Flight #29 Dual Cross Country to McAllen
Although Tim signed me to do my cross country solo, this dual trip was overall poor.
To begin, despite having prepared a thorough flight plan using AeroPlanner, with visual ckpoints and times along the beach, the weather was heavy clouds going south.. probably 1800 broken and solid. Added to this Tim turned off the GPS which I had also programmed with the flight plan ( a plus ). So there I was trying to dodge clouds very limited visual checkmarks .. and only the Nav's remaining. I first flew west to find VFR and landmarks. Found Hwy 77 and eventually got a fix using one Nav. I blew off my intermediate stops at So Padre & Brownsville.
Worked our way south into McAllen with a crappy landing and 2 hours in the air. Rested about 30 minutes, refueled, filed new flight plan back .. and oh by the way Tim introduced me to my FAA check ride instructor Charlie McDougle ( he didn't seem the least bit interested in me).
Left McAllen taking a radial north doing a fair job holding the radial while working up through a broken layer (base 1500 tops 5000) up to 5500'. Had to climb to 7500' to stay VFR. Finally spotted Hwy 281 and some landmarks along the highway with a lot of help from Tim.
Decending was a little too exciting .. shooting a hole in the clouds .. pulling all the way off the throttle to keep airspeed below redline. Tim suggested doing slow spiral instead but I didn't think I could keep it tite enough to stay VFR. Next time I'll just look for a larger hole.
Once we were under it got turbulent but not too bad. Although I could see the town of Alice I couldn't see the airport .. Tim suggested staying on the VOR radial and sure enough that led me there. Did field flyover, and a 270 turn into a left downwind for 13 .. landing was pretty good. Took another break.
Flight back to Crp uneventful .. Tim setup autopilot and we got a straight in to 13 .. landing was good.
I of course was very disappointed with my inability to use VOR's .. but learned a lot on this trip. Gonna do some mini cross countrys near Crp before attempting the McAllen trip .. and of course continued T&G practice.
Staying on the necessary schedule for my checkride is going to be hard .. the weather today is again very bad with TStorms predicted for the next few days.
To begin, despite having prepared a thorough flight plan using AeroPlanner, with visual ckpoints and times along the beach, the weather was heavy clouds going south.. probably 1800 broken and solid. Added to this Tim turned off the GPS which I had also programmed with the flight plan ( a plus ). So there I was trying to dodge clouds very limited visual checkmarks .. and only the Nav's remaining. I first flew west to find VFR and landmarks. Found Hwy 77 and eventually got a fix using one Nav. I blew off my intermediate stops at So Padre & Brownsville.
Worked our way south into McAllen with a crappy landing and 2 hours in the air. Rested about 30 minutes, refueled, filed new flight plan back .. and oh by the way Tim introduced me to my FAA check ride instructor Charlie McDougle ( he didn't seem the least bit interested in me).
Left McAllen taking a radial north doing a fair job holding the radial while working up through a broken layer (base 1500 tops 5000) up to 5500'. Had to climb to 7500' to stay VFR. Finally spotted Hwy 281 and some landmarks along the highway with a lot of help from Tim.
Decending was a little too exciting .. shooting a hole in the clouds .. pulling all the way off the throttle to keep airspeed below redline. Tim suggested doing slow spiral instead but I didn't think I could keep it tite enough to stay VFR. Next time I'll just look for a larger hole.
Once we were under it got turbulent but not too bad. Although I could see the town of Alice I couldn't see the airport .. Tim suggested staying on the VOR radial and sure enough that led me there. Did field flyover, and a 270 turn into a left downwind for 13 .. landing was pretty good. Took another break.
Flight back to Crp uneventful .. Tim setup autopilot and we got a straight in to 13 .. landing was good.
I of course was very disappointed with my inability to use VOR's .. but learned a lot on this trip. Gonna do some mini cross countrys near Crp before attempting the McAllen trip .. and of course continued T&G practice.
Staying on the necessary schedule for my checkride is going to be hard .. the weather today is again very bad with TStorms predicted for the next few days.
posted by gary mize at 3:17 AM
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