Today's flight was a test. My assignment was to fly my CFI, Fletch, to Hana (PHHN) and back without him having to intervene, help, tell me what to do or otherwise affect the outcome of the flight. Since the route to Hana is simple and familiar (follow the coast on the North shore of Maui east to Hana), we didn't need any navigational planning.
Weather was beautiful! The wind was out of the NE at about 10KTS with scattered clouds at about 2000' and a solid deck of clouds up on the mountain above us.
Today's flight was a test. My assignment was to fly my CFI, Fletch, to Hana (PHHN) and back without him having to intervene, help, tell me what to do or otherwise affect the outcome of the flight. Since the route to Hana is simple and familiar (follow the coast on the North shore of Maui east to Hana), we didn't need any navigational planning.
Weather was beautiful! The wind was out of the NE at about 10KTS with scattered clouds at about 2000' and a solid deck of clouds up on the mountain above us.
We departed Kahului with clearance to the NE at about 8:15AM and started up the coast to Hana. Maui Clearance Delivery cleared us for 1500' and remain offshore. It was just a beautiful day to be in the air. We climbed out at about 85KIAS and headed up the coast, into the morning sun. Bright sunbursts shone through the clouds overhead, marking our way with bright rays, majestic!
When directed by Maui ATC, I changed COMM frequency to Maui Departure and reported my position, altitude and heading. They confirmed having me on radar and I continued eastbound. By the time we got to Opana Point, Maui Departure terminated flight following, issued VFR squawk for the Class E airspace and bid us good day. I switched to ITAF on 120.65 and requested a traffic advisory:
'Hana Traffic. Cessna 7332 Lima with you. 1500'. 1 mile offshore. Eastbound for Hana at Opana Point.'
No response. Usually there's just some helicopter and Pacific Wings or Tsunami Air Caravans between Kahului and Hana.
The rest of the 15 minutes out to Hana were pretty uneventful. I practiced some dutch rolls (getting smoother) and called out my position on ITAF at each checkpoint along the way. Once we got to George Harrison's, I made my last report to Hana Traffic and switched to Hana Airport on 122.90.
'Hana Airport Traffic. Cessna 7332 Lima 1 mile east of Harrison's. 1000'. Making left base for runway 8. Touch and go.'
No response. Looks like we have the airport to ourselves.
Descend to 800' and make my turn into the pattern on the base leg. Carb heat on. Power to about 1500rpm and 10° of flaps. Call base to final and make the turn. A little high, 20° of flaps and continue descent on final. Nice right crosswind, so I bank into the wind and push opposite rudder to remain aligned to the centerline. Perfectly aligned, we descend through the threshold, slowing to about 60 and make a smooth, almost perfectly aligned touchdown on RWY 8.
Flaps up. Carb heat in. Power to full and we're ready to go. At 60KIAS we lift off and level out to accelerate. Climb into the pattern at 75KIAS and report intentions.
'Hana Airport Traffic. Cessna 7332 Lima on crosswind making left closed traffic for RWY 8.'
No response.
Abeam the numbers: Carb heat on. Power to 1700rpm. Flaps 10°. Base leg. Final. Touchdown.
Fletch keys the mic and announces full stop landing. We taxi over to the terminal and Fletch jumps out of the plane, telling me to just fly the pattern until 9:20, when we have to head back in order to GET THE PLANE BACK TO THE HANGAR FOR THE NEXT PERSON WHO HAS THE AIRPLANE!!! ;)
So, off I go! Announcing my position and taxiing. I had such a great time, flying the pattern in Hana. I did slips, flat approaches with 10° flaps, steep approaches with 30° flaps and no power. Got to work with a Caravan in the pattern and talk to them on the radio. It was great. All of my landings were with a right crosswind and while none of them were so perfect that I couldn't learn something from them, they were all good enough that I would have been comfortable having Carie with me.
The one thing that bugged me was that after dropping Fletch off, I'd forgotten to turn my transponder back to 'alt'. When I was talking to the Caravan, he asked me if I had a transponder. Guess I wasn't showing up on his traffic avoidance system. Doh! Today I am ordering a new checklist for the 152 to keep in my flight bag, no more excuses.
At 20 after, I landed and picked up Fletch. We back taxied and took off for Kahului. Exiting the pattern on left downwind, I forgot my assigned altitude and kept climbing through 1200'. Fletch starts singing, 'off we go.....into the wild blue yonder...'. That's his cue that I'm high. I took a sec to remember that eastbound altitudes are thousand + 500, westbound are even thousands, meaning my return altitude would be 1000' (since at 2000' or above we'd be dodging clouds the whole way back).
On the way home, Fletch quizzed me as I reported position to ITAF. What would I do if I was by myself and a squall blew in behind me and another in front of me, sandwiching me between rain clouds? Descend to maintain visual contact with the ocean and the shoreline and follow the shoreline back to Kahului.
As we neared Opana Point I tuned ATIS and got information Delta. Dialed up Maui Approach and let them know I was inbound. The approach controller was a little hard to understand, but gave me a squawk and asked me to tune the tower. I got Maui ATC and requested clearance to land. They told me to make right traffic for RWY 2 and I started my descent to 800' and aimed for the control tower. Flew a tight pattern into RWY 2 and landed in a bouncy crosswind for what was probably my best landing of the day.
As we taxied, Fletch congratulated me on passing the test and told me I am now cleared to fly solo to Hana...whenever the weather is within my solo endorsement minimums (2500' ceiling, 25KT wind and 10KT cross component).
9 landings
1.5 TT
.5 PIC
Way to go, John.
You da man!