i did another solo to okv (winchester, va) today, it went reasonably well but it has been almost 30 days since i last flew (due to a vacation in iceland and work) and the season has changed which means the fall colors make things look different. i am glad i had the gps to rely on beacause i had a hard time visually finding both okv and jyo (leesburg). i was almost on top of both before i realized where they were. because this was a busy travel day jyo was busy on my return and i probably caused some consternation from all the pro pilots waiting for me to finally make it into the pattern for landing. i also had my eye on iad (dulles) bacause i was closer to it than i had intended. i definitely should have practiced using ms flight sim x before doing it today.
oddly enough my landings were pretty good so i am making progress here and there. i am going to ratchet up my frequency of flying though.
2 comments:
here's a follow up on this. i was reading an aopa flight training magaine yesterday (an excellent magazine) and it had something in it that i realized was very useful. when i had trouble finding okv and jyo yesterday i should have just slowed down to give me more time to look around. i usually just barrel along at 2,300 rpm (117 knots on a good day). the plane can slow down quite a bit from that. slowing down doesn't hurt anything (in cruise anyway) and it would have given me a few more minutes to ident the airports. another lesson learned...
Another trick I had to us on my long solo: water towers. I learned in the midwest where every little town has a water tower with the city name on it. I don't know how prevalent water towers are out east here, but that can be a life saver if you're lost and crossed without a GPS, can't find/tune VORs, etc.
Post a Comment