Flight to KAVX (Catalina Island)

This past weekend i flew to Catalina island off the coast of Los Angeles for the first time.  It was a beautiful sight and a beautiful day to be doing this.  I woke up at 7am to get some preflight completed.  We were planned to leave by 10am.  At 9am i called for a weather brief.  It was still IFR conditions when i called, and the person on the other line said that by 10am the fog layer would mostly be burned off.  So i was in hopes he was right.

The flight plan called for us to fly directly to KSMO, then fly on the 132 outbound radial of the SMO VOR.  This brings up right over top of LAX for the LA Special Flight Area.  Normally you can not fly anywhere in this bravo airspace without clearance.  But they have a specifically designed cooridor over LAX so we dont have to fly 50-100 miles out of the way to get over LAX.  We were to fly 3500 feet going southeast until we got to torrance airport, at which time we were to being a steady climb up to 7500, making sure we didn't break into the bravo airspace that was over torrence at 5000'. Then directly to twin harbor at catalina, to enter a 45 degree downwind for right traffic on runway 22.

Before the flight my instructor informed me that most everyone needs to go around once or twice to land, because it's a tricky runway to land on.  Cliffs on each side.  Runway has a up gradient then a hump (Which most pilots think is the end of the runway, according to the many many tire skid marks on that portion of the runway) then goes down another 1000' before the runway ends. So before the flight i was prepaired to go around once or twice to make it.  I kept this in the back of my head.

When i arrived at the airport it was still a little hazy but KVNY was showing VFR conditions and so was LAX, Hawthorne, Torrence, and Avalon.  Weather today was good other than that.  Wind was light and variable.  Clear below 12000.  I had to go to a new rental place this time, as the usual plane N889LB was being used.  So this time we flew N1882S.  Same exact airplane just different tail number.  To start off with we had a few issues.  Pilot seat belt was broken.  After 20 minutes and a pair of pliars we managed to get it working again.

Performed the preflight and all went off without a hitch.  Got into the plane for startup.  Checklist.  Contact ground and request taxi.  We were on the south end of the field and needed to take off from the north end, so we had a 10 minute taxi from one end to the other.  Once we got to the other side, we were the only ones at the airport.  The others in front of us all took off.  So performed the runup, and requested a straight out departure from tower.  "1882S Cleared for takeoff.  Runway 16 right.  At or below 2,500 until the flood basin."  I chimed in with "Cleared for takeoff.  At or below 2,500 for 1882S".  Remembered my runway checklist (Lights, Camera, Action).  Soon thereafter we were airborne.

This departure was pretty easy, got to 2500'.  Hit the flood basin, then climbed to 3500'.  Enough to get over santa monica airspace at 2700'.  At this point i switched to the cooridor traffic CTAF for the special flight area (128.55).  "Cooridor traffic, Skyhawk 82C at 3,500 southeast over santa monica, cooridor traffic".  Then again over LAX.  Then again over the refinery at which time it was time to say "Cooridor traffic, Skyhawk 82S 3,500 southeast over refinery, last call, cooridor traffic.". We then went ahead and tuned the ASOS at KAVX and it stated winds were light and variable.  PERFECT.

Once over torrance we went ahead and initiated a climb to 7,500 since we didnt have any flotation devices.  The 2 options here are fly lower with flotation devices, or fly high enough to glide to either KAVX or back to torrance in case of a engine failure.  I like the idea of more altitude than anything else.  Gives you more time to plan, think, and act in an emergency.  So i quickly opted for this plan.

It was beautiful out over the water.  You could see all the boats in the water.  I wish i would have taken a pic of the view.  Once about half way, we being our descent down to pattern altitude, 2600'.  We were at 7500 and needed to get to practically (for simple math) 2500'.  So 7500 - 2500 = 5000.  5 x 3 = 15.  15 + 3 = 18.  So begin descent 18 miles out.  We descended for about 5 or 6 minutes before we were at pattern alitltude.

There were a few other planes landing at catalina, the CTAF frequency was pretty much non stop.  The entire time of descending im trying to get a big picture of who is where and what are they doing.  We hit twin harbor, and make a turn to the left to enter the pattern.  There happen to be someone a little further out but faster than us, so we allowed them to land first and did a 360 to give him time and distance in front of us.

"Catalina traffic, skyhawk 1882S 5 miles north, inbound for 45, right traffic, runway 22, catalina traffic."  I saw what my instructor meant by it's a scary looking runway.  Sure enough.  Cliffs on both ends, and one on the north end as well.  Once abeam the numbers, power to 1800, flaps to 10.  Prevent balloon.  A few seconds later.  "Catalina Taffic, skyhawk 1882S turning base, runway 22, catalina traffic.".  Another 10 degree of flaps, and a slight power reductions, we were comming in pretty damn close to proper glideslope. "Catalina Traffic, Skyhawk 1882S on final runway 22.  Catalina Traffic"

I read alot of articles that state a strong downdraft right before the runway but i didn't experience that.  I did now understand how the runway looks alot shorter than it really is.  Its tricky because when you turn final, you loose sight of the land, and the water looks far down there.  So i thought we seems a little high, but i didn't make a correction as i knew from downwind to base we were looking perfect.  Once i rolled out on the runway heading. We were right where we needed to be.  I was still ready to go around, as my instructor has drilled into my brain.  But we didn't need to.  Once over the numbers we were only about 20-30 feet above the runway.  So power to idle, nose down, start flare about 10 feet above runway, roundout, flew ground effects, and we settled on the runway like a vase falling gracefully onto pillows.  Very smooth percise landing.

The runway was screwed up.  Bumpy, pot holes, cracks. But it wasnt too difficult to keep the plane under control.  We proceeded to taxi to the parking area, so we could shutdown, get out, stretch our legs, and get something to drink.  When i got out, mike walked over and say "Your the first person i have been here with, that landed on their first time, without a go around.  Congraduations dude."  It made me smile and get a little "Gitty".




Catalina is beautiful even though i was only there for maybe 30 minutes.  We looked at some of the stuff at the airport, paid the $25 landing fee, talked for a bit.  Took some pictures of a sign that says "DO NOT FEED THE SQUIRRELS".  It was a nice 85 degree there with a little breeze.  It was a awesome day to be here considering how hot it was in LA when we left.  (It was 104 when i returned that day to van nuys).  We then got ready to go back to Van Nuys.  This is where the flight became a little tricky.


We departed from Catalina, but got a little scare.  Someone just landed on the runway.  We were first for takeoff, and someone just turned into the downwind leg for runway 22.  I announce "Catalina Traffic, Skyhawk 1882S lining up on runway 22 for straight out departure."  We get lined up, and the person in front, has not left the runway yet.  Then i hear over the ctaf, that the person just turned base for runway 22.  I started to get a little worried.  Then the person on the runway finally turns off, when i hear "Turning Final for runway 22".  I announced "1882S on IMMEDIATE takeoff.". Power to full, yoke back, and right rudder.  We did a soft field takeoff, as the runway was a little screwed up, and i like soft field takeoffs.

We avoided that issue.  Over catalina and doing 360's until we reach 7500' so we can cross the ocean back to mainland.  We need to get to 4500 to go back through the cooridor.  But you have to be careful about the class bravo above torrance at 5000'.  We descended and were at 4500' before we even got the 5000' shelf of LAX airspace.  I had to use the +2/-2 rule for the reciprical of the 132 radial heading.  So 1 + 2 = 3.  3 - 2 = 1.  So we needed to fly on the 312 VOR radial back to the SMO VOR.  (The +2/-2 rule doesnt always work.  But if it doesnt use common sence to find the reciprical.)  Annouced on the cooridor CTAF that we were over the refinery.  Once we did that, someone chimed in that they were over the refinery at 4500 as well.  We frantically start looking to make sure he's not about to come into our cockpit.  He was a few hundred feet behind us.  So we coordinated and he slowed by 3 knots to 120 and we increased speed by 5 knots to 125 knots as to keep a nice distance between us.

Once past LAX, and over smo we annouced the final position annoucnement on the CTAF frequency.  We had to descend, as the burbank 3000' airspace was less that 10 miles away at that point.  We picked up ATIS from KVNY and descended but made sure to stay above SMO's airspace at 2700.  This is where situational awareness can keep you from busting into airspace and being violated.  We descended to 3000' until clear of SMO then descended to 2500, to make it over the mountains going back into the san fernando valley.

We were cleared for right traffic runway 16R at KVNY.  Although controller requested to call our base.  We just got abeam the numbers less than 30 seconds and i hear "82S turn base.".  I turned base and quickly had to pull full flaps, as were were still really high and only lost maybe 200 feet.  So i turn final, and put her into a forward slip the whole way down.  We had a practically slip the entire way to the ground, but we touched right after the numbers, so that was the right plan of action, other than a go around.  We got down successfully and another beautiful landing.  We pull off the runway and taxi back to american.  Park the plane, and go to do our debriefing.

Nothing but compliments on how i handled the plane and my navigation.  Next weekend we are suppose to fly to french valley over by lake elsinore.  Stay turned for the next chapter of my flight training.

Solo Flight

Started this morning on the beautiful day of July 4th 2011.  I woke to do some preflight planning and get weather.  We were scheduled to leave at 9am from KVNY and fly to KOXR to do some landing practice.  My flight instructor likes to shake things up and not keep landing at the same location as to not get complacent.

This was already about 31 hours under my belt.  And i just got the concept of landings.  For some reason it was so hard for me to get it down and understand the concept.  I would round out to high in fear of slamming into the runway, but that would cause us to slam into the runway, since we were 10+ feet off the ground.  Then suddenly a few lessons before this one, it snapped.  Runway made. Power to idle. Let the nose come down and get 5 to 10 feet off the runway. Then start your roundout, then flare, and then land.  Wow.  What a concept.  But it escaped me for some unknown reason. I like hearing the stall horn blare in the background as i fly the ground effects.  I can fly in the ground effect really well.  Its fun.

So i get to the airport at 8:30 and start my pre flight.  Today we were flying the normal N889LB.  A Cessna Skyhawk 172SP G1000 Glass cockpit.  Did my usual preflight. Every thing is optimal this morning.  Wind is light and variable.  No Clouds.  Slight fog layer over the coast, but KOXR is VFR conditions.  Full tank of gas.  Oil 7 quarts.  Unchalked the plane, and we were ready to go.

We got in the plane, and Mike gives me the low down.  "We are going to oxnard.  Going to do pattern work.  You have done this a hundred times, and it's going to be exactly the same today.  Nothing different."  He didn't hint at me soloing today.  Start the plane.  Run through checklist.  Grab Atis information.  Contact ground.  "Van Nuys Ground, Skyhawk 889LB at Maguire North with Oscar".  I hear back, "9LB Taxi to runway 16R via taxiway Alpha".  I reply with the usual.  "Taxi to 16R via Alpha.  9LB".

Taxi to the runup area.  Get the run up complete.  Then switch to 119.3 and contact tower.  "Van Nuys Tower, Skyhawk 889LB holding short of runway 16R at charlie for right crosswind departure.".  A second later. "889LB clear for takeoff runway 16R, at or below 2 thousand 5 hundred, turn cross wind no earlier than flood basin".  I reply.  "Cleared for takeoff runway 16R and Wilco for 889LB".  I turn on to the runway and remember the saying i was tough.  Lights, Camera, Action.  (Turn on strobe and landing lights), (Look out window and make sure you are lined up and ready to go), (Power to full in 3 seconds and go).

55 knots we rotate, and we are airborne.  Today has very little turbulence, and the air is clean and smooth.  She wants to climb like a jet today.  We hit our altitude before we turn crosswind.  Level off at 2500.  As we don't want to break into Burbanks Charlie Airspace.  Over the flood basin we turn right crosswind.  A few moments later we are clear of Charlie and begin to climb to our cruising altitude of 4500.  (ODD man flies east).
This was a flight we have made many many times, so i was use to this flight.  We have used KCMA and KOXR many many times for practice.  After about 15 minutes we contact KOXR and being our decent.  We needed to loose 3500 feet to get to pattern altitude.  Plus it's a straight in approach.  So 12 miles out we being our descent.  (4500 - 1000) = 3500. 3 * 3 = 9.  +3 = 12.  This is what i use to find top of descent.  Current Alt subtract Pattern Altitude.  Take total and just take first number.  Times by 3.  Then add 3.  Gives 12 miles.  Works wonders.

"9LB cleared for option runway 25.".  I have made this approach a hundred times it seemed like.  Landing was perfect.  Flew ground effect about 1 foot off the ground the whole time till we touched.  Raise Flaps and Power to full.  (Make sure to use right rudder or your going into the grass).  We take back off and climb to pattern altitude. We repeat this 3 times.  Each with awesome landings and no issues.  Very stable descents and approaches. On the 4th time we come around and to my surprise.

On Final, Mike announces, "Oxnard Tower, 9LB request full stop landing".  "9LB cleared for landing runway 25".  Mike then climes in, "My legs are cramping we need to stop for a minute.  I need to stretch.  ".  So we land and taxi off.  (Surprisingly there was no one else at the airport.  It was empty.).  We taxi to transient parking, and mike tells me to shut down the motor.

I do and he says "Lets get out and talk about the landings".  I jump out and he remains for a second.  I figure to tell tower that im about to solo, but i paid no attention to him and i figured he was caught up in his wires or seat belt.  He says "Let me see your logbook".  This grabs my attention but i didn't think anything further.  I show him, and he signs it and says "Im going to stretch my legs while you go and do EXACTLY what you just did.  Each time come back around.  Full stop landing, and if i wave you through.  keep going.  If not come over and we will talk.

By this time i have butterfly's in my stomach.  This is the day of all days.  I get nervous, happy, scared, and strong all at once.  He asks if im ready and i nod and say.  Ready as ill ever be.  I got back in.  Did start up   Checklist.  Contact ground, taxi to runway, and perform run up mag check.  Contact tower, and get cleared for take off left closed traffic.  Same as before but when i looked over mike was not there.  I got a HUGE SMILE on my face.  Now with mike gone the plane is light and wants to take off like a rocket.  Jumping into the sky.

Flew the first pattern and once i got airborne the butterfly's and nervousness went away.  As i had to fly a plane, and i had to fly it damn well.  Mike told me to talk to myself and keep repeating what needs to be done.  And more than anything be IN FRONT OF THE AIRPLANE.  So the whole time i was talking to myself like a crazy person.  But it kept me occupied and alert, and on point.  By the time i got abeam the numbers, I was assured this was going to be the best landing yet.  Stable approach and stable pattern make for steady landing.  Came in and touched down.  With the biggest smile on my face.  I have never smiled that big in my life.

The patterns were perfect, the landings were perfect.  All 3.  (Although i bounced just a little on the third landing), but overall.  Very Very pleased with my performance, and the surprise solo.  After all 3 i got out after shutting off the plane, and mike walked over with a smile on his face and his hand extended in a congratulatory manner.   After a short talk he said we needed to get back as the plane needed to go out in 30 minutes.  So we jumped back in, took off and flew back to van nuys.  A very uneventful flight, but a very happy flight.  After all.  I flew a plane all by myself.  Like a big boy.

He had nothing to critique in the debriefing.  He said it was awesome and congratulated me again.  It was a day to remember.  A day i will never forget.  A day burned into my memory.  It is the best feeling in the world!!!  Cant wait to go again!!!