ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

well today i knocked out the last big requirment for getting my private. it was a beautiful weather day so i met up with my CFI finalized my flight plan and prepped our club's cherokee 140 for the flight. as i was taxiing out i got to thinking, i haven't flown this plane in over 2 months (been having too much fun in my max and of course the max is way cheaper to fly) so at this point i decided before begining my cross country i would shoot a few landings at my home field and get reaquianted with the handling of the plane. man is it different then the max. well after 2 nice landings on our short runway i felt comfortable and confident and departed from Dalton with my course plotted for Grand Rapids. this was also my first time flying in controlled airspace solo.

It is amazing how quick you get across the state when you are cruising at 120MPH TAS with no wind. only 25 min after take off i was calling up Grand Rapids approach. i told them i was a student pilot on a vfr cross country and requested a stop and go followed by departure to lansing. they were extremely accomidating and friendly and vectored me right in to 26R for the option. after a decent but not great landing i stopped and reset for takeoff. in short order i was back airborne and being vectored out of the way of the heavies and towards my next destination of lansinga few simple handoffs and freq changes and i am downwind for 28L in lansing. I still trying to figure out what all that extra runway was for but must be for pilots with less skill then me, lol. my home field is 2500 feet and here i am on short final for one that is 8500 feet. what a feeling. after another stop and go i was climbing out and again being vectored around traffic, one heavy and one helicoptor, and was turning for home. after dropping down to stay under the outer shelf area of the flint class c i was soon in the pattern and back home. now this is where i love my max even more, i put 2.4 hours on the hobbs and it cost me $115 in fuel, man i want to go fly my max now, i could fly all day on $115. well after 156 NM or 180SM i know have the last big requirement done before my final checkride as i have already completed my written. i need a little more night time and instrument time logged then for my CFI to sign off that i am good to go, so hopefully soon i will be able to share my thrill of flying with others by taking them up with me, and i really can't wait to have my hours built up and to start flying young eagles for our chapter. so much adventure behind me and so many bigger ones yet to come

Congrats thunder,

brings back memories of my solo 3.5hr cross country with stop and goes in great bend ks and anthony ks then back to kingman ks. Only I had a 27kt wid 90deg to the runway in great bend, 110deg cabin temps and murderous thermals that had me slowed to 95kts at 7500ft and left me with several bruises from being slammed against the side of the cockpit and the seat belt on the 2 hour run between great bend and anthony over grassland so arid that they cant even raise cattle on it and is only populated by the occasional oil donkey. I have expirienced a few big bumps before and since but that was a never ending assult that my CFI figured would have made anyone other than me find an airport and put down but I putted along at 95kts stuck it out Rough air has never bothered me again after that trip.

congrats... it is a big step for sure and just a couple more steps and your are there.

I  like your last statement Jake:  " so much adventure behind me and so many bigger ones yet to come" I absolutely, 100% agree with  you!   Fly for fun!

Paul Fiebich

Congradulations....well done, quite an achievement.

and you seem to know what Pauls saying ......

its not what you have.... but how much FUN you have with what yourv'e got.....so enjoy the adventure and have fun.

regards Arthur

I hope the faa passes that amendment where your training of your dual can be applied to your ppl from your sport.  

Know how you feel about those long runways. On my solo cc I landed at the shared commercial/AFB field in Charleston SC. That strip is build for C5A's and C-17'a and is almost 8000' long. That little 150 felt like an ant in the big boys sand box.  Congratulations on your achievement. Don't sweat the Check ride, your instructor won't turn you loose for that if you are not ready. Your ability reflects on him/her so believe it when you are told you are ready. Mine was actually fun, nervous but fun.

Thunder, what is the instrument requirement now? I think it was only 3 hours or maybe even less when I did mine.

I know what you mean about going from a Minimax to a Cherokee. I checked out in a rental Cherokee a while back and was reminded pretty quick that they keep on going when you pull power, as opposed to my Max that wants about 30% all the way to the runway.

My solo x/c was just like Chris's. Cumulus clouds almost all the way from OKC to Borger Texas. I almost could have shut the engine down and and thermalled cloud to cloud to my destination. It was such a rough ride I couldn't even find the VOR intersections on my chart to locate myself. It came up to show I was somewhere near Kansas, I just threw the chart in the passenger seat and flew the heading I had plotted and it got me there. I hated rough air then, and I hate it now.

ah, rough air is fun and a good 35 to 40 wind will get my 150 up in 400ft and the tree line sheltering the runway will teach you all about rotors and wind gradient! Thing is now I am working on a glider rating so I can take advantage of some of it!

Chris

Thank You for the congrats everyone

Chris not sure if i could tough it out the way you did, i may have been the one to put it down at an alternate airport. but i try to do all my flying in the morning or evening when possible because with my back injuries from the army flying in that kind of weather is extremely uncomfortable and just takes all the fun out of it and that is my only reason to fly, for the fun of it. your story reminds me of listening to my neihbor talk about some of his flights (he flys twin otters into the bush in north africa) and he talks about 30+ knot 90degree crosswinds. so good for you for toughing it out. BTW did you keep it within the 100 foot FAA Standard during all that? lol

Ken you are right as it is 3 hours. unfortunately my flight bag was stolen out of my truck last fall and along with it my log book. me and my cfi sat down and rebuilt it as best we could from his notes and records from the flying club but i did lose a few hours in there somewhere and my instrument time. so i currently have .5 hours of instrument offically logged and 2.5 of night flight. so i need another . 5 of night and 2.5 of instrument plus i believe it is 3 hours of prep with cfi in 60 days prior to check ride. so hopefully money will work out and i will be able to do alot of this if not all of it in the next month or so and right now my goal is to do my check ride in early oct, but we all know how life goes.

Quoted from dayflyer I hope the faa passes that amendment where your training of your dual can be applied to your ppl from your sport.  

All my dual time has been in a 150 with a CFI so it all counts toward a PPL there really aren't any instructors in the Wichita area that just have the Lightsport instructors license.  But I to hope for those that do have one in there area it is passed

through all the turbulence as the PIC and sole occupant of the plane I simply decided that +/- 400ft was acceptable

Chris