1st flight of '05 - Night X-country

"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net wrote in
message ...
1st flight of '05 this past Tuesday night. Weather had been crappy
for days with lots of rain and wind but DUATS was telling me it would
be cleared in time to launch at 6pm for my night X-country. I called
Q about noon to see what he thought and he said it was looking pretty
crappy, but he hadn't checked the weather and to call back in a few
hours.

2 hours later, the radar graphics showed some clearing and a peek
outside at work revealed a few blue spots. FA outlook said VFR for my
area by 6pm so at 4 I called Q, told him it was looking good and I was
coming down. I hit the road about 4:10 and hit virtually no traffic
on the way down and was in the hangar before 5. Not bad for a 43 mile
drive during rush hour. My ship was sitting on the ramp so I ran out
and gave it a preflight before it got dark then went back to the
hangar to push my pencil.

I did my flight plan at work earlier so just had to work up my W&B and
dispatch paperwork. I grabbed my cell phone to call FSS to file my
flight plan and couldn't find it. I figured I'd left it in my truck
so ran out to grab it. Nope, it wasn't there either.. After one
minor temper-tantrum and a few choice words, I found it stuffed in the
pocket of my book bag. (40+ lbs of ground school materials)

I filed my flight plan with the nice folks at the FSS and then filled
out the dispatch board. Q came in to the hangar and informed me I'd
dispatched us in the wrong ship. I told him I didn't think so and the
ship I had all set to go was what was indicated on the schedule when
I'd checked it earlier that afternoon. A quick run to the office to
see WTF was up and I was ready to go.

Conditions were pretty nice, but it was friggin' cold at 6 degrees.
(Yeah, that's cold for us thin blooded So Cal guys) so it was
definitely a doors on flight. While the ship was warming up I opened
my flight plan with the ground controller and was told they'd open it
as soon as I launched.

The windscreen was really fogged up so I got some "IFR" practice as I
held a hover for a min or two and let the windscreen clear up. I
taxied to the hold short line and called for a straight out departure
to the North. I was cleared to take off almost immediately and I
taxied into position, did my final instrument checks and off I went.

I was soon climbing through 1,000' and looking for my 1st checkpoint.
Q asked me what some of the things were I needed to be aware of during
night flight. Spatial disorientation, increased situational
awareness, being aware of bright lights affecting your night vision
etc... The terrain we were headed to was one big patch of utter
blackness and about 10 miles ahead was a 1,600' hill. I climbed to
1,500 and headed to the East of the top of the hill where I knew the
terrain descended pretty quickly (I flew this same route for my solo
X-country) but my pulse definitely quickened as I go nearer. I got a
touch of vertigo as I hit the dark area, but it passed in a few
seconds and a quick look at the gauges told me I was still level, not
turning and still doing 80 knots.

15 miles out was CRQ and I'd planned to go right over the top and
proceed to OKB so I started looking for the beacon. Q found it
within' a couple minutes and even though I live about 3 miles from CRQ
and knew what area I was over and where the filed was, I couldn't see
the beacon for the life of me. I found it by initiating a climb and
finally saw it as I hit 2,200 feet. Called up CRQ and was cleared to
transition their airspace to the North.

I began monitoring OKB's CTAF and about 3 miles out I began
broadcasting my intentions. Q told me OKB was hard to locate in the
dark, but I picked up the threshold lights pretty quick. I was headed
towards the West end of runway 24 and turned East so I could make a
left base turn to the runway. Just as I began to turn base, Q asked
me where the hell I was going. I said "I'm going to land on that
nifty runway over there" as I pointed to his left with my left hand.
The threshold lights were directly at my 9 o'clock and I guess he
mistook something to the Northeast for the airport. Dunno for sure..

In any case, I got turned to final and shot a decent approach to the
numbers but man was my depth perception jacked up. I ended up a
little slow and high towards the very end. The ground was hard to
pick up, even with the landing lights on.. Q had me fly one pattern
and then he took the controls. Q lives pretty close to OKB so he
circled his place trying to get his wife to come out. After a couple
circles with no wife appearance, he gave the controls back to me and I
headed back to CRQ.

I live on the approach end of CRQ so called the tower and asked if I
could loiter over the area for a few minutes - maybe I could get my
wife & kids to come out. My request was approved so I thanked the
controller and told her if they had inbound traffic I'd depart to the
South. I found my house in good time and noticed the wife's car
wasn't in the driveway. Did a couple circles and then headed South
out of CRQ's airspace with another thanks to the controller. Once
clear of their airspace, I headed to the coast and descended to 500'.

The phosphorescence of the foam as the waves broke on the beach was
cool to see from the air but the cold was defeating the heater. My
hands were getting numb and my nose was running pretty good so every
few seconds the intercom would crackle to life as I tried to stem the
flow of snot into my moustache.. heheh

A few minutes after turning southbound at the coast, it began to rain.
Nothing very hard, but it wasn't helping with the raindrops reflecting
instrument lights and the lights on the shore. After about 5 minutes
it stopped and I began to head East to get back to home base. The
rest of the flight was pretty uneventful so Q and I chatted about the
holidays and the few things I need to wrap up before he schedules my
check ride.

7 miles from home base I dial up ATIS, get the info and make my radio
call. I'm cleared all the way in to landing as the only other traffic
is departing to the West and I was pretty much South of the field -
not a factor. The approach to land was weird because all the visual
cues I use during the day weren't visible except for seemingly random
points of light. The taxiway lights looked like a jumbled mess until
I turned base and then I was able to pick my landing spot and make my
approach.

Once down I taxied to the ramp and set the ship down and began the
cool down. I really liked flying at night, but I can see I'm going to
need a LOT of practice before I feel very comfortable navigating over
any significant distances. I've lived in San Diego for over 30 years
so its not hard to figure out where I am during the day. Nighttime is
a whole 'nuther ball game. I'm definitely going to do some more dual
night stuff after my check ride..

I'm also going to bring something heavier than a sweatshirt next time.
Maybe a parka and some heated gloves.. hehehe

You southern softies are all the bloody same:-))

As usual Kev, excellent write-up. Not long to go now eh? Good luck on your
check ride when it happens.

Beav

Happy New Year Kev to you and all your buddies always enjoy your posts
Rod
VK2TWR
"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net wrote in
message ...
1st flight of '05 this past Tuesday night. Weather had been crappy
for days with lots of rain and wind but DUATS was telling me it would
be cleared in time to launch at 6pm for my night X-country. I called
Q about noon to see what he thought and he said it was looking pretty
crappy, but he hadn't checked the weather and to call back in a few
hours.

2 hours later, the radar graphics showed some clearing and a peek
outside at work revealed a few blue spots. FA outlook said VFR for my
area by 6pm so at 4 I called Q, told him it was looking good and I was
coming down. I hit the road about 4:10 and hit virtually no traffic
on the way down and was in the hangar before 5. Not bad for a 43 mile
drive during rush hour. My ship was sitting on the ramp so I ran out
and gave it a preflight before it got dark then went back to the
hangar to push my pencil.

I did my flight plan at work earlier so just had to work up my W&B and
dispatch paperwork. I grabbed my cell phone to call FSS to file my
flight plan and couldn't find it. I figured I'd left it in my truck
so ran out to grab it. Nope, it wasn't there either.. After one
minor temper-tantrum and a few choice words, I found it stuffed in the
pocket of my book bag. (40+ lbs of ground school materials)

I filed my flight plan with the nice folks at the FSS and then filled
out the dispatch board. Q came in to the hangar and informed me I'd
dispatched us in the wrong ship. I told him I didn't think so and the
ship I had all set to go was what was indicated on the schedule when
I'd checked it earlier that afternoon. A quick run to the office to
see WTF was up and I was ready to go.

Conditions were pretty nice, but it was friggin' cold at 6 degrees.
(Yeah, that's cold for us thin blooded So Cal guys) so it was
definitely a doors on flight. While the ship was warming up I opened
my flight plan with the ground controller and was told they'd open it
as soon as I launched.

The windscreen was really fogged up so I got some "IFR" practice as I
held a hover for a min or two and let the windscreen clear up. I
taxied to the hold short line and called for a straight out departure
to the North. I was cleared to take off almost immediately and I
taxied into position, did my final instrument checks and off I went.

I was soon climbing through 1,000' and looking for my 1st checkpoint.
Q asked me what some of the things were I needed to be aware of during
night flight. Spatial disorientation, increased situational
awareness, being aware of bright lights affecting your night vision
etc... The terrain we were headed to was one big patch of utter
blackness and about 10 miles ahead was a 1,600' hill. I climbed to
1,500 and headed to the East of the top of the hill where I knew the
terrain descended pretty quickly (I flew this same route for my solo
X-country) but my pulse definitely quickened as I go nearer. I got a
touch of vertigo as I hit the dark area, but it passed in a few
seconds and a quick look at the gauges told me I was still level, not
turning and still doing 80 knots.

15 miles out was CRQ and I'd planned to go right over the top and
proceed to OKB so I started looking for the beacon. Q found it
within' a couple minutes and even though I live about 3 miles from CRQ
and knew what area I was over and where the filed was, I couldn't see
the beacon for the life of me. I found it by initiating a climb and
finally saw it as I hit 2,200 feet. Called up CRQ and was cleared to
transition their airspace to the North.

I began monitoring OKB's CTAF and about 3 miles out I began
broadcasting my intentions. Q told me OKB was hard to locate in the
dark, but I picked up the threshold lights pretty quick. I was headed
towards the West end of runway 24 and turned East so I could make a
left base turn to the runway. Just as I began to turn base, Q asked
me where the hell I was going. I said "I'm going to land on that
nifty runway over there" as I pointed to his left with my left hand.
The threshold lights were directly at my 9 o'clock and I guess he
mistook something to the Northeast for the airport. Dunno for sure..

In any case, I got turned to final and shot a decent approach to the
numbers but man was my depth perception jacked up. I ended up a
little slow and high towards the very end. The ground was hard to
pick up, even with the landing lights on.. Q had me fly one pattern
and then he took the controls. Q lives pretty close to OKB so he
circled his place trying to get his wife to come out. After a couple
circles with no wife appearance, he gave the controls back to me and I
headed back to CRQ.

I live on the approach end of CRQ so called the tower and asked if I
could loiter over the area for a few minutes - maybe I could get my
wife & kids to come out. My request was approved so I thanked the
controller and told her if they had inbound traffic I'd depart to the
South. I found my house in good time and noticed the wife's car
wasn't in the driveway. Did a couple circles and then headed South
out of CRQ's airspace with another thanks to the controller. Once
clear of their airspace, I headed to the coast and descended to 500'.

The phosphorescence of the foam as the waves broke on the beach was
cool to see from the air but the cold was defeating the heater. My
hands were getting numb and my nose was running pretty good so every
few seconds the intercom would crackle to life as I tried to stem the
flow of snot into my moustache.. heheh

A few minutes after turning southbound at the coast, it began to rain.
Nothing very hard, but it wasn't helping with the raindrops reflecting
instrument lights and the lights on the shore. After about 5 minutes
it stopped and I began to head East to get back to home base. The
rest of the flight was pretty uneventful so Q and I chatted about the
holidays and the few things I need to wrap up before he schedules my
check ride.

7 miles from home base I dial up ATIS, get the info and make my radio
call. I'm cleared all the way in to landing as the only other traffic
is departing to the West and I was pretty much South of the field -
not a factor. The approach to land was weird because all the visual
cues I use during the day weren't visible except for seemingly random
points of light. The taxiway lights looked like a jumbled mess until
I turned base and then I was able to pick my landing spot and make my
approach.

Once down I taxied to the ramp and set the ship down and began the
cool down. I really liked flying at night, but I can see I'm going to
need a LOT of practice before I feel very comfortable navigating over
any significant distances. I've lived in San Diego for over 30 years
so its not hard to figure out where I am during the day. Nighttime is
a whole 'nuther ball game. I'm definitely going to do some more dual
night stuff after my check ride..

I'm also going to bring something heavier than a sweatshirt next time.
Maybe a parka and some heated gloves.. hehehe

"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net wrote in
message ...
1st flight of '05 this past Tuesday night. Weather had been crappy
for days with lots of rain and wind but DUATS was telling me it would
be cleared in time to launch at 6pm for my night X-country. I called
Q about noon to see what he thought and he said it was looking pretty
crappy, but he hadn't checked the weather and to call back in a few
hours.
respectfully snipped

Sounds like you had fun. I've been missing your logs for the last few
weeks!
Got my JAR Class 1 medical next Friday and then it's all systems go for me.
Sell the house, get my J1 visa and enrollment underway and then it's off to
Florida in August to start a year of intense CPL(H) training, and I can't
wait! Just praying the medical goes ok..

Si