Flightblog

Lesson #13 - First Solo XC Flight to Hana

Wow! Today I *really* became a pilot! I flew solo to another airport, 23.5 NM away!

Flight planning and navigation was pretty much non-factor. Just make sure the weather is good, you have 2+ hours of fuel and time to complete the flight before dark.

Got to the airport about 10:30am to preflight and sat around while Chuck cleaned the spark plugs on 32 Lima. I had planned on flying solo in the pattern at Kahului today, but the weather was so good I wanted to go to Hana instead. John OK'd me for Hana and we checked the schedule and saw that I had plenty of time (almost 2 hours) before the next guy would be there for the plane.

Preflight was uneventful and the closer I got to departure time, the more excited I got. I got ALL ready, strapped in and about to start the engine. Looked over my kneeboard frequencies and noticed that I didn't have the Hana ITAF frequency noted...just the Hana airport. So, I had to unbuckle, jump out of the plane and run across the ramp to ask Fletch for the Hana traffic frequency: 120.65.

There's a whole lot of big, beautiful jets here on the GA ramp for Christmas. I had to taxi past about 1/2 mile of Gulfstreams, Legacies, Falcons and Fokkers to get to the runup area at the end of the east ramp. As I rode past those big, beautiful airplanes, gleaming in the Maui sun, I thought about how rewarding it's going to be to fly a $20 million jet someday. That is what I am working toward, one flight hour at a time. Departing for my first solo flight to another airport, I got to consider that the disciplines and skills I am learning on flights such as these are the same disciplines and skills that are going to serve me in the cockpit of that $20 million airplane 10 years from now. It's good to have goals and vision.

My runup was uneventful so I contacted Maui Clearance Delivery for clearance out of the Charlie airspace. Cleared for 1500', 1 mile offshore, squawk 1764. Readback correct. Contact Maui Tower for taxi. Directed to position and hold, traffic is Cessna on the runway a few taxiways ahead of me. I moved out onto the centerline of the enormous runway 2 and sat there. It's a sort of vulnerable feeling, being in a tiny little airplane on the centerline, with huge rubber streaks on either side of you where the heavies touch down and no visual reference for what's behind you. ATC is God at that point and you just hope they didn't forget about the 777 on short final for the runway you're sitting on. When they cleared me to take off, I was all too happy to apply full throttle and get out of there.

As I climbed out, the airplane kept wanting to pitch down. Oops, aren't you supposed to trim for takeoff before you go? Pulled the trim wheel back a quarter turn and watched the nose position itself at the perfect height above the horizon. Climbed out over Spreckelsville at 80KIAS and checked out Paia and the waves breaking at Kuau and Hookipa. Beautiful. By the time I got to Hookipa, Maui Tower handed me off to Maui Departure and they confirmed me on radar and pointed out a couple of helicopters coming down the coast. I leveled off at 1500' and acknowledged contact with traffic and watched as the helicopters turned onshore for the airport.

A few minutes later I'm past Pauwela, coming up on Opana Point and Maui Departure directs me to squawk VFR and terminates radar contact. Switch to ITAF and report position. Here's where I learned something. Some of the helicopter pilots are pretty complacent and don't necessarily obey all of the regs for VFR flight in Class E airspace, they can be sort of hard to find (especially when they're in the clouds way back in a valley up on the mountain). I had a few advisories from helicopters and could barely make out anything they were transmitting. You hear the mic key and the sound of rotor blades flapping and muttering and that's about it. Then, out of nowhere I hear LOUD AND CLEAR:

'Hana Traffic, Astar just west of Wailua, 1500'...'

CRAP! I'm just west of Wailua at 1500'! I look out my right side and there he is, coming out of a valley RIGHT AT ME! I got a little scared and took a few seconds to think about what to do....did I need to change course to avoid him? Did he see me? I quickly said:

'Hana Traffic, Cessna 7332 Lima. I'm at 1500' right in front of you!'

He acknowledged and turned immediately. Maybe 500yds off my right wing, not exactly close...but I didn't like seeing him coming right at me and finding myself unsure of what to do. I guess if he'd been close enough to threaten, I could have made a diving turn to the left, away from him and away from the mountain. It was a little troubling to me that he was 500' off of the westbound even thousands altitude he was supposed to observe. I almost said something to him about it, but figured aviation on Maui is too small for me to want to be the student pilot that chastised some crusty, Vietnam vet helicopter pilot for flying a wrong altitude. I'll just keep my eyes peeled and my mouth shut and learn what I can. The lesson for me was that when the traffic advisory is loud and clear, they're close...when it's muffled and static masked, they're probably either back in a valley or farther away. Just the nature of line of sight radio transmissions.

So, that was fun and I continued toward Hana. Watched the big waves breaking on the wrong side of Hanamanu for it to be any good. Looked up the hill and saw a big box truck on the road to Hana. Yuck! Thank GOD I'm not driving a car to Hana today! What a great perspective, at 1500', a mile offshore above the Keanae Peninsula and looking down the coast at the Hana airport, then back up the mountain at all these beautiful waterfalls and valleys...ah, paradise (and no driving to Hana either!).

At George Harrison's I announced my position and that I was switching to Hana Airport. Switched to the airport and called out my position, immediately I hear Armin:

'Hey John!!! Are you by yourself this time!?'

:)

'Cessna 7332 Lima, affirmative.' I began my descent to pattern altitude and enjoyed a moment of personal pride in my accomplishment to date.

'Cessna 7332 Lima entering left base for runway 8. Touch and go.'

No visual contact with traffic. Descending through 800' and make a right turn to left base for runway 8. Carb heat on, power to 1700rpm, airspeed in the white arc and flaps 10°. Reduced power a little more, made the turn to final and there's the runway. My first landing was just beautiful...maybe a little fast (no stall horn at touchdown) but on the centerline and smooth. Flaps up, carb heat off, full power...check RPMs and oil pressure for full power and away we go...

'Hana Traffic, Cessna 7332 Lima departing runway 8. Remaining in the pattern for left closed traffic, runway 8'

Armin: 'Hey! That one looked pretty good!'

:)

'Cessna 7332 Lima. Affirmative.'

Flew 4 more touch and goes. Got to maintain visual contact with some helicopters that were entering/leaving the pattern and watched Armin land his trike from my downwind leg on the last one, it was really cool. At 12:30 it was time to head back so I could GET THE AIRPLANE BACK TO THE HANGAR FOR THE NEXT PERSON SCHEDULED TO FLY IT!!

Made a left downwind departure from the pattern and bid Armin farewell. Got past the Heiau to George Harrison's house and switched back to ITAF, then just cruised up the coast, downwind to Kahului. The clouds were really light and staying close to the mountain so I urged the 152 up to 2000' and enjoyed the view from a little higher up than I've flown that route before.

The next learning experience came when I started approaching Opana Point and hadn't yet made contact with Maui Approach. Hm, very high groundspeed with the tailwind and I'm coming up on the Charlie airspace fast. I switch to Maui Approach and there's all these helicopters in front of me, behind me and uphill from me tying up the controller. I'm watching the houses fly by and Pauwela Point coming up and can't get a word in! This is not good, because I have to have clearance to enter that airspace...no clearance and I'm in violation of the FARs. Just as I was about to fly a right 360° turn to give myself a little more time, everyone shut up and I was able to let the controllers know where I was. They gave me a squawk and directions to right downwind runway 2. Sounds like clearance to me. I dialed up Maui Tower and acknowledged I had helicopter traffic in sight and was making right downwind for runway 2 with information Echo. They asked me to continue right downwind (which struck me as funny, since I was still 5 miles upwind of the tower) and I acknowledged. Started my descent to 800' and watched Paia town fly by underneath me. I love flying here!

As I flew past the tower, I got to watch a couple of Aloha 737s take off. Tower cautioned wake turbulence from departing jets and cleared me to land runway 2. Abeam the numbers: carb heat on, power to 1700rpm, flaps 10° and begin descending to land. The wind was strong in the pattern so I cut my turn to base a little short for what I'd hoped to be a short final. The wind was so strong that by the time I was ready to turn final, I was all the way out at the road. Oh well, turn final and power up a little to motor upwind . Maintained a visual glide on the VASI all the way down to the last 200' or so, then got low to fly right into the numbers. Gusting wind...working to stay centered on the runway...20'...10'...start to round out...hold it...steer with the rudder. I was set for a perfect landing when a gust blew me to the right. Instead of turning to the left, I just kept steering with the rudders, which made me all sideways...bummer. Too low to really correct and just touched down a little crooked for a less than beautiful (but still perfectly acceptable) landing on runway 2. Got to remember to KEEP FLYING THE AIRPLANE until I'm parking. You turn with ailerons and keep the nose centered with rudder...all the way to the ground.

6 landings in 1.1
1.1 PIC

Posted by johnpeace at December 22, 2003 06:52 PM