When I woke up and looked outside I knew it would be a nice day to fly. I was scheduled to fly at noon. By then the temperature would be rising, causing for a more turbulent flight so I regretted not picking an earlier time slot. Despite a little bit of turbulence it was a nice clear day and I think everyone decided to fly today the traffic frequency was busy with airport traffic calls.
We departed the Blue Ash airport and headed north to a new airport for me
Middletown Airport (KMWO). I put the instrument hood on shortly after departure and flew to Middletown under simulated instrument conditions. I chipped away at the instrument training requirement and now I am only .4 hours short of meeting it.
When we arrived at Middletown we entered the pattern for runway 23 which is the paved runway. After a landing there we slid around and entered the pattern for runway 26, the turf runway. I did two full stop turf landings that I was proud off. After each landing I would taxi back on the turf runway then execute a short-field & turf takeoff.
After departing Middletown we headed back for Blue Ash, practicing some steep turns on the way back. On my first approach at Blue Ash I found myself high and the crosswind had pushed me to the side of the center line. As I was making my final descent I also noticed my speed was too high. I followed the three strikes you're out rule my instructor shared with me and decided to abort the landing and go around.
The next landing was better but not perfect. All in all I was happy with the day.
My next flight is Tuesday when I will be doing a night cross-country towards the Columbus area.
Posted by tmacrock at June 26, 2004 6:46 PMHi Todd,
Will the night flight be in a more advanced plane with better nav equipment, or are there still distinctive landmarks at night? Is this going to be an instrument landing?
Similate
Posted by: Similate at June 27, 2004 8:52 PMThe night flight will be in my pretty basic Cessna 152. It has a radio for VOR Navigation, a Non Directional Beacon (NDB) radio, and a Loran. The loran is nice in that it gives you the heading and distance to a airport or navigation device.
The landings will be made under visual flight rules. Since this will be my first night flight I am planning it towards columbus so I can use interstate 71 and other visual cues that would not be available if I went east.
Posted by: Todd at June 27, 2004 8:57 PM
