Valkaria Flyers–Week 3

This week continues my journey back into the pilot seat. The plan was to fly a lesson doing pattern work, then fly another lesson doing a long cross country into complicated airspace.

Friday, August 25

Last week, I scheduled a block of time with my instructor for early Saturday afternoon, and talked about flying after work during the week. The weather all week was drier than usual and we scheduled for 2:00 pm on Friday. This lesson was all about the traffic pattern.

Before this lesson began, I had to first leave work early. This was not an off Friday, so I packed some shorts and grabbed my flight bag when I left the house in the morning. Around 1:00, I was ready to go fly, but my instructor needed a little bit more time. I was already in check-out mode, so I drove to the airport and started prepping for the flight.

The flight started with a quick flight south to Sebastian. Once there, we entered the pattern and started with some normal landings. After three of these, we transitioned to short field takeoffs and landings. Then we did a no flap landing, followed by a power-off 180 to the runway. These went very well and I was able to fly the plane while managing all of the radio calls.

Saturday, August 26

On Saturday morning, I planned a flight from Valkaria to St. Petersburg. I took into consideration all of the special use airspaces along the route and avoided Orlando, Tampa, and MacDill Air Force Base air space. The weather looked good, for the most part, with afternoon showers along the East Coast. There was also a temporary flight restriction (TFR) for a baseball game in St. Petersburg.

I planned the trip on paper maps with a straight edge and a highlighter, and also on my tablet with ForeFlight. My intention was to fly one direction using old school tools, then return using the tablet.

At the airport, I started prepping the plane for the flight. When my instructor arrived, I told him about the weather and the TFR. He checked the weather again and we decided to postpone the flight until Sunday. Since we were already at the hangar, we discussed my plan and agreed that it was pretty good, with only a few adjustments.

Sunday, August 27

Today, I invited Susan to join me on the flight. I picked her up from Sunday School and we drove to the airport. Before leaving the house, I picked out some casual clothes for her and found her headphones in a bag in the garage. I also updated my flight plan with the latest forecasts before leaving the house. There was one concern – thunderstorms were forecast for Lakeland about the time we would be returning home.

When I got to the hangar, I updated the weather again. Now the forecast was for visual conditions with thunderstorms in the vicinity. The baseball game TFR was in effect today as well.

We decided to take the flight. We left Valkaria and turned Northwest, hoping to climb to 4,500 feet, but the clouds were too low and the coverage was too great to allow that, so we stayed low at 1,500 feet. As we passed Melbourne, I contacted Orlando Approach and requested Flight Following. They set me up with a transponder code and we continued on our route. Within minutes, we started hearing other pilots being directed for practice instrument approaches. I noticed that I could barely hear what they were saying. Soon we were told to transfer to another Orlando Approach frequency. I did, and again, the radio seemed very noisy to me. I was having a very hard time understanding anything being said.

Somewhere near Bartow, Susan noticed a plane on a converging course. I adjusted my heading to fly behind it. At this point, we realized that Orlando Approach was trying to contact us. We had missed their traffic advisories completely. My instructor told him that we were having difficulties hearing him. He then handed us off to Tampa Approach.

We changed to Tampa Approach and tried to raise them, but were unable. Then we tried going back to Orlando Approach. Again, we were unable to raise them. We tried radio one and radio two with no luck.

At this point, we realized that it was futile to continue. My instructor dialed in 7600 into the transponder, which indicates lost communications. We looked at the chart and decided to land in Lake Wales and give Approach a call to let them know what had happened.

After landing, my instructor called Orlando Approach and told them what happened. They understood the situation and no further action was required. In the meantime, The Cessna Caravan ski diver plane took off. We stuck around long enough to watch the jumpers and the Caravan return to the airport.

The new plan was to simply get back to Valkaria without talking to anyone. We already knew that the special use airspace was inactive, so I planned a direct flight. On the flight back, we had to maneuver to avoid some heaving downpours. About 8 miles West of Valkaria, we could see a heavy downpour approaching the airport from the South. The pattern was clear, so I decided to do a long, straight in approach to beat the rain.

Back on the ground, I topped off the fuel tanks, then taxied back to the hangar. The rain had arrived and was coming down pretty hard. After shutting down, we ran to the hangar and waited for the rain to subside. My instructor told me what paperwork he needed from me to complete the flight review and was on his way. Susan and I stayed behind to wipe down the plane and put it away right.

On the drive home, I started questioning everything. Should I have bought into this partnership, knowing that the plane was not really capable of IFR flight? Did I now find myself in the same situation I was in with the Commander – partners who were unwilling to make necessary upgrades? What were we going to do about the radios?

It’s very easy at times like these to lose faith in the dream of a future in aviation. Perhaps I will see things differently after going back to the office tomorrow morning.