The day began and from the point I woke up everything went as well as they possibly could have. I got to the airport about 0900 and talked to Jerry who looked over my planning. He signed me off and let me head down to the hangar to preflight and get on my merry way. I saw him leave as I was filling her up with gas. He rolled down his window and pointed his finger at me like a gun and pretended to shoot at me. I couldn't help but smile as I waved. So I started her back up and taxied to five. Did the runup and during the magneto check I noticed the left magneto was running rough. I ran the plane up at high RPMS and leaned the mixture and performed the magneto check. It didn't work. I ended up callin Jerry, who figured out my problem. I didn't let it run long enough. SOooooooOOOooO, I let it run at high RPMs mixture leaned and behold! It worked just fine! Thankfully.
So I landed at N23 no problems. Once I let ATC know I had the field, they terminated my radar service and I was let go. I landed on two-five and I really had to relieve myself. Man, it was bad. I thought about stopping and going at Sidney, but I figured I could make it. So I turned around and taxied all the way back to two-five and pulled off to the side. This is where I snapped this photo.
I called out I was taking off of two-five. The take off was as normal as it can get.
I picked my new heading up and began for home. I felt my 251 degree heading was a bit high, but I put my trust into the heading and it worked out just fine. Everything was good, visibility had gone down a bit, but I was able to make it home faster than I thought. I entered the pattern left downwind for runway five as a Mooney entered its base for five. I reached the end of the runway and did a 360 degree turn for spacing. I pulled the throttle to 17oo RPMs and waited until the runway was 45 degrees off my shoulder, then I put her into a hard slip.
With the speed at 65 knots the airplane descended rapidly and once lined up with the runway, I neutralized the controls and let her fly until she didn't wanna fly no mo! I flared it and she came down. My parents were at the airport today. I asked them to come see the landing and they'd brought my grandparents with them. They missed my first solo XC cause of miscommunication but wanted to see me arrive from one, so they came today. I taxied back runway five and noticed another plane coming on base and he called it on the radio so I called back, "94609, I'll get out of your way in a sec, come on in."
So I took off and no further problems arose. I picked up my heading after climbing to 3500 feet. I dialed in my VOR frequency and radial. I chose to fly to the BGM VOR and then pick up my new heading that would take me to N23. The only thing that was a hinderance was the visibility. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I could see fairly far, probably about 6-7 SM visibility. But once I changed headings, the route to N23 cleared up a lot. I talked to ATC, let BGM 
approach know I was headin to Sidney and they had me squawk 0332 (Pretty sure). About 7 miles away, they called and told me to beware of a flock of geese that was seen at altitude on my route. My first thought was, oh great, now my English teacher (calls me Goose, he likes Top Gun as do I.) has a reason to keep callin me Goose. I keep telling him it's inaccurate because Goose was a RIO, however awesome he was, was also not a pilot, which I am. His rationalization is I can't hold Maverick's jock strap! Haha, he only calls me Goose cause he knows it aggrivates me, and not cause it's Goose, I like Goose, it's just inaccurate. But now he has a reason!! (A bunch of my friends and I made up nicknames for ourselves to celebrate our Girls Vs Guys Vs Faculty Basketball game along with Top Appreciation Day on May 13th. They are as followed, Mark, "The Iceman" Cruver, Eric "X-Factor" Warner, Ardy "Warrior" Dorman, Degan "So Good" 
Smith, Raul "El Diablo" Pedrosa, Caleb "Demand" Sheldon, Colton "Boo-Boo" Schools, and myself, Adam "Maverick" Azpiazu. As far as I know that's what they were gonna use. We picked 'em, and I told my english teacher, and he told me to use Maverick, so I said okay, then he changed his mind in Student Council! Indecisive. Jeesh) I DIGRESS!
approach know I was headin to Sidney and they had me squawk 0332 (Pretty sure). About 7 miles away, they called and told me to beware of a flock of geese that was seen at altitude on my route. My first thought was, oh great, now my English teacher (calls me Goose, he likes Top Gun as do I.) has a reason to keep callin me Goose. I keep telling him it's inaccurate because Goose was a RIO, however awesome he was, was also not a pilot, which I am. His rationalization is I can't hold Maverick's jock strap! Haha, he only calls me Goose cause he knows it aggrivates me, and not cause it's Goose, I like Goose, it's just inaccurate. But now he has a reason!! (A bunch of my friends and I made up nicknames for ourselves to celebrate our Girls Vs Guys Vs Faculty Basketball game along with Top Appreciation Day on May 13th. They are as followed, Mark, "The Iceman" Cruver, Eric "X-Factor" Warner, Ardy "Warrior" Dorman, Degan "So Good" 
Smith, Raul "El Diablo" Pedrosa, Caleb "Demand" Sheldon, Colton "Boo-Boo" Schools, and myself, Adam "Maverick" Azpiazu. As far as I know that's what they were gonna use. We picked 'em, and I told my english teacher, and he told me to use Maverick, so I said okay, then he changed his mind in Student Council! Indecisive. Jeesh) I DIGRESS!
So I landed at N23 no problems. Once I let ATC know I had the field, they terminated my radar service and I was let go. I landed on two-five and I really had to relieve myself. Man, it was bad. I thought about stopping and going at Sidney, but I figured I could make it. So I turned around and taxied all the way back to two-five and pulled off to the side. This is where I snapped this photo.I called out I was taking off of two-five. The take off was as normal as it can get.
I picked my new heading up and began for home. I felt my 251 degree heading was a bit high, but I put my trust into the heading and it worked out just fine. Everything was good, visibility had gone down a bit, but I was able to make it home faster than I thought. I entered the pattern left downwind for runway five as a Mooney entered its base for five. I reached the end of the runway and did a 360 degree turn for spacing. I pulled the throttle to 17oo RPMs and waited until the runway was 45 degrees off my shoulder, then I put her into a hard slip.
With the speed at 65 knots the airplane descended rapidly and once lined up with the runway, I neutralized the controls and let her fly until she didn't wanna fly no mo! I flared it and she came down. My parents were at the airport today. I asked them to come see the landing and they'd brought my grandparents with them. They missed my first solo XC cause of miscommunication but wanted to see me arrive from one, so they came today. I taxied back runway five and noticed another plane coming on base and he called it on the radio so I called back, "94609, I'll get out of your way in a sec, come on in."
"You got plenty of time 609, it's okay, I'll be watchin ya."
"Roger that Tango, (I didn't catch the two numbers before it) I'm taking Charlie here. Clear of the active."
A few moments later he called back after he'd landed, "94609, you can come on out, I'll get behind you."
"Roger that." I pulled out on the runway and he taxied behind the length of five. I took off as the Mooney, who'd done a touch n' go, was midfield downwind. I did a shortfield takeoff. My pattern looked good, as it normally does (Just a little gloating never hurts:P). I came in a little high so I took off power and added flaps. The landing was good, it looked nice on the video my brother took of it. Both of them looked real good on the tape. I'll add that to this when it's available. I met my parents at the hangar. I stopped the plane in front to the doors and shut her down. I immediately started walking toward the port-o-john that was at the end of the long building that held multiple hangars. I came back out and saw my parents and grandparents taking pictures of each other next to the airplane. It made me smile. My dad saw me coming, and I couldn't help but smile after my successful cross country. 
He snapped a couple pictures of me walking toward them. I was wearing
He snapped a couple pictures of me walking toward them. I was wearingthe flight suit my girlfriend bought for me. I bought a couple patches for it, two of which are on it, a US Navy patch on my right breast just above the pocket's zipper and the American flag on my left shoulder. I have a couple more coming. I am using this flight suit as a patch collector. Although I may wear it because it is convenient and actually comfortable, I wear to show my pride for Naval Aviation and as a tribute all aviation. My grandparents and parents were all happy and smiling and patting my on the back for a job well done. I don't think they fully understood what it was like to be in the presence of such machines until today. I don't think they fully understood that I have what it takes to handle them, but I proved that I could today. Next step, pick out a route 150 nm miles of longer with two stops and two separate airports. Today was a great day. Mission: ACCOMPLISHED
No comments:
Post a Comment