When I got to the airport we had to do our preflight and it took a lot longer than we expected. I had done some of the calculations ahead of time but Richard wanted me to do them in front of him so I had to redo everything. I later I realized that we made a slight miscalculation in that all of the courses were magnetic instead of true. What that means is when we got to the point of calculating of course heading we were off by 5 degrees. The reason is that when doing anything that involves a magnetic heading, it will be off because of a variance in the magnetic field of the Earth. There are really 2 North Poles. There is the actual North Pole and the magnetic North Pole and they are quite different. If you plot a "true" heading, you must adjust it for magnetic variance. Our area has a variance of 5 degrees to the East or -5 degrees. What all of the gibberish means is my initial headings that I gave to Richard we off by -5 degrees since I had already taken the variation into account.
Once we finally got airborne, we headed into a stiff headwind. I rotated at 60k but my ground speed was only about 35k. We got to Rockwall in about 12 minutes. after entering the pattern, I did a very ugly crosswind landing (are you seeing a pattern here?) so Richard had me do another one. We needed to kill a little time and he wanted to make me do it again, so around we went for number 2 (no nasty remarks here). I did a lot better so off we went up again and made a climbing left hand turn to track my outbound course for Gainesville. This was a big turn as we went from 150 degrees to 299 degrees. We climbed out and headed in a northerly direction. I had 2 checkpoints between my next airport, T31 (Aero Country - 22 nm and 18 min away) and Pilot Point (a small town on the South side of lake Ray Roberts 39 nm and 18 minutes away). Incidently, this is where my GS was very high. My GS to Rockwall was 88k while my IAS (Indicated Air Speed) was 110k. On the Northernmost leg, my GS was about 135k with and IAS of 105k. Quite a tailwind, eh?
We finally made it to Gainesville in about 27 minutes (58 nm) where once we announced ourself entering the pattern, were promptly greeted by a Citation on our butt. we had slowed up to about 90k IAS and she was probably doing 160k. We had the right away since we were in front of her. Once we finally turned base and then final we did our T&G and high tailed it out of there to get out of her way. We did another climbing left turn to get up to altitude and head for Kickapoo Downtown in Wichita Falls (KCWC). Before we got out of KGLE airspace, we finally got to watch our Citation jockey land. She called a short final 5 miles out.
So now we are on our last leg of this flight plan. It was the longest leg at 65 nm. With our wind situation, I should have been carrying a GS of 111k which would put me into KCWC in 38 minutes (give or take a minute or two). I hit all of my check points perfect except for Nocona (F48). I misread my map and was thinking it was the Town of Henrietta so I changed my course to put me in position to track my intended course. Richard soon started asking me what I was doing and to look at the map closely. That's when I realized what I had done and had to correct so I could get us into KCWC instead of getting into the Sheppard Air Force Base airspace. After the renegade Citation pilot, I didn't need a T38 checking my prostrate. I finally got us on the ground in Wichita Falls and followed the nice lineman to park at the FBO where we received very good service, inexpensive fuel (inexpensive to us but to you MOGAS types, it will be expensive. $4.29/gal of 100ll. I actually make money on that kind of price) and a place to relieve any built up pressure. Of course I called my very concerned wife after we got inside and my concerned brother also. I also called my really good friend, who has been encouraging me to complete my training, Michael Saperton. Michael is a pilot and we both share the memory of a good friend who got me interested in doing this but who also was taken from us much too early. I will always remember Brian while I fly. I think that every time I fly it puts me closer to heaven where I can be a little closer to him. We all miss him.
I closed my flight plan with FSS, paid $90.09 for 21 gallons of fuel, filed a new flight plan and we were ready to head out.
We took off at about 5:18 PM and headed back to TKI. Remember that we are technically still in winter, so the days are short. Sunrise is 7:24 AM and Sunset is 5:56 PM. Do you think I can make it back to McKinney in 38 minutes (104 nm) with an 18k headwind? So we set out and I did what I needed to do, other than dial in the wrong VOR out of KCWC, but I did track the correct course. By now the wind is starting to die down from 25k to about 15 k so I don't have quite the same headwind but it is still a daunting task flying into it. I got learn a lot about the accuracies of the VOR system. They are extremely accurate close in but get sloppy the farther out you get from them. I was tracking my course dead on, even after I flew between two TV antennas that were 3000 ft MSL (2000 ft AGL) and was about 10 degrees off course. I looked at the map and saw where I was supposed to be and fixed it. After we entered the DFW Class B airspace (we didn't enter it technically. We flew under the shelf that started at 4000 ft MSL) and were still tracking to McKinney, I asked Richard if we could do an ILS approach. It was dark by now and we weren't too far away. I did this because we would have had to enter on the upwind leg in the pattern and fly a whole lot more. I was getting tired and I like flying ILS approaches (I've only done two in my life but I really was intrigued by them). So Richard had me cancel our flight plan and we made a mad dash to the FLUET NDB. The tower granted our ILS approach and we made our way to the localizer. Richard had me do a couple of minor course corrections to intercept cleanly and I did OK for my first night landing (not technically because it didn't occur one hour after sunset), even though I brought in too much power but was able to get it down and slowed down to exit the Charlie taxiway.
Just writing this down has me tired but I am so happy that I get to try it again, solo, on Sunday. as I was typing this, I went and changed my time for Sunday from 12 - 4 to 11 - 4. I think I learned my lesson about giving yourself a cushion. Thanks to everyone who has kept me going through this and to Brian who I hope is watching and not playing with his SIM.
Sorry for no pictures from the air, but I did not need anymore distractions. I understand why autopilots are such wonderful instruments and not the work of lazy people.
733NB In All Of It's Glory
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