Went flying yesterday, very interesting experience as it was raining. It was light rain, visibillity 5 miles, so we taxied to the runup and, after completing preflights, I radioed for a closed left pattern. This means I'd take off, then turn left after a half a minute or so, then turn left again so I was flying alongside the airport. Finally, I'd start my descent and come in and land again in a closed rectangle that's maybe a few miles long.
So I got clearance and began my takeoff. It was raining, and it was fascinating to watch the water blow off my windshield as the propeller spun up to speed. I passed 60 knots and pulled back the yoke to take off like usual. As I took off, a wind gust blew me to one side unexpectadly. I recovered and got a compliment from my instructor. I continued my climb, noticing the differences in feel. The cold air meant that the plane performed great and climbed quickly, but the rain meant I couldn't use my normal landmarks (like the horizon) to set my angle of attack. Instead, I glanced at my airspeed indicator and artificial horizon to keep my speed up and wings level.
Santa Monica airport has a noise abatement procedure when taking off from runway 21. After you pass the end of the runway, you make a short left turn until you're over the golf course, then turn back until you're heading for the shore again. This means that most of your low altitude climb will be at least a little away from houses.
I made a left turn at Lincoln boulevard, flew for a 10 count or so, then turned left again for my downwind leg. The airport really looks interesting when its raining. Lots of water flow over the asphalt and taxiways. We were pretty much the only plane flying because of the weather, so as I reached pattern altitude (1,400 feet at SMO) the radio called out that I was cleared to land. When you're the only plane, you get really good service!
I began my descent when I was abeam the tower and turned to base. As I was turning from base to final, my stall horn beeped unexpectadly. I checked the airspeed, and I had somehow slowed to 60 knots! My instructor gave it a little power and mentioned that could have been bad if I had stalled at low altitude. Indeed.
I landed pretty well, then taxied off the runway to a stop. Immediately, the radio crackled to life and the tower said "Cherokee five eight sierra, stay with me and clear to taxi to two one." The controller must have been bored because he told us not to switch to the ground frequency and sent us back to the runway for another takeoff without us even asking for it. As we pulled up to the runway, he radioed "Cherokee five eight sierra, clear for takeoff." Again, without us even asking. I took off and landed like this a few more times, each time getting clearances without having to ask. On my final landing, I pulled off the runway and stopped. The tower cleared me for taxi to the runway again, and this time my instructor radioed back "I think we'll **** it down for today and taxi to lower southeast." Tower cleared us, so I radioed back 'taxi to lower southeast, five eight sierra goodday.'
At ground school I learned about transponder codes. 7700 was emergency, I already knew, but I also learned about 7600 (radio out, so they know to route traffic around me) and 7500, which means "I am being hijacked by an amateur." It used to just mean "I am being hijacked", but my instructor noted that it's probably not that easy to pull off anymore because hijackers these days know about things like that. Hence, my interpretation.
I found something cool, I can actually watch a recording of sorts of my flight online. If I go to
http://www4.passure.com/lax.html and select 'January 8, 2005 at 10:16 AM' and watch the Santa Monica airport (which is a few inches above LAX (which is in the center of the page)) you'll see a plane suddenly appear after about half a minute. Click on it, and it will say 'General Aviation' and list the altitude. I was able to watch myself takeoff, do the dogleg over the golf course, and do my pattern flight to landing. A few minutes after landing, I take off again, and so on repeated. It's amazing what technology can do.
Today, weather wasn't so great. Rain, visibility five, but a ceiling of 1,000 feet. Since I need to climb to 1,400 to do even a pattern flight, it was right out. Instead, learned about weather and things like katacraptic winds (or something like that).
Hopefully it will clear up tomorrow. My intstructor thinks that, because of all the rain and groundschool we've had lately, I'll probably get to do mostly just flying this week. Hot diggity!
I also went out and bought my first green airport book, the one that lists all the info for all airports nationally that I use for planning.
In the meantime, DAMN YOU RAIN! (shakes fist at ceiling)
