here in Colorado. As a result, getting to altitude didn't take too much time. I picked up flight following with Denver Approach/Departure on 126.10 and was cleared across the top of the BJC class D and into the Denver Bravo for good measure.

Denver handed me off to Springs Approach and I was asked if I was familiar with Meadow Lake Airport (KFLY) in order to fly direct. While I've never flown there in the "real world" I had in FSX and I knew its position so I responded to the affirmative and was asked to alter my course to swing east of KFLY and around the fairly busy Colorado Spring Muni Airport (KCOS). I stayed with Springs Approach for quite some time and then it was back to Denver approach who handles the terminal area around the Pueblo Class D. I was cruising at  9,500' MSL so I passed over the class D with quite some margin. 

Pretty good views of Pikes Peak on both legs of the trip.

After that, I was handed off to Denver Center and made my way further south toward Trinidad. It's always cool for a lowly private pilot like myself to be on the same frequency as the "big boys"; United, Southwest, Air Force Academy training flights, etc. That always makes me feel like I've really arrived. 

Approaching KTAD - Gives you an idea of how desolate the countryside is.

KTAD was reporting winds favoring their runway 3 and, coming from the north, I was setup pretty well for a 45 degree entry for a left downwind on runway 3. The winds were reported as 6 gusting to twenty-something so I knew my rusty crosswind skills would be put to a test. But, fortunately it wasn't as bad as I though it would be and although the landing left a LOT to be desired, I made it down and taxied to the lonely FBO to refuel. I was met by the sole line guy who couldn't have been friendlier - in aviation, that seems to happen frequently! After a quick 16 gallons, I was back in the air and headed home. 

The terminal at Perry Stokes Airport in Trinidad, CO. Complete with soda fountain. 

The return flight was nice and uneventful. I climbed up to 10,500' MSL and picked up flight following from Denver Center. This time I was able to go through the Springs Class Charlie airspace and went back into the Denver Bravo. While passing through the Bravo, I flew just west of Downtown Denver and was able to get some great views of the city.

Downtown Denver from 10,500' MSL

Videos from the flight:

Erie to Trinidad

Trinidad back to Erie

Total flight time: 3.7 hrs

Flightaware.com Links: EIK-TAD | TAD-EIK

ADS-B and me

(if you're not familiar with ADS-B, this is a worthwhile read)

I recently picked up a used Appareo Stratus 1 ADS-B receiver from the classifieds forum on Beechtalk.com. As an aside, if you're looking for new pilot gear (or trying to sell something you no longer need), I highly recommend checking out the classifieds sections of the type-club message forums and general aviation message boards - Beechtalk, COPA, AOPA, PilotsofAmerica.com, etc. are all great places to find some deals. 

A couple of months ago, I found a Stratus 1 for sale by a very nice gentleman in Florida who no longer needed it because he was switching from an iPad to another EFB product. Since the Stratus only works with Foreflight on the iPad, this move rendered the device useless to him and became my good fortune as I was able to pick it up for a reasonable price.

My expectation for using the Stratus was mostly along the lines of being able to pick up subscription-free in-flight weather (METARs, TAFs, NEXRAD, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, TFRs, etc. they're all available free of charge!). Given the ever-changing Colorado weather, I figured being able to know what was lurking weather-wise was a very good thing - and it most certainly has been. After a half-dozen flights I can say that the Stratus has exceeded my expectations when it comes to being able to get weather from ADS-B ground stations pretty much everywhere I've flown. It's been fantastic to be on a XC flight and be able to pull up the winds at the destination airport from a hundred plus miles away, or get winds aloft for planning while enroute, or being able to see what TFRs may have popped-up along my route.

The added bonus from all of this has been the ability to sometimes get TIS-B traffic using the Stratus. I say "sometimes" because the Stratus 1, like any non-ADS-B out equipped airplane, is somewhat limited when it comes to the TIS-B traffic picture. However, my understanding is that if I'm within a roughly 15 nm range of an aircraft equipped with ADS-B out, it will trigger the ground stations to also provide the traffic information to me. I've seen this a few times now and it is truly awesome to be able to have a view of the air traffic all around you. Here are some iPad screenshots to demonstrate.

Talk about increased situational awareness. We saw this guy coming toward us from about 5 miles away and were talking to him as we converged and he passed safely off of our left side.

Every now and then, callsigns/tail numbers of participating aircraft will show up.

Bottom line - I highly recommend getting an ADS-B receiver of some sort: Garmin GDL, Stratus, Dual, etc. you can't go wrong with having additional potentially lifesaving information at your fingertips.

The cost of flight training

Money, money, money... When I wrapped up my flight training, I decided tabulate the total price tag in order to get an idea of just how expensive this expensive hobby really is. Here's a summary of what I found. Note: These prices are for the front range of Colorado throughout 2013. Your mileage will most certainly vary but, above all else, if you want to save money, prepare! Before you even set foot in an airplane for each lesson know what you're going to cover for that lesson.

As review, I had 10.5 hours logged prior to 2002. (These were pretty much useless since they were dual time in a 150/152 and had nothing toward meeting the FAR requirements for solo, instrument, night, etc.)


Since starting my flight training in March 2013, I logged:

35.1 Dual received in the PA-28-180
10.2 Solo in the PA-28-180
-----
45.3 hours in the Cherokee prior to transitioning to the Cessna 172
Rough cost of training in the PA-28-180: $6,036

+

Cessna transition:
2.7 Dual received in the C172N
1.0 Solo in the C172N
-----
3.7 at a cost of $429.00 (Instruction was free)
========

Total time for training: 49.0 (excluding the 10.5 from the early 2000's)
Total cost for training: $6,465ish (excluding the 10.5 hours from the early 2000's and checkride fee, written fee, and medical)

Finally a pilot!

First off, my apologies for the length. Settle in for a long read or skip to the TLDR part and pic at the end.  

Technically, I had met all of my requirements back in September and was gearing up to take the FAA written and my checkride (CR). Side note: I really didn't have a good reason for putting the written exam off until well into my training other than I was traveling a lot for work at the time and fitting it in was problematic. Lesson learned: Don't put it off too long. As I neared the last week of September, I had it all planned out; I'd take the written on the following Monday followed by my CR on Thursday of that same week -- Enter cram mode. Then, I got the news on the Friday before my test that because of the government shutdown, there would be no testing for the duration of the shutdown. Great - That provoked call #1 to the DPE to cancel my checkride. We left the schedule open-ended based on when the government got their act back together. Strike one for me.

Finally, the shutdown ended and I was able to get the written rescheduled. I took the test one rainy morning at Boulder Muni KBDU and managed a 98 - missing one question. All in all, things were looking up. I worked with the DPE's schedule and was back on the book for three weeks out. Plenty of time to get some more flying in and study, study, study. Then in late October, the news that due to a merger, the position with the IT company I had held for the past 6 years was being eliminated effective immediately. I figured that the proverbial "other shoe" had now dropped. Strike two for me. But - I tried to keep positive and took solace in knowing that 1) my flying money was already set aside and still appropriately earmarked, 2) my wife still had an excellent job, and 3) now I had PLENTY of time to study and do well on the CR, so I kept plodding forward. 

Enter challenge #3: The week of the CR I heard from my CFI. 78L, the PA-28-180 I had been training in was down for its 100 hr and while they were doing the work, they found several parts that needed replacement. The bad news was that the schedule horizon for the repair work was 2-3 weeks out. Call number two to the DPE to reschedule.

While it wasn't my CFI's fault that 78L (his plane) was down for such a long, inopportune time, he took mercy on me and offered to check me out in the flight school's 172's and not charge me for his time. I had intended to do this anyhow so I jumped at the chance - and, since I no longer had a job to fill up my schedule, finding the time to fly was easy.  He and I went up twice in the 180hp 172N and I did an hour solo and with around 3.3 total time in type, my CR was upon us and it was time to test my mettle. 


The Checkride

The Oral Exam:
I met my Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) Andy Munnis (Yes, the same DPE of youtube fame) at noon at LMO and we started by going through the paperwork - a review of my logbook, checking my medical, completing the IACRA, etc. All of this took about an hour, plus quite a bit of time shooting the breeze. In fact, he did an excellent job of calming any nerves I had and really making me feel comfortable. I think a lot of this about his personality came off in the youtube video which is one of the reasons I chose to use him as a DPE. 

He reviewed the required "legalese" and we started into the Oral Exam. He asked me the expected questions about currency, had me review an airport diagram, we reviewed aeromedical factors (altitude and hypoxia in particular, this is Colorado after all), and we also discussed airworthiness - but not near as much as I had feared - and several other topics. For this Q&A part of the Oral he used scenario-based questions which made it easy to see the practical application of the FARs and also made answering very conversational and easy.

We then reviewed the VFR cross country flight plan I had created and the weight and balance for that flight. I showed him my route on the sectional and he asked me maybe three questions about "what airspace are we in here and what are the requirements" (I had planned to stay under the Denver Class Bravo so I described that and why) and we briefly discussed an MOA south of the route and what it meant. For the 2-3 hours of effort I had put into the VFR XC plan, we discussed it for maybe 5 minutes, but that was fine by me. 

After about 45 or so minutes of the Oral, he abruptly stopped, shook my hand, and said "I could keep asking you questions all day but it's pretty apparent that you know your stuff. Let's go fly." And with that, the part I had the most anxiety about was over. 

The Practical Exam:
As we wrapped up the Oral, Andy briefed me on basically what to expect for the practical: PTS maneuvers, a go-around, short and soft field takeoffs and landings, normal takeoff, forward slip, and emergencies. That really helped and ensured that there were going to be no surprises. I liked that. 

I did the preflight while Andy waited - mostly from a distance - he definitely wasn't critiquing every move or action which was nice. Once onboard, I briefed him on the required passenger items and we cranked up the plane. For the first time in a long time, the winds were being very cooperative - right down the runway at a nice, gentle 3 knots. We did a normal takeoff from LMO's runway 11 and started on my VFR XC, for which the first checkpoint was 6 miles just off of our 11 o'clock after departure. I overflew checkpoint one and showed him where I could see checkpoints two and three (a town and a lake respectively). We were maybe 8 minutes into my hypothetical XC. "OK, good enough. Take me direct to Cheyenne on the GNS 430" he said. I dialed it up and we turned direct KCYS. 

That foray into radio navigation lasted about one minute and he informed me that we had a simulated a cabin fire. I took the appropriate actions and we dropped down a few hundred feet before he asked me to recover and go into a steep turn. I got to pick the direction so I did a cleaning turn and went into the steep turn to the left. I managed to maintain altitude about the best that I had to date but at one point wasn't quite to 45 degrees so Andy very politely encouraged me to steepen the bank angle and I did. We followed that with slow flight and a power on and power off stall - both to aerodynamic buffet only, pretty straightforward. 

Following the steep turns and stalls, we did a simulated engine-out descent and the ol "pick a field" for an off-airport landing. I did pretty well but my very low time in type left me pretty high for the spot I chose - the 172 doesn't sink like a rock as with the PA-28. In fact, I had enough room to execute a 360 and ended up perfectly for the freshly plowed field I had identified. I later found out in the debrief that this was the one place I fell short on my ride: While doing the simulated engine out, I managed to get through the "A, B, C's" (airspeed, best field, checklist) perfectly fine but should have kept going to the "D, E" part as I failed to declare on 121.5 or whatever ATC facility / UNICOM I could reach. I hadn't practiced that part before so it was a good thing to know but not a bust by any means.

With the simulated engine out we were now low enough to do some ground reference maneuvers - which turned out to just be one time around a point. Easy peasy. From there, we went back to LMO for the various required landings. The pattern was the busiest I had heard it before: two planes inbound plus us, a flight of 3 on base for a low pass, and one more guy in the pattern - highly unusual for 3:00 pm on a Thursday afternoon but if Murphy's Law can strike, it will. Faced with a busy scene of a lot of airplanes and a flight of 3 about to do a low pass, I elected to do a 360 north of the airport to 1) figure out where in the heck everybody was, and 2) add some separation for the flight of 3 and the other inbounds. In the debrief, the DPE used this decision as an example of great aeronautical decision making so I was happy - and it worked out well. 

In the pattern now we did a short field landing with a stop and go into a short field takeoff. The landing was horrible and I skipped a bit but managed to hit my aiming point - not graceful but passable. The next time around we did a normal landing (perhaps he could tell I needed a confidence boost after the previous landing) to a stop and go and immediately into a soft field takeoff. Here, I nailed it - remained in ground effect, climbed out, got the flaps out, etc all just like I had practiced. The next trip around the pattern was our go-around which he called at about 400' AGL on final - no biggie, full power, first notch of flaps up, positive rate, etc. etc. 

While turning crosswind, he informed me that the next landing could be to a full stop which were the magic words - meaning we were almost done! :-) Fortunately, we had saved the soft field landing for last so I got one more chance to redeem myself and floated it down reasonably well and maintained my nose-up attitude just fine. I cleared the runway at A2 and taxied pretty much straight ahead to the parking spot. I shut down the engine and he asked me: "Do you know what you and Angelina Jolie have in common?" Which struck me as a bit non sequitur so I replied, "No, what's that?". "You're both pilots. Congratulations.", he said as he shook my hand. And with that a journey I first set out on 18 years ago was complete. Total time logged for the practical exam portion, 1.0 hours. 

The debrief:
It came as somewhat of a surprise that I had done much better than I thought I had done (especially considering some of my landings!). In fact, Andy said that my performance on the Oral was probably the best he'd seen - there was just one small thing I mixed up: the airworthiness needs to be visible to passengers/crew, not the reg - I misspoke and said the opposite of what I meant. The kicker was that what prompted my response was the inclination to give more information than was necessary - and it came back to bite me. Lesson: No matter how much you know and want to show the DPE you know, only answer the question that was asked. He also had positive comments about my flying which surprised me because of the aforementioned landings. All in all, it was a great experience and I can't wait to go flying now as a private pilot!

TLDR: The Oral exam ended up way easier than I had expected / Practical exam portion straightforward / Andy, my DPE, was thorough, fair, and very personable - I highly recommend him. Great experience and I'm finally a pilot!

DPE Andy Munnis congratulating me after I passed my FAA Checkride

Total Logbook Time: 59.5 hrs

Solo!

I'm still giddy as I write this - I finally solo'ed! It was awesome to finally be the sole occupant of an airplane I was flying.

Before we play the clip though, let me provide some background. The fact is that I had been "ready" to solo for a long time (according to my CFI, Tommy's signoff a month and a half ago) but travel schedules and the ever-changing Colorado weather conspired against me on at least a half-dozen possible solo candidate days. So, instead of soloing earlier on in my training, I went the route of finishing most of my required training with Tommy (ie. dual cross-country = done, night flights= done, towered airport operations = done, 3.0 hrs of IFR time = done, etc.) with the goal of getting the solo in when all forces aligned and I finally got a relatively nice day.

Well, that day was yesterday, 7/16/13. The weather at KLMO wasn't perfect by any stretch but it wasn't bad either. Runway 11 was favored but the winds were at anywhere from 080° to 150° and calm to suddenly 10+ knots, it was hot and bumpy as usual, and the density altitude was 7,800' but nevertheless, it was to be the day and I was ready for it. 

Before Tommy got out, we did a few performance takeoffs and landings with with varying degrees of success on my part. Then, it was time. Tommy got out and I was ready. I somehow mustered the presence of mind to start up the GoPro to capture the event and off I went. In the video, you'll notice I forced myself to narrate throughout the flight hoping that it helps me keep the examiner in the loop during the checkride, but also looking back, it should aid in figuring out what I was doing and when.

The first landing was far from my best and way to the left of centerline due to my poor compensation for wind drift. The subsequent two were slightly better but still not great. Regardless, I was giddy having finally passed this milestone. I loved how the "mighty" 180 hp Cherokee climbed with only one person onboard. I swear I saw 700 fpm at one point after departing - instead of our usual 300-400 fpm at 85.

Post flight, finally soloed!

Now, some solo XC time, review/study/review, and hopefully it'll be time to schedule the exams.

Total Logbook Time: 35.4 hrs

Through the Bravo

At the start of today's lesson, Tommy, my CFI, asked me what I wanted to do. Always refreshing to have a say in one's training and since we seemed to be covering the basics of flying at a pretty rapid pace, I thought it might be time for a new challenge. "What about going through the Bravo?" I asked.

Thanks to many, many years of flying online with VATSIM, I have been fairly comfortable with talking with air traffic control (ATC) for a long time. As a VATSIM ATC myself for several of those years, the pilot in me became accustom to thinking of and reacting to what ATC might ask of me at any given moment. That's not to say it's a life completely devoid of surprises, but it does give you a certain easy feeling of familiarity when talking to the guys and gals behind the scope.

A couple of lessons back, Tommy and I had ventured over to Rocky Mountain Metro Airport, KBJC, and its associated Class D airspace. I found communicating with the tower there to be a non-issue and it actually made me a bit more comfortable than plain old VFR CTAF comms.

So, with renewed confidence, I figured taking a chunk out of Colorado's busiest airport would be a good challenge. So, with that, off we went into a bumpy, June Colorado sky. Our route took us east from LMO to get up to altitude and get settled and then we cut south and picked up flight following with a transition through the Bravo from Denver Approach. After some maneuvering around a TFR for the Rockies game, we were cleared direct to Centennial (KAPA).

Our route: LMO -> APA -> FTG -> LMO

The actual process of getting flight following and a Bravo transition was all pretty straightforward. A call up to ATC, an immediate reply with a squawk code, and we were on our way. Honestly, I think I prefer this way of having a second set of eyes helping you watch for traffic as well as being there if you need them.

After a quick turn around at APA, it was back in the air and eastbound to Front Range Airport (KFTG). For this leg, we decided to go straight VFR without flight following, essentially jumping from Centennial tower to Front Range tower when we were a few miles south of the airport -- all the while dodging a large dissipating thunderstorm southeast of the Denver metro. 

As you can see from the chart above, Front Range Airport sits in an interesting little cutout of the greater Denver Class Bravo. You go from an 8,000' MSL shelf above you to a 7,000' foot shelf and once you get near the airport and into FTG's class Delta. It all makes for some pretty tight maneuvering - and also makes you thankful for Foreflight and the Garmin 430 both depicting the airspace boundaries. We entered on a right base for runway 8, did a touch and go (horrible landing, by the way, thanks to some nice wind sheer on final), and then continued east, staying below the 8,000' MSL Bravo shelf all of the way back to LMO. We dodged a couple more cells using the poor man's data link (aka Foreflight's cellular data weather radar on Tommy's iPad) and made it back to LMO after a mere 1.8 hours on the Hobbs.

Here's a video of the first leg, LMO -> APA with flight following:

Training has been going great, I really enjoy flying with Tommy and the camaraderie we have. After today's flight, here's where I'm at:

Total Logbook Time: 25.5 hrs