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| N988CT, "Wolf 18," the Katana my instructor and I flew down to Richfield and back in. |
I met up with my flight instructor at his desk and we went over the flight plan, which we filed via phone with the Flight Service Station (FSS) in Cedar City; when flying with a filed flight plan, pilots contact the Flight Service Station over the radio to open and close their flight plans. Flight plans are documents filed by a pilot or flight dispatcher with the local aviation authority prior to departure which indicate the plane's planned route or flight path; they include basic information such as departure and arrival points, estimated time en route, alternate airports in case of bad weather, type of flight, the pilot's information, number of people on board and information about the aircraft itself. Flight plans are usually required when flying IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), but optional for VFR (Visual Flight Rules) unless crossing international borders. Pilots regardless of what type of flight they're conducting are encouraged make use of flight planning and file them, especially when flying over inhospitable areas, such as water, as they provide a way of alerting rescuers and emergency services if the flight is overdue or when something goes wrong.
During the filing, we also received relevant information for today's flight regarding weather, wind conditions, basically anything that was important and useful for us while en route. After getting off the phone with the Flight Service Station, it was time to depart. Since were under the clock with the flight plan filed, my instructor and I split the pre-flight so we could get out faster. After pre-flight, we quickly and thoroughly went through the usual start-up procedures, picked up our taxi clearance, taxied to the run-up area, did the run-ups, and taxied out to the runway. Once we picked up our take-off clearance, my instructor took control of the airplane and had me get out my aviation sectional charts to use for navigation while he took care of the take-off.
After getting airborne, we leveled off at the altitude we determined we would fly at on our down to Richfield. After getting approval to switch over on radio frequencies, my instructor contacted the Flight Service Station at Cedar City to open our flight plan. Once we opened the flight plan and I got the necessary materials to be used for the flight out, my instructor handed back control of the airplane to me. My very first, logged cross-country flight was underway.
The flight plan for today's introductory cross-country VFR flight down to Richfield and back to Provo (called a "round-robin" flight) called for us to navigate via the following waypoints: Nephi Airport, the Sevier Reservoir, and Salina-Gunnison Airport. Utilizing the flight plan and sectional charts, my instructor showed me the procedures for cross-country flying all throughout the flight; he had me practice pilotage, which is the art of knowing where you are by reading a map and comparing it with the surrounding terrain and landmarks. Out here in the mountainous region, I found it simple to read most of the terrain and surrounding features. We also had a major road below us for general reference as well.
Regretfully, pilotage is really becoming a lost art in aviation with the advent of modern and advanced navigation equipment these days. My instructor also had me practice dead reckoning, which is the art knowing where you currently are by using a compass, your ground speed, a clock and an initial known position. From the prior flight planning, we previously determined what compass heading we would fly on while en route to each way point; that way, when we reached each respective waypoint, we knew it was time time to turn to the new heading.
Eventually, we were approaching our first waypoint, which was the Nephi Municipal Airport, a general aviation airport located 3 miles northwest of the city Nephi, Utah. For the first half of the flight, my instructor showed me radio procedures. Since the airports we were using for waypoints are non-towered, communication and radio calls are a little different compared to towered airports like Provo or Salt City International. Every non-towered airport has a designated frequency pilots tune to called a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF). On this frequency, pilots coordinate their arrivals and departures safely, giving position reports and acknowledging other aircraft in the airfield traffic pattern by self-announcing their position and/or intentions. In our case, we needed to report to any air traffic flying around Nephi that were coming and passing through the area; good thing too, because we heard a helicopter pilot doing stop-and-goes there. It was also important that we reported our position on Nephi's CTAF out of caution because a lot of skydiving activity takes place there. My instructor made radio calls 10 miles out, 5 miles out, and again while directly over the airfield and frequently updated our position over the radio until we put some distance between us and Nephi.
Our next waypoint was the Sevier Reservoir, which was connected to Yuba Lake inside the Yuba State Park. Being a rather large, recognizable body of water in the area, it made total sense to use it as the next waypoint. Once we were over the northern tip of the reservoir, we turned on a southeast heading towards the next waypoint, the Salina-Gunnison Airport, located five miles northeast of the city of Salina, Utah. Again, my instructor handled the radio calls on the CTAF. He also challenged me to visually acquire the airport because most students have a difficult time spotting it the first time around. That wasn't the case for me! I used the airplane's GPS and my sectional chart to get a general and put some of my rookie pilotage skills (or lack thereof!) into practice and I was able to acquire visual sighting of the tiny (and podunk!) airport that serves the towns of Salina and Gunnison! Better luck next time Nick! But I appreciate you challenging me!
Once we were past the Salina-Gunnison Airport, the first-half of my first, logged cross-country flight was almost over as we were approaching the city of Richfield Municipal Airport, located one mile southwest of the city of Richfield, Utah. After being introduced to many new things, it got a little bit more routine. We went through the usual descent checklists and while we were at it, my instructor had me look up the airport in the Chart Supplement handbook (formerly known as the Airport/Facilities Directory - A/FD) to look at the runway layout. We also tuned into the Richfield Airport's Automated Airport Weather Observing System (AWOS) frequency to get an idea which way the wind was blowing and decide which runway was best to do a touch and go on. Once that was done, we made our descent to pattern altitude and entered the traffic pattern; again, my instructor handled the radio calls on CTAF as we made our approach.
The touch-and-go landing was routine. We got back up into the air and back up to cruise altitude for the round-robin back to Provo and put into what was passed onto me during this flight into practice for the return trip. That includes handling the radio calls on the CTAF! I started by making a call on the Richfield CTAF and reported our position every few miles as we put some distance between the airport and us and headed towards Salina. I then switched over to the CTAF frequency for the Salina-Gunnison Airport. My instructor also took this time to teach me about what to do in an emergency during a cross-country flight and what to do if I make any errors in navigation and get lost. He taught me the 5 C's for Lost Procedures, which are:
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| The view of the Pitch Mountains just south of Nephi near the small town of Levan. |
The flight plan for today's introductory cross-country VFR flight down to Richfield and back to Provo (called a "round-robin" flight) called for us to navigate via the following waypoints: Nephi Airport, the Sevier Reservoir, and Salina-Gunnison Airport. Utilizing the flight plan and sectional charts, my instructor showed me the procedures for cross-country flying all throughout the flight; he had me practice pilotage, which is the art of knowing where you are by reading a map and comparing it with the surrounding terrain and landmarks. Out here in the mountainous region, I found it simple to read most of the terrain and surrounding features. We also had a major road below us for general reference as well.
Regretfully, pilotage is really becoming a lost art in aviation with the advent of modern and advanced navigation equipment these days. My instructor also had me practice dead reckoning, which is the art knowing where you currently are by using a compass, your ground speed, a clock and an initial known position. From the prior flight planning, we previously determined what compass heading we would fly on while en route to each way point; that way, when we reached each respective waypoint, we knew it was time time to turn to the new heading.
Eventually, we were approaching our first waypoint, which was the Nephi Municipal Airport, a general aviation airport located 3 miles northwest of the city Nephi, Utah. For the first half of the flight, my instructor showed me radio procedures. Since the airports we were using for waypoints are non-towered, communication and radio calls are a little different compared to towered airports like Provo or Salt City International. Every non-towered airport has a designated frequency pilots tune to called a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF). On this frequency, pilots coordinate their arrivals and departures safely, giving position reports and acknowledging other aircraft in the airfield traffic pattern by self-announcing their position and/or intentions. In our case, we needed to report to any air traffic flying around Nephi that were coming and passing through the area; good thing too, because we heard a helicopter pilot doing stop-and-goes there. It was also important that we reported our position on Nephi's CTAF out of caution because a lot of skydiving activity takes place there. My instructor made radio calls 10 miles out, 5 miles out, and again while directly over the airfield and frequently updated our position over the radio until we put some distance between us and Nephi.
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| Great visibility of the mountains of Sevier County towards Salina and Richfield. |
Our next waypoint was the Sevier Reservoir, which was connected to Yuba Lake inside the Yuba State Park. Being a rather large, recognizable body of water in the area, it made total sense to use it as the next waypoint. Once we were over the northern tip of the reservoir, we turned on a southeast heading towards the next waypoint, the Salina-Gunnison Airport, located five miles northeast of the city of Salina, Utah. Again, my instructor handled the radio calls on the CTAF. He also challenged me to visually acquire the airport because most students have a difficult time spotting it the first time around. That wasn't the case for me! I used the airplane's GPS and my sectional chart to get a general and put some of my rookie pilotage skills (or lack thereof!) into practice and I was able to acquire visual sighting of the tiny (and podunk!) airport that serves the towns of Salina and Gunnison! Better luck next time Nick! But I appreciate you challenging me!
Once we were past the Salina-Gunnison Airport, the first-half of my first, logged cross-country flight was almost over as we were approaching the city of Richfield Municipal Airport, located one mile southwest of the city of Richfield, Utah. After being introduced to many new things, it got a little bit more routine. We went through the usual descent checklists and while we were at it, my instructor had me look up the airport in the Chart Supplement handbook (formerly known as the Airport/Facilities Directory - A/FD) to look at the runway layout. We also tuned into the Richfield Airport's Automated Airport Weather Observing System (AWOS) frequency to get an idea which way the wind was blowing and decide which runway was best to do a touch and go on. Once that was done, we made our descent to pattern altitude and entered the traffic pattern; again, my instructor handled the radio calls on CTAF as we made our approach.
The touch-and-go landing was routine. We got back up into the air and back up to cruise altitude for the round-robin back to Provo and put into what was passed onto me during this flight into practice for the return trip. That includes handling the radio calls on the CTAF! I started by making a call on the Richfield CTAF and reported our position every few miles as we put some distance between the airport and us and headed towards Salina. I then switched over to the CTAF frequency for the Salina-Gunnison Airport. My instructor also took this time to teach me about what to do in an emergency during a cross-country flight and what to do if I make any errors in navigation and get lost. He taught me the 5 C's for Lost Procedures, which are:
- Circle to maintain a current position.
- Climb to see further out, and better orient yourself. If that doesn't work, climb to increase chances of getting better communications over the radio.
- Communicate if unable to get your bearings
- Confess and admit you are lost
- Comply with instructions.
I then made the necessary radio calls over the Salina-Gunnison CTAF and reported our position as we passed through the area. Once passed this waypoint, we proceeded towards Yuba Lake and the Sevier Reservoir, our next waypoint. My instructor monitored me and my handling of the airplane as we proceeded with the cross-country flight. After passing the Sevier Reservoir, we headed to Nephi and I switched over to the Nephi CTAF and again, made my position calls to let any air traffic. We passed the area via the east side of the airport. We were now on the final leg of the cross-country flight.
Once we had Provo in sight, I called the Cedar City Flight Service Station and requested that the flight plan be closed, and they did so for us. We made our approach into Provo. Since we were flying through the south practice areas, my instructor contacted the approach controller at Salt Lake so we could receive traffic advisories. And sure enough, we received an advisory of traffic in our vicinity, which we spotted and avoided. Afterwards, we received approval to contact Provo tower, which we did. From here, it was a routine traffic pattern operation that I've done so many times before. We made our descent, going through the appropriate checklists along the way and I brought the DA-20 Katana in for a landing on the very same runway we took off from earlier in the day.
After we touched down and rolled out to taxiing speed, we vacated the runway via the next available taxiway and we taxied back to the ramp before shutting down the airplane and calling it another flight and a successful first cross-country flight with TWO hours entered into my logbook. It was a fun and educational flight as I got to see how a typical VFR cross-country flight is conducted. To date, this was the longest flight I've logged.
Once we had Provo in sight, I called the Cedar City Flight Service Station and requested that the flight plan be closed, and they did so for us. We made our approach into Provo. Since we were flying through the south practice areas, my instructor contacted the approach controller at Salt Lake so we could receive traffic advisories. And sure enough, we received an advisory of traffic in our vicinity, which we spotted and avoided. Afterwards, we received approval to contact Provo tower, which we did. From here, it was a routine traffic pattern operation that I've done so many times before. We made our descent, going through the appropriate checklists along the way and I brought the DA-20 Katana in for a landing on the very same runway we took off from earlier in the day.
After we touched down and rolled out to taxiing speed, we vacated the runway via the next available taxiway and we taxied back to the ramp before shutting down the airplane and calling it another flight and a successful first cross-country flight with TWO hours entered into my logbook. It was a fun and educational flight as I got to see how a typical VFR cross-country flight is conducted. To date, this was the longest flight I've logged.
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