Scheduled my first solo cross country for this past Sunday. The weather person was calling for sunny and clear so naturally I was skeptical! However, the day turned out just as they predicted and I couldn’t have asked for better weather!
I had the plane booked from 2-6:30 and I had Dave booked from 12:30 to 2 so that he could check my work on my flight planning. One of the first things he asks me is what’s the deal with the rocket activity in Carp?! WTF?! Rocket Activity?! There was a NOTAM issued stating that there was rocket activity around the airport, but the thing was, it was only on the 23rd and the 28th. I should have known that, but I didn’t read the NOTAMs. D’Oh! Wont make that mistake again.
Anyways, Dave went through all the NOTAMs with me, checked over my calculations, etc and quizzed me on emergency procedures before letting me go.
Everytime I saw Brad on Sunday he would say “Don’t get lost.” And just before starting up the plane he came over and said, “Don’t get lost!” Thanks Brad.
My first problem came when I got vectored away from North Gower, my set heading point for the YOW-YGK leg of the trip. Not a problem though, with Brad’s words of advise ringing through my head I kept my map handy and found North Gower without too much trouble. The Terminals guys had something to say to me though, “Are you going direct to Kingston or are you doing some sight seeing first?” I explained to them that I wanted to get to my set heading point first and they were cool with that.
The flight down to Kingston went very well. My headings that I calculated weren’t quite right, but I quickly found one that would work and stuck with it. Coming into Kingston it sounded as if there was a lot of traffic around the airport. To be honest, I got a bit nervous upon hearing all the traffic, but it quickly passed. I advised that I would be passing over the field at 1800 feet (1300 foot circuit height), descending to circuit height and landing on 19. There were actually two active runways going at the time, but it seemed like everyone was landing on 19 and taking off from 25.
Quick stop in Kingston to get some gas and get my log book stamped and I was off again. I opted to take off runway 25, mostly because that made for a much easier departure. First off, I didn’t have to backtrack the entire 19 runway, and second, I could easily make a right hand turn off to the north after leaving 25.
My next leg, from Kingston to Carp went pretty good. Once again, my headings weren’t quite right and I had to adjust on the fly. Not a big deal, I worked out something that worked quite well for me. This time when I was coming into Carp, I spotted the airport right away. Last time I flew right over it without noticing. Brad gave me a tip to look for the red roofs on the buildings at the airport. Thanks for the tip Brad.
Same deal as in Kingston, over flew the field at 1900 feet and then dropped down to 1400 on the upwind side. Crossed over again at circuit height and joined the mid left downwind. There really wasn’t any traffic at Carp. In fact there was nobody there! Actually, there was one other plane coming in for landing while I was there. He was behind me and he joined straight in on the downwind. I didn’t think you were supposed to do that at an uncontrolled airport.
As I mentioned, there was nobody at the Carp airport, so I couldn’t get my log book signed. After landing I exited at the alpha taxiway and headed over to the public building. The door were locked. The big hanger over that way (Westsomethingorother) was also closed. I opted to take a few pictures of XAM and myself at the airport as proof that I was there. I also called the flight club looking for Brad or Dave, but they were both with students at the time.
On the way out of Carp I had no choice but to backtrack the entire runway before taking off. For some reason, I just don’t like doing that, it doesn’t seem right. Oh well.
I had put away my map after getting in sight of Carp since in theory I knew the area well enough that I didn’t need a map. Turns out theory and reality matched up in this case. I was familiar enough with the area that I could head back to Ottawa without needing the map. I was thinking they were going to clear me to the downwind leg of 22 so I kind of headed off that way. When I contacted the Terminal after leaving Carp they told me to go to the bridge. Oh well, a little more flight time for me.
It was nice getting back into Ottawa and landing on runway 22…just nice and familiar. I ‘greased it on’, as Brad likes to say, for my last landing of the day. I went inside to find Brad or Dave to discuss my problem at Carp (nobody to sign my book) but Brad was out flying and Dave was busy with someone in the simulator. Oh well, I guess my pictures will have to do.
All in all a fantastic flight! I didn’t get lost, not even close! Unless of course you count my initial difficulty in finding North Gower. :)
Now I have to do another cross country to Cornwall and back and I think that’s it. In the meantime, I’ve got a few more lessons with Brad where we’ll likely work on more instrument time and specialty takeoffs and landings.