Chicago Aviation

Attempted Cross Country

Length: 1.6 hours

Total Time: 46.3 hours

This was my first attempt at a cross-country solo flight. I prepared for hours, including a full review of the route on google earth.I had all of my numbers checked and re-checked. I knew I was ready for this to happen. My flight from Lansing (KIGQ) --> Aurora (KARR) --> Bloomington (KBMI) --> Lansing (KIGQ) was imminent.

I took off from IGQ and the weather appeared good. I dialed in 118.4 to request flight following with Chicago Approach. That went uneventfully. I switched com2 to FSS so I could open my flight plan. I was listening on both frequencies, but transmitting on FSS. What I thought was going to be a quick call turned into an entire briefing. I didn't have any way to write everything down, nor did I think I needed to since I just got a briefing not 30 minutes ago. But, this extra briefing did two things... it made me miss some calls from Chicago Approach & it made me think that a distant front was closer than I initially thought.

So, after being mildly reamed by Chicago Approach, I continued to Aurora. I saw the Aurora river & knew I had to get my ATIS before calling the tower. Did it, no problems.

I approached as instructed by the tower & again, no problems. My pattern was more or less fine but there was some concern about a building on the final leg. This being one of my first times (and my very first time solo) landing at a different airport, it was a bit different than usual. I ended up bouncing the landing a bit and decided to go around. Due to the bounce, I accidentally went to 0 flaps instead of 20. While the flaps were retracting, I was able to bring the plane back into the air. But, once the flaps kept retracting, the lift was lost and the plane wanted to settle back down, so I quickly replaced 20 deg of flaps. That all happened within about five seconds, so it's a lesson learned... Things happen quickly and can escalate even quicker.

Not to let this frazzle me, after notifying the tower that I'm going around, I asked permission to land (again). Permission given and I continue around the pattern. Landing was uneventful this time around.

After changing up my maps and radios, I prepare to depart to Bloomington. After leaving Aurora, I look the 80+ miles towards KBMI and see, what I know now to be, a thick layer of haze. After the long debriefing from Flight Services, I was concerned that the thick air ahead of me was actually a front. I'm not about to turn my first solo XC into my first weather close-call, so I returned to Lansing.

The issue with this is that I wasn't prepared for this leg of the flight. It was easy enough to find the reciprocal course back to Lansing, but there is a lot of airspace of which to be aware. Also, I didn't have the control frequency for this location. This had me calling 118.4 when I was out of range and too low. I wasn't about to climb and risk breaking airspace just to get flight following. There was some midway traffic (Southwest 737s) above me (probably around 6,000 or 7,000) but no close calls by any means.

Landing back at Lansing was, again, uneventful.

Next time, I'll ensure that I have a better understanding of how far ahead of the plane is visible. Since I typically am just practicing, I'm either looking for close traffic or ground reference markers. It just now dawned on me that I never really look 5-10 miles ahead of the plane to find checkpoints. Blurred sky 20-30 miles ahead doesn't appear to be abnormal at all, but I found that out once I was on the ground.

Simulated Instrument Practice
Length: 1.5 hours
Total Time: 44.7 hours

More hood time. This time I flew under then hood to South Bend. I had help with the radios during the Flight Following and Tower communications, but I was led within a few miles of the runway. The test was to be able to maintain a proper approach while under the hood.

I still had the same issues as before, but I was able to control my chasing of altitude a bit better this time. I had always been watching the VSI for my vertical +/-, but that is actually a trend instrument, so it's not up-to-the-second current. The artificial horizon is the better option to determine the attitude of the aircraft.

Before I focused on that instrument, I would typically approach my altitude too quickly, then I would lose the lift when I either slowed down or sped up when I level out. I need to focus on altering my attitude as I approach my target altitude. This should help me avoid a drastic change in control pressure as I try to stick my altitude.

Night Flight
Length: 1.5 hours
Total Time: 43.2 hours

My first night flight consisted of 9 full stop landings at Gary airport. Ten full stop landings are required in order to qualify for a Private Pilot Cert.

Preflighting and the initial briefs and run-up are all a bit more difficult because a flashlight is required. When looking and holding multiple things at the same time, it really is noticeable when a flashlight is in the mix.

The air is cooler at night and therefore is calmer than during the daytime. That makes the ride nice and smooth. Another noticeable difference regarding night flight is that traffic is much easier to see (assuming they have their beacon and navigation lights illuminated). Keeping a constant scan for any relative movement is much more particular when compared to looking for lights against a dark backdrop. The main thing to keep in mind is that clouds are pretty much invisible. Therefore, anything beyond the clouds would be concealed as well.

Short & Soft TOL practice, Hood time, and more
Length: 2.0 hours
Total Time: 41.7 hours


This lesson gave me my first look at simulated instrument time, or hood time. The hood is just a visor that blocks the outside view while allowing access to the instruments. This would simulate the experience of flying through non-VFR weather. Three hours are needed to qualify for a Private Pilot Certificate.

I have a tendency to drift to the left while under the hood. I'm told it's because my instrument scan isn't quick enough so I let something get ahead of me. It's not obvious when the plane is turning, so it's quite important to keep all instruments constantly in mind.

In addition to the hood time, we went to Starke County to practice some Short and Soft field landings on an actual soft field. The field was a bit wet, and my technique wasn't 100%, so we didn't actually make any TOLS on the soft field. My issue was that I pitched up too much before gaining enough lift. This caused the stall horn to sound while I was building speed. I thought that was acceptable, but I should have allowed more life to accumulate before trying to get airborne.

The key is to become airborne as soon as possible, then increase speed to Vy (or Vx, if obstacle exists). If the plane is pitched up too much, there isn't enough lift to bring the plane into ground effect which would allow for more efficient airspeed accumulation.

The Flight Aware website shows IFR flights as they are tracked. VFR flights that use Flight Following could end up on Flight Aware. I have completed two three-legged flights using flight following. Of these, only one leg has shown up on flight following:

Short Cross Country w/diversion
Length: 2.7 hours
Total Time: 39.7 hours

This dual cross country was going to be to South Bend, then a diversion along the way to Lafayette airport.

After leaving South Bend, we went about twenty miles before deciding that we needed to alter course to Porter County airport. The point being that the pilot needs to determine how the diversion will affect the fuel supply. Since a diversion isn't a planned procedure, being able to calculate if you'll have enough fuel is crucial.

This flight was only my second flight away from the area and it was a good eye opener. It has shown me that there's another level of flight fun beyond mastering the plane.

Length: 3.2 hours
Total Time: 37.0 hours

This lesson is the most realistic flight to-date. Meaning, in the future, I'll most likely be going from point A to point B. This was my first time going to an airport further than 10NM (Gary was the only other airport at which I've landed).

The new details:

• Due to scheduling conflicts, a different instructor
• Flight Following
• New airports: ARR (Aurora), BMI (Bloomington/Normal)
• Collision avoidance
• Dead reckoning pilotage
• VOR tracking
• Tower/ATC communications (I have worked with Gary, but that was in a limited fashion)
• General navigation

After taxing back to the runway, I was number two behind an old Ford Tri-motor airplane. The airplane was in a passenger configuration showing how different air transport was back in the 30s. These planes were manufactured between 1925 - 1933. There are only eighteen (six flyable) in existance as of 2006 (acording to wikipedia). I believe this is N8407, which is the oldest flying tri-motor in existance.

The trip from ARR to BMI started uneventful until ATC told us were were on a conflicting course with another aircraft. We spotted the plane when it was approximately one NM low traveling in the opposite direction. If not using flight following, we would have had a very close call since we wouldn't have had the few minute advance notice.

The rest of the leg was pretty smooth, but I still struggled on finding my milestones. I have a hard time determining what five NM looks like at different altitudes. When something is twenty NM away, I'm looking out at the horizon. But, as it turns out, the horizon can be anywhere from twenty NM to eighty NM (could be exaggerating here). I should be looking for my milestones much sooner, then flying to them instead of trying to see if they are below me.

That was a major paradigm-shift in my navigating. Another one is determining what is a valid milestone. A highway and a rural road look quite similar if there's no major intersections or significant identifications (doglegs, etc). Railroads and power lines are almost invisable in most cases, that is, until you're directly over them. Towns can be tricky, but rivers are pretty good. Small rivers typically have trees around them, so they appear as green lines that don't appear to follow any standard path. Larger rivers are quite significent and they can be easily seen from twenty to fifty miles away (depending on altitude).

There was some ATC confusion on my way into BMI, but that didn't affect us at all. We grabbed some lunch at the BMI restraunt, CJ's. After which, we got ATIS, got taxi clearance, took the wrong taxi route, but I didn't get any type of scolding as I announced myself as a student pilot.

The biggest miscalculation occured on my way from bmi to igq. I was intending or flying a heading of 045, but instead I drifted to 050. Although I corrected often, the fact that I allowed so many deviations caused me to fly well east of my intended route. I thought it was a large course deviation, but my gps flight path showed that we still were able to get back on a good route back to igq. I wasn't able to follow my milemarkers this route, but I was able to use VORs to find my postition.



All in all, it was a good flight. Much learned.

Length: 1.2 hours
Total Time: 33.8 hours

This was my solo STOL flight. My takeoffs were just fine, but my landings were a bit long.

I practiced more short field landings than soft. The main difference is that a short field landing requires hard breaking to reduce the amount of runway used. A soft field landing focuses on reducing the amount of weight on the wheels during rollout.

Although I was fine during my dual time, my solo time was a bit sloppy. This may be because I've only been using 20° of flaps during 'normal' landings opposed to 30° or 40° (on the 172M/N). Since I'm going to start and use full flaps for all landings, this will only allow me more practice with lower speed & increased glide angle landings.