Into the Deep End...

The floaties are off and today I moved from the shallow end to the deep end of the pool. I flew my first solo cross country! I will explain again here that a cross-country flight is 50+ nautical miles from your home airport to another airport and back again. That's right, by myself. Just me and my trusty Cessna 172, N5204A, making the trek to the San Joaquin Valley and Modesto where the Gallo wine company is headquartered. If I didn't have to fly back I would be very tempted to go over and have a tumbler or two of some of that lip smackingly good Hearty Burgundy or perhaps a coppa of Carlo Rossi. I will tell you that Ernest & Julio were some of the first to put wine in a bottle with a screw cap. Now some high-end wineries are doing the same and extolling the virtues of screw cap or Stelvin enclosures as they are now called. Bosh mate, those crazy-ass brothers may have been on to something. I digress.....

The instructor debacle continues.

If you have read my previous entries you will note that I have been playing musical instructors with Stan & Dan (not their real names). Stan's wife was in the hospital recently for some major surgery and then lengthy recovery. They have three little girls so he has been pretty much out of circulation these last several months. He turned me over to Dan for my cross-country lessons and this guy was/is really an excellent instructor. I have mentioned in previous posts that while I really respect Stan and his skills as a pilot his approach to instruction sometimes fell a little short of supportive. I don't need my hand held here but his critiques were sometimes a little de-spiriting. 'Your landings sucked today', ouch!

So Dan, YES, Dan! And then No, NOT Dan. His wife was pregnant and giving birth any day. She gives birth and it happens on the day I was supposed to do my first solo x-country. I WAS happy for Jill (wife) and Dan and was also hoping to finish up with him. His baby is now having some post-natal issues and so now Dan is completely out of the mix. I was an orphaned student pilot with a few more ticks on the engine clock until I get my private pilot cert. What to do??

Enter Bob - real name, what the hell I can't keep all of the aliases straight anyway. Bob is a great guy and he is a new instructor as in 'newly minted' and MY new instructor. New, you say, c'mon Russ, a new instructor? Bob has been flying single engine planes since the late 60's and he now has several hundred hours in small single engine planes. I don't care if you flew F-16's if you can't instruct well you are useless! He is a retired United Airlines flight attendant and has ALL the time, energy and enthusiasm. He has recently been through the very rigorous process to become a certified flight instructor. At this point I need an instructor to fine tune my skills and get me ready for the final FAA check ride. So Bob was there - checked out my flight plan and grilled me on every aspect from headings to fuel burn to the 'gotchas' along my route. It was a beautiful Indian Summer day in the San Francisco Bay Area with some light winds coming out of the Northwest. The temperature was 65-70 degrees and I was relaxed.

My flight plan to Modesto was about 62 miles from San Carlos. I used ground references to plan my flight and then cranked on the GPS for the actual flight. I also used the auto pilot function and had fun looking out at the scenery rolling beneath me. Not to worry though, I still keep my scan going outside the plane and a close eye on those needles. I called up Norcal Approach when I got across the bay and then onto the radar screen of a controller who lets me know about other aircraft and their activities in my vicinity. I made it over to Modesto with a perfect decent into the traffic pattern. Having never flown into this airport it was truly a new experience. My radio calls were flawless... almost. When calling up Approach Control they sometimes hand you over to another controller after a period of time and tell you a new radio frequency to do so. When I got handed off mid flight the guy had to repeat the new frequency 3 times!! Damn it was embarrassing but he was saying it really fast and my radio seemed to be cutting out during the critical time he was telling me the new frequency. The last time he said it he did so a little exaggeratedly - 'ooone twooo threee point eeiighht fiiiiiive'. I actually chuckled a little when I repeated the numbers back to him. I don't feel too bad because the commercial pilots are on these same frequencies and I hear them blow it every now and then. I'm a bonafide rookie student pilot! No worries.
When I arrived back at San Carlos Bob was there to meet me on the ramp and shake my hand, what a guy!

The flight was a success and some of the best flying I have done to date. I was ready to do the flight and felt pretty confident I would do well as I was over-prepared. Flying with your tanks topped off applies to more than just fuel. Having as much knowledge and experience as you can get helps keep you out of the trees. It is constantly a work in progress and there is a lot to learn. Even after I get my FAA stamp of approval.

I still get butterflies in my stomach when I get in and strap in for each flight however and hope I always will. A healthy respect for the plane, its capabilities AND yours, are essential to being a good pilot. I'll leave pushing the 'outside of the envelope' to test pilots.

ciao!
russ