5:30 wakeup. Receding headache. Feeling perpetually behind trying to get out the door. Leaking coffee cup. A text from Mark just before I got to the airport asking my perspective on the current weather reports (decreasing visibility). Then this overhead as I pulled into the parking lot at the airport.
But then this is what it looked like out on the ramp. Pretty nice, eh?
The challenges didn't stop there. iPad not properly loaded (I forgot I had re-installed a dev build of ForeFlight from scratch the night before and hadn't re-downloaded my datasets!). Fuel tanks on the airplane nearly empty. 20 minute wait for the fuel truck. Sprayed with fuel when testing it.
(Had this been a solo flight, I wouldn't have left the house. But with a CFI-I on board, the margin of safety is a little farther out.)
During the preflight, we kept an eye on the sky, watching the clouds and fog. The area around the airport was staying clear, and while there were lots of fluffies out there, we felt it was fine to continue and that we'd see if we could find a good area to practice, as long as it looked like we'd be able to get back to the airport VFR (Mark is CFI-I, of course, so worst case is that he'd have to do the return trip).
Sounds like a boatload of bad omens, doesn't it? Perhaps that boatload was a signal of some kind, but today's flight was still worthwhile for these reasons:
1. Radio work
2. GPS work
3. Seeing those conditions from (sort of) above
4. Another takeoff/landing
5. Interesting movements on the airport
Last night I read and rehearsed the chapters on Class C and D airspace from the book Say again, please. (Austin-Bergstrom is C, Georgetown (where the Cirrus lives) is D.) Jason was the controller for various contacts and I was the pilot. It was very helpful :)
There were two goals for today's flight that were accomplished: all necessary radio work to fly out of and into Austin and basic GPS usage. We had also planned to do foggle work for constant airspeed climbs and descents but conditions prohibited.
Seriously, on to the radio work. I want to replay it to help it stick in my mind.
After the preflight, we cranked up and the first call goes to clearance delivery.
Me: "Austin clearance delivery, Cessna six five two mike alpha, VFR to the southeast training area, two thousand five hundred, with quebec."
Mark: "I don't think they heard you. That was the autopilot button." Grrrrr.... I'm not used to an autopilot button on the yoke yet! There's only ever been the mic! I did it again with the correct button. :)
ACD: "2MA, Austin clearance, standby."
And a few seconds later, ACD: "2MA, maintain VFR at or below three thousand five hundred, contact departure on 127.22, squawk 2403."
Me: "Say again for 652MA." It had come kinda quick and I was just finishing jotting down the frequency when he was done, so I missed the squawk. In retrospect, I should have repeated what I did get and just ask him to "say squawk again, 652MA." He repeated, half a breath more slowly, which did give me a chance to verify that I had the other info correct.
Me: "Maintain VFR at or below 3500, contact departure on 127.22, squawk 2403, 2MA."
ACD: "2MA, readback correct."
And that was that for clearance delivery. I entered 2403 on the transponder, switched the com to ground and put the departure freq in standby, then taxied to spot 1, a huge yellow dot with a 1 in it on the ramp just before the kilo taxiway. At this point, it was time to call Austin ground.
Me: "Austin ground, Cessna 652MA at spot 1 with quebec." (Repeating quebec is not really necessary, but Mark says they almost always verify that you have it at this point so adding it now saves a transmission.)
AG: "2MA, Austin ground. Taxi for runway one seven left via kilo bravo foxtrot."
Me: "17L via K B F, 2MA." (Phonetic, of course.)
And with that we're off and taxiing. Getting to any runway threshold at Austin in a 172 is a nice long straight task, so I used this time to (1) control the airplane to the right place, (2) check instruments, and (3) explore the GPS a little, with things like pulling up the KAUS page and finding frequencies. I got my stuff in the cockpit organized and was comfortable when we pulled into the F run-up area near the threshold for 17L.
I was pretty concerned that my run-up might rock the Southwest flight taxiing behind me. Hee hee hee. Flight controls free and clear, instruments good, 1800 RPM, gauge checks, mag checks, annunciator checks, set everything for take off and taxi to the line. Now to talk to tower. If I had really thought through the order for accessing frequencies, I would have put tower in the standby instead of departure, so I took a sec to get set up with tower active and departure on standby.
Me: "Austin tower, Cessna 652MA, ready to go, 17L." This seemed awkward, or too casual or something. It's stuck in my head. Say again, please gives an example with "ready for takeoff on 17L" which is much more precise.
AT: "2MA, Austin tower, standby."
(This next part of my memory of the exchange is a little fuzzy. I was thinking it happened before we started the taxi, but the offer of help wouldn't have come from ground. It basically went like this...)
AT: "2MA, conditions in the southeast training area are not favorable for VFR. If you get up there and decide to come back, let me know and you can stay in the pattern."
Me: "Roger, thanks, 2MA."
At this point, we were accepting that it was a real possibility that we'd get up there and not leave the pattern, but would at least go for that.
AT: "2MA, Citation on 9 mile final, line up and wait on 17L."
Me: "Line up and wait, 17L, 2MA."
That cleared us onto the runway but did NOT clear us to takeoff. I taxied onto the runway and turned to line up on the centerline, moving as little as possible down the runway so that if/when that Citation came overhead, they'd have plenty of room past us. But 9 miles was pretty far away, and just as I brought us to a stop....
AT: "2MA, cleared for takeoff, 17L, fly heading one three zero." He might have said "cleared to depart" but the message is the same.
Me: "Cleared for takeoff, 17L, will fly heading of 130, 2MA." (Whatever he said to me is what I would have said back.)
Full throttle, right rudder, airspeed is alive, gauges in the green, rotate, fly runway heading while accelerating, around 500 feet turn left to 130. A moment later, ....
AT: "2MA, contact Austin departure. Good day."
Me: "Going to departure, 2MA. Good day."
This is a perfect illustration of anticipating what comes next. We knew departure was next, so it was loaded into the com and required pressing one button to swap to the active frequency. This was easily done while climbing and assessing the clouds that we were immediately faced with. Aviate, navigate, communicate.
Me: "Austin departure, Cessna 652MA, one thousand eight hundred."
AD: 2MA, Austin departure, radar contact, squawk [something different]."
Me: "Squawk [whatever], 2MA." I didn't write that one down, just punched it in.
It is entirely possible at that time that we were only 800', which would be an incredible mistake on my part to have said 1800'. From takeoff to talking to departure to (next) changing heading to maintain VFR to calling it off happened within the span of a couple minutes and we maxed out at 1800', comfortably below the clouds above, comfortably above the fog below, but with no great openings in sight. There was a big heavy blob of cloud hanging a little lower in front of us, so Mark quickly called departure and asked to turn left ten degrees to maintain VFR, and the departure controller responded that the heading change was approved.
Mark and I chatted for a minute about our options and he left it to me, as PIC, to make the call. While I really loved the unique sandwich we were in, I did not (1) see a way to perform maneuvers safely nearby, (2) see a way to unequivocally stay VFR to get to somewhere to perform maneuvers, or (3) have faith that the terminal area would stay clear over the next hour. So I called it off. With that decision, I immediately called departure back.
Me: "Austin departure, 2MA would like to return to the airport because of conditions for full stop." Ordinarily you'd say your position relative to the airport, but I think we were only 6 nm away, were still well within the outer ring, and had only just talked to them (plus it wasn't crazy busy this morning) so it seemed very likely that we'd be on his radar, hardee har har. Had we been farther out, we would have been calling Austin approach.
AD: "2MA, expect left base, runway 17L."
Me: "Expect left base, 17L, 2MA."
We were far enough away and there was enough fog that I couldn't pick out the airport or even the buildings in downtown. Hey! I can use the GPS! It was on the airport page for KAUS, so I punched the direct-to button and viola! Heading to the (center of the) airport. Once I was on heading, I knew I'd need to stay right of that to set up on left base so I focused on maintaining altitude while trying to pick out landmarks. Finally it appeared.
AD: "2MA, contact tower on one two one point zero."
Me: "Going to tower on 121.0, 2MA."
[Switching frequencies...]
Me: "Austin tower, 652MA, one thousand five hundred." Or similar altitude. :)
AT: "2MA, Austin tower, enter left base, cleared to land runway 17L."
Me: "Left base for 17L, cleared to land, 2MA."
There were a few wispy fog-clouds in the pattern, but we stayed clear. I did a fair job of reducing power, slowing, and putting in flaps as we approached base, like unwinding the pattern. I landed us a little long thanks to trying to round out the descent and turning it into an early flare accidentally, but it was fine.
AT: "2MA, taxi on 17L to kilo, then contact ground." This was unexpected, since we could easily have turned off at juliet, though kilo is the straight path back to the FBO.
Me: "Will taxi to kilo then go to ground, 2MA." Mark put the ground frequency into standby. After turning off at kilo and just clearing the runway threshold, Mark prompted me with the call to make.
Me: "Austin ground, 652MA heading to Atlantic." This is another bit that stuck in my brain as wrong. Heading means that number you dial into the DG, not "I'm going to [location]." Stupid! Mark's prompt didn't say "heading to," to I'm not sure why it rolled out of my mouth.
AG: "2MA, Austin ground, taxi to Atlantic."
Me: "Taxiing to Atlantic, 2MA." And thus ended the radio work. Taxi was normal, shutdown was normal except that the checklist doesn't say to turn off the avionics master before pulling the mixture and I forgot to install the control lock but luckily Mark remembered.
The end. Two hours later at work it was overcast and raining. Two hours after that it was partly cloudy and humid as all get out.
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The takeaways:
Every frequency has a discrete purpose. Sometimes the same person will handle several frequencies, but they all each have a purpose and there's an order to calling them. These notes are specifically about Class C. D is simpler.
1. ATIS. The first frequency is just for receiving terminal weather and information, such as taxiways that are closed, bird activity in the area, etc. Zoom out to...
2. Clearance delivery. If you're opening an IFR flight plan you'll get that from clearance delivery. If you're in Class C, you have to be cleared to use the airspace. For VFR, this means giving them a heads-up for what you want to do and getting a transponder code (so they can track you) and permission. Zoom out to...
3. Ground. Ground controls all aircraft in the movement area. You can taxi around the ramp all you want without talking to anyone, but (for departure) to cross into a taxiway or runway you need permission from ground. After landing as soon as you get off the runway, you need to stop and talk to ground about your movements. They're the eye on the airport coordinating ground traffic -- including aircraft, trucks, mowers, and so forth. They have jurisdiction from the ramp to the runway threshold. Zoom out to...
4. Tower. Tower is in charge of the runway and taxiways between runways. They sequence aircraft for spacing and choreograph takeoffs and landings. As soon as you're on your way and safely on the heading they give you for departure, they hand you off to departure. Zoom out to...
5. Departure: This is the eye in the sky that helps get you through the Class C airspace in the direction you want to go. They control outbound aircraft in the ring spanning 10-20 nm from the airport center. Zoom out to...
6. Center: We haven't talked to center for these local VFR flights, but on an IFR flight you're constantly someone's responsibility, and after departure it's center. Sometimes you go to other approach controllers along the way, but center helps out with big regions. Max zoom achieved! Zoom in to....
7. Approach: The opposite of departure, they control inbound or transitioning aircraft within the ring. Zoom in to...
8. Tower. Zoom in to...
9. Ground. Zoom in to...
10. UNICOM. Maybe you need to call for fuel or a car. This is basically just a local call to the FBO/GA terminal for non-flight assistance.
The other takeaway is that there's a pattern. Up until flying the past two weeks out of Austin, I've only ever used CTAF (except the two requisite towered-field ops during PPL training ten years ago), which I can do with great ease. These different frequencies and how to talk have seemed very cryptic, but not only does each have a purpose (that greatly narrows what you say and why), there's also a pattern! Generally speaking, "who, who, where, what." Just like CTAF. Sometimes you leave parts out. Sometimes you end with the information identifier. But generally speaking, that's how you generally speak. Now that I get that, it'll be easier to become proficient. Whew.
