Lesson 22 2/16/09

1.9hrs – Night dual cross country

What a very cool experience!

During the taxi out to the runway, we found that the instrument panel lights were inoperable, as was the transponder.

At this point the night cross country to CLS (Centralia – Chehalis) was looking to be a no-go. Turned out that a circuit breaker had popped, but was not extended far enough to have been felt as popped during preflight.

With the last light of the sunset, instrument panel lights aglow, and an operating transponder, we departed Twin Oaks at 6pm with my Heatherle riding back seat (happily she will fly with me again, even after I scared her a bit on the last time), and headed towards CLS, 75nm north.

First up was to open my VFR flight plan, and contact the tower at Hillsboro, since we’d be climbing through their class D airspace. A VFR flight plan is required, but on a cross country flight it's good to have. Basically what it does is help in a search situation if you were not to arrive at your destination by a given time.

Once past Hillsboro, we requested and received flight following, and I began looking for and checking off my check points. Flight following is another tool to add to the safety of a cross country flight. With flight following, ATC will notify you of other traffic in your area, where it is in relation to you, as well as the heading. If the controller's workload is too high, they may not be able to provide flight following for a VFR flight.

The air was smooth, with great visibility, and only a very high and thin broken overcast above. Beautiful for my first night cross country, and about only my fourth in an airplane at night.

The ease of identifying check points, major roads, airports, and other traffic was surprising, as was how far off towns were visible.

We arrived at CLS, and made a straight in approach (no other traffic). I’ve only done a couple of straight in approaches, so fortunately the PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator) let me know from quite a distance out that I was somewhat above the approach path.

With the throttle all the way to idle and all 30 degrees of flaps, I was on the approach path by short final, and made a nice landing off to the left of center (aarrgg).

Along the taxiway, with just the runway lights, a few scattered lights around the airport buildings, and the taxiway reflectors shining in my landing lights, the airport struck me as kind of an eerie place. There was not a soul around in the air or on the ground.

At this point I noticed that the attitude indicator was indicating a climbing turn. Not good when you're level on the ground, and the last I had glanced at it on final, it was good. By the time we taxied back to the departure end, the attitude indicator had returned to normal, and was not an issue for the remainder of the trip. Strange......

We departed CLS, turned south for the trip home, and was again divided between taking in the view, maintaining course, looking for other traffic, and communication.

All too soon it was time to begin our descent to TPA (1200ft) for Twin Oaks.

My first downwind entry was way too tight to the runway, and I made a right 360 to reenter the pattern a bit further out. As a came around, I quickly realized that I was going to need to make another 360. Well, third time’s a charm…

The runway lights at Twin Oaks are spaced some distance from the edge of the runway, making it look wider, and therefore closer, than it truly is (at least for me), so I had to work to get down after turning final, but managed a very nice landing to end the evening.

During this lesson, and looking back, I’ve realized that any communication I need to do beyond CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency used at non-towered airports) needs a lot of work! So many different communications, and so many frequencies…. I think I need a refresher ground lesson on operating all the NAV/COM equipment.

Next up is a mini cross country to Salem for some more class D airspace practice (a lot of nav/com practice as well I’m sure). Then, if all goes as planned, my solo short cross country to S30 (Lebanon). Nervous?....yes