You are on page 1of 13

p.

Aviator90 Episode 33
[music]
Man: [0:31] Welcome to a special edition on Aviator 90 from Angle of Attack. What's
so special about this special edition? Well, it's episode 33. So, why not have some
random celebration? [0:45] So, this episode is actually going to be really cool. We are
doing another cross-country flight. And this time, we are going to hug the coast as we fly
from Newport, Oregon, to Astoria, Oregon, which will be a northbound flight.
[1:01] Along the way, this time, I'm going to introduce you to VOR navigation, a bit of
chart reading, VFR flight following, and a ton of many tips that I'm sure you'll find very
useful.
[1:14] So, first, let's talk a bit about the map, and exactly what we're looking at, here. So,
we'll be starting out at Newport, Oregon, as you see here, centered on the map. Now,
there's something different about this area.
[1:30] See the compass looking symbol around the airport? This indicates there is a VOR.
Now, you can see here, the information box for that VOR. You'll see the name of the
VOR, the frequency; which is actually very important, the shortened identifier; in this
case, Oscar November Pa-pa, and also the Morse code for identifying the VOR.
[1:57] So, we'll be tuning the radio here in a few minutes when we set up the aircraft. But
for now, let's start to move north and see what else we're looking at, here. If you look
around on the map, you'll see a bunch of these blue lines extending out from the VOR.
[2:14] These lines, if blue like this, are called Victor Airways that, basically, link two
VOR's together. Today, it just so happens that, the departure VOR at Oscar November
Pa-pa, goes to the Astoria, Oregon, VOR of Alpha Sierra Tango.
[2:35] So, zooming down here, we see that we get an actual VOR radial for the start of
our route. In this case, 346. We'll be following this for the first part of our journey. Now,
as we continue to move north, we see the name of the airway, which is Victor 27.
[2:56] Continuing north to our destination, we now see all of the destination information
just like we saw for Newport. Only now, we see the radial that goes to Newport, which
will help us out later in the flight when we switch over to Astoria's VOR.
[3:14] So, although that may be confusing, I'm sure you learned a few things. Bear in
mind that we are going to jump in and I'll actually show you all this stuff happening and
hopefully, it will make a bit more sense.
[3:26] So, that does it for the pre-flight. Everything else, I can teach you along the way as
it is happening. Sound good? All righty, let's jump right in the airplane, here. We are on

p.2

the ramp, next to the fuel pump as always. We are topped off and ready to get going on
this flight.
[3:45] Today, we are in the Carenado 172, which will give us a bit more speed and the
capability to do this VOR navigation. All right. So, we're looking at the switches, here.
As always, we're going to set it up. Alternator and battery come on. Magnetos to 'Both.'
[4:05] Then, we leave the avionics off for now. We don't want to start it up that way. And
then, I will turn the nav light... for some reason, the beacon was already on. I'll turn that
on, leave it on. And the throttle was full throttle. That would have been a dangerous
situation if we started up.
[4:26] So, I'll pull that out. I'll push the mixture in, 'Full Rich.' And I'll just crack the
throttle here, and then we can get ready to start up. Just checking the trim real quick, and
let's start the aircraft.
[4:51] First, we need to do three pumps on the primer to get fuel into the cylinders. Once
you do that, you can start. A good start there, nice and smooth. Bring it up to 1000 RPM,
just to get the engine heating up correctly.
[5:10] What I'll do is I'll zoom in on the oil temperature and pressure instruments here.
The temperature is still pretty low. The engine is still cold because we just barely started
up, and the pressure won't rise into the green area until the RPM is pretty high. So you
don't need to take those as bad right now, because they'll be better once we're in flight.
[5:41] Now let's see. We need to turn on the avionics, so I'll turn that on, and that gives us
radios. Then we can start to set all that stuff up. We're going to set our local frequency to
122.8, and you want to make sure you take the shortest route to the number whenever you
switch it. You don't want to go all the way around.
[6:15] So 122.8 on the frequency for the local area, and then we're going to put in 117.1
for the VOR frequency right next to the one we just punched in there. What that will do is
it'll tune in the VOR for us, and that will allow us to dial that in and follow it. You can
see that on the chart, as we saw before, in the blue information box, and that should get
us all tuned in.
[6:57] So setting it now, 117.1. You want to take the shortest route to that number, as I
said before. You can see on the left, the VOR instrument just came alive. Now, we want
to get that radio from the chart, which was 3-4-6. We're already pretty close, so 3-3.
[7:18] Count 10 from there. Each tick is a five, and then we just go right over the five,
and 46. That will work out well. So each tick is five. Just look at one of the bigger
numbers, and that will help you determine where you're at.
[7:37] So now we're actually going to tune the weather while we're here. I see here it's
133.9 from FSX. I'm going to try to put it in com two, 133.9. Try to listen. OK, I don't
hear anything. Honestly not too sure how to operate this radio switcher up here, so we

p.3

might just be dealing with one com today, which can be kind of a pain. I still don't hear
anything, people.
[8:19] All right. Well, maybe we should just leave it alone and put it in the other com. So
let's put it, 133.9, in com one. We'll just have to switch back to 122.8 once we're done
listening to it, and dial that in here.
[8:40] We're going to listen for the wind especially, and you also want to listen for the
altimeter setting and any other information that would be detrimental to the flight.
Radio: [8:39] Kilo Oscar November Papa Automated Weather Observation 15130. Wind
284 at 10. Visibility, greater than 20 miles. Sky condition, field clouds at 3, 300.
Temperature, 20 Celsius. Dew point, 12 Celsius. Altimeter: 2983. KONP. Automated ...
Man: [9:11] All right. So it said the wind was coming from 280 at ten knots, which is a
pretty good wind. It's nice. And then the altimeter was 2983, which we will now set on
the altimeter manually here. So just dial this down. And it's kind of hard to see on this
one, but there should be some ticks between the eight and the nine, or anywhere like that
that we'd be able to visualize those minute adjustments. [9:51] But you're just going to
have to guestimate for this one. Can't seem to see them, so I'm just going to leave it there.
That's close enough. 2983. You can also say three as tree. That's one of the
communication things that some people use. Sounds silly sometimes, though. So now
what we're going to do, we're going to power up here.
[10:21] And there's some cars to my left. So I've got to make a really tight turn. That
means a lot of power. And brakes on the left side, or the side of the turn, the direction of
the turn. And I really don't want to hit that car. I don't think that guy would appreciate me
chopping the back of his Beamer up. So we're just going to be slow here and take our
time.
[10:47] Now honestly, if this was real life, I would have pushed the aircraft back a little
bit to where we could turn around better. But I'd rather turn toward these cars than the
fuel pump, to be honest. All right, we're almost clear. OK, I hope he's not around.
[11:06] Now pull out the power a little bit so you're not spraying rocks all over his car
now. Just be conscious of that when you're on the taxi ramp or anywhere else, that if you
have high power settings you can throw debris at hangers, people's cars, things like that.
So just be careful.
[11:27] Then what we're going to do is we're going to taxi to the runway via echo. We'll
just maintain center-line pride here. This is quite a long taxi, so during the taxi we can do
some different things to set up for things that we'd normally do in the run-up, like
checking the flight controls, making sure the door is shut one last time.
[12:10] Seat belts should have been on already. All that sort of stuff we can check again
and just make sure that we're good to go, and that helps out quite a bit to make sure that
we have a shorter run-up and that we can get out of here. The less time that we spend on
the ground, the better. No sense burning fuel that isn't taking us somewhere.

p.4

[12:48] All right, so while we're taxiing out there, I could have done this a little earlier,
but I am going to make a radio call. Let me actually check the flight controls here.
Everything's free and correct. All right, so I'm going to make a radio call and just let
people know I'm taxiing.
Radio: [13:11] Newport traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo is taxi via echo to Runway
3-4 run-up.
Man: [13:26] I could have ended that call with Newport but, I usually just say at the
beginning, or the end. I rarely say it both times unless I feel someone needs to listen.
[13:42] Oftentimes, when you're on this common traffic frequency 122.8, you often
pickup three or four different airports. So in that situation where you can hear other guys
making radio calls for different airports or they're in the traffic pattern, often it's good to
say it both times.
[14:00] That way they know that you are not at their airport and not in conflict or that you
are at their airport and you are a potential conflict. Just keep that in mind when you are
out there in the virtual skies.
[14:18] So maintaining center line pride here. Kind of a way to line up to the taxi is to
lineup the top of the attitude indicator pointer and your yoke or either with the taxi line.
That get's you a nice and straight line here. As you can see, it kind of helps out to
visualize exactly what's going on.
[14:46] Then we do the long taxi to runway 34. We're just waiting in anticipation for the
chance to get up in the air.
[15:08] Now, I guess right here we could mention, now that I said that, that the run-up is
pretty important. You've got to make sure the aircraft's good to go.
[15:18] If it's not, if there's a problem, you go check it out. You have a mechanic look.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
[15:26] I have canceled flights before. Anticipating the go up and have a good time but,
safety first. If something isn't normal, then go check it out.
[15:37] I've even aborted take-offs where something just didn't feel right, and it ended up
being a door that was open or some other issue. So just be diligent in making sure
everything's set up and good to go.
[15:50] For the most part, in a flight simulator you're not going to see those types of
issues. But you're going to see it more and more as development companies start to
model things better and more realistically that way.
[16:04] So I'm going to turn into the wind a bit here and stop, make sure we don't pull
ahead of the hold-short line, and then I will actually make a radio call real quick here.
Radio: [16:19] Newport traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo holding short 3-4 run-up.

p.5

Man: [16:27] All right, so now we can get all set up for the run-up, and what I'll do is
I'll... I've pushed the throttle up to 1700 RPM. Then I'm going to start to check the
magnetos. You want to make sure that there is a 50 to 75 RPM drop when you go to one
of the single magnetos. [16:56] You want to make sure that both of them are smooth. If
one isn't, then that's kind of bad news. Also, while the engine is revved up, you want to
make sure that you lean the aircraft properly.
[17:09] Then we can look at the suction gauge, make sure our suction is good. That's
going to be sufficient. You can see that our oil pressure is now in the green, and also the
oil temp is in the green. And that does it for the run-up.
[17:26] I am going to check the final now, because I am about to pull out on the runway.
So I'll just peak around the corner here, see if I can't catch a glimpse. Looks fine for the
time being. Then I'll look the other way, even though someone would be stupid landing
with a tail wind, but we check anyway.
[17:47] All right, so we're ready to go. I will make a radio call here, and then we will pull
onto the runway.
Radio: [17:55] Newport traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo is taking 3-4 northbound
departure.
Man: [18:04] Now you can turn your transponder to altitude. And that will report your
altitude and then I just turn the landing light down at the bottom on. You probably
couldn't see that. Then we will line up here, get ready to take off. This thing around,
plenty of runway length today. No problem there. Alright, so we're gonna keep it rolling
here. Smoothly out power. [18:34] Here we go airspeed is alive. Engine is in the green.
Rotate coming up and here it is. And we're off, finally. So here we go. We are going to do
our usual straight ahead climb trim during that process. Make sure that we relieve those
control pressures from our cells. And we will continue to climb straight forward.
Basically over the runway, at least for a time. And we will then track to our VOR
navigation. [buzzing] .
[19:18] Let's just keep this coming up. I'm gonna continue to trim as we climb. Getting a
very good climb rate around a thousand beat per minute. Now I didn't mention before, but
we're gonna climb to 2, 500 feet today. We'll be on a westerly heading. That means that
we use even thousands plus five hundred. And that will get us on our way. And get us
plenty of terrain clearance. Obviously, it'll be right along the coast. And that will do it.
[19:44] So nice and stable climb now. Looking good, beautiful day to fly. Now you can
see the V O R instrument at the top right. That we talked about before. Now the line you
see, the white line, is basically our track that we need to follow. So if that track is to our
left, we need to turn left in order to seek it out. Now you don't just make a full 90 degree
turn to the left. You just do a nice heading that will intercept that, so the radial that we
have dialed in is 346, so right now I'm on a heading of 330, and that will allow us to
intercept it at a pretty good angle, and then we can track it outbound at 346 once we get it
centered on the instrument there.

p.6

[20:36] Now it's worth mentioning that the VOR, the closer you are to it, the more
sensitive the needle will be. So where we are now the needle is very sensitive, so it may
be off only a few feet where we are now. But later on this same indication could be off
miles, and that's just the way it is. The more those radials spread out the further the
distance there is between them. I hope that makes sense.
[21:11] So now I've turned to our heading of 346. Now that's not taking into account
wind drift or the wind pushing us, so it may be a different heading than that, but that will
basically get us on our VOR track outbound and will allow us to track that. That's
basically what we'll do for the whole flight. Once you get about halfway, we'll switch
over to the Astoria VOR, which will get us all set up there.
[21:44] All right, so while I was shooting off my mouth I've leveled off or at least begun
the process of trimming the aircraft, pulling back the power and getting all set up for our
cruise phase. That was a pretty short climb. That means we'll have a pretty short descent,
and that will be nice for what we need. So I can turn off my landing light now that we're
done with the departure area, and that's basically it.
[22:15] One thing you'll need to do as you climb, as I mentioned in other episodes, is
you'll need to lean the aircraft. Lean the mixture, but it's not going to be a whole lot was
that sort of altitude change, but it will be minor. If you'd like to make that change and
conserve fuel, that's always a plus. So just make sure you're continuing to track that
VOR. Make small adjustments and just get on track and don't chase the needle. Be nice
and smooth with it. If you need to seek something out, give yourself five or 10 degrees
and get there.
[22:56] You don't want to be doing S turns all the way up to Astoria but, you can just go
back and forth a little bit, five to 10 degrees. Just find that sweet spot on the needle and
that will get you all setup.
[23:15] Now, that we basically have you setup on the VOR navigation, it's very simple.
You just follow that needle. Turn toward the needle.
[23:24] It's worth mentioning that there's an indication on the VOR. It's a little white
arrow and that says that the VOR's behind us or we are going from the station. If it was
pointing upward or toward, that would mean we are going to the station.
[23:47] You've got to make sure that's always set on the correct side. Otherwise, you have
the reciprocal radial dialed in, which is not good, at least for most situations.
[23:58] Right now, we are tracking that correctly. If it was opposite, then our turns would
have to be opposite. It's called reverse sensing. I'm sure you can look it up on a Wikipedia
or something.
[24:10] It can get you pretty confused. So just be aware of reverse sensing. I'll actually
put a link in the blog post about that so you guys can go study that a little bit more.

p.7

[24:22] But, just to keep things simple for now, we know how to track it. We're doing
good there and we're all setup.
[24:29] Continue to chase that needle all the way or at least halfway to Astoria. We'll just
wrap that up for the VOR stuff for now.
[24:40] Now one thing I want to teach you guys about is called VFR flight following.
Now basically what it is is we take advantage of the air traffic system, and we can talk to
air traffic control. That gives us someone to talk to along the way, which can be very
safe. They can give us traffic alerts, things like that, which is very helpful.
[25:05] So I just dialed in 127.5, which is Seattle Center, and I'll give them a call here.
Radio: [25:13] Seattle Center, November 399 Charlie Kilo VFR 2500, 20 miles north
Newport, VFR flight following.
Seattle Center: [25:26] Cessna 399 Charlie Kilo, roger, this is Squawk 3633.
Man: [25:32] Squawk 3633, Cessna nine Charlie Kilo.
Seattle Center: [25:59] Cessna nine Charlie Kilo, ready to contact 25 miles north of the
Newport VOR.
Man: [26:06] So now we are on their radar, and they will give us traffic reports and
other things. Then it gives us someone to talk to, something to listen to, and just gets us
in good contact so if anything was to go wrong, they'd know exactly what we were.
[26:23] I think this is the preferred method for me over filing a flight plan, and having a
general area where we would be at the time where search and rescue would look if we
went down.
[26:39] However, when there's someone actually on the radio, they know your exact
radar position, and you can actually talk to them and they can get you out of some stuff.
So that helps a lot, makes you feel comfortable.
[26:54] So keep in mind the VFR flight following is there to help you. I prefer to use it.
It's like IFR, where you basically talk the same way to air traffic control, but it's different
in that you can basically do what you want. You can change altitude as you please. You
can change your heading as you please.
[27:15] Say you saw a herd of elk to the left. You could actually go over there and look at
them, and you wouldn't have to tell air traffic control. It's probably smart to tell them
anyway, but you don't have to tell them. Now if that was IFR, if that was Instrument
Flight Rules, you can't make a deviation like that without asking.
[27:37] So it still allows you a lot of freedom, but it gives you that sense of safety, which
is very nice. And you can get VFR Flight Following on that sim, which will help out a
lot. And it's a great way to build your ATC communication skills, so you can take that
into the IFR environment, in case you guys ever want to do that. And that'll be good for
you.

p.8

[28:00] So embrace VFR Flight Following. It's great, I like it, I did it a lot back when I
didn't have an Instrument Rating. And basically now that I do have an Instrument Rating,
whenever I do talk to air traffic control, I'm usually under IFR and requesting IFR, things
like that. I like to be in that environment and stay sharp with those skills.
Radio: [28:35]
Man: So that's about it. So what we're going to do now is I'm going to fast forward this
flight. Because it's quite a long one. It's about an hour and ten minutes in route. So I am
going to fast forward until we get to the halfway point, where we'll switch over to the
story of VOR, and I'll see you guys then. So have fun along the way. And don't chase the
needle too much. Now that we're getting further out, the needle isn't as sensitive. So have
fun, follow the coast, enjoy the scenery, and I will see you guys in a few seconds. [30:59]
All right guys, we're back. Now looking at the map I've determined that we're about
halfway based on the land features. I found Tillamook Airport, as you can see here on the
map, and then this little bay area that's just right ahead of us, and as you can see that is
about halfway along our route, maybe a little further. Now we can tune in the Astoria
VOR, and initially we'll use both VORs and we'll match them up, and you can see what
that's like. It's pretty cool to see both needles fall in the same, so the Astoria VOR
frequency-and I know it; I'll just punch it in here, it's 114 nothing or 1140. The needle
just came alive, very cool.
[31:47] Then we have our old frequency 117.1. So we have Newport on the top VOR and
now we have Astoria on the bottom VOR.
[32:02] Then, I am going to dial in the radial for Astoria here. It's on the map which is
166. It's coming up on me; I'm having a hard time. Man, come on. Ah.
[32:28] This is when I wish I could reach out and just grab the knob and turn it. It would
be so much easier. Maybe someday. So 166 and you can see that...it's kind of interesting
because both VORs are basically the same deviation.
[32:47] What we're going to do is we're going to follow the Newport VOR. So the VOR
we came from. I'm off course to the right a little bit. That means I'm going to turn to the
left.
[33:05] As I do this, you will see that both needles will come together. They will
basically match up. That says that we're right on course.
[33:19] Now, real quick, Victor Airways aren't exactly the most precise type of airway.
They are four miles either side, which makes eight miles total. It's like a highway in the
sky that's eight miles wide. I guarantee we have enough room for now and our deviation
isn't off that much.
[33:44] We're going to continue to the left here. I just closed the vent because of the rain.
I don't want any water coming in. Big surprise, rain in the Pacific Northwest. Imagine
that. In all reality, it's very typical.

p.9

[34:04] So as I was saying, the Victor airways are eight miles wide, and you want to stay
on track as best you can. But the fact that we're deviated here a little bit isn't a huge deal,
just so you know.
[34:20] We're going in the right direction. We're on the airway. We're good to go, so
don't beat yourself up if you're off a little bit. It's no huge deal, just like my altitude is off
100 feet. We'll get it back.
[34:40] Now if that was an IFR flight, that would be a whole different story. But we are
nice and visual here. We're just having fun, enjoying the scenery, so whatever.
[34:54] So as you can see, the Newport needle is coming center, and the Astoria needle is
also coming center. Because we are further away from the Newport VOR, that deviation
is very small as far as the needle's concerned, but it may be pretty big as far as distance is
concerned.
[35:23] Because we're closer to the Astoria VOR, the VOR we're going to, the bottom
VOR instrument you see there, that deviation with the needle looks a lot larger. So you
can see now that they are continuing to center up, which is pretty dang cool.
[35:44] Now there's something I'm going to teach you here in a few minutes, and we're
actually going to change the radial of our VOR here, the one we're going to, Astoria.
Because right now -- I talked about it before -- right now we have a "From" indication for
the Astoria VOR, and we need to have a "To" indication, because we're going to the
station.
[36:11] That means that we need to calculate the reciprocal of that heading that we have
now. Because we're on pretty much a straight airway, we're just going to use the old
3-4-6 for that number.
[36:28] Then that will get us on the normal type of sensing, the sensing that we used
coming out of Newport, where if the needle is to our right, we turn to the right. If the
needle is to our left, we turn to the left.
[36:40] That just keeps it simple and makes sure that we don't have to do the reverse
sensing, because with reverse sensing, we could technically follow this radial into the
airport right now with a "From" indication. But if the needle was to the right, we'd have
to turn left, and if the needle was to left, we'd have to turn right.
[37:03] So it's kind of confusing. You have to turn the opposite way in order to intercept
the needle. You've got to be very conscious with that particular error on a VOR;
otherwise, it can get you into trouble to where you think you're turning to intercept a
course and you're turning toward that line, but really, you're getting further away from it.
[37:26] It can be very confusing and disorienting, so keep that in mind while you do these
flights. Hopefully, you guys studied up a little bit on or you will study up a little bit on
the reverse sensing.

p.10

[37:43] In newer glass cockpits, a lot of them automatically account for the reverse
sensing. You'll never get reverse sensing with a system like the G1000. But that's a factor
the computer is taking over, and so on this manual stuff we're doing, we have to do that
stuff on our own and make sure that we aren't tracking the wrong needle.
[38:13] Anyway, that's probably enough about that, a little too boring for your taste. We'll
just enjoy the fact that these two needles are lined up right now. Then we will turn off the
Newport VOR so we don't get confused, and then we will turn in the "To" indication for
the Astoria VOR or the VOR we're going to.
[38:44] Something I thought about while I was doing this -- let me just get in here, whip
this baby around. 3-4-6, just like the other one, and it should pretty much line up once
you put it on there. It should already be pretty much centered, and there it is. It's already
right on it.
[39:09] Now I am going to just -- all I'm going to do is just change the frequency of the
Newport VOR, just the degree, and then what that'll do is it'll mean I won't get confused.
So I'll only be following one needle instead of the other one.
[39:34] Basically, they're both saying the same thing right now because we're tracking to
the Astoria VOR. But the Newport VOR, the one we came from -- and as I've mentioned,
it's going to be much less sensitive, so it'll be a higher error for a small deviation on the
scale.
[40:01] All right, so I was saying that one of the things I could have done was to put the
Astoria VOR at the top and the Newport VOR at the bottom. That way it would be
oriented like the map.
[40:17] So the Newport VOR would be behind us, and the Astoria VOR would be ahead
of us based on the instrument panel layout, which would have helped a lot. I could switch
it, but it's not a big deal. The fact is that we're aware of it, and we won't get confused.
[40:41] So what we are going to do at this point is there's not much else to show you
guys. I'm going to avoid terrain to the left here. Then I will get back on track with the
Astoria VOR.
[40:52] Then, as we're descending toward the airport, we will switch off the flight
following and get on the local traffic advisory. Then, we will get the weather report, find
the runway, and land. So I will see you guys in a couple of seconds here. It's like
fast-forward.
[silence]
[41:09] All right, so if you look on your map you'll notice that Astoria is on the edge of
the Columbia River which is probably the largest river. It is the largest river in the Pacific
Northwest that empties into the Pacific Ocean.
[42:53] So I know that that's ahead, I can see that. It's almost like a huge, huge inlet, and
so I know we're coming up on Astoria now. What I'm going to do is I am going to get the

p.11

weather report, and then we will get things settled in here. So, I see the nearest airport,
Astoria Regional. I need 135.37 or 3537. I'm going to try this other radio again, but it's
probably not going to work. But, we'll give it a shot anyway. I'm still not sure.
[43:43] OK. All right. So, we're going to...it's obviously not working, so I'm going to put
it in the top one, 13537, and then I'll just switch off frequency real quick here and listen
in.
[radio]
[43:59] All right. Cool. So, basically it's the same window as before. It's at around 280 at
10 knots, and we've got a different altimeter setting. This time I am going to be lazy and
just hit the Bravo key on the keyboard, and that will reset the altimeter.
[44:46] I can see the airport up ahead. You can see the little lights for the runway there,
the PAPI lights. So, now I'm going to give Seattle center a call and just let them know I'd
like to cancel VFR flight following and go over to advisory because we're about ten miles
out.
[45:15] Seattle center, Niner Charlie Kilo, Astoria inside counsel flight following, please.
Seattle Center: [45:23] Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo, Seattle center, there no traffic
observed in the area of Astoria at this time. Have a great afternoon.
Man: [45:34] So there is an east and west runway, as I can tell you. We are headed north
now. So that means we are basically going to be turning left into the runway of 26, which
favors our winds. So 26 is closest to 280, and that's the best runway for us to use. It's also
the biggest one here at Astoria, one of the better ones. And so basically we're just going
to be doing a left turn into the runway. That will be pretty simple. [silence]
[46:03] So basically what we're going to do now is we're just going to turn the advisory
frequency on, which you can see on the map if you'd like. And for the majority of the
time it's 122.8 in this case. That is the situation as well. So I'm going to put that in. And
also we have to get off our squat code and get back on the VFR squat code, which is
1200, so 1200, and we'll dial that in.
[46:49] So now that we've switched to advisory frequency, we are going to give the local
traffic a call. Let them know we're in the area, and what our intentions are. So here we
go. "Astoria traffic. Cessna 399CK. I'm a sky lane. Astoria traffic. Cessna 9CK 10 south,
2500, descending runway 26 for landing. We'll be a left base." So I've let them know how
far away I was, what my altitude is, and how we are going to enter the area.
[47:35] What runway we are going to land, and how we're going to land on that runway
or what type of pattern entry we're going to do.
[47:44] So what we'll do now is we'll just continue to descend on down to the runway
here. I'm going to turn on my landing lights as we're getting in the area so other aircraft
can view us better if they need to.

p.12

[47:59] You can see the runway coming up now. We're perpendicular to it, and we're just
going to be doing a nice 90-degree turn to intercept that once we get close enough. But it
may seem like you need to put down flaps now. We still have a few seconds here, so just
make sure that your descent rate is favorable and then we'll get them set up.
[48:21] But I am bringing back power now so I can get in that flap-operating range, and
then I'll start to put them down so we can get slowed down. That transition is pretty
quick. It goes from not really needing to to needing to pretty quick, so just be aware of
what that transition is like.
[48:41] I'm going to do two notches of flaps since we're basically on base anyway, and
then we'll just set up here. The altitude is looking pretty nice. We're coming in at a nice
descent angle. As I mentioned in the landing episode, we want to choose a point target.
[48:58] Things are moving pretty nicely. It looks like we're descending toward the
runway at a good rate. It doesn't look like we're going to land shorter than that or beyond
it, but it takes a little bit of different judgment because we will be doing a turn as well
during that process.
[49:17] I'm just going to continue to come around here. I'm going to do a panic check real
quick. We're going to check carb ice or carburetor heat. Gas undercarriage mixture is
good. Prop, we don't have one. Switches -- we've got the seat belts, and the switch is all
taken care of. All right.
[49:37] Turning final now. We're going to look out for the runway here, and there it is.
It's still a good descent rate. I'll probably shallow out my turn a little bit and get lined up.
[49:49] Now you see that there are landing markers there and some arrows before the
main part of the runway. That's called a displaced threshold, and we actually can't land on
that. You can take off using that runway, but you can't land on the displaced threshold. So
we need to make sure to land beyond those arrows, just this side of the numbers.
[50:14] I did put in the final much of flaps, and we're just coming down now to our
approach speed, which is 60 knots in this aircraft. Just coming down, getting all lined up.
Need a little extra power to get past that displaced threshold.
[50:34] Down, bringing it down, bringing it down, bringing it down, bringing it down.
Pulling out power. OK, I flared way too early. Let it settle in. Let it settle, settle, settle,
settle, flare. All right, settle down.
[50:48] We've got it. Smooth landing, right on center line. This is going to be a long
roll-out. Quite a ways away from the FBO over there, so I'm just going to keep on rolling.
I probably could have turned there; missed it. I'm not going to slam on my brakes and
swerve. Too late.
[51:16] So we're going to just continue down here. I'm still leaving all my lights on and
my flaps down, and we're just going to cross this runway. Just look really quick to make
sure no one's there.

p.13

[51:32] You can also state your intentions in that situation when you're crossing a
runway. It's not a bad idea to do that, so we'll pull off the runway here and then I'll make
a radio call.
Radio: [51:50] Astoria traffic, Cessna Niner Charlie Kilo clear of 2-6.
Man: [52:11] We're just going to continue ahead here, and we'll take this taxiway just
toward the FBO to get some fuel, take a potty break, maybe get some snacks, whatever
tickles our fancy. All right, I see the fuel over there. Up here, get that center-line pride.
[52:46] So this was quite challenging. If you guys could have done that VOR stuff and
the flight following stuff with real radio calls, say, on that sim, then you're doing really
good. You're probably pretty advanced, because I know that I certainly couldn't do that
the first few times I did flights.
[53:04] I stuttered on the radio quite a bit when I first learned to communicate, and it took
me a while to learn exactly how VORs worked, what the system was, how to follow those
needles, etc.
[53:18] So give yourself a pat on the back. You're here. You're learning. That's a big plus,
and you can't ask for anything more. Just take it one step at a time. You can't learn
everything at once, and that's just the way it is.
[53:34] I'm going to line up here on this parking spot. Usually, you want to pull into a
parking spot when you come onto a ramp. Just don't park randomly. Pull up here and
look at the line. All right, wing struts. That's good enough.
[53:47] Pull the mixture, and we are shut down, baby. Cheated death once again. So we're
going to come in here. We're going to turn off our landing light. Could have done that
earlier. Beacon nav light.
[54:04] Let's see, turn my avionics off. Give that a few seconds to spool down. Turn the
master switch or the magnetos off, and then the master switch there, the battery and the
alternator. That gets us all shut down.
[54:22] This was an awesome episode. I know I had a really good time flying this flight. I
hope you guys did, too. You enjoyed the scenery. You had fun tracking those VORs. So
that is it for this episode. I will see you guys next time, and until then, throttle on.
Transcription by CastingWords

You might also like