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.

Solo Cross Country
Length: 2.8 hours
Total Time: 54.0 hours

The first time I attempted this trip, I spent a lot more time practicing the route on Microsoft Flight Simulator in order to make sure I can hit my waypoints as planned. This time I put more time into organizing my navigation log. I believe I made the better choice this time.

Link to weather briefing notes and navigation plan

You can see that my VOR freqs and radials are all entered in the same place on each line. This made it much easier for me to quickly look at the page and get the info without hunting for the numbers. This is opposed to having the name of the milestone as the predominant text in the box.

After completing my due diligence and weather briefing at home, I headed for Lansing to meet my instructor for my endorsement.

My instructor asked me a few questions about what I would do in certain scenarios. For example, some questions were "what would you do if your engine stopped running?" and "what would you do if you got lost?".

For the first question, I would follow the ABCDE procedure. I made a note to myself to always keep a best place to land in mind. This doesn't seem to be that difficult as most of the terrain is flat and farmland, meaning most fields appeared to be as good of a spot as any other. But, I always wanted to keep any airfields in mind whenever I thought I was in gliding distance from them. This also was a good exercise in determining how far I could see along the ground compared to the distance on the map. Meaning, I now know that I can see approximately twenty to thirty miles along the ground when I'm flying around 4,000 AGL. I'm still not great at estimating distances, but I can not at least start to understand how far off my mapped track I can select my milestones.

As for the second question, I would follow the 4Cs procedure: Climb, Conserve, Call, and Comply. I would climb to the highest allowable altitude in order to get a better vantage point. Then I would Conserve my fuel by leaning and lowering the RPMs. I would then take the time to check for a VOR triangulation. If that failed, I would ask ATC if they could locate me and give me a vector to a nearby airport (or destination airport, if I was able to complete the flight). If I couldn't raise ATC, I would try FSS on the local freq, and/or 122.2. My final option would be to use the emergency freq of 121.5 to get someone there to try and get my location.

At this point, I wanted to call for an abbreviated briefing in order to get a new view on the weather. Originally, the clouds were supposed to clear at 1800z. Now, they weren't going to clear until 2100z. I had 4,500 scattered and 5,500 - 12,000 Ceilings around my route. So, things looked acceptable. I was expecting clear skies, but the clouds were well within my tolerances.

This did give me a good idea of how the horizon appears with lower ceilings. When I was leaving Aurora, I noticed that the far horizon appeared hazy. I didn't know exactly what to think of that, but I knew that the weather didn't have any factors that should turn convective. I just kept that in mind and headed towards Bloomington. It turns out that the haze was just the regular amount of debris and/or pollution in the air. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it appears to be normal.

The trip itself was relatively uneventful. I made sure I was always checking something while primarily flying the airplane. There were a few times where I would roll the airplane about 10 degrees while jotting down times in my nav-log. I was trying to use the passenger seat as a table instead of picking up my clipboard for each notation. The other learning point was that I didn't properly trim the airplane for take off after each taxi back the the hold-short point. I was preoccupied with verifying my radios and headings. I did double check my flaps, carb heat, mix, etc.. but I missed the trim.

The mechanics of flying the plane aren't a primary issue at this point, I wanted to go over some of the new details required for a cross country trip.

Controlled Tower Landings
Length: 0.9 hours
Total Time: 51.2 hours

After today's refresher lesson, I wanted to get some solo time in. I knew that this was wasn't 100% necessary as one could get their three control tower landings during the long cross-country flight (by taking an extra landing at a towered airport, if necessary).

I took what is essentially my first real cross-country flight. For certification requirements, a cross country flight must be fifty miles away, but otherwise it's a full-stop landing at any airport that wasn't your original.

This also gave me some experience with tower communications. Entering the airspace, declaring my intentions, requesting taxi to runway for takeoff, and ready for takeoff all had to be handled correctly. Speaking to a tower isn't that complex at all once you get a good understanding of all of the information required to execute the intended procedure.

Straight & Level, S-turns, Landing practice

Length: 1.1 hours

Total Time: 50.3 hours

It's been weeks since my last flight, so I had to get out and practice the basics. Simple things like using Vy to climb to altitude, change attitude to hold altitude & increase speed, then reduce power & again change attitude to hold altitude had to be practiced to ensure I was seemless. After practice after practice of working on specific things, I realized that the very simple things had to be honed as well.

S-turns actually turned out quite well. On the gps, the path looked like a perfect S-path. Using the technique of picking a point on the ground & flying over it really helped to polish this maneuver. This has to be the best method of performing ground reference maneuvers. It allows you to feel out the controls while controlling the flight path instead of the other way around, which I consider to be more difficult.

Lastly was a number of landings to make sure that I haven't forgotten one of the most important parts of flying..

Maneuvers and S-turns

Length: 1.1 hours

Total Time: 49.2 hours

Quick update:

At this point, I'm confident on the majority of my maneuvers except for steep turns. From what I understand, these are the most challenging as there are the most variables. You have to maintain your altitude while splitting your lift into the turn. You have to ensure you're maintaining a steep turn and not just a 30 deg turn as I kept finding myself. You have to ensure you airspeed doesn't exceed the maneuvering speed, but doesn't fall under tolerances as well. Lastly, you have to keep aware of your location within the turn so you can end it on course.

I seemed to find myself loosing altitude while approaching 45 degrees. Technically, I was well aware that you need to increase elevator pressure to maintain altitude, then increase power to compensate for the loss of lift. But, I couldn't figure out how to best implement these controls.

 After noticing that I was losing altitude, I increased the elevator pressure. This causes a very noticeable change in g-forces in the plane. It's clearly not a good sign when anything drastic is occurring & I knew it. After chasing back to my altitude, I lost an extra 10 - 15 knots. At this point, I was all over the place. I could get things under control, but it was not a properly executed maneuver.

At this point, I'm still not able to pull this maneuver off. Technically, I knew what was needed, but it's different when attempting to execute.

Night Cross Country (dual)

Length: 1.8 hours

Total Time: 48.1 hours

My trip to South Bend started one hour after nightfall. I've done some local work at night, but never a XC. Luckily, Chicago gives quite a good reference point. Same goes for the lake, but the lake is a black area exactly the same as the non-lighted ground areas.

Although there are some rural parts (i.e., non-lighted areas) between Lansing and South Bend, it's not enough to cause any disorientation. Downtown Chicago is always visible, so there's always a solid reference on the horizon... at least when weather is good...

All of my checkpoints were airports for this trip. I made a non-direct path to South Bend, sacrificing length of the trip for safety. This also allows me a lighted checkpoints. Each time I was expecting to be in visual range of a checkpoint, I would look to see if I saw it already lighted. If not, I would click the pilot-controlled lighting on (using the freq listed for lighting, of course). It would light up, and there was my perfect checkpoint.

The green/white beacons were also helpful, but these weren't as 100% obvious to me. In the future, once I have more experience picking out the beacons from all other town lighting, perhaps I can get by on beacons alone.

Approaching South Bend was uneventful except for the large jet taking off on 09R when I was told to approach for 27L. The large jet departed with a tailwind and, although it moved much quicker than me, it departed the pattern as I was mid-way downwind.

I did a few 360s while the jet departed. This gave any wake turbulence a chance to dissipate, and it also allowed me a good look at a huge plane.

The return journey home was uneventful, but I did get get a bit confused with the horizon and the shoreline. It's just another example of how flying at night can easily disorientate.

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 leaving IGQ (Lansing airport), Steve tuned in 118.4 (Chicago Approach) and requested Flight Following. Flight Following is an ATC service which provides radar contacts on your path. It also handles the exchanges between tower and approach frequencies. These services are quite helpful, as I found out.

During my trip from IGQ to ARR, I had two milestones. First was a major highway cluster where I-80, I-57, & I-94 all intertwine. The second milestone was a river dogleg with a number of oil tanks. The first milestone was hard to find because it came up quickly. The second milestone was a bit more obvious & there was less occuring in the cockpit, so it was an easier find. ATC had also redirected us thereby changing our expected course.

Going into Aurora, there wasn't much traffic so things were pretty straightforward. There was some extra thinking involved to determine where all of the legs of the pattern were. I had airport diagrams on-hand so I could see how all of the runways were oriented.



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.