One of my biggest concerns was getting lost. I know that I’m a guy, but now I really had a reason why I couldn’t “stop and ask for directions.” When you are practicing maneuvers, you make several turns and it is easy to get confused. Also, Smyrna and the surrounding area is still largely rural without many landmarks. There is a GPS on board, but you never know when it could fail.
I went to the east so I would know to just go west to get back. Also I made sure to keep the race track (about 6 miles away) in sight.
I did get a chance to take a couple of snapshots from the air. Since I only fly with one hand, I was able to take the pictures with one hand and control the plane with the other. I still needed to focus on flying, so my aim may have not been perfect.
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| Pre-flight |
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| Above the Smyrna Airport |
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| Looks like I'm flying at about 90 knots |
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| Pilot at 2,500 feet |
On my way back, I flew in the direction of the airport. There were two areas next to each other that looked, from a distance, to be wide open cement areas. One was the airport and the other was the Nissan plant. Once over the racetrack, I called ATC for permission to enter their airspace and land. I was given clearance to land on runway 19. Next, I headed in the direction of one of the wide open areas. I flew about 2 miles when ATC instructed me to turn right at 340 (degree 340 on the compass) for runway 19. The direction I was heading was towards the Nissan plant.
No harm was done, and I would have soon realized my error, but I really do appreciate training at a towered airport. Over the last few weeks I have really learned the value of the ATC. I’m not sure what I had expected, but the movies seem to portray pilots and ATC as adversarial. ATC are committed professionals whose number one job is to keep pilots safe. They have very demanding jobs and they do it amazingly well. Aviation of any kind (commercial, military, or general) could never have the excellent safety it does without them. It is nice knowing that there is someone looking out for you when you are all alone.
Next, I performed a touch and go landing. It was a very smooth landing and I was pleased. My plan was to do 3 or 4 of these. During the next take off, I noticed that the plane was not performing as well as it normally does. With one less person in the plane, it should shoot up, but it was a little slow getting up in the air. Then I noticed that I had forgotten to switch my flaps from landing to takeoff. It was easily corrected, and it only took me about 6-7 seconds to notice it, but it did impact my confidence a little. I decided to make my next landing the last and I landed the plane.
Last time I soloed, there was fan fair and celebration. This time I landed the plane and parked it in it spot and walked back to the terminal to pay my rental fee.
After re-reading this blog post, it sounds like I have given the impression that this was a bad flight. It fact, it was really good. It was beautiful, peaceful and fun. I mentioned the couple of minor glitches because, honestly, it was the most eventful parts. Also, I learned more from what goes wrong.
Flight time: Pilot In Command Hours = 1.1
Cost: Plane rental - $126.50, Instructor Fee - $8.00
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