Flight to KPSP

Mike contacted me on Thursday, to change the flight plan we had to go to Montgomery Field (KMYF).  He wanted to go to Palm Springs since it's away from the coast and we we do not have to worry about the marine layer in the morning.  So i re planned the flight to go from KVNY, to the sepulveda basin.  Then through Burbank class C airspace to El Monte (KEMT).  To the POM VOR inbound on 080 degree heading.  Once over POM fly the 085 degree outbound heading, to Banning Pass.  This was the TOD (Top of Descent).  I planned us to fly at 5500', as to pass over any busy airspace and since we are going to the east this is the correct altitude.  Then once pass the Banning pass, we would turn to the right towards KPSP.

This morning i called for a flight brief at 8am and they reported IFR along the way, but the marine layer was going to burn off throughout the day.  Our route was right at the edge of the marine layer, so i was informed that we should "Probably" be ok.  But of course as PIC i had to decide.  Once i got to the Van Nuys, the visibility was 3 miles, in haze.  But the route along the flight was very similar.  The marine layer was 900-1500 so it was a shallow marine layer.  So we made the call to continue, as it was warming up and conditions would just be improving from here on out.

During the briefing, mike liked my flight plan, but he brought up a good point.  If we were to fly to the POM VOR as i planned, yes we would be above the Ontario Class C airspace, and we would be legal to fly this, but we would by flying in line with the departure/arrivals into and out of Ontario.  While 500 feet above their airspace, we could do this, but why make it harder for others by being in the way?  Mike asked why i did this.  I had a valid reason, as i did not want to inner fear with the Class C airspace for March Field (KRIV) which comes up to 5500 which is what altitude we were planned to fly at.  I wanted to stay out of this area.  He asked if we were going to get flight following and i said yes. I was planning on contacting clearance delivery on the ground at KVNY.  He told me if we had flight following, we could fly though this.  It was right then i remembered that exact same thing as we would be on with socal departure.  Mike said it comes with experience of areas, but to try and stay away from areas of extreme congestion like the lines to and from a big busy airport.  

This makes total sense.  I cant believe i forgot about that.  So we decided we would fly and have flight following tell us to deviate to the north or south of the field.  We now have our flight plan down and ready to go.  So mike orders a top off of the fuel and i start my preflight.  Preflight takes about 10 minutes and we were ready to go and with full fuel.  I estimated it would take us 55 minutes out there and use 12 gallons of fuel by my calculations taking into considering temperature, density altitude, winds, and climb to altitude. 

I contact Clearance Delivery on 126.6.  "Van Nuys clearance delivery, skyhawk N889LB".  I hear back "889LB clearance delivery go ahead".  I chime in, "Clearance Delivery, 889LB would like to request flight following to Palm Springs, type is 172 slant golf, flying at 5,500".  A second later i hear, "889LB cleared direct to encino reservoir, before turning to Griffith observatory, cleared up to 5 thousand 5 hundred, contact soCal Departure prior to entering class charlie airspace, squawk 4651".  I repeat exactly what i heard, back as i am using the CRAFT acronym.  That is:

C: Clearance

R: Route

A: Altitude

F: Frequency

T: Transponder Code

I contact ground and taxi to the runway.  Perform run up and contact tower for clearance for takeoff.  Within a minute we were up in the air climbing to our 5500' altitude.  When almost to the reservoir, we were handed off to socal departure, who told us, to resume our own navigation, so we did not need to fly to the reservoir and the observatory.  We headed straight for KEMT.  On the way mike wanted to make sure i knew how the Auto Pilot (AP) worked.  Good thing i played with it during the last solo.  So he wanted me to make the AP climb to altitude and keep us on course. Easy.  Press the NAV button on the garmin screen in front of me to center the marker on our heading, set the altitude on the auto pilot unit, turn the AP on.  This sets it to ROL mode that keeps the wings level. I press the ALT button then press it again to bring up the VS setting, set 200 for a 200 FPM climb, then hit ARM, to set and arm the AP to climb to 5500.  Then i press the HDG button to set the AP to track the current highlighted heading.  Done!

We soon reach our set altitude, and now it was just tracking time, from checkpoint to checkpoint.  Recording time, making sure we are on correct speed, course.  Making sure we are hitting our checkpoints.  So far we were only 1 minute off of our time.  We had a ground speed of 114-116 knots, and that's exactly has a figured at 2500 RPMS at 5500 feet.  Right about KEMT we were asked to fly to the north of Ontario, so i made a heading correction using the heading knob.  Once intercepting the 210 freeway, i made another heading change to follow the freeway, and we tracked along the freeway for a little while.  Well away from Ontario.  

A few hand offs to other frequencies, along the trips, but most of the other time was spent, making our location on the map every few landmarks, tracking time, looking for traffic, and monitoring the engine, AP, and ATC.  Alot of sight seeing.  We were told that we would loose reception and to contact approach on the other side of the pass.  The radio then went silent..  Now over Banning (KBNG), we begin our decent.  Banning is about 16 miles away from Palm Springs, and we needed to be at 1500' for the traffic pattern.  We are at 5500 feet.  So 5500 - 1500 = 4000.  4 x 3 = 12.  12 + 3 = 15.  So banning is a good point to start.  We fly between two peaks that go up to 11000 feet.  We follow the highway though, trying to keep a good distance away from each side of the pass.  We begin to see the windmills EVERYWHERE.  They take up so much landscape out there in the pass.

As we descend, we knew before flying into this that the density altitude was high today.  So we did not want to set the mixture to full rich.  We wanted to keep it leaned out just a bit so we did not choke the engine.  Performed the pre landing checklist, and contacted approach who sent us left traffic runway 31.  By the time we got abeam the tower, we received the clearance to land.  Flew a PERFECT pattern.  We touched down a little earlier than i wanted, and we had some excess speed when we touched down.  The plane wanted to stay on the ground though.  No bounce, no hard hit.  It sat down and wanted to stay, but it overall was a 8 out of 10 for a landing, including pattern.  We were off the flight plan by 2 minutes total.  NICE.  We asked for a taxi back because they charge a fee if you get out of the plane.  So we taxied back to runway 31L and were cleared to take off once i ensured no traffic was on final by visual inspection.  

I increase the mixture just a little bit to add a little extra gas to the engine, as we are about to take off, and it's hot so we don't want the engine to get too hot, and we want to give just a little bit more power when taking off.  Hit 55 knots.  Rotate.  We take off but slowly.  Only about 300 FPM climb until we were about 1000' off the ground.  Then it increased drastically.  We were at about 600-700 FPM once we gained some altitude  .  Same as coming in, we were handed off to departure, and told we would loose reception through the pass. Get the other freq ready and just fly while climbing to our cruise of 6500'.  Once over banning we were just about at our cruise.  I contacted socal departure and checked in.  At 6500' i set the AP to ROL and ALT HOLD mode.  

Perform cruise checklist.  I then do some landing math.  Need to determine when to descend to get back to Van Nuys.  About 16 miles out.  Set the plane up, and begin the usual, scan for traffic, scan instruments, follow on map, with tick marks to signify where we are on our route, using visual checkpoints.  Mike told me he was going to be quiet the whole trip and watch me fly back "SAFELY" and "LEGALLY".  So the trip was just talking to ATC, being handed off, tracking position.  I set our course to be to the north of Ontario again, since it would make our trip a little easier.  And it keeps us WELL away from Bravo airspace.  

We were handed off a few time and no real traffic advisories.  We get one half way between Ontario and El Monte.  We could not see the traffic.  So we were asked to climb to 7000'.  So we perform our climb.  Then another traffic advisory.  We were told to keep at 7000 feet.  So i recalculate our decent as we are coming up on KEMT.  7000 - 2000 = 5000.  5x3 = 15.  15 + 5 = 20. KEMT is 23 miles away, so we  begin our descent after KEMT.  We are told to be 3000 or below by the 5 freeway.  So we have to begin a steep descent at 800 - 1000 FPM descent.  While keeping speed at a reasonable range, we were about 1900 RPM's.  We got down to 3000' by the outer shelf of Burbank, on the KEMT side.

Stop our descent at 2500 feet and we were handed off to Burbank.  Burbank turns us north towards the airport, for traffic departing.  They then bring us on the east side of the airport over runway 26.  then turn us to the west over runway 15.  And send us that way over to Van Nuys.  I have never been this way and neither has my instructor, but it was cool.  We flew over by Whiteman (KWHP), before being handed off to Van Nuys.  Contacted Van Nuys and we were cleared to land on runway 16R.  We needed to get down quick as there was someone behind us and someone had a IFR flight plan that only had a window for them to take off.  So we performed almost a short field landing.  Touched right at the numbers, and got off on the second taxiway.  (I didn't want to land it hard and bounce and take up more runway, so i tried to bring it down softly, and slowly).  We got off the runway, and taxied back to Maguire North.  We get cleared to taxi to parking, so we taxi over, get the plane in it's spot.  Tie her down.  Lock her up and walk to the class room for a debriefing.

Mike said overall, awesome flight.  Everything was spot on.  He said the landing at PSP was a little flat and fast, but overall not a bad landing.  He also suggested next time to start the descent a little earlier, so we dont have to descend at 1000 FPM, but he understand the circumstances we had with being Asked to climb to 7000.  But he said other than that, perfect flight, very smooth, the patterns are perfect, and have been perfect since the landings kinda just snapped.  After checking fuel, my flight plan was close.  But we did have a tail wind coming back, and i didn't do a flight plan for coming back.  56 Gallons total in the tanks.  12 there and 12 back is what i figured. We had 35 gallons remaining.  So that tail wind helped to not eat as much fuel and push us there.

Next week i am going out of town and mike will be in New York.  So that works out perfectly.  The weekend after that, i am going into the pattern for 1 or 2 landings with mike to ensure i didn't forget how to land, then a solo to L71.  California City over in the Mohave Desert.  We already flew there once already, so it should be a pretty easy flight.  But this time i will be by myself.