Sure it’s simple to tell when you’re flying over the clouds, but what about anticipating whether you’ll be flying into the clouds if you maintain your current altitude? This is a pretty important concept for any VFR pilot.
Tag Archives: cross country
Night Time is the Right Time
After about 5 weeks of the weather gods having their way with my plans, I finally got in my first night lesson. It was a perfect night, 50 degrees, some patchy clouds at 20,000′ eventually cleared to unveil the stars. The moon was nowhere to be found. The air was perfectly still. Continue reading
Flying as a Workout
I’m usually an active person and try to keep a steady workout routine. Unfortunately flying and studying has definitely stolen a good chunk of my workout time. When I do workout I usually monitor my heart rate to optimize performance. Since I just love data, I decided to wear a heart monitor during my first solo cross-country flight. The Garmin Virb Elite that I use to record the video of my flights can also capture GPS and heart monitor data. Combining all of this with the cockpit audio recording I get a detailed analysis of my stress levels during various parts of the flight. Continue reading
Solo Cross Country Endorsement with ATC Radio
Last weekend my instructor put me through a flight test to make sure I was ready for my solo cross country endorsement. The test consisted of multiple towered and non-towered airports to see how I handled the workload with a number of radio handoffs and airspace navigation. Continue reading
Flight Following in the Real World
If you’re early in your training and haven’t yet used Flight Following then this post is for you. What seems like a simple concept to get traffic advisories can actually be a bit overwhelming the first time. Here’s an overview of the communications from my latest cross country round trip flight between Hartford Brainard (KHFD) and Dutchess County (KPOU). Continue reading
Three Papa Foxtrot 