Cross Country Part IV

I believe I can wrap up this adventure with this last installment. Having never been a woman of few words, I know I'm dragging out this experience but it's been great for me to reinforce all that I've learned. So where was I....?

Oh, yeah, Oklahoma. After another very short night's sleep it was time to continue on to the Air Race Classic Terminus in Mobile, AL. I called the weather briefers again and received the news that the way was MOSTLY clear, except for a couple of isolated thunderstorms along our route and some low ceilings about 2/3 of the way to our destination. Rather than mess with dodging these clouds later and perhaps running late (we wanted to get to KBFM before The Racing Aces did to record their arrival), I filed an IFR flight plan and left for the airport so we could take off at 6am.

Low clouds ahead

All in all, I'm sorry to say that it was a non-eventful flight. Wait. That's a good thing, right? Those cells showed up on the Garmin Aera right as scheduled and I requested a slight deviation from ATC to go around them (though I was suspiciously sure that the cells were purposely moving into our direction of travel). The low ceilings appeared just as predicted, but we were well above them and they didn't impact our flight at all. We passed them by in due time and it was clear and a million by the time we got to the Mobile area. All the way over there was a T-6 Texan following us on the frequency. And I do mean Texan. The pilot had quite a drawl!

"The North American T-6 Texan was known as "the pilot maker" because of its important role in preparing pilots for combat. Derived from the 1935 North American NA-16 prototype, a cantilever low-wing monoplane, the Texan filled the need for a basic combat trainer during WW II and beyond." Since  I made it to KBFM first, we taxied off the runway and turned on the parallel taxiway just as we heard the T-6s request and approval for it from tower. Don't know why and don't care, but the Texan did a low pass blowing smoke down the runway. Love it.

Jasmine and I unloaded all of our gear and prepared for the arrival of the Racing Aces. Their Husky was the only taildragger to finish the race this year, as apparently the Maule that was also entered unfortunately had engine trouble along the way. Also awaiting their arrival was Katherine, the young lady from the Mobile, AL, Boys and Girls Club that was paired with them for the Race. The racers all had to turn in their keys and their GPS trackers and are not allowed to mess with their airplanes until given the OK from the judges. At this point the racers were on their own again, for socializing, touristing, eating, sleeping, shopping, etc.  I heard from quite a few people that the active Facebook page not seen before the 2011 Air Race helped facilitate a greater sense of camaraderie among the racers. There was no shortage of pal-ling around!

Though I'm not officially a part of the Race,  I did make Saturday's Extravaganza for the Racers and their partner girls at the USS Alabama Battleship and Aviation Museum. These were the girls I gave a presentation to back in March. It was wonderful to see the girls so excited about interacting with the Racers! Inger Anderson of the B&G Club and Terry Carbonell of the ARC did a wonderful job bringing everyone together. I can't help believing that many young lives have been impacted by the relationships developed between the women and girls and definitely plan to have a role again next year in giving the presentation at the Terminus stop in the Cincinnati, OH, area. I appreciate the support I received from the other Racers for Girls With Wings and hope to have an increased role in the future. Even though I have no idea what the future holds for me, I know the Air Race Classic has incredible events planned for the kids next year.

Racing Aces getting their certificates

All in all, I am completely overjoyed to have been able to participate in the race with the Racing Aces, even if in a limited way and in several different capacities. It has been a crazy time for me since February when I left Ohio for the Women in Aviation conference and I have hardly been back since. I've been simultaneously keeping Girls With Wings going while working on my CFI and I know there are quite a few people that have been craving more of my attention. I am trying.

The planning for the Race took initially longer than it would for someone more familiar with this type of flying, but I am much more comfortable with it now (now to find some kind of income doing the same!). It will soon be time to put this all aside: I am returning the 182 to the Flight School tomorrow - after I give it a bath, of course, and will immediately be on my way to Houston to complete the CFI training and schedule the checkride. This absolutely must be completed before Oshkosh the last week in July or I will likely never get it done as new events and tasks will come rolling around in August. Do not be surprised if you don't hear from me until it's done. I will report my success [fingers crossed] here as soon as it's a reality!

Cross Country Part III

In the last blog entry I talked about the middle portion of my Air Race Classic adventure. We had made it to Rawlins, WY, and needed to cross the country again, this time to the Terminus in Mobile, AL. Originally Jasmine and I needed to make the trip in one day - over 10 hours of flight time! However, because of the changes made in the race we had two days to make the trip.The Racing Aces recommended we stop halfway, at Tulsa, OK, to rest and refuel. I'm good with that.

I woke up early early to start calling 1-800-WX BRIEF.  This number enables pilots to talk to "Air Traffic Control Specialists assigned to Lockheed Martin Flight Services, certified by the National Weather Service (NWS) as Pilot Weather Briefers. Pilot Weather Briefers are authorized to translate and interpret available NWS products describing the enroute and destination weather. The leading contributing factor to general aviation accidents is weather. Pilot Weather Briefers are trained to help you avoid dangerous situations." There's a really great page from Flight Training magazine that includes all that Flight Service offers, but let me sum up: it is the best way (supposing you've done a little bit of research in advance) to get a good overview of the weather situation along your route of flight. Plus they can tell you all of the NOTAMs (discussed previously) and TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions) that violation of can put your license at risk. And it's a real person. Ask for clarification on that turbulence forecast, and they can tell you whether it's going to be a factor for you or not.

I wanted to get up and going as soon as the sun came up to take advantage of the lighter winds and smoother skies that are more common first thing in the morning but the FBO didn't actually open til 7am. I still got up before dawn. I'm much more of a morning person. As I was listening to the briefer tell me how it was clear it was at RWL, I was also looking out of my westerly facing window at the dark ominous storm clouds rolling in from that direction. They were currently caught up by the mountains on that side of the airport but I knew they were coming eventually. I got a hold of Jasmine and we departed the hotel for the airport as a light rain started falling.

I should have taken pictures of what I was looking at, but I was trying too hard to interpret the clouds around the airport. The current weather at the airport was still saying clear, but there were definitely clouds all around. I filed an IFR flight plan, but I feared that we'd have to climb too high to get seen on radar and as a result get caught in the bumps that usually exist in such cloud formations. No way I could have gotten on top of them. I looked to my right and my left but never did see another flight crew member to help me make a decision as I was used to. So on my own I determined we could fly to the east, under the clouds, and get out that way. Conveniently in my intended direction of travel. But I was never going to get anywhere unless I took off! C'mon, Lynda, make a decision already!

Sure enough, it was pretty clear after takeoff that we'd have NO problem getting out of there to the east. Not only that, it was a much smoother flight at the lower altitude than what we flew up higher on the way in! Interestingly enough, though, when I checked in on the Denver Center ATC frequency for radar advisories, the controller started asking me about the IFR Flight Plan I had filed. Panicked, I was thinking, oh, no, what did I forget? I didn't activate it, so why were they looking for me?? A CFI friend says that's just the conscientious controller keeping an eye out for folks flying out of the Rockies. Nice, but still raised my BP a bit!

And just like that, we were on our way to Tulsa, OK, at 7500 feet. It was so neat to see the rocky terrain change to farmland and go from grey to brown to green. We even flew right past one of the Air Race stops, Great Bend, KS. I really feel that on this leg a growing comfort level  in the airplane. My "cone of understanding" was growing, as I had more time and ability to look around and observe all that was going on, playing around with power settings and leaning the engine. Especially since I had a challenge on this leg. I wanted to take off from Rawlins with the least fuel load to be at the lightest weight for the best performance in the mountains, where climb performance can be an issue. But I also wanted to be able to make Tulsa nonstop.

The problem is that the fuel quantity indicators in airplanes are only required to read correctly at 2 different fuel levels: Full and empty. So even though the fuel was showing sufficient, I still had some hesitation about trusting them. I kept recalculating, trying to determine if I should preemptively land to get more fuel. It would be a bit wasteful if I didn't need to land, get gas and take back off again if I already had enough on board. Should I? Shouldn't I? I was trying to recalibrate my brain. Used to seeing a fuel flow in the hundreds of gallons (we actually use pounds of jet fuel usually) per hour in the jet, the C182 burns about 11 gallons per hour. With over 20 gallons remaining, I still had two hours easily. But, I was thinking, if you run out of gas in an airplane you just don't coast to the side of the road. And we pilots are ALWAYS hearing about "fuel starvation" accidents where a pilot ran out of gas and has to land in an emergency situation...

...but it was no problem. Just to make sure, when I landed at Tulsa, I checked the tanks myself. Since the fuel gauges are so inaccurate, the best way to check the tanks is to use one of these. Stick it in the tank, hold your finger over the end, and the fuel level will be indicated on this gauge. Turns out I had TWICE the fuel load required by the Federal Aviation Regulations. I only needed to have a half hour of fuel (6 gallons) for this day flight and I had over twelve. However, in all honesty, did I feel real comfortable with that? Not so much. Especially since I wasn't very familiar with that airplane and with how accurate the gauges were. I'm now beginning to understand why my friends who are pilots are SO conservative on their fuel burn rates.

Frankly, even though at this point it was still early afternoon, I am done for the day. A couple of pre-4 am wakeups followed by hours and hours sitting in a gently rocking airplane under the hot sun was working me over.  Time to plan for tomorrow's KTUL to KBFM flight...

Cross Country Part II

In my last blog entry I talked about the cross country flying that I'm doing in conjunction with the Air Race Classic thanks to The Racing Aces, who have recently announced they have raised over $14,000 for Girls With Wings. Yeah, that's right.  I cannot thank The Racing Aces - Dianna Stanger and Victoria Holt, for their amazing generosity, as well as their sponsors:

• Electro Methods, Jet Engine Parts Manufacturer;  
• Formosa Plastics, A global leader in petrochemicals, plastics and a variety of other industries; 
• International Bank of Commerce, We Do More so you can do more online; 
• Ladd Gardner Aviation Insurance Agency, Inc, Insurance, Financing & Sales;   
• Lightspeed Aviation, ANR, Passive and In-The-Ear Pilot Headsets; 
• The Port Lavaca Wave, Calhoun County’s Newspaper, As Constant As The Waves – Since 1890 
• and David Hinckly.

As I was mentioned previously, the Air Race Classic was delayed by a day because of weather. There was a low pressure system just stuck over Iowa. To the left is a schematic representation of flow around a low-pressure area in the Northern hemisphere. Wind is initially accelerated from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. This is due to density (or temperature and moisture) differences between two air masses. The pressure-gradient force is represented by blue arrows, the Coriolis acceleration (always perpendicular to the velocity) by red arrows.  A low pressure area is commonly associated with inclement weather, while high pressure area is associated with light winds and fair skies. Said low pressure system was right over IA, with the strongest storms to our north and west - where the first stops were. And it wasn't moving any time soon.

The decision to delay the race by a day led into a plan to have everyone relocate to Alliance, NE, to resume the race. Everyone was left to their own devices, as long as they got there by noon. KIOW to KAIA was over 500 miles and many of the racers decided to go either halfway, or divert way south around the weather system, or, as we did, wait until morning.  Jasmine and I met Dianna and Victoria at the airport and after they left (Jasmine is their PR person), we departed IFR. On an IFR flight plan. So what, you say?

Citation X Panel

What's so significant about my filing an IFR Flight Plan? (For IFR flights, flight plans are used by air traffic control to initiate tracking and routing services. For VFR flights, their only purpose is to provide needed information should search and rescue operations be required, or for use by air traffic control when flying in a "Special Flight Rules Area") I mean, I used to fly IFR all the time. However, I haven't flown IFR (other than an Instrument Proficiency Check) since I got furloughed a year and a half ago. And this time I was flying through the clouds, not facing a huge avionics panel as shown above, but a big blank space.

Cessna 182 Panel

Since I'm training to be a Flight Instructor, I've been flying the whole route from the right seat so that when I return from this trip I'll be ready to wrap up that durn checkride. So I guess I didn't really think through having to lean over to see the instruments. Jasmine, I should mention, is not a pilot. That blue middle round gauge on the top row? That's the attitude indicator, or artificial horizon. Since we fly an airplane in relationship to the horizon (nose above the horizon = climb, wing below the horizon = turn), something had to be done for us to fly through the clouds. Eureka. You can see the difference between the two panels. On the X panel you can just barely see the standby attitude indicator on the upper left. It's the third one of three. Used for emergencies. So it took a lot of concentration for me to climb through the clouds - luckily ending up on top of the layers of white stuff.

May I add, it was fuh-reezing up there. The temperature drops on average 2 degrees Celsius for every thousand feet of altitude. My passenger gets a little queasy and the heat was messing with her stomach.

Once we got past the low pressure system, it cleared up wonderfully, so I didn't have to descend through the clouds to do an instrument approach - yay! We landed in Alliance, NE, and met a huge crowd of folks. You wouldn't have believed the crowd on the ground here. They were able to take advantage of all of the airplanes showing up at relatively the same time and doing their flybys (flying past the timing officials). The local Chamber of Commerce donated food and families were welcome to walk around and look at the airplanes and talk to the pilots. It was great to see the interaction. THIS is what it's all about.

http://flash.aopa.org/asf/mountainFlying/

After every one started taking off again, we departed for Rawlins, WY, what was scheduled to be the previous stop, but canceled. That was another two hour flight and my first in the mountains in a single engine airplane. I decided to fly high - but, yes, VFR. I flew about as high as I could without using supplemental oxygen - 10,500 feet. I have been in a jet at 30,000 plus feet and lost altitude in seconds because of mountain wave: The rising air of the lee wave, which allows gliders to climb to great heights, can also result in high altitude upset in jet aircraft trying to maintain level cruising flight in lee waves. Rising, descending or turbulent air in or above the lee waves can cause overspeed or stall. 

So it was a little bumpy, and the strong crosswind kept swishing the tail around. Woah... Woah.... Yes, I'm afraid of heights. [I say this knowing how completely ridiculous it sounds.] My grip on the controls slooooowly loosened as time went by without going kittywumpus (that's an official aviation term - look in the Pilot/Controller Glossary). We found Rawlins, and I remembered the lessons taught to me by a Captain I flew with into the Rockies for the first time. From Pilot Friend: A rule-of-thumb states that the airplane flies faster than indicated airspeed at altitudes above sea level by approximately 2-percent-per-thousand feet above sea level. This is a built-in compensator for reduced lift caused by the thin air at higher altitude airports.

I got slowed down early, down to traffic pattern altitude, turned final right on profile, and heard a warning over the radio to watch out for the crop dusters. Sure enough, as I was on base I told Jasmine to tell me if she saw that airplane short of the runway moved closer. Yup. I had hoped they'd be off before I came in, but I ended up also doing my first go-around in the mountains. I'm not sure the guy ever even looked in the direction of final to see if anyone was in the pattern. Grr.

Well, the hospitality was more than made up on the ramp. The marshaller was just as friendly as could be, and very happy to see anyone associated with the Air Race show up. He had cut a bunch of tiedowns for all the racer airplanes.... And the woman in the FBO gave us a couple of the hats that they had embroidered for the racers.... Oh, we felt so bad the race had passed them by! It unfortunately had another consequence. We had gone to Rawlins because we had hoped to do Girls With Wings promotion by offering to do the presentation. Even though only the race stop was canceled, the residents also must have assumed the presentation was also canceled.  I did get to spend some time chatting with Minetta Gardiner, the woman who arranged the wonderful start activities and her co-pilot, Charissa A. Dyer-Kendler, a flight instructor at Sporty's Flight Academy, who were one of two teams who decided to do the whole race as scheduled.

I was so disappointed that we weren't able to meet any local girls at the stop. It wasn't for lack of trying. My success in finding opportunities for doing presentations has mostly been through pre-formed Girl Scout troops or other groups - and when school's out, this can be a tough, sometimes impossible, job. It's not the first time I've been stood up. It usually helps to get preregistration - a commitment - but there just wasn't time to arrange for it with the time frame we had (we have no idea how many would have showed in Jamestown since we couldn't make it there because of weather). We promoted Aviation Inspiration Day for MONTHS to get such a large crowd. And even when a group says there will be x number of girls, I can almost guarantee that 10-20% just won't show. Even if they've paid the $5 in advance. I don't know why that is. What could come along that would be better than the GWW presentation? I know, right??
 
Like I said, not for lack of trying. I've been watching Jasmine do the PR thing for some time now and am learning from her efforts. For years I have hoped that someone would volunteer to do marketing for Girls With Wings - I'm a pilot, not a PR expert! - because it takes up a huge amount of time. You've got to email, call, email and call again to get any response out of some people. I've been for the most part a one woman show working with my nose so close to the grindstone that what publicity I've gotten has been through luck finding someone supportive of the Girls With Wings mission. I spent years working on building the organization before I started to get enough cache to have my press releases published, and even now only sporadically. I think offering money for scholarships got the ball rolling getting the word out about the goals, but Girls With Wings does a lot more than that! Dianna's PR guru, Jasmine, has shown me how much work can go into promotion. She's had an amazing amount of success getting the word out about the Racing Aces, and therefore the Air Race Classic. If you go to the Racing Aces site you can see the many hits. 


Here's hoping that the donation from Racing Aces will let us take it to the next level and increase the ability of Girls With Wings to reach out more - and to be able to handle the increased attention. But please. Wait til I'm done with the CFI checkride, ok? And then Oshkosh. I'll definitely have more free time after Oshkosh. :)

Now THIS is a cross country

http://twitter.com/theracingaces

On Sunday I left for my major trip to promote Girls With Wings in conjunction with the Racing Aces and the Air Race Classic. We had originally planned to leave Monday, but a little heads up from the other racers that the weather was going go downhill rapidly this week caused us to depart a day early. I had been checking the weather since Friday - via the Weather channel, Aviation Digital Data Service, DUATS, FltPlan.com, AOPA weather... you get the idea. All of them said something different, and frankly, 24 - 48 hours out was enough time to make a 180' change in the forecast anyway. So I was awake around 4 on Sunday morning, thinking, packing and heading to the airport to see if the trip could happen. A brief scan of the weather sites followed by a call to 1-800-WX BRIEF gave me the answer I needed. It was a go for launch.

So Jasmine and I loaded up the Cessna 182 Skylane with about 300lbs of gear - hey, what do you expect from 2 women on the road for 7 days? Actually, the vast majority of the stuff was promotional items and video equipment. And laptops. And gee-whiz electronics to make our lives easier. After takeoff the weather was just as the briefer predicted: low clouds, which I climbed on top of, which cleared about an hour into the flight. Pretty smooth sailing, I must say, all things considered.

I spent the first leg pouring over the sectional charts, my multitude of printouts for planning (in excel spreadsheets - geek!) and nav logs and playing with the Garmin 430. And working on the whole "leaning the engine" concept trying to get the fuel flow number that I had come up with during my planning. And scanning for other VFR traffic, of course. I was originally planning to stop in KASG, or Springdale, AR, where they have an on-airport cafe. Part of my pre-flight planning was using the website Adventure Pilot, which allows you to find on-airport restaurants when time is short. Well, thanks to the Garmin Aera that Rod Rakic of myTransponder lent me, I was able to check the weather for KASG enroute. The conditions on the field were clear, but there was a 16 to 25 knot quartering crosswind. Doable, but not desirable.

KHFJ

Even more valuable, however, was the advantage of having weather radar. I could see that there were a couple of cells moving toward the area and considered that there was a possibility I might get ON the ground at Springdale, but not back off again, at least not for a while. You know all of those stories you read about people who get themselves into trouble and wish they wouldn't have been so stuck on their original plan it made them do something stupid? So, I broke out the Airport Facility Directory, found another airport somewhat in the direction of flight, far enough on to be missed by that weather. Monett Aiport in MO had a long runway and fuel. And the winds were much more favorable. Back and forth I went. Should I? Shouldn't I? Finally, I decided to press on. I landed at Monett, a VERY well maintained airport, and taxiied up to the fuel pump. Yeah, that's right. Dragged out the ladder, climbed up to the top of the wing and gassed up my own airplane.

Meanwhile, Jasmine went in and checked out the crew car. Most FBOs have old cars they'll let visiting pilots use to go grab lunch. I'm so happy this turned out to be available, because all this work was creating quite an appetite. Times must be changing, because they charged us $10 for the use of the car. Given that it was a huge Crown Vic, that might have been how much in gas we used to get to the restaurant. Especially since we had to turn around halfway there. I could not remember for the life of me if I'd turned off the master switch. Fearing the consequences of a drained battery, I made Jasmine turn around. Of course it was off.

After lunch I called the briefer again and was told that the weather would be great and there were no TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions), no NOTAMS (Notices to Airmen), etc., to impede our progress. We took off and were on our way to KIOW. On this leg we had a MOA (Military Operations Area) to deal with. Technically, VFR pilots don't need any special permission to fly through a MOA, but given that this is an area used for tactical military maneuvers I wanted to make sure it was "cold." The controller I was talking to said she "believed" it was cold, but couldn't say for sure, so to be on the safe side I started to go around. When we were transferred to the next controller she confirmed it was inactive. Trust me, if you've ever done the AOPA interactive course on airspace, it has a little video of a military jet flying through a MOA that had a small airplane pass right in front of it (captured by its video equipment). My heart couldn't take that.

Group Photo

So we eventually landed at Iowa City, and taxiied through the many Race aircraft on the way to our parking spot. Jasmine and I loaded up our 300lbs of gear into the golf cart and we proceeded on to our hotel in just enough time to shower and make the Air Race Classic banquet. It is so good to see all of the old friends I'd met in so many venues in the past years. And the food was delish, too. But it was soon time to head to the hotel. It had been a long day and I needed sleep. We have some long days ahead of us and crew rest is invaluable.

Update: I've just heard that the Race is delayed by a day because of the weather. Unfortunately this means we won't make it to Jamestown, ND, for the Girls With Wings presentations tomorrow evening. Here's hoping the race will go on as scheduled on Wednesday. We're appearing in Rawlins, WY, to do a couple presentations before we meet up with the racers in Mobile at the terminus. As the saying goes, "Time to spare? Go by air!"

Air Race Classic Preparations

As usual, an event you've been looking forward to for months just seems to pop up on the horizon before you know it. I've been burying my head in the stack of books studying for my Certificated Flight Instructor rating and in the meantime the Air Race Classic has crept up when I wasn't looking.

As a background (as if I haven't talked about it enough before), the Air Race Classic is is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to:

• Encouraging and educating current and future women pilots 
• Increasing public awareness of general aviation 
• Demonstrating women's roles in aviation 
• Presenting and promoting the tradition of pioneering women in aviation. 

As you can see, there's a lot of synergy with the Girls With Wings mission!

Heather and Lynda in 2009

This year's race covers 2365.40nm in 11 legs and visits 10 states, all in four days (other activities add a few days on either side. I raced it two years ago with a young woman from Australia, Heather Ford, and had a wonderful time (we didn't win, but we had fun!). I wrote a series of blog entries on it. I haven't had the opportunity to again race personally, but I've been helping to promote it ever since. I think it's a wonderful event and too few people are aware of it. Heck, we even had air traffic controllers asking us why there were so many VFR targets (airplanes) flying all to the same airport. We had to tell them about the race while they were giving us the NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) about it!

Victoria and Dianna departing KPKV for KIOW.

There is a team in this year's race who is generously promoting Girls With Wings: The Racing Aces. I have spoken of Dianna Stanger, the owner of the Aviat Husky A-19, who's flying with Victoria Holt, her usual co-pilot on her Premier Jet. I've blogged about Dianna before, she's the woman making it possible to finally wrap up my CFI here at her flight school in Port Lavaca, TX. Both she and Victoria are confident they will make a great showing in their first attempt at the Air Race Classic.

As Dianna says on their website: "Flying has truly made me a different person.  There is a certain amount of aggressive behavior, attitude and need to share the love side of it that has become a new facet of my personality.  Clear air, clear head and a great ride can’t be beat on any day when you are a pilot and I am so very thankful that I am one of the very lucky ones that get to enjoy it." Not only are they co-pilots, they are also friends, as reflected in Victoria's statement: "I’ve been having “the time of my life” as a professional pilot for nearly 20 years now. There have been times when peanut butter and jelly was all I could afford and times when I have cried because I was so cold and tired but I have not one regret!"

And not only are they racing for themselves, they're racing to raise funds for Girls With Wings. I am so honored that they should do so and in addition to studying for my CFI and keeping up with GWW while on the road, have been helping them get prepared for the race. In all honesty though, they have a powerhouse in their corner already that goes by the name Jasmine Gordon. She's been recruiting their many sponsors, generating publicity buzz, building a newly designed website and integrating the Spot Tracker feed that will allow folks to follow the Racing Aces as they travel cross country on this page of their website. It will also be on the Girls With Wings homepage.

Jasmine has also been helping promote GWW in the local area and has set up a few presentations for me here at the Port Lavaca (Calhoun County) airport - as has Beckey, from the Victoria Airport flight school. This is not a new thing here, though. Dianna has been sponsoring events for kids long before we heard of each other - starting when she bought a GWW tshirt to wear at one of her events, which says, "It's not how tall you are, it's how high you fly!" from the Girls With Wings Pilot Shop. She is also a role model on the GWW site. As a result of this wonderful relationship and the support shown by Dianna and Jasmine, I am about to depart on my latest adventure!

Jasmine and I are leaving on Monday for our own cross country trip. We're flying from here in Texas to take video of the racers departing the Iowa City airport and then we're going on to Jamestown, ND, to do a couple of GWW presentations to local residents so they can be aware of the significance contributions of women in aviation. The next day we're on to Rawlings, WY, to do the same. Then we'll be departing there to get ahead of all of the racers so we can video their arrivals in Mobile, AL. Yeah, yeah, you say, Lynda, you've been flying around the country (and around the country) for years. Well, not in a Cessna 182. And not single pilot. And not VFR (visual flight rules). [Insert fingernail biting noise here.]

Of course I am capable of doing this, but I am just taking longer than a pilot who is used to this type of planning might. I will be trying to blog along the way on our trip, but I know it's going to be a busy one. I mean, think about it. There's no dispatch to call to ask where my release is. I have to do the flight planning myself! It's summer, so you know there are going to be storms (so thanks to Rod Rakic, of myTransponder who lent me his Garmin Aera to use enroute). We're on a tight schedule, so no sitting on the ground waiting for them to pass.

And I'm going to be flying in the mountains - where all those tragic stories of pilots underestimating the effect of density altitude take place. And though I'll sit in the left seat and teach Jasmine along the way (what? it's going to be like a 30 hour trip - that's almost to private pilot level!), it's all on me. No Captain or First Officer to practice that Crew Coordination concept. But there's no doubt I will always practice safety first. There's no good reason to break an airplane or my neck. Or Jasmine's, for that matter.

And upon my return, finally, wrapping up the CFI. I hope to study along the way, but another GWW role model, Theresa, is helping me by giving me practice oral exams. I am really grateful also for her donation of her instructor services. She's catching me up on all that general aviation policy and procedure I've missed out on as a military and airline pilot.  And once I pass that CFI checkride I can move on to the next hurdle. EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh. The big Girls With Wings booth. Woo-hoo!

Aviation Inspiration Day Recap

Last Saturday, May 28th, was the first ever Aviation Inspiration Day - a joint effort between Girls With Wings, Inc., and the Commemorative Air Force - Minnesota Wing, led by Squadron Commander Col. Amy Lauria. Amy and I had talked at EAA Airventure in Oshkosh about "someday" coordinating an event at the CAF museum and we finally just looked at our respective calendars to chose the day that would work for both of us (which is often the hardest part of getting such things going). That day just happened to be the first day of a long holiday weekend. Would the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul be deserted of residents fleeing for vacation destinations?

It turned out that we shouldn't have worried about the turnout (ok, it was mostly me who was worried). I mean, I had less success than Dave Sniadak of Axiom Marketing who did an outstanding job getting news outlets to promote the event. He found local newstations and papers willing to cover this day-long event for families to explore and enjoy aviation activities. The clincher? We were additionally offering four sessions of the hugely successful Girls With Wings presentation. I myself was able to get a couple of aviation newsletters to carry advance notice of the event but fewer than I might have hoped. After all, the feedback that I had been getting from aviation organizations that try to put on large events for kids is that they get a much larger turnout from the boys. Now here was an event specifically to attract the girls.... Were we tilting at windmills here?

We also offered space to other organizations involved in promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) opportunities by having tables with their information. We were happy to see the MN Wing of the Civil Air Patrol there promoting their activities as well as the Young Rembrandts offering drawing lessons with an aviation theme to the kids. Where were the other aviation organizations? Where were the schools, the clubs, anyone else interested in getting a larger audience of girls into their group? Here we were, offering an opportunity to reach out to more girls... had they given up? Am I wrong in the mission of my organization? Is there no interest in aviation from girls? Was I going to show up Saturday morning and only see a few stragglers at the airport?

Not. Even. Remotely.

The terminal building at Fleming Field started filling up at 8:30am with eager families wanting to get their girls into the first GWW presentation at 9 am for girls 1st thru 4th grade. Many of the folks had taken us up on the pre-registration option online for the presentation to provide priority seating for the follow-on Young Eagles flights - yes, that's right. The presentation has been awesome on its own, but this time, the girls "graduated" from the session with their Pilot Certificate which they walked over to the EAA Chapter 1229 table to sign up for their free airplane ride. What a great opportunity for the girls to put into practice what they'd learned. Said one of the YE pilots, "it was the first time that I saw the majority of the girls not there just because they were dragged along with a brother. They were all eager and clamoring for their chance at the controls. It was great to see such self-confidence in the girls." We had two sessions each  for 1 - 4 grades and for 5 - 8 grades and with the walk-ins, we far exceeded our expectations for attendance.

The weather was definitely conducive to flying, the first warm sunny day the area had seen for a while. Well, at least til about 2pm when the skies darkened and the torrential downpour began.  In fact it was so nice we had a tough time deciding whether to drag folks back inside for our speaker series. After all, we had hamburgers and hotdogs, chips and drinks provided courtesy of Wipaire, Inc., a manufacturer of airplane floats, and people were strolling around looking at the different aircraft on display. We even had the Lifelink III helicopter! I spent the time getting feedback from the parents. Most were surprised, based on the size of the crowd, that this was our first such event. Other parents told me that they were thrilled at the educational nature of the event, because it incorporated STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, in such a fun way. But people did want to sit and listen to the different speakers: me and Amy from CAF-MN; Melissa, an Air Force mechanic, Carrie, an Air Traffic Controller, and Lydia, a CAP officer.

There was a lot going on for all of the families - yes, people brought their boys too, though the GWW presentation was the only thing just for girls. The boys, too, got rides on the vintage fire truck, WWII vehicles and the aircraft and took part in all of the other activities. In fact, I am so glad we'd built in time to have rest breaks - breaks between the sessions, breaks for the YE pilots, etc., there were so many people there that our few volunteers, to include Amy's husband, Jim, Don, a cadet from the CAF, Linda, who ran the CAF PX, Kjersti, a local 99, and the many CAP members (Oh, and the cooks, too!). We also dragged my brother out, and of course my dad is always on board with helping out. At a post-event dinner, the principal players all decided: 1. We definitely had over 250 attendees. 2. We are definitely going to it again next year. And believe it or not, on the same weekend. Mostly because in Minnesota there's no telling what the weather will be like; probably the last weekend in May likely will be the first one without some chance of snow and frost. But we don't want to wait until too late, because of the end of the school year and less of a chance of making folks aware of the next Aviation Inspiration day.

[BTW, I had a heck of a time getting the word out to the schools. Liability issues, I think, but if any of you have resources in these schools, we'll need you for next year!]

All in all, I would definitely check the "success" box for the first Aviation Inspiration Day and we are looking forward to doing another Aviation Inspiration Day at Fleming Field next year. I am also interested in doing more of these events at other locations so ...... If you are a highly motivated individual (like Amy Lauria) with access to a list of contacts within your area, well connected to a local airport, with a nice terminal or other available building, perhaps a museum and facilities on the field that can give tours, and enthusiastic organizations that would like to participate, please contact me. We can talk dates and about sponsorship, promotion, budgeting, etc., so that these events can keep getting bigger and better. And maybe, as I have said from the beginning, put Girls With Wings out of business .... when people wonder why there would have ever been a need to have an organization to encourage more girls to have an interest in aviation.

This woulda been a great inning

VFR Chart

I have tried to come up with words that would describe for either a non-pilot or a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) only pilot what the big deal is for an experienced IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) pilot to fly under the different rules. I think part of it is that IFR pilots often are provided their flight plan and releases from a computer and they additionally do the same routes day in and day out. One can tend to get a bit complacent. That doesn’t mean that this is easy, you still have weather and a multitude of other issues to worry about. But usually, and I’m totally generalizing, VFR pilots have either a lot more planning to do (since they don’t have a dispatch department) and/or they are flying “under the radar,” often literally.

IFR Chart

So IFR pilots, for example, airline pilots, can follow the little black lines on their charts while they talk to Air Traffic Controllers throughout the flight. They are in fact “handed off” to the next controller. Not so as a VFR pilot. YOU have to figure out who to talk to, and there is airspace you can’t enter if you’re not talking to ATC. Some airspace is prohibited for VFR flights (Class A, above 18,000 feet MSL) or you have to get permission to fly into (Class B, around “Busy” airports). I’ve alluded to the different calls to ATC you have to make before. You also ultimately have to worry about “busting airspace,” for which you can potentially have your pilot’s certificate suspended. HUGE implications.

In a way, I explained to someone, it’s not like just driving a different car (going from a Citation X to a Cessna 182), it’s like additionally driving in a foreign country. The car will operate basically the same, and most of the principals of traffic laws may be obvious, but there are signs in a different language. It would be just enough to put you on high alert for your entire trip.

Houston's Class B

Alright, now for the real topic of this story. Having just returned from my trip to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon, I needed to get back in that C182 to do some training. I emailed the flight instructor to see when it would be available and at which airport (both KPKV and KVCT flight schools share it). I woke up the next morning about the plane being needed to pick up the owner of the flight school, Dianna, in Houston, but no other information. That’s one of the awesome things about training here, I get to intersperse traffic patterns and practice maneuvers with real world missions! Plus, having never flown into Class B airspace (that Busy airspace mentioned above where you need permission), I knew I had to do it, especially if I am eventually going to be instructing in Cleveland, also a Class B airport.

So logistically this was a headache. The 182 was up at Victoria Airport and I’m at Port Lavaca. I could have driven there, but then my car would be stuck there (and frankly, my car is starting to really make some loud noises. I’m praying it makes it back to Cleveland next week and my friend can fix it up for my trips to WI and MN coming up). We decided the best thing would be for me to fly up in the 172 and swap. This was great in that I was paying more attention to the differences in the two airplanes, which makes my knowledge of both better.

At this point I still didn’t know when the flight to Houston was going to have to leave. Already that morning I had used AOPA’s flight planner to figure out direction, distance and time needed (ok, maybe VFR pilots don’t have to work as hard as they used to do, either). I tore the VFR sectional apart looking for gotchas (tall towers, other restricted airspace, dimensions of the Class B, etc). I double checked my VFR weather minimums (required cloud clearance and visibility) but the day was devoid of any clouds. I looked at the Federal Aviation Regulations again about Class B, but one thing I was painfully aware of is that to enter Class B airspace, the controller must actually say your call sign and the words, “Cleared into Class B airspace.” NO exceptions.  [Only now, editing this blog post, do I find a webpage specifically for pilots on Houston's Class B.]

KPKV

I could have spent all day researching more of these gotchas except that time was starting to run short. Once I got to Victoria, we decided on a plan that I would bring David, one of the employees of the flight school, back to pick up the van to get supplies for Kid’s Day at the Airport (May 6th). I dropped him off at Port Lavaca (with a little instructing along the way) and got myself some lunch. Then back to the airport where I grabbed Steve, the airport manager, to practice grass strip landings with me because the culmination of this flight would be to drop Dianna off at the ranch on a grass strip. The strip at Port Lavaca is about 2400 feet long. The one at the ranch, 1/3 shorter. So Steve was pushing me to get the airplane on the ground and stopped well before the end for my eventual landing at the ranch.

By the time David returned for his flight back to Victoria, we were running late. I was going to have to leave Victoria and go straight to Houston, no time for any more planning. But Steve had briefed me on what to expect – and it happened pretty much as he said. BTW, I have to stop with the self deprecating humor about how much I scare myself. I think Steve is starting to doubt my ability/knowledge/confidence. At one point he asked, “what did you do all those years flying around for the airlines?” Again, we didn’t fly the same way (sometimes for the airlines we did have to cancel IFR and land VFR, but not often, and always at the same place – I had learned what to do at these airports as a First Officer so I did the same as a Captain – not a lot of variation) and I had also been an FO with the fractionals so long (since 2002) that I had become quite, uh, lazy. This is one of my reasons for becoming a flight instructor. Back to the basics!

KVCT

My first challenge was pretty basic. I was given clearance to take off, and cleared “on course” which I had trouble, now that I'm back on the ground, finding exactly what that meant. I had always assumed it meant to turn direct to the destination. However, in this instance my direction of flight was going to take me over the departure end of the parallel runway and the tower had just cleared an aircraft for a low approach. My thought was, if the traffic pattern for this runway was on the right, should I go the long away around before I turned to go to Houston? Arg? So, safety being more important than shame, I confirmed with tower that he did indeed intend for me to fly over the runway (he actually did so in the tone of “duh”). Leaving Victoria's airspace, I asked tower to confirm the frequency to get “flight following” or radar traffic information service with Houston Approach. A great primer on this topic.

I contacted Houston: “Houston Center, Skylane 397ME, request.” This way, I know, you don’t clog up the radio right off. Let the controller call you back when he has the time to talk to you, and then be ready to answer when he says, “Skylane 7ME, Houston Center, go ahead.” “Skylane 7ME, 10 miles east of KVCT, 2500 feet, VFR enroute to Houston Hobby, request flight following.” Then Houston calls me back with a transponder code so they can identify me on their radar screen so that they can advise me of any traffic which might result in paint swapping. Interestingly enough, I again tried to look up flight following, which is actually called “traffic advisories,” but again, though it is defined in the Aeronautical Information Manual, no help on how to request. This is tough! Trying not to further embarrass myself, I was hesitant to ask/announce/? a change in altitude despite 2500 feet bouncing me around a bit. If I asked, the controller might say, “altitude your discretion” again with a twinge of duh (I’ve heard THAT before). So, I stuck it out.

My flight path took me farther north when expected because I took off from KVCT instead of KPKV, so I flew right over Wharton Airport, which is uncontrolled. In the interest of safety, I make a call on their Unicom to let anyone know I was transitioning over the airport at 2500 feet. Turns out that did no good whatsoever, especially to the pilot in the airplane I saw right below me. They didn’t say anything on the Unicom, but I heard them on center announcing that they were now ABOVE me. Somehow in their climb we managed not to meet. Whew. And so much for "traffic advisories" from center.

Approaching Houston

Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out the autopilot. I got it programmed, but it seemed to be diving and weaving quite a bit, so I turn it off and hand fly. Occasionally I’ll check the chart to get my orientation, but before I know it, I’m switched off to another Houston controller that asks me to confirm that I have “Information Xray” – the current ATIS. Argh! I don’t have it. Tune it up on the other radio, and of course, it’s super long. Meanwhile the controller is calling me back asking for my altitude. Used to listening for “ExecJet” first, I miss the first time, but tune in to his voice when I hear his request said in a “hey, moron” tone. Strike 2.

Next, as Steve had prepared me for, ATC asked if I knew where the Superdome was. I had to reply no – no time to find it on the chart, either. He came back in a minute and asked me if I was familiar with the antenna farm, so I said yes. [It can be found on the map to the left, a bit west of Hobby and a little south.] My directions were to fly west of the antenna farm and then head northeast. Immediately I regretted this. I mean, Steve had showed me on the map, but… I looked down and saw a lake, clearly also on the map, so I was good to go. Within seconds, a huge array of antennas became within view. Then, the next wrinkle. I knew if I reached the antenna farm I was within Class B. Remember I said you needed a specific clearance into the airspace? Well, I had gotten directions beyond the Class B, so it could be argued that I was cleared, but I didn’t want to argue with the FAA. So after a few minutes of debate with myself, I asked the controller, “Confirm cleared into Class B airspace?” The controller, with no “duh” tone at all, confirmed. Whew.

As I approached HOU from the west, my next instructions were to cross midfield of the airport at 1600feet. Now that I think about it, the controller never asked if I had the airport in sight. Anyway, and then I was to enter a left downwind for 12L (left). The funny thing about downwinds is that a left downwind means that you will fly to the right of the runway. You have to remember that the runway will be to your left. I'd have been following that line from 4 toward the 22, then turning left, and another left and then one more left to land on that strip with the 12L on the end of it.  Except that before I arrived over the airport, about where that Million Air dot is, the tower told me to start my turn to the left. I spent a frantic moment figuring out how to enter a left downwind if I turned to the left before the runway. Clearly, I still had to get to the other side of the runway, so I understood this to “scootch left,”  i.e., stay to the left of Runway 4.

Tower asked me if I saw the beechjet on final for 12R, which I did, so my clearance became, “Skylane 7ME, maintain visual separation with the beechjet, cleared to land 12L.” I made a big 270 degree loop (no more 90' left turns) and was thankful when I identified 12L written on the asphalt. Strike 3 was not landing on the wrong runway.

Well, I should have landed long, because I had to roll all the way out to the other end of the runway (past Signature even), where I then taxied to the wrong FBO. After a bit of confusion, I started the engine (ha-ha, I typed engines first! Force of habit.) and then taxied over to the maintenance hangar where Dianna was dropping off the Husky to get it ready for the AirRace Classic.

She jumped in and went to work, just like a great crew should. I could have spent a long time debating over what to say to clearance delivery for a VFR departure, but she had already filed. Turns out they didn’t have the flight plan, but he worked it out quickly and it sounded almost like an IFR clearance. With everything scrambled in my head, it was sure nice to have someone looking at the airport diagram with our taxi instructions! Holding short of runway 22, we watched a 737 take off. Great. Just what I want to do. Experience wake turbulence in a 182.

One of the things I learned in my training (but only because I asked), is what heading to maintain after takeoff when VFR. For IFR pilots, you maintain runway heading even if the wind blows you off course - the controller expects you to be on a heading. VFR pilots, because they can see the runway, are expected to pick a heading that will maintain alignment with the runway – fly all the way down right over it. Momentary relapse, I was sloppy. Let the wind push me to the right and then turned to the assigned heading (only ten degrees to the right) too early. Sloppy. Tsk. Tsk.

As we left the airport, it was just like IFR again, except the calls to change frequencies came much slower due to our decreased speed. Although we had told them to expect us to climb to 8500 feet, once we had reached 4500 it was nice and smooth so we told them that we wanted to cancel with them. ATC said, “7ME, cancellation received, squawk VFR, frequency change approved.” This meant that we would no longer receive traffic advisories, our transponder code should now be 1200, like every other VFR airplane, and we could now switch to the advisory frequency for Palacios airport, the closest to the ranch.

GMaps doesn't yet show strip diagonally between 2 Roads

Enroute to the ranch, Dianna coached me on some more of the features of the GPS and the autopilot, which, once engaged at a smoother altitude seemed to be a lot more stable. Once we got to the ranch, we did a couple of passes of the airport just to get familiar. The ranch is on the water, so the wind is variable, so we chose what we thought was the best direction to land. When I lined up the first time, we decided that we’d do a go-around, just for practice, but after I started the climbout we both looked at each other and said, “we could have made that.” So we came around again, and it was great to have a co-pilot calling out my airspeeds and altitude so I could focus on my closure with what is basically a level part of a field surrounded by fences, trees, and at least temporarily, an oil drill. We got lower, closer, slower, and before I knew it, time to pull the power and flare! Bam! Apply crosswind correction, hold the nose off the ground to prevent wheelbarrowing, zero the flaps to get the weight of the airplane on the wheels to slow us down, gently apply the brakes… and it was done. High fives between the crewmembers.

I dropped off my passenger, who supplied this video of my departure:

What was Strike 3? I realized right after takeoff that I forgot to open the cowl flaps, which provides increased airflow over the engine at low airspeeds. [Steve said I could say it was because I didn’t want to suck debris in from the ground. That’s my story.] PKV was just a short flight, and I was high on my successes of the day already. In fact, when I called in range on the Unicom, Steve said, “I heard you nailed it over at the ranch.” News apparently travels faster than a C182.

P.S. the photo in the background of my blog now is me taxiing back to the departure end of the grass strip.