Saturday, September 19, 2009

EAA's Tom P was there too

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Van's LSA RV12

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SKY Manor Fly In

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LSA Skyarrow N435SA at Sky Manor (N40) Fly In


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Sky Manor EAA Chapter 864 Fly In

I flew from W29 to N40 Sky Manor airport today. As a sport pilot I have not done my sign off for Class B airspace so I planned to go around Philadelphia's Class B on the west side at 3500 feet under the outer self. My route was W29 - 58M - N57 - N10 - CKZ - N40.

Lessons Learned
  • After taking off from W29 I noticed that quickly that the headwind was stronger than planned so I called Flight Service and amended my ETE. Had not done that before. Not a major lesson but was happy that I make the call right away as it did take me longer to get there. Next time I have to give myself a little more extra time for ETE as landing and parking at a Fly In takes a longer than a normal airport arrival.
  • We all know the ground rule of VFR; See and Avoid. And even when using Flight Following you must have your head on a swivel. Today I had probably 5 planes coming at right me or close at the same altitude that ATC did not call out. 2 were gliders, funny enough they told me about traffic 6000 feet higher. So really keep you head on swivel even when using Flight Following.
  • Do not use an airport with glider operations as a way-point. You will find gliders circling there :-) I did see the glider symbol while planning the flight but did not act on it, some might call it stupid but I learned that lesson today. 
  • I use the www.enflight.com online flight planner. The reason I use this flight planner is because you can set your own weather minimums and when planning it will show these weather minimums in color coding on the sectional. When making the return plan I quickly reversed the departure and destination airports codes and the departure time. What I did not do was to adjust the cruising altitude. It has the option to electronically file your flight plan, so filled both with an altitude of 3500. Not a big problem, I adjusted the cruising altitude when I called to activate my flight plan. Also plan higher if you can as the air will probably be more smooth than down low.
  • As soon as I was clear of Class B airspace ( I flew under the outer self) I wanted to go to higher altitude to get a smoother ride. I requested a higher altitude but ATC told me that altitude is at my discretion. I was not aware that I could change my altitude, I guess a left over from listen to ATC on United commercial flights :-)

Pieter

The PLOG is open

PLOG is short for Pilots Log. I want to use this PLOG to log my flights and share the things I learned or noticed during those flights. I hope to contribute to the learning experience of a student pilot. Maybe if you read about my "mistake" you will not make it.

Pieter