Chicago Aviation

So, I only logged about 5 hours over the last year. I need to get back into the swing of things before my biennial flight review in August.

Chicago City Flight

Since I'll mostly be using my flight privileges to fly friends around the city, I figured it'd be prudent to get some dual time learning that track. 

So, for this flight, my instructor and I went through the terminal area chart and determined the best route around the city. There are a number of things to keep in mind as this is a relatively busy area.


Besides the typical GA traffic in the area, there are also banner towing flights around the city. Actually, on this flght we did come within a few miles of a banner flight. We saw it off to the west as we were heading north and it passed behind us without issue.Traffic into Midway, O'Hare, and Gary also has to be kept in mind.


The next obstacle is avoiding the airspace. We leave lansing (IGQ) in G airspace, then quickly ascend into class E. We want to stay in class E for the rest of the trip, avoiding Gary's class D, Midway's class C, and O'Hare's class B.


You can see the limited space between C and D in the below picture. There's also class B above you at 3,600 ft.

When approaching the city, there is the inner tier of class C as well as a lower shelf of class B (1,900 ft)


















The best procedure is to stay between the two big lakes while heading toward the lake. The best altitude to maintain is 2,500 feet if you stay away from the western airspace shelves.

After the trip, it turns out that it's pretty self explanatory. It's always worth having someone along that knows the area.













 Flight Track: Google Earth File

One week after my discontinued checkride, I was able to resume.

This time, I was able to get to the airport with time to practice. The weather was quite good with winds from 06 - 10 knots and clounds scattered at 3,500. The down side to this was that there were quite a few planes out.

Before leaving lansing, I declared my intentions of maneuvering over cedar lake approx 10 miles south of the field. While flying past Bult field, I switched to their CTAF and, again, announced that I was maneuvering over cedar lake. While flying down to cedar lake, I saw two planes within a few miles, so I figured I would error on the side of too much communication opposed to not enough. Cedar lake is approx 10 NM directly east of Bult, so I wanted them to be aware of me as well.

That turned out to be a good call because once I switched to Bult's CTAF, I heard someone point out that there was a plane over cedar lake. I then stayed on that frequency to make sure that I wasn't going to interfere with anyone on a long final or taking a straight out departure from the airport.

While over the lake, I practiced my steep turns, which I have been considering my weakest maneuver. I pulled them off quite well. I was able to catch myself slipping immediately and correct quickly. This certainly was due to my instructor's help on maintaining specific tolerances and not allowing myself to become complacent with close-enough.

While in the middle of one of my turns, I noticed another plane about 500 - 1000 ft below me and probably no more than one to 3/4 miles away. Even with clearing turns, it turns out that you can never assume you're alone up there.

The next maneuver I wanted to practice was minimum controllable airspeed. This was something that I really hadn't put more than 10 minutes in over the last year. So, perhaps because I was most concerned about steep turns, I forgot to work on some of the other maneuvers. I reduced airspeed, added full flaps (when appropriate), and kept pitching up until I approached 40 knots. At this point, I felt the ailerons mush and held control with the rudders. It took some power and constant tweaking, but I was able to hold tolerances here was well.

At this point, I was ready to head over to La Porte for the test.

I turned north from cedar lake to re-establish the route I prepared from KIGQ to KPPO. The visibility was much, much, much better than last week, but I didn't want to complicate anything by heading to La Porte from a different starting point than I originally expected.

While heading north, I noticed another cessna making a slow, wide left turn in front of me. They started at my 10 o'clock and were slowly listing across my path. I couldn't tell if they were heading to Griffith / Merrillville (05C) or if they were practicing or whatnot, but I wanted to keep them in my view if possible. Also, I scanned the frequencies for Lansing and Bult and Merrillville for any traffic. I reported my location and intentions on both frequencies before I flew over Merrillville. The plane I was tracking seemed to descend and continue its left turn (taking it back northwest), so I continued on my way.

At this point, I was clear of Gary's airspace so I tuned in South Bend approach. I could hear communication to and from SBA, but I couldn't get them to respond to me. So, I wasn't able to pick up Flight Following to La Porte. I did try three or four times, each about one minute apart, but I took the hint and went wanting. I did hear some traffic in my area and heard SBA advise them of my location, so I had that going for me.

I saw the La Porte lakes well in advance and still had plenty of time. I called my ten mile traffic advisory to La Porte and said that I'd be coming in for some touch-and-goes. My first landing was a bit high, but nothing that would be considered "bad", in my opinion. I went for another lap and practiced a soft landing. No problems there. I will say that most of my soft landings end up being pretty close to standard landings, but I think they're good enough. Another lap, then a no-flap landing. One more lap, and a short field landing, this is the one I'm most concerned about as the speed is a bit less than usual, and there's less tolerance to the landing point. But, I was able to make it happen... so, I taxied to the apron, departed, and went inside to start the test.

Continuing where I left off...

After reviewing the ADs, 100 hour inspection (which was done during the preceding week), and updated annual (done at the same time as the 100 hour), we were ready to head out. There was some time where the DFE was trying to make sense of some of the notes in the mechanic's log, but luckily everything worked out. We then reviewed my updated solo endorsement & the written-review endorsement which was missing last time. All good, so we were off.

Getting into the air...

We both went out to the airplane and as I did another full preflight, the DFE reviewed the AROW documents again. The preflight was probably unnecessary as I just preflighted and flown within the last thirty minutes and we already did the checkride preflight last week, but I wanted to be ultra-thorough.

I got the AWOS report from the airport, listened and looked for active traffic, and lastly checked the windsock to find the best runway to depart. The windsock differed from the AWOS and I decided to listen to what the sock was telling me. I believe this was a proper decision as the DFE noted that I shouldn't pay that much attention to what AWOS was reporting.. This was probably because it still takes me two or three times to get all of the pertinent information. Instead of writing the info down, then thinking about it, I find myself thinking about each and every detail of the AWOS report as I hear it.. that makes me miss some things, therefore I have to listen again and again... But, after telling the DFE that I take into account multiple variables to determine the best runway, I believe I satisfied him.

I was a bit tense at this point. I don't know how I came off or appeared, as I believe I don't really shut-down or outwardly panic in these types of situations, but I was doing my best to be as consistent and thorough as possible. I also focused on vocalizing everything I was thinking while I was taxing. This turned out to be a bit tricker than I thought as there are a lot of disassociated things going on at once. For example, while taxing to runway 20, I talked about the wind and holding correct controls, stopping before the intersecting runway, making the radio call to cross that runway, checking to see if the wind changed on me, looking for left and right pattern traffic, making sure the instruments in the plane read nominal. And, the entire time I wanted to make sure that I was moving my head around to let the DFE know that I was situationally aware outside and inside the plane. All the time, also, trying to make sure that my talking didn't get me into trouble by saying something that would hurt me and my talking didn't make it appear that I wasn't paying attention to the basic requirements of controlling the plane.

After my runup, I asked what type of takeoff he would like to see. I was told to preform a short-field take-off. I configured the plane as needed, made my radio call, set my VORs for my first checkpoint. I almost forgot this step, as I didn't think out far enough to realize that I was supposed to be departing on my scenario trip. I was too focused on figuring out what type of take-off I would be performing instead of taking the entire test into account.

While climbing out, I wanted to ensure my airspeed was pegged to Vy. On this day, it was quite hot and humid. This caused some thermals and therefore turbulence on my climb out. I was still talking a lot at this point and I noticed that the airspeed kept dipping down to 70 and perhaps below. I was trying to hold 75 knots or higher, and I was afraid of breaking my tolerances right away so I was talking about how I had to keep changing the attitude to change the picture to compensate for the fluctuation in wind. Turns out this was not only incorrect, but notably so. I noticed something about how he questioned what I said, and I took that as a note to stop rambling. I surely didn't want to say anything else that would jeopardize the checkride.


After reaching about 300 ft below pattern altitude, I turned on course for my first checkpoint. I was considering calling ATC at this point for flight following, but I decided to focus on making my first checkpoint. My first checkpoint was Starke County (KOXI) airport. I wasn't to fly over it, but I was expecting to see it off my right hand side. I had a few things causing me issue here:


1. While scanning the instruments, I noticed that I was being blown east by the wind even though I was holding my correct heading. The reported winds aloft were not matching actual. They were actually off about 180 degrees. This had me off course to the east. Not by much, but enough to cause me some test-anxiety.


2. There was some haze in the air so I couldn't see very far. I could see well enough, but still an issue for me since I didn't know *exactly* where the airport was.


3. This airport is actually quite small & I've only flown into it twice, so I really wasn't sure what the airport would look like from my vantage.


So, due to all of these things, I figured that I'd missed my checkpoint. I was not liking my situation at this point... I could see my DFE looking at a fixed point off the right wing.. I had a feeling that he saw OXI, but I just couldn't see it. I believed that I saw him continue to look off to that same point; as I continued southwest, he would keep looking further and further behind me... once he started looking to the three o'clock position, I checked my clock and it was just past the time where I should be passing OXI...


This was when I decided to tell him that I believe I'm at my first checkpoint & I can't visually find it. I tell him that it could be just a bad checkpoint, so I'm going to find alternates. I found the intersection of two roads and found some power lines & train tracks to figure out fairly precisely where I was situated. He didn't respond one way or another and I continued on my way.


In the distance, I could see some lakes. I knew that I was to fly between two sizable lakes, the smaller being Bass Lake to my west and then another lake with an adjacent city. I wasn't 100% about my location due to missing my previous checkpoint, but I was fairly sure that I was east of my expected location.


At this point, the DFE asked me what my exact location was on the map. I pointed to what I thought was my location.


One way or another, we went to the next phase of the test.


We started by turning to a heading of 270 then we started with the MCA maneuver. I had just practiced these before heading over, so I thought I could handle them without issue. But, the extra few pounds in the plane made a difference. I smoothly reduced power, added flaps, increased my attitude in order to hold altitude. At the appropriate airspeed, I increased power to maintain this picture. However, regardless of power, I kept losing altitude. I ended up having to use full power to hold my altitude I just barely  held my -100 tolerance, but I did it. I could have used 20 deg flaps instead of full in order to help out..

We did the standard power-off stall after the MCA, then we did a power-on stall. pretty standard stuff there.

After this, we did some unusual attitudes, which were quite straightforward.

We went directly into some instrument procedures while under the hood. Tracking to a VOR, turns, ascents, descents, and the standard maneuvers were all tested.

After the hood work, I was asked to take off the hood and determine a path back to the airport. I was able to use the landmarks below me to get an initial fix on my location. There were intersecting railroads with power lines. I was able to determine a path back using these landmarks.

I made my approach with all the necessary calls to the airport. Then we did some landings. I can say that I hit each of the soft & short landings best I ever had. I was told to stop short of the runway intersection for the short landing. I was able to do that w/o issue. For the soft landing, I was able to keep the nose wheel off the ground for a good amount of the rollout. I believe it went quite well.

After the last landing, I was told to taxi back and park at the ramp.

I passed.

Leading up to my checkride, I received my checkride endorsement & electronically submitted my 8710. I received three hours of dual instruction last week, so my pre-checkride instruction has been satisfied as well.

I received my solo endorsement to fly to La Porte, IN for my checkride and I also made sure my solo endorsement was valid. It's good for six days after my checkride, so I'm cutting it close.

As for the plane's documents, I made sure I knew right were the Registration, Airworthiness doc, POH, and Weight & Balance documents were stored in the plane. For the maintenance logs, I had to be sure that the  Airworthiness Directives were noted and complied with (ADs have different maintenance requirements), I also had to make sure that the 100 hour and annual were valid. I was within a few hours of the 100 hour, so again, I'm cutting it close. Lastly, I had to make sure that the ELT, Transponder, and everything else is noted and has been checked as defined by the FAA.

Once my DFE approved my 8710, he provided me with my sample cross-country scenario. I was told to determine the nav log, weather (on the day of), and weight & balance for a specific situation. I won't go into full detail of this, but I will note that reading the POH is very important to determine weight restrictions to storage areas. Improper loading of the baggage areas is something that will throw red-flags on your checkride. Next was determining the max fuel I could carry while keeping the allowable CG.

After figuring that out, next was to review the route. Look out for any terrain or airspace that would require extra attention. My route included several MOAs. MOAs are acceptable to fly through, but it's probably not the safest option. For the day and time of my checkride, the MOA was inactive, but I decided to create a backup plan showing a route around the MOAs. That way, if anything unexpected occurred, I would have a route prepared that would keep me out of all airspace.

I had all of this prepared before the day of my checkride. I felt prepared. All that was left was some practice time I allotted before my checkride. I scheduled the plane from 10am to 6pm. My appointment was at noon, so I should have plenty of time to practice.

Now, the day of my test...

Preparation --

I woke up feeling decent. I got myself ready to go, then I called flight services and got a briefing. I was browsing the online resources (weather.com, aopa.org, noaa.gov) while dialing in and saw that there was no weather to speak of, but there was some coverage on the satellite maps. There were some fronts in the region,  the wind was calm, and cloud coverage over the city looked 2/8 at worst.

After getting the weather & updating the nav logs, I was running behind. I would now have, at best, thirty minutes of practice.

While driving to Lansing, I noticed that the cloud coverage was pretty bad. 5/8 at best and easily could be 7/8. the local AWOS was reading clear to 12,000 ft, but this was a lesson in reality being much different than reported.

It turns out that the lack of wind was causing the clouds to stagnate and the haze to build. When I got to the airport, I was seriously doubting that I'd be able to make it to La Porte. The ceiling was at 4,500 along the route. I saw that the cloud coverage to the West was much clearer, so I thought that there was a good chance that the clouds would clear by the time that I complete the oral portion of the test.

Well, after checking and double-checking the weather, I had no time left to practice. I had to either head to La Porte, or push back the appointment. I decided to head to La Porte.

The flight over --

The flight over was very hazy. This was easily the most haze I've dealt with. There was probably six to ten miles visibility, which really doesn't look like much. What's worse is that I couldn't raise South Bend approach on the radio. I heard their traffic but I never received a response from them.

I made sure to avoid Gary's Class D airspace while I was heading over, but I wanted to see the coast to ensure that I was tracking my checkpoints correctly. After about 20 minutes, I saw the lakes that mark my last checkpoint. I veered south a bit as I was expecting the airport. I did see the airport, but it was a bit further south than expected. I made my traffic calls and headed for the pattern. At about six miles away, I noticed that the runway configuration was wrong. This airport had a 36/18 & 09/27 in a T shape. This was KVPZ Porter County Airport. I quickly called on the local frequency and gave my location. I then checked my map to see where I was in relaton to La Porte.

It turns out that there are three smaller lakes just northwest of Valpo, similar to the lakes just north of La Porte. The limited visibility was my issue, but the location of the Michigan City cooling tower & my time en route both contradicted my proposed location.

I had to find my way to La Porte. I noticed that there was a railway just north of KVPZ and it ran just about six NM south of KPPO. Also, there was a highway that ran directly north through the railway straight to KPPO. I followed the railway. I saw it cross a second railway. Then, I saw the highway with an airport in the distance. That was La Porte. I landed without issue.

Meeting the DFE and preparing for the test --

I went inside and met my DFE. Very nice guy that appeared to be all business. After a while, I found out that he was quite amiable, but that was not my first impression due to my test anxiety and my general understanding that two years of testing has led to this exact moment...

He gave me some time to get some water & relax before we started, but I was ready to get into it. The first thing we did was review my paperwork. We went over all of my hours to make sure I met the minimums required by the FARs and there were no issues there. Next were my endorsements, I had everything required except for one.

The missing endorsement was to state that my instructor reviewed all questions missed on my written exam. I thought that I only needed a review if I had to retake the written, but that's not the case. To make it more difficult, there's no template for this endorsement in the log book. I told the instructor that we did review the missed question, but I didn't have it in writing. The DFE made a note of this and we continued.

Next was the review of the plane documentation. We reviewed the ADs, the maintenance logs, and the certifications for all of the components requiring examination. There were some questions about what some of the mechanic's  notations were, but these appeared to be mostly for my understanding. For example, "c/w" was written in the logs a number of times. This represents "complies with".

After reviewing the plane docs, the DFE said that he accepts that I've satisfied all of my requirements and the plane is satisfactory for flight. He then says that we're ready to start the test. The flow will start with a number of questions around a specific part of the required knowledge, then I'll get to ask questions about anything. If anything is vague, I should speak up instead of trying to answer.

I say that I'm ready to start the test...

We start with questions about what a Private Pilot certification allows and disallows, then we talk a bit about the plane itself. The questions around the plane are mostly general (e.g., what does the white/green arc represent), but some were more specific (e.g., where are the fuel vents, what are my V speeds), but there are some specific questions about the electronic and vacuum systems. I needed to be able to troubleshoot problems with individual instruments. That line of questioning allowed the DFE to see if I knew which instruments used gyro, static, pitot, electronic, and/or vacuum systems. Finally we wrapped the plane questions with some general physics of flight.

We continued with some airspace review, VFR weather minimums, and eventually made it to my weight & balance and navigation log. We reviewed everything and it looked fine. We also reviewed take off and landing distances required for the plane. While reviewing the nav log, the DFE pointed out a number of areas on my sectional (which was checked to ensure it was current) and asked me to explain them. There were a few scenarios involved such as " if you were here and weather arrived, what would you do". There were a few SVFR questions as well.

And, after about 120 - 150 minutes, the oral portion was over. I only stumbled in a few places, of which, all I can remember is that I said you'd need a High Performance endorsement for a constant speed prop & retractable gear. I believe I said it like this: "you need a HP endorsement for complex airplanes". I said complex, but in the wrong place. This was early in the oral, and my nerves were still showing. The other mistake I remember was that I said that MVFR was actually below VFR instead of just-above VFR. I did say that a prog/outlook chart would have it well defined in the legend. I felt very good at this point.

Preparing for the flight portion --

It was about 3:30p at this point. There was nothing but clouds above La Porte. The AWOS was showing three layers of clouds, all broken below 5,000 and as low as 3,500. Although this is acceptable VFR weather, this wouldn't give us enough room to preform the required maneuvers above 1,500 ft AGL. Although all of the area airports were showing clear or 5,000 scattered clouds, it was obvious that there was a heavy cloud coverage in the area.

We waited sixty minutes for some sign of what was to come, but the clouds didn't budge. After reviewing weather, checking AWOS around the area and staring at the La Porte AWOS readout (which kept changing from scattered/broken to broken/broken), I finally decided to discontinue the test just past 5:00p. At this point, even if the clouds broke, I would be pushing it for getting back to Lansing before nightfall (5pm plus two hours for the flight portion, then any post-test debriefing could get me close to eight o'clock).

The last thing we did was preflight the airplane before officially discontinuing the checkride. This went pretty much as normal. The only thing that was throwing me off was that the DFE was also reviewing the airplane while I was preflighting. I didn't know if he saw anything that concerned him, if he was just trying to throw me off, or if he was actually doing his own preflight. In any case, I didn't know whether to check with him, to explain what I was doing, or to just continue as it didn't appear that he was scrutinizing me as much as I expected. I opted to just vocalize everything I was looking at and for. While I was working on the second wing, he called me over to the breaks to show me the break pads. He said that it's good to check the break pads for wear even though it's not listed on the official POH preflight checklist (this is coincidental as my car had horrible breaks and warped rotors). After checking this out, I went back to the aileron I was checking out. This was a distraction and he told me that he wanted to see if I'd return to where I was in my preflight.

At this point, we did some paperwork to discontinue the test for now. I then rescheduled for next week.

I got in the plane and departed for Lansing. Now that I was in the air, I knew that it was a great decision to postpone the test. There was no horizon and seeing checkpoints was almost impossible. I caught a radial to the CHT VOR and followed that back to Lansing. As I approached Gary's airspace, I went to the southern side of the 270 radial to make sure that I didn't slip into class D.

Most of the flight I was at 2,300 ft. I tried to climb out of the haze, but I went to 4,500 and didn't see much improvement so I went back down to 2,300 ft. I didn't see Lansing until I was about three miles out. It was very hazy out.

So, 1/2 the test is over. I was expecting to have this done today, one way or the other, but instead it continues...

Short Solo Cross Country
Length: 1.3 hours
Total Time: 57.5 hours

 Stalls, S-Turns, Turns about a point, Forward Slips, X-Wind Landings (24016G25)

For me, this flight's main purpose was to get a gap analysis between where I'm currently at compared to where I need to get to for my checkride.

Everything I do from here on out will be related to passing my checkride in May.

We reviewed some basic details after takeoff, including: proper pattern exit altitudes & procedures.

As of this point, most of my maneuvers are looking good except for steep turns. I believe I'm underestimating how much extra elevator is necessary to compensate for the loss of lift.

Practice Flight -- Breaking the hiatus
Length: 1.4 hours
Total Time: 57.6 hours

It's been much too long since my last flight. After so many delays in getting to my written exam, I realized that I needed to log some time just to keep feeling fresh.

Overall, this flight was pretty straightforward. I was able to get back into the feel and flow of flying right away, but it was noticeable that the fine-tuning was a bit off. I was able to make all the maneuvers that I needed to, and I also was able to run the pattern without much issue. But, it was noticeable that I wasn't sticking altitudes as promptly as I should have been. Also, my timing around the pattern was a bit slow.

In any case, the main objective was to get back into the flow of flying and that was accomplished..

Again, the current task at hand is to get enough time to get to the written exam...

Short Solo Cross Country
Length: 2.2 hours
Total Time: 56.2 hours

One of my final requirements is to finish my Cross Country time. I have to add 2.2 hours to hit my 5 hour target, so I had to fly pretty deliberately in order to hit that target.

The flight was pretty straightforward. I have made this trip a few times with my instructor, so I had a bit of an understanding of the terrain. Also, a bit help was the fact that the lake is in constant view, so it's hard to get too far off course.

I was on with Chicago Center and South Bend Approach the entire trip, so there wasn't any lapse in Flight Following. There were a few contacts in my vicinity, but the only one that was of any concern was after heading back to Lansing from South Bend. There was a contact at my 12 o'clock at 2 NM and about 1,000' above me. Due to cloud coverage, I couldn't see the plane until it was clear. I descended in order to give way, but it turns out that the other plane was a bit higher than 1,000'.

There are a few key landmarks along this route. The most obvious is the Michigan City Generating Station which has a very obvious cooling tower.