This past weekend I did my Long XCountry Solo. It was a wonderful experience, and shows me, that I can be pilot in command and navigate just about anywhere I want with little to no problem. It shows me that on the fly I can come up with other plans of action, and be able to find information quickly and accurately. The morning of my flight, I was planned to go from KVNY, and fly to the FIM VOR, then to the RZS VOR. This would bring me right by Santa Ynez. Then I would fly off the RZS VOR and once at Santa Maria, would turn north and head to the Paso Roblos (KPRB) airport to land. Then I would take back off, and go back to Santa Maria, and land for lunch. Then I would take back off and fly back to RZS -> FIM -> KVNY. Pretty simple and normal flight plan I had for the trip.
There was still some overcast/fog on the route, since it was near the coast. KIZA was forecasting overcast until noon. And my flight was at 10:30. I needed to be back by 4 and my flight was planned to take 1 ½ hour each way with a lunch in there somewhere. So leaving at noon was not going to cut it.Upon talking with mike for my briefing, he had something completely different in mind, but it worked out for the best, because it allowed me to leave for the destination and miss the overcast marine layer completely. He wanted me to go towards Bakersfield and then fly north, then track over west to KPRB, then go to KSMX, and then back to KVNY. This would take me over the desert, which was clear now, and leave more time for the marine layer to dissipate while I was on my way to Paso Roblos. He said to follow the 5 freeway to the grapevine to get over to Bakersfield, and told me I would need to be at 8,500 to clear the mountains there.
I quickly got to work to get a new flight plan in order. My new proposed route would take me from KVNY, to VPLMM (Magic Mountain). Then I would follow the 5 freeway over to the Gorman VOR, then would track from the Gorman VOR to L17 (Taft-Kern Co), then to the AVE VOR, then I would track west to KPRB. This route looks good and promising. I get all the calculations together and show it to mike. He likes it. He suggested I take this route there, and then use my other flight plan for the return route, just reserve it. The new route was 154 NM and had landing at a controlled and uncontrolled airport. It had 3 landings total, and with one of the legs greater than 50 miles as well. This would definitely qualify as the long xcountry trip for the PPL requirements.
Shortly after I get handed the keys and start my preflight inspection. Half way through, mike comes over, we talk for a few minutes, then he tells me to text him at each airport, and when I get back to KVNY, and to call him if I have any questions or issues. He is now gone, and it’s just me, KVNY, and N889LB. During the preflight, we only had 6 quarts of oil, and since this was going to be a long xcountry, I added a quart just to be on the safe side. The plane looked good other than that. I get in and get situated. I purchase a little GoPro type camera so I can film my landings. Only problem is, I mounted it pointed to high up, so in the video you see the top of the propeller, and that’s it. All of the video is like that too. None of it is useful, and you never really see the ground in the video. Even on the landings. So I had to scrap the video, and use the pics that I took. Next trip, I will definitely have it mounted correctly so you can see what I see. Not just blue sky the entire time.
I get cleared for takeoff for a right downwind departure. I get up in the air, and get on the downwind. Mind you I need to stay below 2,500 until out of Burbank airspace. Then I initiate a climb to get up to 8,500 before I get to the mountains. It takes about 15 minutes to get up to 8,500’. As I climb, I contact SoCal Approach and request flight following to KPRB. Write down squawk frequencies, change altimeter, and many other things while im climbing. The trim makes this easy. Trim for 74 knot climb speed, and frequently glance at the airspeed, and vertical speed indicator, along with OUTSIDE. ALWAYS LOOK OUTSIDE!!! This will make it to where you can do other things you need to do, while still in a climb.
Almost to pyramid lake, I get a call from Bakersfield Approach, “Skyhawk 9er lima bravo, are you familiar with the TFR over Gorman currently?” CRAP. I forgot to call for a weather briefing on the new route before I left. CRAP! Now I feel like a moron. I reply, “Uhhh, That’s a negative for 9er lima bravo, was not aware of the TFR”. They give me the details and were nice enough to vector me around the TFR. I look on the G1000 and sure enough, there is the TFR. I almost screwed up. GOOD THING I WAS ON FLIGHT FOLLOWING! They not only give you traffic advisories, they saved me from getting a F16 off my wing. I have to track a bit east to stay out of it, but no problem. Once past I get told to resume own navigation.
So lesson learned there. ALWAYS CALL FOR UPDATED ROUTE BRIEFING. Also, Flight Following is a savior. I love flying with flight following. They have multiple times helped me out as a student pilot, with my cross country trips. The also help to clear you through airspace you would normally need to avoid. They give updated altimeter settings. I think I will always use flight following when in route.
I fly to L17 in no time, using landmarks as references and marking my location on the map. On my way I did a little test situation, where I was lost and did not know where I was. So I used the AVE VOR along with the EHF VOR to find out where it was. I tuned in each VOR, and then moved the OBS knob until I got a reading of from with a centered needle. Then I would note the course and draw that on my map. Then I did the same thing with the other VOR. Within a minute, I can tell that I am roughly on the 196 degree outbound from EHF and the 116 degree outbound from AVE, or at the “TAFTO” intersection. That would put me about 6 miles east of L17.
While flying before I used the VOR’s to find my location, I leaned the engine to 100 degree ROP (Rich of Peak). It took me 3 minutes to get it just right, as I have been reading TONS of articles on leaning the engine and engine ops in general. I didn’t want to hurt the engine, so I feel 100 ROP is a good number to properly cool the engine, give it the needed power just in case, and prevent detonation. I fly the G1000 NAV iii with EGT and CHT for each cylinder. Although the manufacturer recommends 50 LOP (Lean of Peak), I feel uncomfortable going LOP as you lose a little power, and it just doesn’t have the “umph” it should. I would rather run a little rich as well, just in case I descent and forget to set the mixture right away, I don’t want the engine to quit because of the lack of fuel to air ratio. It cost a little more fuel, but you gain additional power, and airspeed from the richer mixture rather than LOP. Back to the flight.
I then get handed off to LA Center. I switch over and make the radio call to check in, and wait with no reply. I wait about 2 or 3 minutes, and then I make another call. “LA Center, Skyhawk 889er lima bravo, with you, 8 thousand 5 hundred”. Then I wait 2 or 3 minutes with no reply again. I then switch back to Bakersfield to verify I have the correct frequency which they verify that I do. I switch back over, and wait 2 or 3 minutes, then make another call. Then I hear some faint, static. I wait another minute, and I hear the crackle of someone saying “lima bravo, how are you hearing this transmission?” I wait a second to make sure it’s for me and no one else, then reply “889er lima bravo, can hear you now, load and clear”. Maybe I was in a bad reception spot, or maybe the radios were weird in that area. But I guess they heard me, I just couldn’t hear them. They advise me they have radar contact and give me the altimeter setting. I continue to fly towards AVE VOR.
Once at AVE, I already have the ASOS for KPRB loaded, and have the current conditions. Runway 19 is in use. I turn towards the airport, and start my descent. I need to lose 6500’ and AVE is 30 miles away from KPRB. So I start the descent once passing over KPRB. But I start a shallow descent. Since I am in no rush I loose altitude. I set the RPM’s back to about 2200 and start a 300-400 FPM descent. I descend for about 5-10 minutes. This gets me to exactly pattern altitude of 1800’ by the time I ready to enter the pattern. I have already been listening to CTAF and have made multiple calls by this time. I enter on the 45 for left traffic runway 19. There were multiple other people in the pattern, yet, I had no trouble getting into the pattern. I announced my position on entry to 45, on downwind, base, and final. The landing here was awesome. Touched right before the 1000’ markers and got off at the 2nd taxiway. I flew in the ground effect for a little before touchdown, and I was a little flat on touchdown, but all in all I will take that as a good, nice, controlled landing.
I taxied back to the active runway 19. Held short for landing traffic, then announce I’m taking position on the runway, and then depart the runway for a straight out departure. I climb up to 5500’ as the trip over to KSMX was not that far. It is only 47 miles from KPSB to KSMX. I chose the altitude as there is a wilderness area that I need to stay 2000’ above and the altitude of that is 3000’. I start to descent when L52 was directly off of my right wing, roughly 15 miles. I needed to lose 4000’ so this seems correct. I contact KSMX 10 miles out and announce I’m inbound for landing. They tell me to advise them when abeam the tower, and to enter right traffic, runway 30. 
There was no one else at the airport. They were quiet, and no aircraft in the pattern. I entered on the 45 on the downwind leg. Advised tower when I was abeam, and I was cleared to land runway 30. I flew a normal pattern, yet the landing was a little wonky. When I landed, it felt like I was bouncing up and down, rapidly, but only an inch or two off the ground. I’m not sure if this was the landing, or maybe the runway surface had a few bumps in it, but it caught me off guard. I do know, I did come in a little steep on this landing, as I had about a 600 FPM descent rate, and had to pull back a little more than normal when flaring to suppress the sink rate. Maybe I did bounce a little a few times while trying to put her down. After the first or second, I started trying to pull back more to prevent the nose wheel from being part of the bounce, but it seemed the elevators did not do anything, as I was already slowed down, and the nose wheel was already on the ground. I taxied off the runway to transient parking, shut her down, and we to get something to eat as I was hungry and my stomach was yelling at me. 
The restaurant at KSMX is pretty good. You need to leave the airport via a gate by the terminal, and then walk into the terminal to get to the restaurant. There is no way to get to it from inside the airport. You cannot walk past a certain point. There is no pedestrian access past the gate to get out of the airport. I got 3 tacos, and some soup. The soup was really good and the tacos were decent. Nothing fancy, but I give it 3 out of 5 stars. Once I was done, I needed to get back into the airport. Luckily there were 2 airport police officers in the restaurant. I advised my waitress I needed to get back into the airport and she informed the police officers. They escorted me into the airport, then back to the plane. I checked fuel, just to monitor how much fuel I had vs. what I had planned for the trip. I did a walk around of the plane, and checked the oil.
Got her started up and back into the air. I asked for a right downwind departure, but they approved me for a left downwind departure. Ok. I was ok with that, as that kept me out of other people’s way. I then returned to my normal flight plan, and navigated via VOR’s to come back to KVNY. On the way there was a layer of smoke from the fire at Agua Dulce that was sitting about the altitude I was at. It then filled the cabin and the smell of fire/smoke/burning was soon very strong. It also cut down on the visibility. I was started to wonder if KVNY would be ok to land at. I turned in the ATIS once I was able to, and got the weather. They still had good visibility and were still VFR. As I was flying I see an aircraft pass in front of me, probably 500’ in front and a hundred feet below me, and it happened out of nowhere after I had become somewhat complacent. Just after that, SoCal approach chimes in and lets me know about the traffic. I could hear some alarm or beeping going off in the background, which is probably the alarm for aircraft that have a separation conflict. I reply and let them know I see the traffic. I wish I would have had more notice though, although I know those guys are busy and FF is a Load Permitting service by ATC.
It took me a little get back into Van Nuys, but I landed and taxied the plane to Maguire north to its home. The landing at KVNY was a nice good landing. Tied her down, got her all locked up, and returned the key to the class room. Upon returning to my house, I called Mike and we talked about the flight and future plans for flights. He was happy with the trip, and was happy it was easy for me to handle. I told him about the radio going out and the plane crossing directly in front of me. He brought up a good point. Even though you’re on FF, your still need to look outside the airplane, as it’s your responsibility to see and avoid traffic and other obstacles. We talked about my next xcountry solo to get me my 10 hours of required solo time. We then talked about the night xcountry that we are doing this upcoming Friday.
We are going to KAPV on Friday weather permitting, on a night xcountry. These will fulfill my night requirements. Once I do the xcountry to L08 (Borrego Valley), that will fulfill my solo requirements. Then it’s brushing up on my skills, and then my check ride shortly thereafter.
More to come soon!
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