Commercial Training & Time-Building - The Slow Version

Ever since I joined the club, my boys have been asking, “Daddy, when can we come fly with you?” My standard answer to this point has been, “Soon guys, soon”. My layoff from flying has left a little more rust than desired so I had to do a little extra work on my x/w landings. Some of the delays were mine and some were not. One day it is too windy, the next day is beautiful and not windy enough. I could not win at times it seemed.

We got to the field and man were they excited. I preflighted the plane and pulled her out. Shut the hangar door load ‘em up and taxi out.

I had flown to KSTC before on my ppl solo x/c and once again with Dazzler, but I had never filed IFR and flown in ‘the system’. As a matter of fact I don’t recall actually flying in the system other than in a training environment. Although it was a short flight, it was nice to actually get on the horn with the various controllers and work my way up to KSTC.

The flight up was nothing out of the ordinary. It was cooler that it had been in the past few days, but there were still a few bumps here and there.

I was so worried about making it comfortable for my boys that I may have actually made it worse with P.I.T. - Pilot Induced Turbulence. On the flight up my youngest was in the back and every time I looked back he was staring out the side window???? We got to Saint Cloud and he says to me, “Dad, I counted 7 houses with pools, and one was REAL big by a golf course”. And now for the obligatory in front of plane photo:

I forgot to mention that as we entered the pattern at KSTC, a Mesaba, Saab was departing and climbing out, heading back to MSP. They thought it was SO COOL that we were landing and departing like one of the airliners do….HaHa

Anyway, we stopped, grabbed a quick snack, switched seats, and headed back to KFCM. The flight back was a little smoother. Again not bad, I think it bothered me more than them. On the way back they were amazed that we could see downtown Minneapolis from the West. Another thing the youngest said was, “Dad, I can’t believe it. There was lake, after lake, after lake”. Huh, who’d of thunk. All these lakes in Minnesota. HaHa!!!! Then not be outdone, my oldest chimes in, “Well Duh. What did think? The Land of 10,000 Lakes. Geez”! These kids I tell you, the Best of Friends, the Worst of Enemies!

Getting back into Flying Cloud was interesting to say the least. I checked in with tower over Lake Minneatonka, about 10 miles NW of the field. I was told to report 3NW for left base to 10l as usual and proceeded inbound. The controller must have been having a bad day. She could not spot me at first and pointed out traffic above me and due east. I spotted the traffic, but for some reason as I was about to enter for the left base, she had me break that off and head East???? I had already spotted the traffic but continued East until I started getting in VERY CLOSE to the field. I queried tower again and asked if it was o.k. to start my base and she came back with….”cleared to land 10R“. Hhmm. I responded back “….O.k., now cleared to land 10R” and very quickly she resonded back with “…..correction, cleared to land 10L, that’s Cessna…..cleared to land 10L”.

The landing was not too bad, just one little bump. But due to the fact that I got held off my base entry, I was slightly high. I could have got down fast, but I didn’t want to spook the kiddies seeing as we were almost done. As I was rolling out, I hear tower respond to the a/c that was cleared to land and in the pattern and pointed out to me earlier, “N2548M, this spacing is not going to work, GO AROUND!” I don’t know how close they were, but some student just paid a few extra $$$ in gas money as the tower got the sequencing a little too close for comfort.

I almost forgot this was my first flight with my new (new to me at least) DC-ENC headset. These things are amazing. I could not believe the difference in sound with the ENC. It was so quiet that I kept finding myself asking the boys if they could hear me.

We taxied back, called the gas truck, and pushed her back into the hangar. Being it is a ‘Club’ plane we don’t have line staff to clean it off when we get back. We got out the bug juice and scrubbed her down and home we went. I think the boys had as much fun cleaning the palne as they did flying. Now if they could just clean their room like that it would be great.

Overall, it was a great flight. It is so much fun sharing the joy of flying with my kids and seeing the excitement on their faces as we were blasting through the sky.

That’s all for now, and I can’t wait to get back up.

Well after numerous delays, some my own, some weather, and who knows what else…I am finally checked out at my flying club.

The thing that was holding me up was my cross-wind landings. I had done o.k. but the club is a little on the cautious side and rightfully so. Everyone owns the a/c so we all have a vested interest in keeping them operational.

I almost got wx’d out today as a storm rolled in just before my flight. I was watching it from my deck as it came by. I was worried as I live directly west of the airport about 15 minutes. Well the storm was fast moving so by the time my fligth was scheduled, the storm had alreayd passed the field. Whew !!!! Another disaster averted.

We departed KFCM and headed NW to KCFE as the field is uncontrolled and setup for a nice x/w practice day. The rw is 35/17 and the winds were 29015 (I think) with some gusting. It was about a 15-kt direct x/w so my flight was a workout indeed. The other thing I failed to mention was the rw is 50ft wide….yikes. Gusty winds, small field, never landed there before.

We did 5 or 6 landings and each one got a little better. After that I was getting whipped and it was time to head back to Flying Cloud. I checked the wx at KFCM and the winds were 29010+. I called up hte tower and told them I had the information and they told me to contact them 3nw for landing 28. Just as I got off the line, the CFI I was with asked if I felt like landing 36…and here I thought I was done. I thought well, I can ask they won’t give it to me. I contacted tower and asked for the x/w on 36. There was a short delay and the controller came back with, “Uh…enter the left downwind and we will try and work you in.” Then she said, “Cessna N#####, please verify you have hte ccurrent information” which I prompty told her, “Yes, I do.” I think she must have felt we were crazy landing on 36 when the wind was right down the 28’s. Oh well, we flew the pattern and the final landing of the day on 36, turned out to be my best.

Somewhere along the line, something clicked.