Pre-Solo TOD

Flight #: 054
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2223P
Duration: 1.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 61.10hrs

Weather has been total crap for the last week. Hailstorms, almost daily. When it was not hailing, it was 25 knot winds. Of course, all this was with 500ft cloud ceilings too.

So, as you might guess, not a flight.

Today, however, was perfect. 50º, sunny, with calm winds. Perfect for my pre-solo "Triangle of Death" flight. Pretty uneventful flight, actually... but that is a good thing. Only issues were that I had the wrong frequencies in... twice. Stupid stuff that I caught as soon as I did not hear anybody on the channel... but still. 135.65 when it should have been 135.67, and 129.09 instead of 129.9. Just need to double, triple, quadruple check myself.

Oh, and apparently the common "report 1 mile south" reporting point used by the tower is not actually 1 mile south. I was about 2 miles south of that point and said "3 miles south" when giving my current position... and was promptly corrected that I was actually 4 miles south. Huh?


Here is how it all works. Portland Hillsboro Airport is a Class D airspace, which means there is a 3D cylindrical solid, centered on the tower, with a 4 mile radius, extending from ground level to 2500ft above ground. In this case, the airport is at 208ft sea level... so therefore it actually extends from ground level to 2700ft. Before you enter Class D airspace, you have to let them know you are coming... and what I told them was that I was already inside their airspace. Not cool. The sectional map shows it like this:





Obviously a map does not represent the real world perfectly... so if we were to draw the same airspace on a satellite map you would see something like this.



Anyway, the point here is, the 2 mile ring actually touches on something all the pilots and CFIs call "The Goal Posts". The goal posts are two cell towers that act as a great visual reference for your way back home from the south. From up close, they look like... well, goal posts. You can click on the image for a larger view, but they are there. And, they are pretty easy to see from a few miles out.

So, as you are headed north, back to HIO, you thread the goal posts and head straight in to the airport. You just follow the road in at 700ft and you will come right in line for an approach to the ramp. Nice and easy. Just like this:
All seems pretty easy, except that they call the goal posts, "1 Mile South". So, I reported where I was in reference to those goal posts... I was telling them that I was already in their airspace. Turns out, while I was reporting my position incorrectly, I was actually not violating their airspace at all... I was actually just on the edge.
See, the "1 Mile South" point is actually 2 miles south.

You learn something new every day. I suppose I should have picked up on this already. Nothing like a mistake to get you focused on getting it right next time.

So, all in all, fantastic flight. The proof? Kristie cleared me for my Solo Cross Country!

Hoping for nice weather tomorrow.

Lost in the clouds... well, not really.

Flight #: 053
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 59.6hrs

Back to the old TOD again, today. All went pretty well, except for the exit out of McMinneville. Took off in the direction of the green arrows. Came in for a long approach into McMinneville and came to a nice hover on the taxiway. On exit I started a turn and glanced up at the compass and off we headed in the wrong direction. (Red Arrows)


As I left, I saw in front of me a heavy cloud bank. Fact is, I was facing the wrong direction. Rather than re-checking my position I thought I knew where I was and tried to head to the left of the clouds without realizing exactly where I was. Once I figured it out, I looped around and headed back towards the Newberg VOR.

So, there we were... putting along at about 80 knots. I made all my position calls, and we continued on to Hillsboro. Just as I bent over to adjust radio frequencies I saw just at the edge of the cockpit window... a plane! A Fixed-Winger came out of nowhere. We just saw him... He was about 1000 ft above us. Not close enough to be a problem... but WTF! Lets hear some radio communications. How about position reports, dude!

Man, they really are trying to get us.

In the groove...

Flight #: 051
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 57.9hrs

Today I was in the groove, too bad the weather was not on our side.

Another "Triangle" flight, except as we rolled out of Aurora and started to head west I saw, off in the distance, a rather mean looking cloud off in the distance. About 10 miles south of McMinneville. I did some quick guestimating and decided that I couldn't "beat the cloud" to the airport, even if I wanted to try something that stupid. Kristie gave me the ever sought after "Good Decision".

So, once I got abeam St. Paul, I pulled the trigger and headed north, back to Hillsboro.

Despite the diversion, it was a good flight. Good communications, good speed and altitude control.

Finish up this TOD another day.

Triangle of Lost - The full story.

Ok, so I was shaken, grumpy and pissed off after my last XC flight. I got lost, and I hate that. I suppose I really did not feel like talking about it too much. But, I thought about it a lot, and will guarantee that I will NOT get lost on that flight again. I've spent the last few days reading over the all the airports within a reasonable distance and looking both on the sectional map, and Google's satellite imagery.

So, here is the full story. How I got in, how I got out, etc. (Mainly for you, Bob. :)

The planned flight plan is as shown here:
HIO is at the 12 O'Clock position, Mulino at 4 O'Clock, McMinneville at the 7 O'Clock. The part I'm interested in here is at the lower portion of the triangle. So, lets zoom a bit:

So, it all started as I was entering the airspace for Mulino airport (green arrow). There was a 9 knot wind blowing from 130º (black arrow).

When you do your flight planning, you need to know about your airports. Their traffic patterns, runway lengths and directions, etc. Well, I did all that. I knew that Mulino had one runway strip, labeled Runway 14 and Runway 32. If you didn't know, they name the runways so that you can tell which direction they are facing. In this case, oriented to 140º and 320º, respectively.

So, anyway, I knew this. And since you want to land into the wind, whenever possible, the airports with a control tower will select the appropriate runway for you. In this case, there was no tower, so you have to rely on your knowledge, and the knowledge of the other people flying in the airport. The active runway is suppose to be Runway 14 with the wind coming from 130º. It just is. It also happens to be a right air traffic pattern runway. This means, that you are supposed to make right hand turns all the way to landing. Since I was coming in from the North West, I could have, technically come right in to the runway, almost straight on. But, that's not the cool thing to do. You are supposed to enter the downwind leg at 45º and make your right turns in. The image below shows a left pattern, but you get the idea. Just flip it so that you would land making right turns:

In my case, I would have to fly past the airport to the west, make a wide left turn so as to come in at 45º on the downwind leg and then enter the pattern. As a side note, while you always want to check the weather system broadcast in the area, you only trust what you can see. And luckily for me, there were a few wind indicators in the are for me to look at. Things like wind socks are always nice near an airport... but out west here, people tend to burn leaves and brush. And this day there were two fires going within about 1/2 mile of the runway. So, I was 100% sure of the wind. So, I broadcast my intention to "enter the right-downwind for Taxiway 14". We can land on taxiways or runways. It's cool of us not to take up runway space... and it is safer too.

Ok, enough background. So, I veer off to the right of runway 14 to make my wide left turn into the pattern when we see some dude in an airplane taking off on runway 32. The opposite direction on the runway. Taking off with a 9 knot tail wind. Not smart. Not to mention dangerous. So, I do a go around, and make a right hand turn to re-enter on the downwind. As I get about 270º in my turn, this dude that just took off cuts hard left and comes way too close to my flight path. Granted, I was at 800ft (as I'm suposed to be) and he was probably climbing past 1200, but still... not cool dude. So, I re-announce where I am, and what I'm doing. This wakes the airplane dude up, I guess, and he broadcast a quick "sorry about that, did not see you guys there". Huh? Really? I'm in a bright red helicopter with a giant rotating blade with my lights on... exactly where I said I would be. But, ok... fine. Stuff happens, and we were really not that close.

So, I do another go around. And we hear, on the radio another fixed winger come on the radio " at 1000ft, on the right downwind for runway 32." Kristy says "Screw this place, get us out of here." Basically another dude in an airplane was using the wrong runway, again. This time for a landing. But, rather than making left patterns for runway 32, as he is supposed to do, he's doing right ones. What a mess.

I turn off to the west and we just skip this approach at Mulino. In hindsight, we should have come on the radio with a "Mulino traffic, wind indicators clearly show that runway 14 should be in operation, not 32. Please check wind." But, we didn't. Totally one of those things you think of 5 minutes after you need it. But, all is well, and we're headed north west to Aurora with a bit of a tailwind.

A few minutes in to this leg Kristy says, "The FAA just called there is an accident in Aurora, divert to Lenhardt". Obviously the FAA did not call, she was just giving me a scenario to deal with. I didn't know where Lendhart was, so I had to look a little on the map. (To save you some time, it is the red arrow.)

So, I look it up on the map, estimate my course and direction and head to Lendhart. Eventually I see it off to the left, quite a ways away. I point it out to Kristy, and she gives me the OK to head to McMinneville. So, looking at the map, I head due west. I forgot to correct for wind... and this was my big flaw. I was heading NW. A lot more north than I expected, at least. I also think the wind had picked up a little, cause, as you will see, I was way off.

I was flying along to my next checkpoint, a significant bend in the river. What I was looking for is the blue circled area below. What I was flying over was the red circled area. I was way north of where I wanted to be. As I crossed the river, I saw this town... which, according to my plan, is not supposed to be there. As you can see, it was the town of Newberg. But, when I planned this out, I was not supposed to cross the river and see a town. So, wham, I'm lost.

The lost procedures are "the 5 C's". Calm, Climb, Circle, Calculate, Communicate. So, I take a deep breath, start climbing, and start doing a right hand circle. I start looking at the land, my map, etc. I find a significant feature on the ground below me, an island in the river. OK, great, there has to be an island on the map. So, I look, where I think I'm supposed to be... the blue circle. No island on the map. Shit. So, I conclude that either the island is not big enough to be on the map, or else I'm nowhere near this point on the map. First thing I do is look for an island in the river elsewhere on the map. And I don't see anything withing a reasonable flying distance. So, I'm now sure that this island I'm circling over, now at 3000ft, must not be big enough to show up.

So, screw this river, I think... now I'll look for a town. I should be seeing St. Paul to my south. (Remember, I think I'm in the blue, but am actually in the red circle). Nope, no St. Paul. Only this huge town to the north of the river. Could I be seeing Lafayette? Dayton? Where the F am I! Kristy is with me, of course, and being very calm. She knows exactly where we are... just wants me to struggle through. Which, is a great teaching tool, but it pissed me off. I'm now at 4000ft, circling like a moron, getting all twisted up.


Finally she speak up and says, "What are you using for your fix?" and I said, mention that I'm looking for the island in the river as well as the direction of the bend. "Are you looking for a 'C' to the east or a 'n' shaped bend to the south?". I believe I'm in the blue, so I'm looking for a 'C' to the east, but I'm actually in the red over a 'n' to the south.

This helps, obviously, and I suddenly realize I'm about 10nm north of where I need to be, and bolt to the south. I immediately identify my correct river bend, and see St. Paul and recognize what happened. I am now at about 4500ft and start to descend to my planned 2000ft altitude.

Once I get there I head west, this time, remembering the wind and make it to McMinneville as planned (the green arrow).

So, while not a total crisis, it really did throw me. In our post-flight review we went over what happened, and I had a real chance to look over the map.

Wanna see something? That friggin island in the river I was over? It is on the map, just under the text, "178". Right under the "7". If I had only seen that on the map... this would have been a "Huh? Where am I? Oh, here. Ok, no biggie."

The triangle of DEATH!

Weather has been a bit dicey in the past few days. Now that I've passed Stage 1, we took the opportunity to knock out the last Ground Lesson. I was WAY ahead on ground due to the moist Oregon winter. Might as well knock it all out.

Now that Stage 1 is out of the way it was time to start talking Cross Country flights. Cross Country flight just mean that we deal with more than just our local airports. There is a special circuit that CFIs have set up for your first cross country. Funny story behind that...

Kristie tells me were about to start off on solo and cross country flights. Since the ground training center at Hillsboro is rather small, you can easily overhear what is going on in each training cube. Here is a transcript:

Kristie: "Were going to start off with [quietly] The Triangle of Happiness". Gareth happened to be right across the hallway.

Gareth: "What did you call it?!"

Kristie: "Nothing, don't bother us."

Gareth: "Did you say, 'Happiness'?"

Kristie: "[Embarrassed] Yes."

Gareth: "It's not called the 'Triangle of Happiness'... It is called..."

CFIs in hearing distance:
"The Triangle of Death!"

Kind of reminded me of Finding Nemo and the initiation scene.



Anyway, I'm psyched for this. The "Triangle of Death" consists of flying to two airports before heading back to Hillsboro. It is a well known circuit and has some good distinct pilotage landmarks. Simply, you fly from Hillsboro(KHIO) to Mulino(4S9) to McMinnville (KMMV). About a 70 mile round trip covering some interesting land.

Part of the ground lesson was to start a flight plan. I had to get it into nice digital format: Hillsboro Flight Plan Document - Triangle of Death

Next week looks to have some hairy weather as well... so it may be a while before we get to make the run.