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. 50ยบ, 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.
Flight #: 022
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 22.3hrs
We continued with Low RPM Recovery, VRS / Settle With Power and Autorotation practice. I think I'm getting better bit by bit. But...
...I got really flustered today and made a lot of stupid mistakes with my radio communications. When we are in the west practice area we are in an uncontrolled airspace with a lot of other helicopters. As such, we have to spend a lot of time telling everyone in the area where we are, what we're doing, and the like.
This is normally not an issue for me since Kristie has been telling me, "make your call and we're over the turning tree". At which point I say, "West practice area traffic, helicopter 8340-Siera at the turning-tree operating at 1500ft and below, west practice area." Now, since I'm further along in my training, all she tells me is, "make your call." Which means that I need to know where the hell I am at all times. Sounds pretty basic, but you'd be surprised how difficult it is to know where you are; especially in WPA since it is so large and covers parts of Forest Grove, Banks, Gaston and Cornelius, OR. Not only that, but after doing circles looking for landing spots and doing controlled falls out of the sky... I just get all turned around.
I hate being lost. It gets me flustered and throws me off my game. I get annoyed when driving on roads... imagine what it feels like to be lost in 3D space. Sucks.
Anyway, I get flustered, overly critical and I fumbled each and ever radio call I made. First I would forget to tell them I was a helicopter. Then I would say "over Forrest Grove"... which is useless since there are 2 other helicopters over Forrest Grove at the same time. I was supposed to say "2 miles west of Gaston", but I stammer out "NE of Banks". Why? I have no idea. Just making stupid mistakes.
Not only did I get my location wrong, I always forgot my current heading.
Stupid mistakes. I spent so much time thinking about what I was doing wrong, that I started doing other things wrong.
Ugh! Totally off my game.
Flight #: 014
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N7526S
Duration: 1.4hrs
Cumulative Time: 15.0hrs
I got the opportunity to get back into the seat twice in one day... and I'm glad I did. I'm not sure what it was, but I was definitely off my game this morning. Today felt great.
It was all due to a passing comment of Kristie's... "pre-ETL vibration". I feel it now, and know when ETL is coming. Feel the vibration and get ready... 1/2 second later and it's here.
What a huge difference. I'm not smooth yet, not even a little... but at least we're not flopping all around like a fish anymore.
I'm so glad I got the chance to try this again today... it was fresh in my mind, and I really got a lot out of today as a whole.
Also, I had to flip to a new, blank, page in my flight log... racking up the flights. Feels like a physical milestone.
Another milestone; I'm doing many of the radio calls.
Tower / radio communication is essential and I've finally memorized the tower frequencies for HIO. You need to change things relatively frequently and I'm tired of asking.
- Air Traffic Control Tower: 119.3
- Base / Line Service: 122.85
- Automated Weather (ATIS): 127.65
As such, it makes it a lot easier for me to do the tower communications since I don't have to keep asking Kristie which channel to use.
ME: "Hillsboro Tower, helicopter 7526-Siera at HAI with information Kilo, request Charlie."
TOWER: "26-Siera, cleared to cross both runways at intersection for Charlie."
ME: "Cross both at intersection for Charlie, 26-Siera"
Seems complicated but here is the reasoning for it all. For a controlled airspace you need to say:
(To) Who I'm addressing.
(From) Who I am.
(Where) Where I am.
(Info) The current information letter. This is a "code" to let the tower know that we've listened to the most recent weather update. Each time they change the weather (ATIS) information, they assign a new information letter. If we've got the wrong letter, then they will tell us and we can either get the new letter or land.
(Request) What I'm asking permission to do.
Once we are giving instructions, we are required to repeat them back and sign off with our identifier. This ensures that we heard the instructions correctly. A three-stage communication. Request-Response-Acknowledgment.
For uncontrolled airspace, meaning there is no tower controlling traffic:
(To) Who I'm addressing.
(From) Who I am.
(Where) Where I am.
(Altitude) How high I am and any short term changes.
(Request / Statement) What I'm going to do.
(To) Who I just addresses.
For example:
ME: "Scappoose Traffic, helicopter 7526-Siera entering left base at the 45 at 700feet turning final. Scappoose Traffic."
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.
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.
