After what felt like another painfully long wait, Brett and I took to the air for  an introduction to night flight. We discussed the 5 extra things one needs for VFR flight at night. FLAPS. (F)ueses, (L)anding lights, (A)nti-collision lights, (P)osition lights and a (S)ource of electrical energy for radio and electrical equipment.

The first stop was Goldendale, and finding it was relatively easy. Not only had I landed there before and knew where to look, but I had the advantage of riding back seat on one of Brett’s night flight lessons and was able to pick up the method for finding an airfield. First use whatever landmarks are available to find the general area, know where the airfield is in relation to these landmarks. Next look for the rotating green and white beacon, indicating an airport. Lastly one can key the mic on the appropriate frequency to activate the lights on the runway. This all went fairly smoothly and I entered the pattern. Everything felt great right up until I was almost over the runway. I felt ahead of the plane and was really happy with my approach. The only problem was that even though the runway lights were on and I could see its borders, but the runway itself was still disconcertingly dark. Even though I wasn’t sure why it felt weird I decided to go around. Just as I pushed the throttle, I realized my issue. I had failed to turn on my landing lights! UTFCL (see the post Wasco Lunch).

The second attempt with the lights on went smoothly, and I was able to land with plenty of runway. Since practicing approaches and flying in ground effect, I have been really surprised how landings have clicked. While back taxiing the runway Brett told me to next plan on heading to Wasco. In the run-up area I broke out the map, figured my heading, potential obstacles, landmarks near the airport, radio frequencies, what runways are available, runway altitude, pattern altitude, and pattern direction. Off to Wasco!

The rest of the flight went like this. I would land in one airport and Brett would tell me to plan the next leg. Goldendale, Wasco, Condon, John Day. Some of the airfields I had landed previously others I hadn’t.  As we flew I gained confidence and not only that, I had time to appreciate the peace of flying at night. There is an added and beautiful solitude to flying in the dark among the stars.

On the return Brett had me call up Seattle Center and pick up flight following. This was super easy and a great precaution to have already established communications with them in case anything were to go wrong. A little over 4 hours after leaving The Dalles, we touched back down on 3-0. While I wish I could have kept flying, I was pretty tired by this point and ok with calling it a night.

Lately, my ground studies have included interpreting charts, doing weight and balance calculations, and attempting route plans. Brett figured we should put these skill to use and have me plan out a cross country flight from The Dalles to Yakima, Tieton State, Packwood and returning to The Dalles. Route planning would not be the only challenge this flight. Flying into Yakima airspace would afford an opportunity for communication with a control tower and both Teiton State and Packwood would offer challenging approaches and landings.

I don’t find route planning all that difficult, just time consuming. Once one learns the tools to use it goes smoothly though I still feel faster doing the actual math than using the E6B. I had stumbled through most of learning how to do this while studying, but Brett showed me some tricks that sped the process up.

The initial leg felt pretty casual till we started into Yakima airspace. Talking with the tower was fine, as long as they kept the phrases short. Once I had to repeat back any volume of information, my brain would hit erase and I’d end up asking Brett what was the proper response. I am still surprised how task saturated I get. Just as I feel like I am starting to keep ahead of the airplane, Brett gives me something else to learn and I get behind again. Seems like it just takes time to be able to multi-task. At least the runway was a mile and a half long so there wasn’t any pressure to nail a short landing.

Next was Tieton state. This is where the trip started to become really fun. Within 10 minutes of departing Yakima we were flying over the forests, granite cliffs and waterfalls of the Cascades. Navigation was relatively simple since I just had to follow a prominent valley right to Rimrock Lake and the Tieton State airstrip. Flying over this relatively rugged terrain I was struck by the reality of how serious this could be. While beautiful, the terrain offered no open, or relatively flat places to land in the event of an emergency. If the engine were to cut out on us, the best we could hope to do would be to find a location to minimize injury to ourselves. The plane would not survive a landing here. I don’t think this fact will keep me from flying over mountainous landscape in the future, but I’ll make sure to have my ducks in a row. It’s not the place to get complacent.

The runway at Tieton State is 2500 feet long and 150 feet wide, as well as running uphill, so there is plenty of space to touch down and stop. A descision to go around though must be made early on because one needs to climb over the trees, steer away from a large cliff, and continue to climb as the terrain rises. As Brett and I talked through our strategy, he mentioned that if anything felt even a little off we would abort the landing. Luckily on this approach I was able to nail my altitude and speed such that we were set up perfectly to land. Final approach, low, and over the water, was beautifu,l and touchdown was as gentle as could be expected from a backcountry grass strip. I knew I had nailed it when Brett excitedly told me, “I want every approach and landing just like that one. Nice job!”

Maybe I let that go to my head. The last two landings of the day were much less graceful. At Packwood I initially approached to high, necessitating a go-around, followed by getting pushed sideways almost to the edge of the narrow runway. Back at the Dalles I really pooched it. Coming in to fast on final I rushed the timing of rounding out into ground effect and flare, resulting in a hard bounce off the nosewheel, and a few bounces after. That first bounce blew out the front tire.  I was extremely frustrated to finish such a great day on such low note, not to mention embarrassed as we made the walk of shame, pushing the 172 down the taxiway by hand.

Well I know now exactly what I need to focus on. That final landing was about as good a lesson as I could ask for. We weren’t hurt but the point of what my current weakness is was driven home. Hopefully the next round will prove to be redemptive.

-IB

After finishing some work on a friend’s RV-7, we decided to fly in to join him and the local EAA chapter 105 BBQ in Parkside, WA. Here are some photos from the evening.

Brett psyched to enter the IMC soup!

Last Sunday, after a full day of working at the airfield, Brett and I decided to fly over to Aurora to meet up with some friends for the evening. Brett wanted to get some IFR time, and the weather looked like it was going to cooperate fully, and by cooperate I mean clouds sitting from 2000ft-8000ft. Brett filed the flightplan, we grabbed the Diamond, and off we went.

We only had patchy clouds to contend with initially, which in the evening light was absolutely gorgeous. This was short lived though, and somewhere over Cascade Locks we took a deep breath and plunged into the solid wall of cloud.  Watching from the right seat this all looked fairly effortless, aside from noticing Brett had become more focused. Communication with Seattle ATC was regular, which I would have found comforting if I was pilot in command.

Just before plunging in...

Approaching Aurora we realized we would have some time before our ride arrived, so Brett decided to fly a missed approach and let me take controls. Previously I had somewhat gotten used to flying somewhat off of feel. In the clouds I had to learn not to trust my internal sense of up and down and put all my focus into the instruments. And it did take all my focus. I can’t yet imagine talking on the radio, or studying a map or approach plan. It was all I could do to maintain altitude within 100 ft and hold a heading or coordinated turn. It really drove home the point that at my level of skills flying into a cloud is no joke.

After 25 minutes of intense focus, Brett took controls again and we landed. Not only was I a bit worked from the effort, but looking up from the panel I ws surprised that adjusting to the visual reference below the clouds was not immediate.

Anyway, even though it was hard work I really enjoyed the engaging nature of the flying. What a cool learning experience.

View of Portland on the return trip

-IB

The sometimes stubborn winter weather allowed for a great last-minute hop over to KBZN the other night.  I was able to blast off from KDLS and gain beautiful VFR-on-top weather with a great tailwind for the trip over.  I was even asked to slow up to follow 3 private jets for the arrival into Bozeman.  Big Sky country is a popular destination for the President’s Day holiday.  Yellowstone Jet Center was accommodating despite my small aircraft compared to a ramp full of Gulfstreams.

I enjoyed an evening with friends and the weather forced me to sleep in a little bit the next day.  By noon I was able to depart VFR and climb again to blue skies above.  Thanks to turbo and oxygen I enjoyed smoother air and ice-free blue skies on top all the way to Lewiston, ID.  I opted for a rest stop and a bathroom break before enjoying a scenic VFR flight down the Columbia River back to The Dalles.  It turns out with a little flexibility in scheduling, even longer cross-country trips can be successful and even routine any time of year.

To bad all the other guys missed such a great concert.

Yesterday we lucked out with a great break in the weather to have a little fun.  We arranged 6 folks in two airplanes and headed off on an adventure.  We took our flight school Diamond DA40, and a Cessna T182RG to the monthly pancake breakfast at Twin Oaks Airpark in Hillsboro (7S3).  The Dalles was high overcast on our departure and we chose to fly the gorge to Troutdale before tuning SW direct to Twin Oaks.  I was flying the DA40 and we made a scenic lap through downtown Portland on the way.  I negotiated with TTD tower first and was granted the north bank transition: This allows us to fly fairly low-level along the north bank of the Columbia, cross PDX at mid-field around 1500′, then proceed directly over the city to our destination.

This event is always popular, but great weather in February brings out a lot more people.  EAA Chapter 105 is the home wing of the Vans Air Force, so there are always plenty of RV’s.  They run one of the smoothest breakfasts around.

After increasing our personal weight & balance we blasted off back home.  This time we chose to hop up on top of the clouds to sneak a peak at the sun and Mt. Hood on the way back.  We capped off the day with the LDA/DME 25 approach and broke out at 2200.  What a neat way to start the weekend.  Thanks to Clint for some great photos!

Some photos… Commentary to follow.
5.1 hours non-stop, great flying, beautiful weather, nice work Travis.

Flying the Northwest is one of the most enjoyable experiences I have encountered in my flying career.  I have been fortunate enough to fly most of the Western states and have seen many forms of the natural beauty it portrays. But geographically, flying the Northwest is tough to beat.
I am a flight instructor based at Columbia Regional Airport (KDLS) and I want to share a flight I went on with two friends in a S35 Beech Bonanza. It was the day after Christmas and we got bored of cleaning up after a Christmas dinner. So what better way to escape the boredom than a aerial tour of the NW?

It was a gloomy afternoon due to the thick overcast clouds overhead, but this was not enough to keep us on the ground. After pre-flight, we started up, taxied and took-off westbound over the Columbia River. We planned on a short odyssey over the Columbia Gorge,  but this quickly turned into a scenic flight to Boeing Field.

Upon reaching Troutdale the skies cleared to unlimited visibility enabling us to see Mt. Hood, Rainer, St. Helens, and Adams; wow what a sight. We picked up flight following and and soon landed 13L at Boeing Field. We bought some charts, visited the restrooms, and climbed back aboard the bird that got us here.

For the flight back we decided we would fly direct to KDLS and shoot the LDA instrument approach into RW 25. 30 minutes out of KDLS I filed IFR so we could legally shoot the approach, which was IMC. After being cleared for the approach we descended into the clouds to begin the approach. This was a “fun” experience for the owner of the aircraft because he has never done one in IMC in his 30 years of VFR flying. We soon had the runway environment in sight and landed just as the day the was turning to dusk.

I can’t say enough about flying the Northwest. This region offers mountainous terrain, dessert, volcanoes,  and ocean views. It is special to have all these qualities in one area. For those of you that haven’t flown here, you’re missing out. Cheers.