Solo 10: Towered airport

Goals:

• Land at a towered airport (PHF) solo.

Flight:
To help assuage some of my gooberness about planning, I decided during lunch at 11:30 that I'd go for a quick flight, just to land at PHF for the first time by myself and come back. PHF is 12 nm away, so it ought to be quite doable without much planning since this is my local area and also without missing too much work. (Husband (a.k.a., my Boss) is out of the office today for a business meeting, so shhh... don't tell him I was playing hookie!) I had gone home for lunch, so as I left I grabbed the sectional (which was out this morning for my continued planning of the Wednesday x-c) and threw my flight bag in the back seat.

I popped back into the office to check for TFRs and do a check of the weather on the way to the airport. The PHF TAF put the winds at 9 kts for the next 2 hours, mostly down the runway at both JGG and PHFj, and the JGG METAR was showing 5 kts at the moment. Well, not much for crosswind practice, but within my endorsed limits. No TFRs, no relevant NOTAMs. Cool. Aside from returning to the office after making it halfway to the airport because of the realization that I didn't have the PHF plate or airport diagram, everything went as normal through engine crank.

At engine crank, I realized that I hadn't removed the chocks. Crud. Inconvenient for being alone. Mixture to idle-cutoff, hop out, remove chocks, hop in, go through the whole pre-crank checklist again just to be sure... Ok, good to go.

So I dialed in the AWOS. 290@12. Hmmm. My logbook endorsement says up to 10 kt crosswind component, but doesn't say max wind; the older endorsement was a limit of 10 kt winds with 5 kt x/w. 12 kts at 290 means way more headwind than crosswind for departure from 31, so I figured it would be ok but was still hesitant. While I was trying to make up my mind, the AWOS loop started again, and a new report came out just then that said 290@10. Well that was no problem no matter how you looked at it.

Taxi, short-field takeoff, departure to the west to avoid the school, then north to skirt the FAF Class D and fly down the peninsula to PHF. A plane inbound for JGG asked me for location info as I was reaching my cruise altitude of 2500', and I responded with that and a location 5 nm north of the field moving east. Once I found I-64, I followed it southeast toward PHF. Staying on the northern side of I-64 would keep me clear of FAF the whole way down.

At 8 miles out, I dialed in the ATIS and got information Papa; winds at 8 kts with runways 25 and 20 in use. At 7 miles out, I called the Newport News Tower and I think made a good contact, saying that I was at 2500' 7 miles northwest of the field inbound for landing with information Papa. The lady controller told me to set up for a straight-in approach for 20 and report a 2-mile final.

Hmmmmm... I haven't done a straight-in approach before, and given my crappy skills at judging distances, I was a little unsure about doing my procedures for airspeed reduction and flaps and whatnot. Plus, if the descent here was as bumpy as the ascent from JGG, I could expect to be busy with wing-levelling tasks, too. Since 20 is 6500' long, I resolved to feel it out and err on the high side.

Using the GPS to tell me when I was at 2 miles out, I called to report that, then put out 10 degrees of flaps and began descending from 1000'. I didn't hear anything for a little while, and when I got down to 500' and hadn't been cleared to land yet, I prepared to call and remind her that I was getting there. Before I could do that, however, she called and cleared someone else to land on 25 and told me I was #2 for landing on 25.

Whoa. Wait. What?!?!!?!

I immediately called and said that I was on short final for 20 and please advise. She said to do a right 360 for spacing. Aw, crap. 85 mph, 10 degrees of flaps, 400'. I got really nervous. Here goes.... Power in, carb heat in, slight right bank to avoid the runway (was that necessary?), level, speed up, leave flaps alone, climb and turn. And there was the turbulence. Dammit. As I got to ~270 degrees of the turn and had searched unsuccessfully for this other traffic, I called again and asked the tower to confirm that I was supposed to land 20. She confirmed 20 and said I was cleared to land. I guess that either she misspoke earlier or I misheard, but if that was the case it surely wasn't for lack of listening!

I repeated the clearance and struggled to get back toward centerline after having overshot it dramatically coming out of the 360. I was recentered with plenty of short-final to spare, and put out another notch of flaps to get down. Just as I was about to touch down, a gust grabbed me and pushed my right wing up. I tried to level with the ailerons and preserve a straight-ahead track with rudder, and mere split seconds later touched down. The nosewheel was pointed off to the right, so to the right 388 went. I straightened it out quickly and came to a stop as soon as possible.

Ugh. I guess she was letting someone land on 25 and giving them time to be safely down without threatening my runway before clearing me to land.

Now I didn't know what to do. I hadn't looked up the answer to my question from Friday's lesson: Can I turn off the runway at a towered airport on any taxiway I like? Well, I figured that doing nothing until instructed was better than possibly breaking the rules, so I called the tower, told her I was a student and requested instructions.

The lady controller, who had been nice and patient with me so far, continued being nice and patient but started talking reaaaallllllyyyy ssslloooooowwwwllly. I will try my best never to have to tell them I'm a student again (I will if I need to, but this was torture!). I had stopped just short of taxiway Delta, and she said, nice and slow and clear, "Take the taxiway to your right." Oh I just sank a little. She didn't even call it by its name, she just gave me the most fundamental -- and nearly impossible to screw up -- directions. I replied that I'd take taxiway Delta, then cleared the runway.

As I was rolling off the runway, she called again.

NNT: "November 388, where would you like to go?"
388: "388 would like to taxi for departure to the west back to Williamsburg."
NNT: "November 388, take taxiway Alpha for Runway 20."
388: "Taxiway Alpha for 20 for 388."

Then I sat there for a moment to clean up the plane, as I typically do right after clearing the runway. After maybe 15 seconds, she called again.

NNT: "November 388, taxiway Alpha is to your right."

Oh come on! I could see the signs, I had my taxiway diagram, I knew what to do, I just needed a sec to finish up my checklist! There were no other planes landing or in the pattern, and it wouldn't have made any sense for any departing planes to come through my little taxi spot, so I don't think she was hurrying me... Oh to be branded a student! :)

388: "Roger, 388 will take taxiway Alpha to 20."

By then I was done with the cleanup, so I throttled up and headed up to 20. I positioned myself in place behind the hold-short line for 20 and did the departure checklist before calling the tower.

388: "NNT, 388 is holding short of 20 and is ready for departure."
NNT: "November 388, hold short for traffic."
388: "388 is holding short."

During this time, a Gulfstream landed on 25 and taxied across to Rick Aviation. He was on Delta when he called the tower. (I don't remember his tail number so I'll call him GS.)

GS: "NNT, GS, understand cleared to cross 20."
NNT: "GS, affirmative."

Then a few seconds later...

GS: "NNT, GS, be advised that your wind advisories may be wrong if you're using the midfield windsock. A red hawk has been sitting on the sock since we came in."
NNT: "Oooh, pretty."

Argh.

NNT: "November 388, cleared for departure, runway 20."
388: "388 is cleared for departure, runway 20."

And away I went. Actually kinda glad to be leaving that whole experience behind. As I got out over the river, I called the tower and advised that I was leaving her airspace. She approved a frequency change, I repeated and g'day'ed her.

On the sectional I located the FAF CTAF and decided I'd do the same as Chuck and I had done last Friday by advising that we'd transition the area above their airspace. I plugged it into the standby position, swapped the frequencies and announced:

388: "Felker Tower, Skyhawk 35388 is departing Newport News airspace en route to Williamsburg and will overfly your airspace at 2700' over the dead fleet, Felker."
NNT: "November 35388, NNT, check frequencies, frequency change approved."

Urgh. I imagine she released her mike and muttered to a coworker, "Stupid student."

388: "Thanks, and my apologies."

I looked at the radio and sure enough, I had NNT's frequency of 118.7 in BOTH positions on the com. How'd that happen? I checked the sectional again, and that was the problem -- I had misread it. PHF's info is directly under the FAF airspace, and the FAF info is below and farther to the left.

With the correct frequency dialed in, I repeated the advisory to Fort Eustis (Felker).

FAF: "Aircraft calling Felker, repeat callsign."
388: "35388."
FAF: "35388, repeat altitude."
388: "Two thousand, seven hundred."
FAF: "35388, you are above my airspace. If you need traffic advisories contact Norfolk approach."
388: "Roger, thanks."

This guy sounded peeved that I had bothered him. There was nothing else going on on the frequency, but whatever. Maybe he was doing something else, and yeah, it wasn't necessary for me to call him. Whatever.

Up near the bend in the river, I started to descend, and looked around to see where I'd go if the engine had trouble. Very few choices: Power station to the left with lines crossing most of the fields; Army land to the right that I'd use if it really was an emergency but really would rather not; river and woods ahead. From 2700', perhaps I would have made the Colonial Parkway area, but the wind was out of the west and that wasn't good. A fun time at Fort Eustis it would have to be... should it be needed.

Luckily the engine didn't fail. I dialed in the JGG AWOS and it said winds 270@8 with max gusts of 15. Oh crap. That's not what I want to hear. Me no likey gusts. A little anxious, I continued to descend over the water to about 1200', and listened to the AWOS again. It had changed, and now was saying 270@8, no gusts. Well, ok, but I was still apprehensive as I turned onto the 45 for left downwind for 31. The pattern was mostly normal, with the exception of crabbing on downwind to avoid being pushed into the airport. I anticipated a shorter base, and so chose to extend my final a little to be sure I'd have time to set flaps and slow down. That part of the planning worked out well. I was a little hot coming over the threshold, and so floated a bit and then bounced once, but the wrestling I was doing with that wind had the majority of my attention.

I can't help but be reminded of my first solo. I don't think I've flown in gusty conditions since then. And I still don't like it.

Discussion:

1. Talkie talkie: I feel really good about talking to the tower. Yes, it was painful once she started treating me like a student, but the parts leading up to that were good. When in doubt, I asked for confirmation. When the unexpected was happening, I piped up and requested advice. Other than the frequency change fiasco upon departing PHF, it really went well.
   
   In retrospect I am actually laughing at how she was talking to me. Whenever possible and safe I will avoid disclosing my status in the future!


2. Straight-in approach: Needs practice, obviously. I'll have to figure out or learn from someone how a "normal" straight-in approach is executed.


3. The value of planning: I didn't plan, deliberately, beyond having the basics. Check TFRs, wx, NOTAMs. Take a sectional. On the way over, though, in thinking about the flight, I knew I'd want the PHF plate and taxiway diagram. Ok, turn around and get them. If I had spent 5 minutes planning that flight, I would also have made my customary note card with the frequencies I'd be using, and would probably have avoided the PHF/FAF mix-up, although fundamentally that was nothing more than a mistake; still, one that could have been avoided. It was fine, I had everything I needed, but my normal anal preflight planning would have made it more organized. Shame on me.


4. Judgment: Do you think I made the right call based on the winds AWOS reported before I left the parking spot?
   
   (1) I'll have to ask Chuck so I'm entirely clear on just what the logbook endorsement means, but I believe that going up did conform to the endorsement; the AWOS report at departure time was 290@10, well under the 10 kt x/w limit.
   
   (2) Moments before the AWOS report was different, and it was questionable whether it exceeded my legal allowable limits. Despite the fact that the current report was within limits, should I have considered that another change, potentially for the worse, could happen before I got back to land at JGG?
   
   (3) What if that inbound-for-JGG report of 15-kt gusts had continued until I was ready to land? Should I have diverted to West Point or back to PHF? Would I expect it to be any better at those locations? I bet I could pick up their AWOS/ATIS from the air around JGG, but what if I couldn't? I know there's such a thing as Flight Watch, but how would I talk to them and would this be a reasonable thing to call about? Even though the AWOS report did improve by the time I was near the pattern, it had obviously continued changing since I departed and would it continue to change over the next few minutes during my approach?

Self-Assessment: Talking with ATC was decent; not verbose, good inclusion of information, good reactions. I feel good about that. Most everything else on the day, though, I don't feel good about.

Flying
• Preflight, taxiing, normal/short-field/soft-field takeoff: Good.
• Maintaining airspeed, stalls, slow flight (VR/IR), maintain/change attitude/altitude/heading by instruments: Good.
• Recover attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Acceptable.
• Forced landing: Good, need more practice.
• Forward slip:: Dunno, needs more practice.
• Pattern, normal landing, directional control after landing: Good.
• Radio work: Ok, needs practice.
• Crosswind landing: Improved.
• Short-field/soft-field landing: Improved.

Navigating
• ADF: Okay for an intro, needs practice.
• VOR: Needs practice.

Next: Wednesday, 10 am, solo x-c.

• Talk with FSS and use flight-following.
• Practicing everything.

Hours logged this flight: 1.0
Hours logged total: 31.9
Instrument hours logged this lesson: 0
Instrument Hours logged total: 1.3
Take-offs and landings this flight: 2
Take-offs and landings total: 86 (this number seems wrong... must check logbook)
PIC hours total:: 8.8