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.
Flight #: 052
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 0.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 58.4hrs
Took off this morning to finish off the TOD that was interrupted the day before due to weather. Only problem this time... weather.
Ugh. As we took off, Kristie diverted me to St. Paul... to pick up where we left off. SO, I headed to the Newberg VOR. In case you were curious, this is what Newberg VOR looks like from the sky.
Anyway, headed south and came up to the Newberg ridge, which is where they put the Newberg VOR... imagine that.
Completely covered in a nice puffy sheet of clouds - which, unfortunately, I don't fly through.
Oh well, back home.
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.
The VFR (Visual Flight Rules) require that we have 3SM (Statute Mile) visibility and a 1000ft cloud level before we can fly. And, well... we didn't get that this morning. If you look at the Title above, you can see a METAR for KHIO you will see:
1 1/2SM : 1.5 Statute Mile Visibility
RA BR BKN003: Rain, Mist, Broken Cloud Layer @ 300ft
Basically... no fly.
We did, however, get in 2.0 hrs of ground instruction in. While not as thrilling as flying, I need this time. Apparently it can be really ugly if all the flight training is done up front. Not only will you have to catch up with 35 hrs of ground time in a row, but you will most likely have to put in extra flight time at then end to brush up before your FAA test. So, every rainy, grey Oregon cloud has a silver lining.
In the interim, I asked my bro, Charlie to add something for me to Google's SMS toolset. You may already know that you can send SMS messages to GOOGLE (466453) with a bunch of keywords... and it will SMS you back the answer.
Since all pilots have to check the weather, how cool would it be to SMS Google with a metar khio and have it send you an SMS:
KHIO 151722Z 00000KT 1 1/2SM -RA BR BKN003 BKN030 OVC075 11/11 A2978 RMK AO2 P0002
Every pilot would use it!
Please Charlie! You OWE me.
