Lesson 59 - Zen Interrupted

I don't know that I really intended to have back-to-back solo flights, but--hey--I have the endorsement, I may as well enjoy it, right? My previous solo flight was more of a "you're finally up here by yourself" flight, so this time it was time to get to work. Today was "brush up your landings" day. 

The pattern at Centennial was full, so I flew out to Spaceport. The winds were out of the south, so I thought that would be perfect. Straight down the runway. I get out to Spaceport, call the tower, and ask for touch-and-goes. They say sure. Fly to Bennet and straight in on runway 26. Um, the winds are straight out of the south. Why not 17? No. That would make too much sense. Sorry, they're using 17 only for departing traffic. Anyone wanting to do pattern work will be using 26. Landing on 26 with winds out of the south means a crosswind, and a direct one at that. I ask for an update on the winds. 170 degrees at 8 knots. With my solo endorsement, 8 knots is the maximum crosswind I'm allowed to land in if I'm by myself. I was "legal." Unsure, untested, but legal. I figured I'd have a go at one, and if I didn't like it, I'd go around and just depart to the south. 

I have actually flown crosswind landings many times on my simulator at home. I've got different scenarios set up with varying degrees of crosswinds. I'll scroll through them as I practice so to mix things up a bit. It's good practice to build muscle memory, but the sim is never "quite" like the real thing. Fortunately like the sim, today's wind was a steady 8 knots, so there wasn't a whole lot of adjustment I needed to do to stay on centerline. The key is to crab the nose into the wind just a bit so you keep your course over the ground in line with the centerline of the runway on your approach. Once you're on short final or crossing the threshold of the runway (wherever you feel comfortable), dip your wing into the wind and apply opposite rudder. Dipping your wing into the wind creates a turning force to combat the wind, and opposite rudder points the nose of plane straight down the runway so when you touch down, you're rolling in the right direction, not headed off to the side. It's a bit of a dance and one that definitely takes practice to get right.

I'll be perfectly honest and say I surprised myself on my first landing. It was rather smooth and (mostly) on center. I figured that was good enough to build upon, so I stayed in the pattern and flew a half dozen or so more landings. None were "perfect," but all were pretty decent and I felt in control of the process the entire time. Today was definitely a confidence builder. Good solo flight getting out to Spaceport, good crosswind control on landings, I was actually reveling in the moment. 

Feeling good about things thus far, I figured I'd cap the day off by flying solo over my house. It's on the way back, so I wasn't going to be going out of my way or anything. I found the major cross street near my neighborhood and lined up to fly over it. I was thinking about quickly texting my wife to have her look out the window (voice to text in a loud cockpit would be interesting, but no worse than it butchers my usual messages). It was just me, my thoughts, and the cool notion of waving to my family as I flew over the house.

"Three Eight Eight Charlie, are you on frequency?"

Oh, crap! There's that little thing you have to do called "talking to the airport you want to land at." I was so caught up in the zen of the moment I forgot I still had real work to do. Fortunately I had not yet entered their air space; I was still a few miles out and flying a course which would have me skirt the outside of it. However, I'm in a trainer whose call numbers ATC sees multiple times per day as student after student flies the plane out and returns to the airport. They had every expectation that I was going to turn inward at any moment. 

The thoughts in the previous paragraph raced through my mind in about half a second as I was snapped out of my state of zen, and I told ATC that I was indeed listening to them. They instructed me to continue to runway 17-left to land. By this time I was nearly over my house, so I just waved quietly as I flew overhead. 

The takeaway? Never get so caught up in the fun that you forget you still have a job to do. I didn't bust any airspaces or break any rules, but I was not giving the primary task at hand the attention it needed. I'm not naive enough to say it will never happen again, but it was a glimpse into how easily it is to get into that mind space. 

Lesson 58 - All By Myself

 

A student pilot's first solo is a momentous occasion. It's the first time you're at the controls without a safety net. For most students--me included--that first solo is "just" take-offs and landings in the traffic pattern at the airport. It's also dome with the instructor flying with you for part of the lesson then hopping out of the plane. That's not to take away from the achievement of the first solo, but it is also a very safe "close to home" flight and your instructor is still there in the plane with you at first with the preflight and doing some take-offs and landings to get you warmed up. 

Today's solo flight was all me from the start. I had to check in with my instructor briefly (school policy), but that's just to confirm weather and make sure I've got all the stuff I need to solo (medial certificate, logbook with solo endorsement, student pilot license, photo ID). He also asked what I was thinking of doing. I told him I wanted to fly out to the practice area and just get a feel for how the plane responds with just one person in it. I also wanted to just try some turns and climbs by myself just to get a better feel for how they "feel" without my instructor in the seat next to me wondering what I'm doing. Some things are just easier to try on your own. He said "have fun" and I headed out to the ramp. 

One of the first things on my preflight inspection is to check the fuel. This way if I need to add, I can do the rest of the preflight while waiting for the truck to pull up. I was less than half in each tank, so I called and proceeded with my preflight. Thirty minutes later, the truck pulls up. This gave me time to get things situated in the plane, including a picture of the plane which my daughter had painted in celebration of my first solo flight. 

In many ways, today's flight was very similar to the first time I flew the Grumman earlier this Spring. That flight was "back to basics," so I could get the feel of the new plane compared to the Cessna I had been training in to that point. Climbs, descents, turns, stalls, etc. That's pretty much exactly what I did this time, except I was all alone in the plane. I didn't do anything crazy. I didn't want to. Today's flight was me--for the first time in my life--in the left seat of an airplane doing what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. I was flying for the sheer joy of flying. It was what I've dreamed of doing since I was a kid. I flew, took some pictures and some video, and just reveled in the moment, soaking it all in. It was wonderful!

After flying around for a bit, I decided it was time to head back to the airport. Obviously I'd have liked to stay out longer, but time is money and there was nothing to be gained today by more time. This was a taste, a tease, incentive to keep seeing this process through. I flew west to I-25 at Castle Rock and turned north. The winds favored landing on runway 35, and I knew if I came up Parker Road as I normally do when coming back from the southeast practice area, they'd route me to runway 28, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with crosswinds. And besides, 35 right is 10,000' long and 150' wide. For a student solo, that's a pretty big target to hit. I contacted the tower, turned north, landed without incident, and my first full solo flight was over. 

I have to admit, it was a little weird walking back into the pilot's lounge, placing the notebook and keys for the plane back on the shelf and just leaving. No debrief, no nothing. Flight's over, go home. The flight was over, yeah, but I was still flying pretty high the rest of the day.