Today I flew three non-precision approaches. I started with the VOR-A approach to Morgantown, followed by the GPS/RNAV Rwy 23 to Fairmont, and finished with the localizer-only approach into Clarksburg for a landing.
After takeoff from Clarksburg, I turned left and proceeded direct to the Morgantown VOR. My instructor showed me out to set up DME using the plane's GPS. You start by pushing the direct-to button (which looks like a D with an arrow through it) and twisting the knobs to enter MGW, which was the three letter identifier for the VOR. By having DME, I can fly to lower minimums on this particular approach. I then did my three steps, which are:
1. Set up the approach
2. Test the equipment
3. Brief the approach
Even though the approach doesn't require a procedure turn if you're coming from Clarksburg, my instructor told me to do one anyway. So I tracked outbound, did a quick 180 and got established on the final approach course. I followed all my altitude restrictions at the various fixes until finally my instructor told me to go visual and I saw that I was practically right on top of the airport. It was cool.
We then executed a missed approach but instead of flying the published missed approach, we flew directly to the initial approach fix for the GPS approach to Fairmont airport. Since we were already close, it gave me little time to set up the approach in the GPS and do my three steps. The actual approach itself was long. In-between fixes, I had plenty of time to make sure I had everything ready to go.
After flying the approach and going missed, we began getting vectors to the ILS approach for runway 21 into Clarksburg. I had even less time to prepare for this approach. Once I got established on the localizer, I thought that I was going to get to fly the ILS approach, then suddenly my instructor turned off my NAV1 effectively failing my glide slope. So I had to fly the localizer-only approach instead. Upon reaching 1800 feet, I was instructed to go visual. I then proceeded to successfully land the plane.
I did an excellent job on all three approaches. The only thing I messed up was not reading my descent and before-landing checklists before reaching the final approach fixes. I need to develop a way for me to always remember to do those. During my private course, I constantly forgot to start my time on takeoff. So I invented my own acronym which helped me 100%. All I need to do now is come up with an acronym for reaching the final approach fix.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Backcourse to Daytona Beach
Today I flew one of the most complicated instrument approaches- the Localizer Backcourse Approach to Runway 25R at Daytona Beach.
There are three reasons this approach is considered to be difficult.
1 - It encompasses a DME arc, which takes some extra focus to fly.
2 - All of the waypoints are identified by VOR radials which require extra effort to keep track of.
3 - It is a backcourse, which means that the needle indicating whether you are on course or not swings in the opposite direction as usual.
Here is the approach's plan view:
If you're wondering how well I flew this approach, here is the printout from the simulator that shows my flight path:
And here's is the same flight path that I enhanced through MS Paint. The black lines are the runways at the airport, the thin green line is my takeoff and flight before starting the approach, the thick yellow line is my approach flight path, and the thin red line is my missed approach flight path. I also identified JODAB intersection (which was my IAF) and TOMOK intersection (the missed approach fix) in blue.
You should be able to easily compare this to the approach chart above. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the holding pattern I flew on the missed approach. I did not apply enough wind correction so it wasn't a perfect oval.
After I successfully flew this approach, I then did a perfect VOR-A approach to Morgantown airport and finished the flight off with the ILS 21 into Clarksburg.
Hopefully tomorrow I will get to fly a real plane.
There are three reasons this approach is considered to be difficult.
1 - It encompasses a DME arc, which takes some extra focus to fly.
2 - All of the waypoints are identified by VOR radials which require extra effort to keep track of.
3 - It is a backcourse, which means that the needle indicating whether you are on course or not swings in the opposite direction as usual.
Here is the approach's plan view:
If you're wondering how well I flew this approach, here is the printout from the simulator that shows my flight path:
And here's is the same flight path that I enhanced through MS Paint. The black lines are the runways at the airport, the thin green line is my takeoff and flight before starting the approach, the thick yellow line is my approach flight path, and the thin red line is my missed approach flight path. I also identified JODAB intersection (which was my IAF) and TOMOK intersection (the missed approach fix) in blue.
You should be able to easily compare this to the approach chart above. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the holding pattern I flew on the missed approach. I did not apply enough wind correction so it wasn't a perfect oval.
After I successfully flew this approach, I then did a perfect VOR-A approach to Morgantown airport and finished the flight off with the ILS 21 into Clarksburg.
Hopefully tomorrow I will get to fly a real plane.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Non-precision with Precision
Today was my first flight learning how to fly approaches- in the sim of course. I focused on non-precision approaches. A non-precision approach is an approach that does not provide vertical guidance, only lateral guidance.
Today I flew three different approaches. I flew the VOR-A approach to Buckhannon, the GPS/RNAV approach to Buckhannon, and the Localizer-Only approach to Clarksburg. I am going to attempt to explain how these are flown, but keep in mind that this is the most complicated part of instrument flying.
Buckhannon/Upshur County Regional VOR-A Approach
This chart can be split into 3 parts: The heading, the plan view, and the profile view.
Heading
The heading consists of all the basic information and frequencies needed to shoot the approach. It shows the name of the approach, the name of the airport, the VOR frequency used to fly the approach, the approach course, the airport elevation, all the various frequencies for the airport, and other information that may be necessary.
Plan View
The plan view provides you with all the necessary information used for lateral guidance in order to get established on the approach course. When joining the approach course, you first need to fly to an initial approach fix, or IAF. In this case, the Elkins VOR is the IAF (as you can see in the small box describing the VOR). Then, depending on the direction you are coming from, you would execute a certain procedure turn. A procedure turn is exactly the same as a holding pattern entry, except you don't actually hold. The procedure turn area is depicted by the oval shape of the course.
After the course passes past the VOR, you can follow it all the way down to the runway (which is that tiny black line). Then, the course becomes a dotted line. The dotted line is the missed approach course. If you get close to the airport and still cannot see the runway, you must then go missed and follow that course.
Profile View and Airport Diagram
Once you have executed your procedure turn and have joined the final approach course (in this case, its 309 degrees), then you switch your focus down to the profile view. Notice the number 5400 underlined. When a number like this is underlined on the profile view, it is your minimum altitude. In this case, you cannot descend below 5400 feet until you cross the VOR.
Upon crossing the Elkins VOR, you can then start descending, down to 2820. Once you reach 2820 feet, you cannot go lower until you reach HEGAT. HEGAT is a DME fix (Distance Measuring Equipment). If your plane has DME, you can identify HEGAT as exactly 7.7 miles from the Elkins VOR (Which is indicated by the 7.7 inside the letter D).
Once you pass over HEGAT, you must then determine your final MDA (Minimum Descent Altitude). First, you must determine which category your aircraft lies in. If your aircrafts approach speed is 90 knots or less, it is category A. If the speed is 90-120 knots, it is category B, and so on. Cessna 172s are category A. So looking at the minimums (beneath the profile view) beneath the category "A" section, you can find the MDA. In this case, the minimums depend on whether or not you have DME (and can find HEGAT). Assuming you have DME, you can use the HEGAT fix minimum altitude, which is 2260.
Once you descend to 2260, you must maintain that altitude until you can see the airport. If upon reaching the missed approach point, or MAP, you still don't see the airport, you must execute the missed approach procedure, which is found in the heading of the chart. According to the profile view, the missed approach point can be identified by the 9.4 DME from the Elkins VOR. If you don't have DME, then you have to time the approach using the times in the bottom left corner based on your aircraft's speed.
The airport diagram is fairly self explanatory.
The GPS/ RNAV approach is very similar to the VOR-A, except instead of using the VOR, it uses waypoints defined by GPS coordinates. It is also a non-precision approach, so you have to descend to minimum altitudes after crossing certain fixes, just like the above approach.
The localizer approach is the same thing as an ILS approach, which I explained how to fly in an earlier blog, except that it implies that the glide slope is inoperative. Instead of being able to track a glide slope all the way down to 200 feet above the runway, you have to descend in increments and your minimum altitude is increased by about 500 feet.
All three approaches that I flew today I flew perfectly. Hopefully with my next flight I will be able to fly non-precision approaches in an actual airplane.
Today I flew three different approaches. I flew the VOR-A approach to Buckhannon, the GPS/RNAV approach to Buckhannon, and the Localizer-Only approach to Clarksburg. I am going to attempt to explain how these are flown, but keep in mind that this is the most complicated part of instrument flying.
Buckhannon/Upshur County Regional VOR-A Approach
This chart can be split into 3 parts: The heading, the plan view, and the profile view.
Heading
The heading consists of all the basic information and frequencies needed to shoot the approach. It shows the name of the approach, the name of the airport, the VOR frequency used to fly the approach, the approach course, the airport elevation, all the various frequencies for the airport, and other information that may be necessary.
Plan View
The plan view provides you with all the necessary information used for lateral guidance in order to get established on the approach course. When joining the approach course, you first need to fly to an initial approach fix, or IAF. In this case, the Elkins VOR is the IAF (as you can see in the small box describing the VOR). Then, depending on the direction you are coming from, you would execute a certain procedure turn. A procedure turn is exactly the same as a holding pattern entry, except you don't actually hold. The procedure turn area is depicted by the oval shape of the course.
After the course passes past the VOR, you can follow it all the way down to the runway (which is that tiny black line). Then, the course becomes a dotted line. The dotted line is the missed approach course. If you get close to the airport and still cannot see the runway, you must then go missed and follow that course.
Profile View and Airport Diagram
Once you have executed your procedure turn and have joined the final approach course (in this case, its 309 degrees), then you switch your focus down to the profile view. Notice the number 5400 underlined. When a number like this is underlined on the profile view, it is your minimum altitude. In this case, you cannot descend below 5400 feet until you cross the VOR.
Upon crossing the Elkins VOR, you can then start descending, down to 2820. Once you reach 2820 feet, you cannot go lower until you reach HEGAT. HEGAT is a DME fix (Distance Measuring Equipment). If your plane has DME, you can identify HEGAT as exactly 7.7 miles from the Elkins VOR (Which is indicated by the 7.7 inside the letter D).
Once you pass over HEGAT, you must then determine your final MDA (Minimum Descent Altitude). First, you must determine which category your aircraft lies in. If your aircrafts approach speed is 90 knots or less, it is category A. If the speed is 90-120 knots, it is category B, and so on. Cessna 172s are category A. So looking at the minimums (beneath the profile view) beneath the category "A" section, you can find the MDA. In this case, the minimums depend on whether or not you have DME (and can find HEGAT). Assuming you have DME, you can use the HEGAT fix minimum altitude, which is 2260.
Once you descend to 2260, you must maintain that altitude until you can see the airport. If upon reaching the missed approach point, or MAP, you still don't see the airport, you must execute the missed approach procedure, which is found in the heading of the chart. According to the profile view, the missed approach point can be identified by the 9.4 DME from the Elkins VOR. If you don't have DME, then you have to time the approach using the times in the bottom left corner based on your aircraft's speed.
The airport diagram is fairly self explanatory.
The GPS/ RNAV approach is very similar to the VOR-A, except instead of using the VOR, it uses waypoints defined by GPS coordinates. It is also a non-precision approach, so you have to descend to minimum altitudes after crossing certain fixes, just like the above approach.
The localizer approach is the same thing as an ILS approach, which I explained how to fly in an earlier blog, except that it implies that the glide slope is inoperative. Instead of being able to track a glide slope all the way down to 200 feet above the runway, you have to descend in increments and your minimum altitude is increased by about 500 feet.
All three approaches that I flew today I flew perfectly. Hopefully with my next flight I will be able to fly non-precision approaches in an actual airplane.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Holding Patterns
This blog is covering two separate lessons both of which happened about two weeks ago.
The first lesson was in the sim. This lesson was basically my introduction to holding patterns. I started out with some ground going over the different types of holding pattern entries and how to interpret an ATC non-published holding clearance.
A published holding procedure is one that is depicted on an chart. A non-published holding procedure is one that ATC can assign that is not depicted on any charts and as a pilot, I must interpret what entry I must use and which headings I need to fly in order to satisfy the clearance.
Here is a basic holding pattern:
You fly inbound for one minute, execute a 180 degree standard rate turn (which should take one minute), fly outbound for one minute, and then another 180 degree turn back to the inbound leg. The result is a four minute delay for ATC to work with towards traffic spacing and weather avoidance.
There are three different ways to enter a holding pattern. There's direct, teardrop, and parallel entries.
A direct entry is just simply flying to the holding fix, and then beginning the holding pattern right away. It is best used if you are flying a heading that is close to the inbound heading.
A teardrop entry is used when you are coming at the fix from the opposite direction and on the opposite side of the inbound path as the hold. Upon crossing the fix, you fly 30 degrees off the outbound heading for one minute and then turn back to the inbound course.
A parallel entry is used when you are on the same side of the inbound course as the hold and you are coming from the opposite direction. It is the most complicated of the three. Upon crossing the fix, you turn and fly the outbound heading parallel to the inbound course for one minute, and then turn towards the inside of the hold about 240 degrees to intercept the inbound course.
Before you can identify which entry you need to use, you must first figure out your aircraft's location in reference to the holding pattern. This is fairly easy with a published hold. Here is an example of a published hold on Clarksburg's ILS approach:
As you can see, the headings are clearly illustrated (211 inbound, 031 outbound) and the hold is executed on the fix FONTZ intersection. So imagine you are flying your aircraft directly to FONTZ. If your heading is south, that means you are coming from the north and you would do a direct entry. If coming from the south, you would do a teardrop entry. If coming from the west, you would do a parallel entry.
Figuring out what entry to use becomes difficult when you are instructed to fly a non-published hold. Imagine that the hold above is not published. This is how ATC would instruct you to hold at FONTZ:"577SP, hold northeast of FONTZ intersection on the 031 radial, standard turns, expect further clearance in 10 minutes."
The best way to deal with non-published holds when they are assigned is to just draw them out on paper. I would draw a small circle to represent FONTZ, then I would draw a line coming from FONTZ at 031 degrees to represent the 031 degree radial. Since ATC said right turns, I would draw the oval as if flying on that radial to FONTZ and then turning right (right is standard, left is nonstandard). This result in a replica of the above published hold. I would then draw my aircraft headed for the fix in order to figure out which entry to use.
All this while maintaining altitude and heading.
As far as my first holding performance is concerned, I did excellent on my direct and teardrop entries in the sim. However, my parallel was a little all over the place. When I actually got in the plane and flew these holds, only my direct was good. My teardrop and parallel entries were both sloppy. I did get a second chance on those however, and did okay.
One more thing that you must take into account when flying a holding pattern is wind. a tailwind on the inbound course can cause you to fly a longer outbound leg and a shorter inbound leg. Say that you start your time for the inbound leg and it only takes 45 seconds until you reach the fix. If this happens, you extend the outbound leg by 15 seconds. In other words, fly outbound for 1:15 in order to make your inbound leg exactly one minute.
You also have to apply wind drift correction in the instance that you might have a crosswind. If flying the inbound course you are having to correct five degrees, then the rule of thumb is to correct three times that amount on the outbound leg. So you would correct for 15 degrees.
Holds are a little bit tricky but in the end its all about being able to realize your aircraft's location in relation to the holding pattern and basically having the ability to know where your plane is as if you are looking at your flight path from above.
The first lesson was in the sim. This lesson was basically my introduction to holding patterns. I started out with some ground going over the different types of holding pattern entries and how to interpret an ATC non-published holding clearance.
A published holding procedure is one that is depicted on an chart. A non-published holding procedure is one that ATC can assign that is not depicted on any charts and as a pilot, I must interpret what entry I must use and which headings I need to fly in order to satisfy the clearance.
Here is a basic holding pattern:
You fly inbound for one minute, execute a 180 degree standard rate turn (which should take one minute), fly outbound for one minute, and then another 180 degree turn back to the inbound leg. The result is a four minute delay for ATC to work with towards traffic spacing and weather avoidance.
There are three different ways to enter a holding pattern. There's direct, teardrop, and parallel entries.
A direct entry is just simply flying to the holding fix, and then beginning the holding pattern right away. It is best used if you are flying a heading that is close to the inbound heading.
A teardrop entry is used when you are coming at the fix from the opposite direction and on the opposite side of the inbound path as the hold. Upon crossing the fix, you fly 30 degrees off the outbound heading for one minute and then turn back to the inbound course.
A parallel entry is used when you are on the same side of the inbound course as the hold and you are coming from the opposite direction. It is the most complicated of the three. Upon crossing the fix, you turn and fly the outbound heading parallel to the inbound course for one minute, and then turn towards the inside of the hold about 240 degrees to intercept the inbound course.Before you can identify which entry you need to use, you must first figure out your aircraft's location in reference to the holding pattern. This is fairly easy with a published hold. Here is an example of a published hold on Clarksburg's ILS approach:
As you can see, the headings are clearly illustrated (211 inbound, 031 outbound) and the hold is executed on the fix FONTZ intersection. So imagine you are flying your aircraft directly to FONTZ. If your heading is south, that means you are coming from the north and you would do a direct entry. If coming from the south, you would do a teardrop entry. If coming from the west, you would do a parallel entry.
Figuring out what entry to use becomes difficult when you are instructed to fly a non-published hold. Imagine that the hold above is not published. This is how ATC would instruct you to hold at FONTZ:"577SP, hold northeast of FONTZ intersection on the 031 radial, standard turns, expect further clearance in 10 minutes."
The best way to deal with non-published holds when they are assigned is to just draw them out on paper. I would draw a small circle to represent FONTZ, then I would draw a line coming from FONTZ at 031 degrees to represent the 031 degree radial. Since ATC said right turns, I would draw the oval as if flying on that radial to FONTZ and then turning right (right is standard, left is nonstandard). This result in a replica of the above published hold. I would then draw my aircraft headed for the fix in order to figure out which entry to use.
All this while maintaining altitude and heading.
As far as my first holding performance is concerned, I did excellent on my direct and teardrop entries in the sim. However, my parallel was a little all over the place. When I actually got in the plane and flew these holds, only my direct was good. My teardrop and parallel entries were both sloppy. I did get a second chance on those however, and did okay.
One more thing that you must take into account when flying a holding pattern is wind. a tailwind on the inbound course can cause you to fly a longer outbound leg and a shorter inbound leg. Say that you start your time for the inbound leg and it only takes 45 seconds until you reach the fix. If this happens, you extend the outbound leg by 15 seconds. In other words, fly outbound for 1:15 in order to make your inbound leg exactly one minute.
You also have to apply wind drift correction in the instance that you might have a crosswind. If flying the inbound course you are having to correct five degrees, then the rule of thumb is to correct three times that amount on the outbound leg. So you would correct for 15 degrees.
Holds are a little bit tricky but in the end its all about being able to realize your aircraft's location in relation to the holding pattern and basically having the ability to know where your plane is as if you are looking at your flight path from above.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Fly for Fun
Today's flight was not a lesson. Rather, I flew with my friend all day in his own personal plane. Even though I spent half the day as a passenger, and my friend is not a flight instructor, I still learned a lot.
The first thing we did was takeoff from Fairmont airport. Almost immediately I realized that my friends Cessna 150 was nowhere near as powerful as the 172s I was used to flying. He used up almost all of the runway and we still were dodging trees after takeoff. It took the plane about two minutes to climb above all the surrounding terrain. My friend then informed me that he was going to show me the difficult approach to Maley Field. Because I was in the plane and it had full fuel, he decided not to land at Maley and to just instead fly a low approach. In order to successfully land there, you have to clear the trees on top of a mountain by only about 10 feet, and then lower full flaps and put the plane into a full side-slip in order to descend quickly enough to get to the runway on the other side of the mountain. It's a very terrifying but fun approach. Here's the video I took of his approach:
Next we flew around for a good twenty minutes waiting for his friend to takeoff so that we could fly in formation to Moundsville, WV. After enjoying the smooth, morning air at 5500 feet, his friend finally took off and we began looking for his plane in the sky so that we could fly alongside him. We also tuned to 123.45, which is the pilot-to-pilot chatter frequency, and began coordinating our formation flying.
Formation flying works like this: you have one lead plane that flies the route, and the other planes are maneuvering planes who focus on flying with the lead plane. Since there were only two of us, his friend was the lead plane and we were the maneuvering plane. It was a pretty cool experience, being so close to another plane in the sky.
Once we got to Moundsville, we split up and both landed at Moundsville airport. It was a very small and quiet airport, and the FBO was deserted. After I used the bathroom, we got back in our planes and headed out again.
The takeoff from Moundsville was fun. It has a short runway which ends in a drop off
into a deep valley. Upon takeoff, my friend held the plane in ground effect until the ground suddenly dropped out from underneath of us. It was a lot of fun. We then went and found his friend's house in Moundsville (which was the reason we came here in the first place). After taking some pictures of it, we headed over and took some pictures of the Hare Krishna Palace as well.
Then we split up again. They headed back, and we headed up towards Washington County airport in Pennsylvania to get some fuel. My friend lives and works in Washington, so he can get cheaper fuel there. While he was fueling up his plane, I called up Windwood Fly-In Resort to get permission to land at their private runway.
After meeting a few of the guys my friend works with at the airport, we headed out, and this time I was in the left seat. After we got into the air, we went to put in Windwood in his GPS. As it turns out, Windwood is not in the GPS. So I handed the controls over to him for a minute while I pulled up the map on the GPS and picked out a place where I though the airport was located, and we began tracking directly to that point.
At this point in the day, the air was no longer smooth. It had become slightly bumpy. After about twenty minutes of climbing, the plane was finally able to reach our cruising altitude of 5500 feet. We passed directly over Morgantown and got to see Cheat Lake and other great scenery. After another twenty minutes, we began flying in the Appalachian Mountains.
This was the first time I had ever flown over mountains this large and I learned something new. Typically with large mountains, you have something called mountain waves. Basically, the wind hits the mountains and blows upwards vertically. This is otherwise known as updrafts.
So while flying and maintaining a level attitude, the aircraft began climbing faster than the plane can climb under its own power. So I pitched down to maintain 5500. So the plane is flying downwards while the wind is blowing it upwards. What else happens when you fly downwards? An increase in speed. I had his plane doing speeds much faster than normal cruise speed for the plane. Since I don't know the technical name for flying in these updrafts, I am going to call it mountain surfing.
Upon reaching the point I had marked on the GPS, we looked around and did not see Windwood. So I turned and began flying down the valley keeping an eye out for the airport. Just when we were about to give up and just enter in the coordinates of the airport into the GPS manually, I spotted it directly underneath of us. So I pulled back the power, and began descending towards the runway. It was a very skinny runway, only about four feet wider than the planes wingspan, but I still lined up his plane and landed it just fine. My landing was a little bouncy because I had never flown a 150 before, but it worked out fine.
We parked the plane and walked up to the lodge and had a very delicious lunch at their aviation-themed restaurant. I had a Cessna, which was grilled chicken on a croissant roll, and he had a Lind Burger, a 1/3 pound cheeseburger.
We put some oil in the plane and I hopped back in the left seat again for the flight back to Fairmont. After a quick survey of the 3000 foot runway and the surrounding obstacles, we decided it would be best to take off from runway 24, because runway 6 had trees at the end that his plane would probably not be able to clear.
We began the takeoff and as we got about 3/4 of the way down the runway and still had not rotated, both him and I seriously considered aborting the takeoff. But he saw an opening and took the controls from me and at the end of the runway turned slightly left into an open field where we circled around and gained some altitude. We then had to fly down the valley a little before we could clear the mountain range and head back to Fairmont. Once we got high enough, we "surfed" along the mountain waves all the way back to Fairmont.
Flying today was a ton of fun. Not only did I enjoy flying all over WV and PA, but I also learned a lot, especially about low level flying and maneuvering (which is something I would never learn in part 141 training) and formation flying.
The first thing we did was takeoff from Fairmont airport. Almost immediately I realized that my friends Cessna 150 was nowhere near as powerful as the 172s I was used to flying. He used up almost all of the runway and we still were dodging trees after takeoff. It took the plane about two minutes to climb above all the surrounding terrain. My friend then informed me that he was going to show me the difficult approach to Maley Field. Because I was in the plane and it had full fuel, he decided not to land at Maley and to just instead fly a low approach. In order to successfully land there, you have to clear the trees on top of a mountain by only about 10 feet, and then lower full flaps and put the plane into a full side-slip in order to descend quickly enough to get to the runway on the other side of the mountain. It's a very terrifying but fun approach. Here's the video I took of his approach:
Next we flew around for a good twenty minutes waiting for his friend to takeoff so that we could fly in formation to Moundsville, WV. After enjoying the smooth, morning air at 5500 feet, his friend finally took off and we began looking for his plane in the sky so that we could fly alongside him. We also tuned to 123.45, which is the pilot-to-pilot chatter frequency, and began coordinating our formation flying.
Formation flying works like this: you have one lead plane that flies the route, and the other planes are maneuvering planes who focus on flying with the lead plane. Since there were only two of us, his friend was the lead plane and we were the maneuvering plane. It was a pretty cool experience, being so close to another plane in the sky.
Once we got to Moundsville, we split up and both landed at Moundsville airport. It was a very small and quiet airport, and the FBO was deserted. After I used the bathroom, we got back in our planes and headed out again.
The takeoff from Moundsville was fun. It has a short runway which ends in a drop off
into a deep valley. Upon takeoff, my friend held the plane in ground effect until the ground suddenly dropped out from underneath of us. It was a lot of fun. We then went and found his friend's house in Moundsville (which was the reason we came here in the first place). After taking some pictures of it, we headed over and took some pictures of the Hare Krishna Palace as well.Then we split up again. They headed back, and we headed up towards Washington County airport in Pennsylvania to get some fuel. My friend lives and works in Washington, so he can get cheaper fuel there. While he was fueling up his plane, I called up Windwood Fly-In Resort to get permission to land at their private runway.
After meeting a few of the guys my friend works with at the airport, we headed out, and this time I was in the left seat. After we got into the air, we went to put in Windwood in his GPS. As it turns out, Windwood is not in the GPS. So I handed the controls over to him for a minute while I pulled up the map on the GPS and picked out a place where I though the airport was located, and we began tracking directly to that point.
At this point in the day, the air was no longer smooth. It had become slightly bumpy. After about twenty minutes of climbing, the plane was finally able to reach our cruising altitude of 5500 feet. We passed directly over Morgantown and got to see Cheat Lake and other great scenery. After another twenty minutes, we began flying in the Appalachian Mountains.
This was the first time I had ever flown over mountains this large and I learned something new. Typically with large mountains, you have something called mountain waves. Basically, the wind hits the mountains and blows upwards vertically. This is otherwise known as updrafts.
So while flying and maintaining a level attitude, the aircraft began climbing faster than the plane can climb under its own power. So I pitched down to maintain 5500. So the plane is flying downwards while the wind is blowing it upwards. What else happens when you fly downwards? An increase in speed. I had his plane doing speeds much faster than normal cruise speed for the plane. Since I don't know the technical name for flying in these updrafts, I am going to call it mountain surfing.
Upon reaching the point I had marked on the GPS, we looked around and did not see Windwood. So I turned and began flying down the valley keeping an eye out for the airport. Just when we were about to give up and just enter in the coordinates of the airport into the GPS manually, I spotted it directly underneath of us. So I pulled back the power, and began descending towards the runway. It was a very skinny runway, only about four feet wider than the planes wingspan, but I still lined up his plane and landed it just fine. My landing was a little bouncy because I had never flown a 150 before, but it worked out fine.
We parked the plane and walked up to the lodge and had a very delicious lunch at their aviation-themed restaurant. I had a Cessna, which was grilled chicken on a croissant roll, and he had a Lind Burger, a 1/3 pound cheeseburger.We put some oil in the plane and I hopped back in the left seat again for the flight back to Fairmont. After a quick survey of the 3000 foot runway and the surrounding obstacles, we decided it would be best to take off from runway 24, because runway 6 had trees at the end that his plane would probably not be able to clear.
We began the takeoff and as we got about 3/4 of the way down the runway and still had not rotated, both him and I seriously considered aborting the takeoff. But he saw an opening and took the controls from me and at the end of the runway turned slightly left into an open field where we circled around and gained some altitude. We then had to fly down the valley a little before we could clear the mountain range and head back to Fairmont. Once we got high enough, we "surfed" along the mountain waves all the way back to Fairmont.
Flying today was a ton of fun. Not only did I enjoy flying all over WV and PA, but I also learned a lot, especially about low level flying and maneuvering (which is something I would never learn in part 141 training) and formation flying.
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