Pilot Life: Night Cross Country to Hillsboro

After a good daytime flight earlier this afternoon, I took advantage of the still-nice weather we had today to get a second flight at night; and to make it worthwhile, I made it a night cross-country flight! I still need to get some night hours as part of the requirements I need to fulfill for my commercial pilot checkride and license. The plan was to keep things simple, so I chose Hillsboro as my destination.

Two flights in a single day with N5174E!

Once more, after doing the pre-flight and before-takeoff checks, I got airborne off Runway 34 and headed straight out to the north. I then tuned to the frequency for Seattle Center and the radio chatter was nonstop, meaning they were busy. I tried to get VFR Flight Following but I couldn't get the accommodation, so I proceeded on my own eyes outside the cockpit looking out for other aircraft; I even made use of ADS-B on my iPad through ForeFlight!

Aside from not being able to get Flight Following from ATC, it was an uneventful flight. Once I was about 30 miles away from Hillsboro, I picked up the weather from the ATIS frequency and called up the tower just before entering their Class Delta airspace. They instructed me to make a straight-in approach for Runway 31R, the new, parallel runway to the main one that opened back in 2015; I've now used all three runways at Hillsboro! After my touch-and-go I departed on the downwind to the south. I flew up via the I-5 corridor and the middle of the Willamette Valley. On the return-leg, I flew home via the more rural, western part of the valley, with McMinnville and Independence as my visual waypoints; that way, I could avoid much of the congested airspace corridors that ran up and down along the valley. Plus, there was just something about the darkness of the western half of the Willamette Valley on a clear night!

Other than that, the return leg back to Albany was uneventful; it was a beautiful, albeit cold night for flying. I made standard position calls for both the McMinnville and Independence airports as I passed through to let any traffic know I was in the area. And I still had some time to play with while the clear night skies lasted, so I decided to do some stop-and-go landings in Albany when I returned, just so I can stretch out my flight time and to top off and reset my night currency clock (even though, I was still good as of last month with only 30 days out of the 90 lapsing). Plus, it was good practice to do night landings at my current home airport just so I could continue to get used to the visual sight picture. I did three full-stop landings on Runway 34, exiting off at the intersection taxiway each time followed by a taxi-back in order to make use of the full-length of runway before going another lap in the traffic pattern.

After my third full-stop landing, my night currency was good for 90 days as of today and my night flight ended at nearly two hours, which means I flew for nearly four hours total today! I decided to taxi to the fuel pumps once more to top off the tanks just so I have full tanks for the next flight. After a chilly, yet quick stint at the self-serve fuel pumps, I taxied the plane back to the hangar, where I put it away after engine shutdown and calling it a very good day of flying!

Gallery Update: Hangar Flying/Spotting

I flew two separate flights today and in between them, I got my camera out during one of the few beautiful days we've had all February and got some quick spotting shots in from the row of hangars where my uncle keeps his airplane.

Albany (S12) 16

Preview:

Mooney M20K (N231RB) departing on 34 for Salem.

Infinite Air Center Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee Cruiser (N98241) departing 34 working the local traffic pattern.

Pilot Life: Flying the Oregon Coast!

Today was actually the first nice day I've seen in a while and after the last flight where my instructor and I picked up some ice, it was a nice change of scenery. It was also a nice change of tempo for me as well because although my flight instructor was unavailable today, I still decided to go up solo and do some "relaxed" flying for the first time in a while. And I think I needed it too, because my recent flights have been towards training with some "hard" IFR experience; on top of that, school and life outside of flying has added to the stress! So I decided to fly for myself today starting with my first flight out of two I did today, with a daytime solo outing out to the Oregon coast and chasing the shoreline!

Taking N5174E to chase the shoreline on the Oregon coast!

After the usual pre-flight and before-takeoff procedures, I got airborne off Runway 34 and turned straight out to the west. After crossing the hills separating the valley from the coast, I flew directly over Newport. From there, I stayed at my chosen cruise altitude and flew northbound along the shoreline; with several coastal airports along my flight path, I made sure to make position reports on the respective CTAFs for Newport, Siletz Bay, as well as Pacific City. Other than that, I just enjoyed the view as I flew along the coast with the vast Pacific Ocean off my left wing and the state of Oregon off my right wing.

Looking out to the Pacific Ocean after turning north of Newport, Oregon.

A view of the Siletz Bay/Gleneden Beach area as I headed northward.

Approach Pacific City, Oregon, with Chief Kiawanda Rock and Cape Kiawanda in view.

View of Chief Kiawanda Rock and part of Cape Kiawanda.

A view of Cape Lookout as I turned and descended towards Tillamook.

I planned to only go as far as Tillamook, where I did a touch-and-go on Runway 31 at the airport there, making the flight a cross-country as far as straight-line distance between my origin and destination were concerned. After doing my touch-and-go and I initially made a straight out departure and proceeded to do a circling climb over Tillamook Bay. After getting up to my desired cruise altitude, I flew straight back to Albany. My routing to avoid some scattered cloud layers that were over the mountains between the coast and the valley put me just west of Independence and directly over Monmouth and the Western Oregon University campus.

After passing the Monmouth/Independence areas, I made my descent towards Albany and entered the downwind for Runway 34, the same runway I departed from. After an uneventful landing, I taxied over to the fuel pumps to top off tanks for my second flight later on during the evening before returning the plane to the hangar. After putting the trusty Skyhawk back in for a brief respite, I too headed out for a little break before having to come back to the hangar in few hours time.

Today's flight was worth it though, as the views I got to enjoy served as both inspiration and a reminder as to why I got into aviation in the first place, especially after dealing with a period of stress in recent weeks.

Pilot Life: Picking Up Ice in IMC!

My instructor and I got back together today to fly and shoot some approaches so I can stay sharp for new checkride date. Although things didn't go all according to plan today because of what mother nature had in store! We ended up flying for less than an hour, got one approach, and encountered icing conditions! As far as real-world experiences goes, this is as real as it gets!

N5174E encountering ice for the first time!

My instructor met me at my uncle's hangar while I was doing the pre-flight. Afterwards, we hopped in and got going. After run-ups, we got airborne off Runway 16 and proceeded to climb out via the obstacle departure procedure. I went under the hood, picked up IFR clearance from Cascade Approach and we were cleared to the Corvallis Airport for the ILS 17 approach. We eventually got into IMC. As we got established on the localizer for the final approach, my instructor took control of the plane momentarily and had me check out the leading edges of the wings with the trace amounts of ice we picked up while flying through the clouds. It wasn't too big a deal as we had plenty of VFR altitude below us as our "out" to get rid of the ice and the icing itself was very little and the plane's flying characteristics weren't adversely affected in any way; it didn't mean we were going to stick around though!

The original plan was to shoot a couple approaches, but with icing a real possibility and the known freezing levels a little lower than what we've previously seen, we shot the one approach and went back to Albany VFR (and below the icing areas!). Again, this is as real-world as it gets and it was quite the first-time experience for me! We canceled IFR with ATC as we got below the clouds and I continued the with ILS 17 approach until the decision altitude and went missed. We then turned towards Albany and stayed below the clouds before I came out of the foggles. I brought us over midfield of the airport and entered the left downwind for Runway 16 and made an uneventful landing.

My instructor and I debriefed at the fuel pumps before going our separate ways. After I topped off the fuel tanks, I taxied the plane back to the hangar where I put it away before calling it a day. While the encounter with the trace amounts of ice today was initially disconcerting, we weren't in it for long and it was quite the experience to see it for the first time. At least flight training in Oregon with an Instrument-rated instructor willing to go up with me has afforded me such opportunities for real-world IFR/IMC experiences (which I am grateful for!)!

Pilot Life: Knocking Off Some Rust

I haven't flown for ten days and the last time I flew was that mock-checkride I did with one of the other CFIIs. My actual checkride was scheduled for last Tuesday, but we got weathered out and as it turns out, the examiner had some maintenance concerns (which was totally understandable, but at the same time, still...). So now, my new checkride date with yet another examiner is set for the beginning of March. Today saw some decent weather for the first time since I last flew and I really needed to knock the rust off a little bit, so I took the opportunity to get some pattern work in and practice my landings. Plus, my uncle and I once again changed the oil in the engine and I felt that a post-oil change engine run and flight were in order!

Stretching out N5174E's wings for the first time in ten days.

After pre-flight, I hopped in the plane and taxied over to the fuel pumps since I haven't been able to top off the tanks recently (mostly due to some of the really cold weather we had the past week and a half that actually rendered the self-serve fuel pumps inoperable!). After topping off the tanks, I hopped in and taxied over to the run-up pad next to Runway 34 and did the standard run-ups. After run-ups, I got airborne and flew four laps in the traffic pattern and got some touch-and-go landings in (three of them to be exact!), and they were all good landings! After my fourth landing, which was to a full-stop, I taxied back to the hangar and called it a good, quick refresher as I wasn't planning on going up for too long to begin with. I put the airplane away satisfied to have been able to log flight time after a lousy week last week (made worse by the fact that it was the week of Valentine's Day!) and not flying for the past ten days.

Pilot Life: More IMC Experience at Corvallis

In the IFR world, today was another "good" day to get some actual instrument/IMC flying in, so that's exactly what my instructor and I did. And it was a good way to start out the month of February, still my least favorite month of the year!

Giving N5174E another "wash" by flying in some IMC!

After getting in the air and throwing on my foggles, I called up Cascade Approach to pick up IFR clearance to Corvallis for some Instrument Approaches, starting with the ILS 17. We were in and out of the clouds a lot and at the altitudes we were flying at, it was mostly MVFR (Moderate Visual Flight Rules). As usual, I briefed the approach plate on our way in as ATC gave us radar vectors. Funny thing happened while we were getting set up: ATC asked us to reset our transponder with a new squawk code twice after getting our initial one! Upon giving us the third squawk code all within the first 15 minutes of flight, they were apologetic about it, but we had a good laugh about it!

For the most part, I did pretty well on the ILS 17 approach; I had to compensate by accounting for the winds aloft. We terminated the approach by going missed and requested radar vectors for the second approach, which would be the RNAV 17. Once again, I briefed and went over the approach plate and followed ATC instructions as they gave us radar vectors to the final approach path. Again, another decent job done on my part and we terminated this approach by going missed also. After reporting back in with Cascade Approach, we cancelled our IFR flight plan and went back to Albany VFR (or rather MVFR!). My instructor had me look outside momentarily to get an idea what barely-VFR conditions looked like; honestly, today looked like there was probably no more than 5 miles of visibility. And it was still legal too because from the altitude we were flying at as we returned to Albany, we were able to maintain positive visual contact with the ground below us. If I had to fly on given day like today, the concepts of establishing and following my personal minimums as a pilot and what determines my "Go/No-go" decisions at my discretion really came to mind.

Eventually, Albany Airport came into view and my instructor had me remove my foggles and we made an uneventful landing. Since it was raining, I elected to not refuel at the fuel pumps and risk allowing water into the fuel tanks and taxied straight back to the hangar, where we debriefed, signed off in my logbook, and stowed the airplane. All in all, today was a good flight to start the month and end the week. And I'm certainly grateful to have these opportunities to actually train in actual instrument conditions, something I couldn't do had I stayed in Utah with the planes I did fly down there!