Aviator90 Episode 33

[music]

Man: [0:31] Welcome to a special edition on Aviator 90 from Angle of
Attack. What’s so special about this special edition? Well, it’s
episode 33. So, why not have some random celebration?
[0:45] So, this episode is actually going to be really cool. We are
doing another cross-country flight. And this time, we are going to
hug the coast as we fly from Newport, Oregon, to Astoria, Oregon,
which will be a northbound flight.

[1:01] Along the way, this time, I’m going to introduce you to VOR
navigation, a bit of chart reading, VFR flight following, and a ton
of many tips that I’m sure you’ll find very useful.

[1:14] So, first, let’s talk a bit about the map, and exactly what
we’re looking at, here. So, we’ll be starting out at Newport,
Oregon, as you see here, centered on the map. Now, there’s
something different about this area.

[1:30] See the compass looking symbol around the airport? This
indicates there is a VOR. Now, you can see here, the information
box for that VOR. You’ll see the name of the VOR, the frequency;
which is actually very important, the shortened identifier; in this
case, Oscar November Pa-pa, and also the Morse code for identifying
the VOR.

[1:57] So, we’ll be tuning the radio here in a few minutes when we
set up the aircraft. But for now, let’s start to move north and see
what else we’re looking at, here. If you look around on the map,
you’ll see a bunch of these blue lines extending out from the VOR.

[2:14] These lines, if blue like this, are called Victor Airways
that, basically, link two VOR’s together. Today, it just so happens
that, the departure VOR at Oscar November Pa-pa, goes to the
Astoria, Oregon, VOR of Alpha Sierra Tango.

[2:35] So, zooming down here, we see that we get an actual VOR
radial for the start of our route. In this case, 346. We’ll be
following this for the first part of our journey. Now, as we
continue to move north, we see the name of the airway, which is
Victor 27.

[2:56] Continuing north to our destination, we now see all of the
destination information just like we saw for Newport. Only now, we
see the radial that goes to Newport, which will help us out later
in the flight when we switch over to Astoria’s VOR.

[3:14] So, although that may be confusing, I’m sure you learned a
few things. Bear in mind that we are going to jump in and I’ll
actually show you all this stuff happening and hopefully, it will
make a bit more sense.

[3:26] So, that does it for the pre-flight. Everything else, I can
teach you along the way as it is happening. Sound good? All righty,
let’s jump right in the airplane, here. We are on the ramp, next to
the fuel pump as always. We are topped off and ready to get going
on this flight.

[3:45] Today, we are in the Carenado 172, which will give us a bit
more speed and the capability to do this VOR navigation. All right.
So, we’re looking at the switches, here. As always, we’re going to
set it up. Alternator and battery come on. Magnetos to ‘Both.’

[4:05] Then, we leave the avionics off for now. We don’t want to
start it up that way. And then, I will turn the nav light… for
some reason, the beacon was already on. I’ll turn that on, leave it
on. And the throttle was full throttle. That would have been a
dangerous situation if we started up.

[4:26] So, I’ll pull that out. I’ll push the mixture in, ‘Full
Rich.’ And I’ll just crack the throttle here, and then we can get
ready to start up. Just checking the trim real quick, and let’s
start the aircraft.

[4:51] First, we need to do three pumps on the primer to get fuel
into the cylinders. Once you do that, you can start. A good start
there, nice and smooth. Bring it up to 1000 RPM, just to get the
engine heating up correctly.

[5:10] What I’ll do is I’ll zoom in on the oil temperature and
pressure instruments here. The temperature is still pretty low. The
engine is still cold because we just barely started up, and the
pressure won’t rise into the green area until the RPM is pretty
high. So you don’t need to take those as bad right now, because
they’ll be better once we’re in flight.

[5:41] Now let’s see. We need to turn on the avionics, so I’ll turn
that on, and that gives us radios. Then we can start to set all
that stuff up. We’re going to set our local frequency to 122.8, and
you want to make sure you take the shortest route to the number
whenever you switch it. You don’t want to go all the way around.

[6:15] So 122.8 on the frequency for the local area, and then we’re
going to put in 117.1 for the VOR frequency right next to the one
we just punched in there. What that will do is it’ll tune in the
VOR for us, and that will allow us to dial that in and follow it.
You can see that on the chart, as we saw before, in the blue
information box, and that should get us all tuned in.

[6:57] So setting it now, 117.1. You want to take the shortest
route to that number, as I said before. You can see on the left,
the VOR instrument just came alive. Now, we want to get that radio
from the chart, which was 3-4-6. We’re already pretty close, so 3-
3.

[7:18] Count 10 from there. Each tick is a five, and then we just
go right over the five, and 46. That will work out well. So each
tick is five. Just look at one of the bigger numbers, and that will
help you determine where you’re at.

[7:37] So now we’re actually going to tune the weather while we’re
here. I see here it’s 133.9 from FSX. I’m going to try to put it in
com two, 133.9. Try to listen. OK, I don’t hear anything. Honestly
not too sure how to operate this radio switcher up here, so we
might just be dealing with one com today, which can be kind of a
pain. I still don’t hear anything, people.

[8:19] All right. Well, maybe we should just leave it alone and put
it in the other com. So let’s put it, 133.9, in com one. We’ll just
have to switch back to 122.8 once we’re done listening to it, and
dial that in here.

[8:40] We’re going to listen for the wind especially, and you also
want to listen for the altimeter setting and any other information
that would be detrimental to the flight.

Radio: [8:39] Kilo Oscar November Papa Automated Weather Observation
15130. Wind 284 at 10. Visibility, greater than 20 miles. Sky
condition, field clouds at 3, 300. Temperature, 20 Celsius. Dew
point, 12 Celsius. Altimeter: 2983. KONP. Automated …

Man: [9:11] All right. So it said the wind was coming from 280 at ten
knots, which is a pretty good wind. It’s nice. And then the
altimeter was 2983, which we will now set on the altimeter manually
here. So just dial this down. And it’s kind of hard to see on this
one, but there should be some ticks between the eight and the nine,
or anywhere like that that we’d be able to visualize those minute
adjustments.
[9:51] But you’re just going to have to guestimate for this one.
Can’t seem to see them, so I’m just going to leave it there. That’s
close enough. 2983. You can also say three as tree. That’s one of
the communication things that some people use. Sounds silly
sometimes, though. So now what we’re going to do, we’re going to
power up here.

[10:21] And there’s some cars to my left. So I’ve got to make a
really tight turn. That means a lot of power. And brakes on the
left side, or the side of the turn, the direction of the turn. And
I really don’t want to hit that car. I don’t think that guy would
appreciate me chopping the back of his Beamer up. So we’re just
going to be slow here and take our time.

[10:47] Now honestly, if this was real life, I would have pushed
the aircraft back a little bit to where we could turn around
better. But I’d rather turn toward these cars than the fuel pump,
to be honest. All right, we’re almost clear. OK, I hope he’s not
around.

[11:06] Now pull out the power a little bit so you’re not spraying
rocks all over his car now. Just be conscious of that when you’re
on the taxi ramp or anywhere else, that if you have high power
settings you can throw debris at hangers, people’s cars, things
like that. So just be careful.

[11:27] Then what we’re going to do is we’re going to taxi to the
runway via echo. We’ll just maintain center-line pride here. This
is quite a long taxi, so during the taxi we can do some different
things to set up for things that we’d normally do in the run-up,
like checking the flight controls, making sure the door is shut one
last time.

[12:10] Seat belts should have been on already. All that sort of
stuff we can check again and just make sure that we’re good to go,
and that helps out quite a bit to make sure that we have a shorter
run-up and that we can get out of here. The less time that we spend
on the ground, the better. No sense burning fuel that isn’t taking
us somewhere.

[12:48] All right, so while we’re taxiing out there, I could have
done this a little earlier, but I am going to make a radio call.
Let me actually check the flight controls here. Everything’s free
and correct. All right, so I’m going to make a radio call and just
let people know I’m taxiing.

Radio: [13:11] Newport traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo is taxi via echo
to Runway 3-4 run-up.

Man: [13:26] I could have ended that call with Newport but, I usually
just say at the beginning, or the end. I rarely say it both times
unless I feel someone needs to listen.
[13:42] Oftentimes, when you’re on this common traffic frequency
122.8, you often pickup three or four different airports. So in
that situation where you can hear other guys making radio calls for
different airports or they’re in the traffic pattern, often it’s
good to say it both times.

[14:00] That way they know that you are not at their airport and
not in conflict or that you are at their airport and you are a
potential conflict. Just keep that in mind when you are out there
in the virtual skies.

[14:18] So maintaining center line pride here. Kind of a way to
line up to the taxi is to lineup the top of the attitude indicator
pointer and your yoke or either with the taxi line. That get’s you
a nice and straight line here. As you can see, it kind of helps out
to visualize exactly what’s going on.

[14:46] Then we do the long taxi to runway 34. We’re just waiting
in anticipation for the chance to get up in the air.

[15:08] Now, I guess right here we could mention, now that I said
that, that the run-up is pretty important. You’ve got to make sure
the aircraft’s good to go.

[15:18] If it’s not, if there’s a problem, you go check it out. You
have a mechanic look. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

[15:26] I have canceled flights before. Anticipating the go up and
have a good time but, safety first. If something isn’t normal, then
go check it out.

[15:37] I’ve even aborted take-offs where something just didn’t
feel right, and it ended up being a door that was open or some
other issue. So just be diligent in making sure everything’s set up
and good to go.

[15:50] For the most part, in a flight simulator you’re not going
to see those types of issues. But you’re going to see it more and
more as development companies start to model things better and more
realistically that way.

[16:04] So I’m going to turn into the wind a bit here and stop,
make sure we don’t pull ahead of the hold-short line, and then I
will actually make a radio call real quick here.

Radio: [16:19] Newport traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo holding short 3-
4 run-up.

Man: [16:27] All right, so now we can get all set up for the run-up, and
what I’ll do is I’ll… I’ve pushed the throttle up to 1700 RPM.
Then I’m going to start to check the magnetos. You want to make
sure that there is a 50 to 75 RPM drop when you go to one of the
single magnetos.
[16:56] You want to make sure that both of them are smooth. If one
isn’t, then that’s kind of bad news. Also, while the engine is
revved up, you want to make sure that you lean the aircraft
properly.

[17:09] Then we can look at the suction gauge, make sure our
suction is good. That’s going to be sufficient. You can see that
our oil pressure is now in the green, and also the oil temp is in
the green. And that does it for the run-up.

[17:26] I am going to check the final now, because I am about to
pull out on the runway. So I’ll just peak around the corner here,
see if I can’t catch a glimpse. Looks fine for the time being. Then
I’ll look the other way, even though someone would be stupid
landing with a tail wind, but we check anyway.

[17:47] All right, so we’re ready to go. I will make a radio call
here, and then we will pull onto the runway.

Radio: [17:55] Newport traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo is taking 3-4
northbound departure.

Man: [18:04] Now you can turn your transponder to altitude. And that
will report your altitude and then I just turn the landing light
down at the bottom on. You probably couldn’t see that. Then we will
line up here, get ready to take off. This thing around, plenty of
runway length today. No problem there. Alright, so we’re gonna keep
it rolling here. Smoothly out power.
[18:34] Here we go airspeed is alive. Engine is in the green.
Rotate coming up and here it is. And we’re off, finally. So here we
go. We are going to do our usual straight ahead climb trim during
that process. Make sure that we relieve those control pressures
from our cells. And we will continue to climb straight forward.
Basically over the runway, at least for a time. And we will then
track to our VOR navigation. [buzzing] .

[19:18] Let’s just keep this coming up. I’m gonna continue to trim
as we climb. Getting a very good climb rate around a thousand beat
per minute. Now I didn’t mention before, but we’re gonna climb to
2, 500 feet today. We’ll be on a westerly heading. That means that
we use even thousands plus five hundred. And that will get us on
our way. And get us plenty of terrain clearance. Obviously, it’ll
be right along the coast. And that will do it.

[19:44] So nice and stable climb now. Looking good, beautiful day
to fly. Now you can see the V O R instrument at the top right. That
we talked about before. Now the line you see, the white line, is
basically our track that we need to follow. So if that track is to
our left, we need to turn left in order to seek it out. Now you
don’t just make a full 90 degree turn to the left. You just do a
nice heading that will intercept that, so the radial that we have
dialed in is 346, so right now I’m on a heading of 330, and that
will allow us to intercept it at a pretty good angle, and then we
can track it outbound at 346 once we get it centered on the
instrument there.

[20:36] Now it’s worth mentioning that the VOR, the closer you are
to it, the more sensitive the needle will be. So where we are now
the needle is very sensitive, so it may be off only a few feet
where we are now. But later on this same indication could be off
miles, and that’s just the way it is. The more those radials spread
out the further the distance there is between them. I hope that
makes sense.

[21:11] So now I’ve turned to our heading of 346. Now that’s not
taking into account wind drift or the wind pushing us, so it may be
a different heading than that, but that will basically get us on
our VOR track outbound and will allow us to track that. That’s
basically what we’ll do for the whole flight. Once you get about
halfway, we’ll switch over to the Astoria VOR, which will get us
all set up there.

[21:44] All right, so while I was shooting off my mouth I’ve
leveled off or at least begun the process of trimming the aircraft,
pulling back the power and getting all set up for our cruise phase.
That was a pretty short climb. That means we’ll have a pretty short
descent, and that will be nice for what we need. So I can turn off
my landing light now that we’re done with the departure area, and
that’s basically it.

[22:15] One thing you’ll need to do as you climb, as I mentioned in
other episodes, is you’ll need to lean the aircraft. Lean the
mixture, but it’s not going to be a whole lot was that sort of
altitude change, but it will be minor. If you’d like to make that
change and conserve fuel, that’s always a plus. So just make sure
you’re continuing to track that VOR. Make small adjustments and
just get on track and don’t chase the needle. Be nice and smooth
with it. If you need to seek something out, give yourself five or
10 degrees and get there.

[22:56] You don’t want to be doing S turns all the way up to
Astoria but, you can just go back and forth a little bit, five to
10 degrees. Just find that sweet spot on the needle and that will
get you all setup.

[23:15] Now, that we basically have you setup on the VOR
navigation, it’s very simple. You just follow that needle. Turn
toward the needle.

[23:24] It’s worth mentioning that there’s an indication on the
VOR. It’s a little white arrow and that says that the VOR’s behind
us or we are going from the station. If it was pointing upward or
toward, that would mean we are going to the station.

[23:47] You’ve got to make sure that’s always set on the correct
side. Otherwise, you have the reciprocal radial dialed in, which is
not good, at least for most situations.

[23:58] Right now, we are tracking that correctly. If it was
opposite, then our turns would have to be opposite. It’s called
reverse sensing. I’m sure you can look it up on a Wikipedia or
something.

[24:10] It can get you pretty confused. So just be aware of reverse
sensing. I’ll actually put a link in the blog post about that so
you guys can go study that a little bit more.

[24:22] But, just to keep things simple for now, we know how to
track it. We’re doing good there and we’re all setup.

[24:29] Continue to chase that needle all the way or at least
halfway to Astoria. We’ll just wrap that up for the VOR stuff for
now.

[24:40] Now one thing I want to teach you guys about is called VFR
flight following. Now basically what it is is we take advantage of
the air traffic system, and we can talk to air traffic control.
That gives us someone to talk to along the way, which can be very
safe. They can give us traffic alerts, things like that, which is
very helpful.

[25:05] So I just dialed in 127.5, which is Seattle Center, and
I’ll give them a call here.

Radio: [25:13] Seattle Center, November 399 Charlie Kilo VFR 2500, 20
miles north Newport, VFR flight following.

Seattle Center: [25:26] Cessna 399 Charlie Kilo, roger, this is Squawk 3633.

Man: [25:32] Squawk 3633, Cessna nine Charlie Kilo.

Seattle Center: [25:59] Cessna nine Charlie Kilo, ready to contact 25 miles north
of the Newport VOR.

Man: [26:06] So now we are on their radar, and they will give us traffic
reports and other things. Then it gives us someone to talk to,
something to listen to, and just gets us in good contact so if
anything was to go wrong, they’d know exactly what we were.
[26:23] I think this is the preferred method for me over filing a
flight plan, and having a general area where we would be at the
time where search and rescue would look if we went down.

[26:39] However, when there’s someone actually on the radio, they
know your exact radar position, and you can actually talk to them
and they can get you out of some stuff. So that helps a lot, makes
you feel comfortable.

[26:54] So keep in mind the VFR flight following is there to help
you. I prefer to use it. It’s like IFR, where you basically talk
the same way to air traffic control, but it’s different in that you
can basically do what you want. You can change altitude as you
please. You can change your heading as you please.

[27:15] Say you saw a herd of elk to the left. You could actually
go over there and look at them, and you wouldn’t have to tell air
traffic control. It’s probably smart to tell them anyway, but you
don’t have to tell them. Now if that was IFR, if that was
Instrument Flight Rules, you can’t make a deviation like that
without asking.

[27:37] So it still allows you a lot of freedom, but it gives you
that sense of safety, which is very nice. And you can get VFR
Flight Following on that sim, which will help out a lot. And it’s a
great way to build your ATC communication skills, so you can take
that into the IFR environment, in case you guys ever want to do
that. And that’ll be good for you.

[28:00] So embrace VFR Flight Following. It’s great, I like it, I
did it a lot back when I didn’t have an Instrument Rating. And
basically now that I do have an Instrument Rating, whenever I do
talk to air traffic control, I’m usually under IFR and requesting
IFR, things like that. I like to be in that environment and stay
sharp with those skills.

Radio: [28:35]

Man: So that’s about it. So what we’re going to do now is I’m going to
fast forward this flight. Because it’s quite a long one. It’s about
an hour and ten minutes in route. So I am going to fast forward
until we get to the halfway point, where we’ll switch over to the
story of VOR, and I’ll see you guys then. So have fun along the
way. And don’t chase the needle too much. Now that we’re getting
further out, the needle isn’t as sensitive. So have fun, follow the
coast, enjoy the scenery, and I will see you guys in a few seconds.
[30:59] All right guys, we’re back. Now looking at the map I’ve
determined that we’re about halfway based on the land features. I
found Tillamook Airport, as you can see here on the map, and then
this little bay area that’s just right ahead of us, and as you can
see that is about halfway along our route, maybe a little further.
Now we can tune in the Astoria VOR, and initially we’ll use both
VORs and we’ll match them up, and you can see what that’s like.
It’s pretty cool to see both needles fall in the same, so the
Astoria VOR frequency-and I know it; I’ll just punch it in here,
it’s 114 nothing or 1140. The needle just came alive, very cool.

[31:47] Then we have our old frequency 117.1. So we have Newport on
the top VOR and now we have Astoria on the bottom VOR.

[32:02] Then, I am going to dial in the radial for Astoria here.
It’s on the map which is 166. It’s coming up on me; I’m having a
hard time. Man, come on. Ah.

[32:28] This is when I wish I could reach out and just grab the
knob and turn it. It would be so much easier. Maybe someday. So 166
and you can see that…it’s kind of interesting because both VORs
are basically the same deviation.

[32:47] What we’re going to do is we’re going to follow the Newport
VOR. So the VOR we came from. I’m off course to the right a little
bit. That means I’m going to turn to the left.

[33:05] As I do this, you will see that both needles will come
together. They will basically match up. That says that we’re right
on course.

[33:19] Now, real quick, Victor Airways aren’t exactly the most
precise type of airway. They are four miles either side, which
makes eight miles total. It’s like a highway in the sky that’s
eight miles wide. I guarantee we have enough room for now and our
deviation isn’t off that much.

[33:44] We’re going to continue to the left here. I just closed the
vent because of the rain. I don’t want any water coming in. Big
surprise, rain in the Pacific Northwest. Imagine that. In all
reality, it’s very typical.

[34:04] So as I was saying, the Victor airways are eight miles
wide, and you want to stay on track as best you can. But the fact
that we’re deviated here a little bit isn’t a huge deal, just so
you know.

[34:20] We’re going in the right direction. We’re on the airway.
We’re good to go, so don’t beat yourself up if you’re off a little
bit. It’s no huge deal, just like my altitude is off 100 feet.
We’ll get it back.

[34:40] Now if that was an IFR flight, that would be a whole
different story. But we are nice and visual here. We’re just having
fun, enjoying the scenery, so whatever.

[34:54] So as you can see, the Newport needle is coming center, and
the Astoria needle is also coming center. Because we are further
away from the Newport VOR, that deviation is very small as far as
the needle’s concerned, but it may be pretty big as far as distance
is concerned.

[35:23] Because we’re closer to the Astoria VOR, the VOR we’re
going to, the bottom VOR instrument you see there, that deviation
with the needle looks a lot larger. So you can see now that they
are continuing to center up, which is pretty dang cool.

[35:44] Now there’s something I’m going to teach you here in a few
minutes, and we’re actually going to change the radial of our VOR
here, the one we’re going to, Astoria. Because right now — I
talked about it before — right now we have a “From” indication for
the Astoria VOR, and we need to have a “To” indication, because
we’re going to the station.

[36:11] That means that we need to calculate the reciprocal of that
heading that we have now. Because we’re on pretty much a straight
airway, we’re just going to use the old 3-4-6 for that number.

[36:28] Then that will get us on the normal type of sensing, the
sensing that we used coming out of Newport, where if the needle is
to our right, we turn to the right. If the needle is to our left,
we turn to the left.

[36:40] That just keeps it simple and makes sure that we don’t have
to do the reverse sensing, because with reverse sensing, we could
technically follow this radial into the airport right now with a
“From” indication. But if the needle was to the right, we’d have to
turn left, and if the needle was to left, we’d have to turn right.

[37:03] So it’s kind of confusing. You have to turn the opposite
way in order to intercept the needle. You’ve got to be very
conscious with that particular error on a VOR; otherwise, it can
get you into trouble to where you think you’re turning to intercept
a course and you’re turning toward that line, but really, you’re
getting further away from it.

[37:26] It can be very confusing and disorienting, so keep that in
mind while you do these flights. Hopefully, you guys studied up a
little bit on or you will study up a little bit on the reverse
sensing.

[37:43] In newer glass cockpits, a lot of them automatically
account for the reverse sensing. You’ll never get reverse sensing
with a system like the G1000. But that’s a factor the computer is
taking over, and so on this manual stuff we’re doing, we have to do
that stuff on our own and make sure that we aren’t tracking the
wrong needle.

[38:13] Anyway, that’s probably enough about that, a little too
boring for your taste. We’ll just enjoy the fact that these two
needles are lined up right now. Then we will turn off the Newport
VOR so we don’t get confused, and then we will turn in the “To”
indication for the Astoria VOR or the VOR we’re going to.

[38:44] Something I thought about while I was doing this — let me
just get in here, whip this baby around. 3-4-6, just like the other
one, and it should pretty much line up once you put it on there. It
should already be pretty much centered, and there it is. It’s
already right on it.

[39:09] Now I am going to just — all I’m going to do is just
change the frequency of the Newport VOR, just the degree, and then
what that’ll do is it’ll mean I won’t get confused. So I’ll only be
following one needle instead of the other one.

[39:34] Basically, they’re both saying the same thing right now
because we’re tracking to the Astoria VOR. But the Newport VOR, the
one we came from — and as I’ve mentioned, it’s going to be much
less sensitive, so it’ll be a higher error for a small deviation on
the scale.

[40:01] All right, so I was saying that one of the things I could
have done was to put the Astoria VOR at the top and the Newport VOR
at the bottom. That way it would be oriented like the map.

[40:17] So the Newport VOR would be behind us, and the Astoria VOR
would be ahead of us based on the instrument panel layout, which
would have helped a lot. I could switch it, but it’s not a big
deal. The fact is that we’re aware of it, and we won’t get
confused.

[40:41] So what we are going to do at this point is there’s not
much else to show you guys. I’m going to avoid terrain to the left
here. Then I will get back on track with the Astoria VOR.

[40:52] Then, as we’re descending toward the airport, we will
switch off the flight following and get on the local traffic
advisory. Then, we will get the weather report, find the runway,
and land. So I will see you guys in a couple of seconds here. It’s
like fast-forward.

[silence]

[41:09] All right, so if you look on your map you’ll notice that
Astoria is on the edge of the Columbia River which is probably the
largest river. It is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest
that empties into the Pacific Ocean.

[42:53] So I know that that’s ahead, I can see that. It’s almost
like a huge, huge inlet, and so I know we’re coming up on Astoria
now. What I’m going to do is I am going to get the weather report,
and then we will get things settled in here. So, I see the nearest
airport, Astoria Regional. I need 135.37 or 3537. I’m going to try
this other radio again, but it’s probably not going to work. But,
we’ll give it a shot anyway. I’m still not sure.

[43:43] OK. All right. So, we’re going to…it’s obviously not
working, so I’m going to put it in the top one, 13537, and then
I’ll just switch off frequency real quick here and listen in.

[radio]

[43:59] All right. Cool. So, basically it’s the same window as
before. It’s at around 280 at 10 knots, and we’ve got a different
altimeter setting. This time I am going to be lazy and just hit the
Bravo key on the keyboard, and that will reset the altimeter.

[44:46] I can see the airport up ahead. You can see the little
lights for the runway there, the PAPI lights. So, now I’m going to
give Seattle center a call and just let them know I’d like to
cancel VFR flight following and go over to advisory because we’re
about ten miles out.

[45:15] Seattle center, Niner Charlie Kilo, Astoria inside counsel
flight following, please.

Seattle Center: [45:23] Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo, Seattle center, there no traffic
observed in the area of Astoria at this time. Have a great
afternoon.

Man: [45:34] So there is an east and west runway, as I can tell you. We
are headed north now. So that means we are basically going to be
turning left into the runway of 26, which favors our winds. So 26
is closest to 280, and that’s the best runway for us to use. It’s
also the biggest one here at Astoria, one of the better ones. And
so basically we’re just going to be doing a left turn into the
runway. That will be pretty simple.
[silence]

[46:03] So basically what we’re going to do now is we’re just going
to turn the advisory frequency on, which you can see on the map if
you’d like. And for the majority of the time it’s 122.8 in this
case. That is the situation as well. So I’m going to put that in.
And also we have to get off our squat code and get back on the VFR
squat code, which is 1200, so 1200, and we’ll dial that in.

[46:49] So now that we’ve switched to advisory frequency, we are
going to give the local traffic a call. Let them know we’re in the
area, and what our intentions are. So here we go. “Astoria traffic.
Cessna 399CK. I’m a sky lane. Astoria traffic. Cessna 9CK 10 south,
2500, descending runway 26 for landing. We’ll be a left base.” So
I’ve let them know how far away I was, what my altitude is, and how
we are going to enter the area.

[47:35] What runway we are going to land, and how we’re going to
land on that runway or what type of pattern entry we’re going to
do.

[47:44] So what we’ll do now is we’ll just continue to descend on
down to the runway here. I’m going to turn on my landing lights as
we’re getting in the area so other aircraft can view us better if
they need to.

[47:59] You can see the runway coming up now. We’re perpendicular
to it, and we’re just going to be doing a nice 90-degree turn to
intercept that once we get close enough. But it may seem like you
need to put down flaps now. We still have a few seconds here, so
just make sure that your descent rate is favorable and then we’ll
get them set up.

[48:21] But I am bringing back power now so I can get in that flap-
operating range, and then I’ll start to put them down so we can get
slowed down. That transition is pretty quick. It goes from not
really needing to to needing to pretty quick, so just be aware of
what that transition is like.

[48:41] I’m going to do two notches of flaps since we’re basically
on base anyway, and then we’ll just set up here. The altitude is
looking pretty nice. We’re coming in at a nice descent angle. As I
mentioned in the landing episode, we want to choose a point target.

[48:58] Things are moving pretty nicely. It looks like we’re
descending toward the runway at a good rate. It doesn’t look like
we’re going to land shorter than that or beyond it, but it takes a
little bit of different judgment because we will be doing a turn as
well during that process.

[49:17] I’m just going to continue to come around here. I’m going
to do a panic check real quick. We’re going to check carb ice or
carburetor heat. Gas undercarriage mixture is good. Prop, we don’t
have one. Switches — we’ve got the seat belts, and the switch is
all taken care of. All right.

[49:37] Turning final now. We’re going to look out for the runway
here, and there it is. It’s still a good descent rate. I’ll
probably shallow out my turn a little bit and get lined up.

[49:49] Now you see that there are landing markers there and some
arrows before the main part of the runway. That’s called a
displaced threshold, and we actually can’t land on that. You can
take off using that runway, but you can’t land on the displaced
threshold. So we need to make sure to land beyond those arrows,
just this side of the numbers.

[50:14] I did put in the final much of flaps, and we’re just coming
down now to our approach speed, which is 60 knots in this aircraft.
Just coming down, getting all lined up. Need a little extra power
to get past that displaced threshold.

[50:34] Down, bringing it down, bringing it down, bringing it down,
bringing it down. Pulling out power. OK, I flared way too early.
Let it settle in. Let it settle, settle, settle, settle, flare. All
right, settle down.

[50:48] We’ve got it. Smooth landing, right on center line. This is
going to be a long roll-out. Quite a ways away from the FBO over
there, so I’m just going to keep on rolling. I probably could have
turned there; missed it. I’m not going to slam on my brakes and
swerve. Too late.

[51:16] So we’re going to just continue down here. I’m still
leaving all my lights on and my flaps down, and we’re just going to
cross this runway. Just look really quick to make sure no one’s
there.

[51:32] You can also state your intentions in that situation when
you’re crossing a runway. It’s not a bad idea to do that, so we’ll
pull off the runway here and then I’ll make a radio call.

Radio: [51:50] Astoria traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo clear of 2-6.

Man: [52:11] We’re just going to continue ahead here, and we’ll take
this taxiway just toward the FBO to get some fuel, take a potty
break, maybe get some snacks, whatever tickles our fancy. All
right, I see the fuel over there. Up here, get that center-line
pride.
[52:46] So this was quite challenging. If you guys could have done
that VOR stuff and the flight following stuff with real radio
calls, say, on that sim, then you’re doing really good. You’re
probably pretty advanced, because I know that I certainly couldn’t
do that the first few times I did flights.

[53:04] I stuttered on the radio quite a bit when I first learned
to communicate, and it took me a while to learn exactly how VORs
worked, what the system was, how to follow those needles, etc.

[53:18] So give yourself a pat on the back. You’re here. You’re
learning. That’s a big plus, and you can’t ask for anything more.
Just take it one step at a time. You can’t learn everything at
once, and that’s just the way it is.

[53:34] I’m going to line up here on this parking spot. Usually,
you want to pull into a parking spot when you come onto a ramp.
Just don’t park randomly. Pull up here and look at the line. All
right, wing struts. That’s good enough.

[53:47] Pull the mixture, and we are shut down, baby. Cheated death
once again. So we’re going to come in here. We’re going to turn off
our landing light. Could have done that earlier. Beacon nav light.

[54:04] Let’s see, turn my avionics off. Give that a few seconds to
spool down. Turn the master switch or the magnetos off, and then
the master switch there, the battery and the alternator. That gets
us all shut down.

[54:22] This was an awesome episode. I know I had a really good
time flying this flight. I hope you guys did, too. You enjoyed the
scenery. You had fun tracking those VORs. So that is it for this
episode. I will see you guys next time, and until then, throttle
on.

Transcription by CastingWords