I finished my cross country requirements today with a flight lasting nearly 3 hours. The route was Albert Whitted (SPG) to Lake Wales (X07) to Leesburg (LEE) to Brooksville (BKV) and home. It was fun, uneventful and not overly exciting. Uneventful is the best kind of flying. My photos are not too good. My wife had the camera, so I'm back to cell phone pics.Prior to the flight, Rob checked my flight plan and signed my logbook authorizing the trip. I filed a VFR flight plan. Rob says it will probably be the only one I ever file. The briefer at Flight Services was none too friendly, so Rob might be right. After departing Whitted, I tried to contact the St. Petersburg Flight Service Station with no success. I wanted to open my flight plan before asking Tampa for permission to enter their airspace. Possibly, I was too low to get the FSS on the radio, and after contacting Tampa Approach and receiving flight following and permission to transit the Class B airspace, I dropped the idea of opening my flight plan. Tampa had me on radar almost all the way to Lake Wales, where they terminated radar service.
Lake Wales is a scenic town in the hill and lake country of central Florida. I could clearly see Bok Tower, an old time Florida attraction. However, I have learned my lesson about taking photos near the airport or in the traffic pattern and did not get a pic of the tower. I flew north to Winter Haven, the city of my birth, and set course for Leesburg. Leesburg is the first towered field I've landed at by myself. It was pretty busy, but the controllers kept everything moving and I got in and out without any problems. From Leesburg I was off to Brooksville.
Brooksville, or Hernando County, sounded busy on the radio, but I think most pilots were doing instrument approaches and never put wheels on asphalt. I got a bit confused about which runway to use. The winds were light and variable, so I went with the flow and landed on 9. The FBO seemed to be about 5 miles from the runway, but nature was calling and I had to stop. This was the first time that I have gotten out of the airplane at an airport other than Whitted. Someone was at the plane before I could exit to see if I needed fuel or anything. Nice to see that kind of service, but I just wanted the restroom and vending machine. The photo is trusty old N54666 on the ramp at Brooksville.The GPS came in handy today. I missed two checkpoints. There was enough haze to make spotting landmarks difficult. Couple that with a bad forecast of the winds aloft and I got off course a bit, particularly on the legs from Leesburg to Brooksville and from Brooksville to the coast. Now its hard to miss the Gulf of Mexico, but without the GPS, I don't think I would have found the Brooksville airport. One of my checkpoints was a small private airfield, which I never saw. I would have gotten home with little problem. Like I said, its hard to miss the Gulf and once there a left turn would take me home. Over the Florida peninsula, you can't get very lost.
I plan on putting in some pattern work and maneuver practice this weekend. My medical flight test is tentatively scheduled for next Friday. The FAA inspector has to talk to someone in Washington first. I didn't realize this required an act of congress. He tells me that he can't be the PIC for the flight and I can't be the PIC with a passenger. Sounds like a catch 22 situation. I'm starting to think that Rob may have to go along, or that I'll be taking my checkride with a FAA inspector rather than a designated pilot examiner (DPE). As my wife says, we'll see.
You will need google earth to open and view the lesson 26 flight track.
Statistics:
Dual Instruction Time: 23.3 Hours
Solo/PIC Time: 15.8 Hours
Landings: 130
Posts
7 comments:
Don't let the current state of flight service keep you from filing a flight plan. The fact is that no one else is going to look for you if you become overdue. ATC won't do it. Even if you have flight following, the most they'll do if you drop off the scope is make a few calls in the blind and pull the strip.
When you file, give the briefer an assumed departure time and have him activate the flight plan then. That way you don't have to try to call him in the air, because you probably won't get an answer. The way the FAA grades Lockheed on radio calls it's better to ignore you than answer you. If Lockheed doesn't talk to you at all it doesn't count against them, but if they do answer and service takes more than 15 seconds the FAA withholds their bonus.
Anonymous, thanks for the tip. I'll try it that way next time. Before I departed, I asked my CFI if I could open the flight plan on the ground, and he said they usually won't do that. However, I'll give it a shot next time.
If you request an assumed departure the FSS guy has no choice - the book says you can do that. If he balks, ask for the sup.
The reason they didn't used to like doing that is because a high percentage of these flight plans went overdue. It's easy to spend a few extra minutes getting loaded up and end up being late on your assumed departure time. Of course, you could always update your eta enroute, but not anymore, because they won't answer the radio for that either. As far as I'm concerned, that's their problem.
Also, ATC cannot get FSS on the phone either. When they call on the interphone, instead of being able to dial the appropriate FSS sector, the party line phone rings at every flight data position in the eastern service US, and whoever pick up (if anyone does) is probably not the person they need. The result is, no matter what ATC tells you, they WILL NOT open, close, or extend your VFR flight plan.
Great job on a successful long XC. While I'm not going to argue over the merits of filing a flight plan, I will say your experience with the briefer sounds like an aberration. I've always found them friendly and helpful (other than one guy over the radio onetime, but that was partially due to a mix-up in the system where they lost my flight plan) so far.
I will say that if you're on flight following at all times flying XC then you've arguably got something better than a flight plan as they have you on radar and will instantly know where you are if you send in a mayday. Aside from the traffic awareness benefits, that's another major reason to talk with ATC whenever you're headed somewhere. But the fact that they won't automatically start searching is quite true and a reminder that flight plans aren't a bad idea, either.
All that said, I haven't filed one since my second solo XC - didn't even file for my long XC.
Steve - if you are using flight following and are not IFR, their only responsibility to you is to provide traffic updates, workload permitting. They have NO search and rescue responsibility. Unless they actually hear you call "mayday" you can't count on anything. If you simply disappear from the scope they'll assume you landed somewhere and pull the stip.
Even if you're IFR there is a tendency to ignore GA. If you forget to cancel into an uncontrolled field at night there's at least a 50-50 chance that they'll just assume you landed and pull the strip. I remember one time at XXX Center - we cleared a Navajo into a small mountain airport at 11pm. We issued an ALNOT at noon the next day to try to cover our asses AFTER we say the wreckage on TV the next day at lunch.
For everyone's benefit, an ALNOT is an alert notice, issued when an aircraft is overdue or missing. I'm not that knowedgeable, I had to look it up.
I am going to take the advice on the flight plan. After getting my ticket, I plan on some XCs over water (Cedar Key, Key West) and don't want to disappear without a trace.
Anon...
Agreed, and you'll see in my post I wasn't arguing the fact that only a flight plan = automatic S&R. My point was that being on FF you have someone who already knows where you're at. But if you never make a call (or can't) then you don't have much. I suppose FP + FF is the safest route to take!
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