Flight Journal: flight 105

[beaky]

[color=#000000]Flight 105

09-10-00

0A7-RMG-NEW

C172M

6.5 solo; 2 landings


[LEG ONE]
"Better weather, but broken layer at 4500 kept me low- got a bit lost following VOR radial near Atlanta; RMG fuel stop"


I awaken while it is still quite dark, and see that the airport is swamped with thick fog. I shrug and go back to sleep, until the alarm clock rouses me at dawn. The fog is still so thick, I can barely see twenty feet in front of me. I might be here awhile, I think... better go call for the weather.

Just then, the manager appears out of the mist with his car.

"Going to McDonald's for breakfast... you hungry?"

I am, and want some hot food, so I climb in. Soon we are cruising along lovely country roads, in fog so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"Don't worry", he tells me, "this'll be gone by ten-thirty. It's like this every morning this time of year."

We return to the field after a decent breakfast, and the briefer seems to agree with my new friend. I break camp and get everything ready. I give 3KK a thorough preflight. A spider has built a beautiful web between the top of the vertical stab and the tip of one horizontal stab; it glistens with dew.

I wait for what seems like forever, then almost precisely when forecast, the fog seems to vanish, revealing a sky very similar to the previous morning back home.

Ten minutes later, I'm climbing out over the green hills towards Rome, Georgia, having decided to stick with my original plan, at least as far as fuel stops go. For some reason, I don't call anyone for Flight Following.

Following an outbound VOR radial as I drone over endless low farm country, I begin to notice the CDI is behaving strangely... I know I'm holding a solid heading, but it's creeping away from the center.

Hmmm... how long have I been following that radial?... Hmmm... maybe I'm getting out of range... never followed one for that long before... let's just look at the chart... hmmm... yes, here we are...there's that little lake, and he road, and... oh, no!!

I haul 3KK into a steep turn, realizing I am just brushing the edge of a controlled airspace for a military field, more than fifteen miles off course!! I consider tuning in the tower frequency, then decide to let them call me later if I've been a bad boy.

Being more careful now, I plot a course to Rome, arriving there a bit behind schedule by the minute hand on my watch.

[Brett_Henderson]

I'll be the broken record, and say how much I enjoy reading these entries...

I'll also not resit the urge to ask how your first, "real"

[Brett_Henderson]

Oh.. this too..

I remember that feeling. The first time you actually GO somewhere, and get there by YOUR piloting ability. I'm sure New Orleans offered plenty of entertainment, but it's all petty, civillian fodder to a guy who has the airplane that got hime there, tied down and waiting for him

[beaky]

Even if my destination had been boring, it was cool just to have flown there.

As for that GPS: it was only a Garmin 150, and I'd only flown the plane a couple of times prior; just didn't have time to learn it before setting out, and didn't want to be distracted by that process on such a trip by myself. I did download and print the manual after I got to NO (the club's copy was MIA), but somehow never took the time to study it...

It would display ground speed on the startup page; that was good enough for me. Even though I made a couple of VOR nav errors, I firmly believe I would have got into more trouble fiddling with the GPS or blindly following the magenta line.

My pilotage and DR skills got a very good workout on that journey- really firmed up my nav muscles.