fly your heading

It was tough to predict what was going to happen today. Last night, I filed flight plans to go to Orange, MA [KORE], with predictions of strong winds this morning. Then, winds were light in the early morning. By the appointed time came around, the winds were picking up again.

We took off from 32 again and got bounced around, and then started heading vaguely west while I climbed up to my cruising altitude for the trip. It should have been 4500, but Tim didn't want me seeing too far away (in particular, seeing the Quabbin and being able to "cheat"), so we went just to 2500. The heading I had figured was 276 (260 true, 16W var), and the wind from 300 at 32kts put me at about 288. Or should have. I started flying that heading, and before I knew it, Tim was calling up Manchester to check in with them to pass through their Class C.

First mistake. I headed south to try to get back on course. In the neighborhood of Pepperell, I called the UNICOM to see if they were jumping. No answer -- no surprise, as it's cold out there. I turned back to my heading, but now I was further south, and Tim started warning me about the restricted area. Of course, I knew about 4102, but knowing that I was nearing it was a surprise. Second mistake: if you get confused, fly your heading.

Finally, I found some towns and airports and got myself reoriented. The rest of the trip to Orange was relatively uneventful. It was easy to see from the air, and I was able to verify it by landmarks. I made my calls and tried to turn around for a 45 degree entry to the left downwind on 32, but this was tough. To the west of Orange is a large hill that makes descent to pattern altitude a little more interesting than it should be, and then the wind at my tail sped everything up. I managed to get it on the ground and taxi off.

We went inside, and I called FSS to close the flight plan. I then signed the log and we went back out to fly back, a little behind schedule. Things were starting to pick up, and there was some actual traffic at Orange. I flew around the pattern and departed to the SE towards Gardner.

On the way back, I flew to the Gardner VOR [GDM] and then to the Lawrence VOR [LWM]. This was a piece of cake. It's much easier to figure out where you're going if there's a needle pointing the right direction.

Landing at Lawrence was a little tough because the winds were much stronger now, 11kts and gusting. I came back in on 32 (the ATIS said 23, but the wind was shifting) and had a lot of trouble making a smooth landing. I was off at Delta, and taxied back. The Hobbs time for the trip was 2.1 -- longest I've made, and longer than I expected.

Next week, we're going to do a nighttime cross-country. I have to find a place to go; perhaps Plymouth. We're going to take 2462T, which is much newer and has nicer avionics. I might get to practice using GPS.

Posted at 01:39PM Nov 30, 2007 by carlson in Aviation  |