XC To Pinehurst Again.. Auto Pilot and Being Ignored by ATC

Jared Watkins — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The weather really sucks for flying this time of year… I’ve had to cancel four scheduled times in a row because of either storms in the afternoon or very poor visibility in the morning and at night. So it was nice to get back in the air today for another short cross country flight to Pinehurst. At this point I’m just trying to build some XC time.. so I can then start the instrument instruction… but I’m also building confidence in the Archer. This time out.. I made use of the auto pilot for most of the trip and was able to shave time off compared to hand flying the last time. I tried to get flight following.. but I was pretty much ignored by ATC.. Charlotte kept telling me to ‘stand by’ on my initial call on the way out… and Fayetteville terminated following after just a few minutes on the way back. Still.. it was useful to monitor those frequencies.. even if they were not talking to me.. I could hear the guys they were talking to… telling them about traffic that was sometimes me. I had the new experience of being passed directly overhead by small single going much faster than I was… he was in the clouds and less than 1000′ above me.. but I heard him taking to ATC so I knew he was there.. and knew he saw me… still was a weird feeling though. I had to stay at around 2k’ for both flights.. it was hazy and the cloud base was only about 2500′ with no horizon again. Not the best of conditions.. but I’ll take what I can get.

One Year Mark.. First Passenger!

Jared Watkins — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Today marks 1 year since my intro flight with Tyson at Goose Creek… so of course I had to go somewhere if at all possible.. and lucky for me it was. I did my first X-Country flight in about 6 months.. and carried my first non-pilot passenger… and it was even her first time on a small plane. We took the Archer and did a quick trip out to Pinehurst… aka Moore County KSOP. This was the site of my first solo X-C and it’s a nice easy flight… just about due east of 28A and less than an hour in the air. There was no wind today.. very hazy and no horizon.. visibility was only about 5 miles.. with some cloud layers at 5k’. The people at SOP are always nice… we got out and walked around a little.. checked out the FBO before heading back.

The experience of carrying my first real passenger was interesting… I would compare it almost to the way I felt during the checkride… but for different reasons. I found myself making mistakes I don’t usually make.. thinking of something three steps ahead and forgetting to do something right in front of me. It was nothing dangerous… just little things… like forgetting to turn on the landing light even though I was running the prelanding checklist. I know I’ll get more comfortable with this over time… So who’s next to go up?

Cross-Country on The Infinite Unknown

XC To Pinehurst Again.. Auto Pilot and Being Ignored by ATC

One Year Mark.. First Passenger!