My Long Solo Cross Country Flight (Student Pilot Swayne Martin)

One of the largest, most important, and most fun requirements for your Private Pilot's License is a Long Solo Cross Country Flight that: is over 150nm in length, has one leg over 50nm, and includes three total full stop landing points. For many student pilots like myself, a flight like this is the longest they've been in the air by themselves. It requires a lot of cross country flight planning for each of the three legs to be flown. 

After speaking with my instructor, we decided on a pretty familiar route for my trip. Hanover KOFP -> Charlottesville KCHO --> Farmville KFVX --> Hanover KOFP (all airports that I have been to). The trip was planned to be a total of 154nm, with both OFP-CHO and FVX-OFP being over 50nm. 

Another requirement for the PPL is for the student to complete 3 solo full stop landings at a towered field. We chose for me to fly into Charlottesville CHO (Class D) so that I could fulfill this requirement, knocking out the long solo xc at the same time. 

My instructor asked for me to make some quick-look sheets for each leg of my trip, which included: navigation aids, appropriate frequencies, a quick sketch of each airport, and other relevant airport information (in LARGE font). Writing the information largely was easier to read than on one of the typically crowded flight-plan sheets. I recorded each of my visual checkpoints as distance remaining, so I could cross check with the distance remaining on both the Garmin 496 and my iPhone's ForeFlight navigation app. With that much navigation power in the plane, it'd be really embarrassing (and very unlikely) to get lost! 

We got to the airport early, at about 9:30am. I called 1-800-WX-BRIEF for our weather forecast and other information. There was a moderate turbulence AIRMET for our area, from the surface up to 8,000ft; this luckily did not affect the flight until the last leg. Other than that, the forecast and METARs for our area were perfect with great visibility and light winds. It did get a little windy later on, but more on that later. 

It was definitely a cold pre-flight!

As always, I had my GoPro onboard with me, filming my landings, takeoffs, and some en-route footage, all with audio from the aircraft's intercom. A video summary of my flight is below: 

En-route from Hanover KOFP to Charlottesville KCHO couldn't have been better. There was zero turbulence, clear skies, and great visibility. I flew at 4,500ft on the way to CHO, and called Potomac Approach while passing over the Gordonsville VOR. Below are photos from my route, some of which are screenshots from my CloudAhoy account (article soon on this). 

Departing KOFP

En-route to KCHO

Arriving KCHO

After passing over GVE, I was switched over to the tower and cleared to land. Descending into Charlottesville is always fun over the mountains, it was even more special this time with all of the snow.

For a nice day, CHO was surprisingly quiet. There were a number of regional jets sitting idly at the terminal, and one Cessna Citation getting ready for pushback, but that was about it. I was pretty much the only one on the radio. In the photos and videos below, you can see some of my pattern work at CHO (my 3 full stop landings): 

Pattern work at KCHO

After I completed my last landing, I departed again, this time towards Farmville KFVX. Due to wind direction, I set myself up on a long final for runway 21. Photos from the route: 

A rapid KCHO departure

Departing KCHO

Passing over Charlottesville en-route

The far track-course shows my approach to FVX

Video of a landing and takeoff from Farmville KFVX's runway 21 (these video were taken over last summer): 

The last leg was the bumpiest of all. That moderate turbulence AIRMET I mentioned earlier came into full effect with some pretty moderate to severe turbulence. I was being thrown all over the place in my tiny Tecnam! 

Departing FVX to the Northeast

After all of the bumps, I was relieved to be landing again at Hanover. There was a 10kt crosswind, and a harder than planned landing, but nothing too bad. In all, I flew for about 2.7 hours that day. Considering all of the time I spent at Charlottesville, that made sense.  

Arriving back at KOFP

Overall, I had a really fun and challenging long solo cross country flight. It's definitely not a requirement because it's easy! You have to plan thoroughly and multi-task constantly, but once you're past that, you get to enjoy a long and rewarding flight. 

Thanks for reading and watching!,
-Swayne Martin 
Twitter: @MartinsAviation

Flying Over a Snowy Richmond, Virginia

It's been a pretty relaxing week for students in Richmond. We were out of school for Martin Luther King Day on Monday, had a snow day on Tuesday, had a snow day on Wednesday, and had a one hour delay on Thursday... all for around 2 inches of snow! At my school, that left us with a 2 day school week, not bad! Public schools were even luckier, they got every day off from school this week in addition to their exams being outright cancelled. Two of my step brothers will never have to take their Semester 1 exams! 

It lightly snowed throughout the day and night on Tuesday. After some sledding with friends Wednesday morning, I called up the airport to see if N16HV would be available later in the day, I wanted to fly over the snow for the first time! Luckily, the forecast showed the winds dying down to about 6 knots around 3:30pm, so I scheduled a flight from 4-5pm. 

I was basically the only one at the airport since earlier in the day the winds had been gusting to about 20kts, so most people had gone home. The one active flight on field was Bombardier Challenger-600 N39RE. That CL-600 is one of the larger planes that operates out of Hanover KOFP, so it was pretty cool to see it take off right in front of the hangar. Here's a photo of the plane getting ready on the ramp: 

The plan for the day was simple, practice steep turns and pattern work (landings and takeoffs). The engine was running for around an hour, but I probably only had about 65% of that time being in the air. It took a long time to heat up that cold engine! Flying over the fresh snow was a really cool experience. You could look down into fields and see tracks made by people, animals, etc. There was definitely more glare, I was sad to have forgotten my sunglasses! 

In the videos below, you can see the runway condition which wasn't too bad. The Eaglet climbed like a rocket because it was so cold and dense outside. With the winds coming directly down runway 34, there were some smooth landings. More videos like these can be found on my Youtube Channel, MartinsAviation1.

A full article will come soon on this topic, but I tried out the app/website CloudAhoy for the first time. It's an extremely simple system to use. You create an account, pay a small yearly fee, and get to map out all of your flight paths in 3D using your iPhone's built in GPS. Within the site, your flight (including altitude) is loaded onto a 3D Google Earth Map. There is even a feature where you can replay the "cockpit view" of your flight. Check out my route of flight for the day (*note, I turned on the app halfway through the flight, so the first half including takeoff is not shown on the map): 

Overall, I really enjoyed flying over a snowy RVA this week. It was definitely cold, but a great experience. 

Thanks for reading and watching,
-Swayne Martin 
Twitter: @MartinsAviation

Share Your Story: Trevor Smith, Private Pilot - Piedmont NC

Welcome to the 30th "Share Your Story" post. Pilots from around the world write in featuring their flight experiences, promoting their blogs, websites, social media, novels, etc. These posts show students the diverse range of experiences/careers available to them in aviation. More details + how to participate can be found via the following: Click Here and Get Involved

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I feel like I’ve wanted to be a pilot since the day I was born. My mom started as a flight attendant for USAir in 1986. She flew on the Boeing 727s out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shortly after I was born in September of 1994, my mom left the airlines to be a full-time stay-at-home mom and we moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and are still in the same house today! The flying didn’t stop there! She received some sort of severance package from USAir, which consisted of a bunch of buddy passes and free flights for her and immediate family for the next 6 years. At the time, her parents and siblings still lived in their hometown of Severna Park, Maryland, right outside of Baltimore. So all those free flights were used on Greensboro to Baltimore flights (when they still had the direct service) on the US Airways Dash-8. It was the Dash-8 that was the first commercial aircraft I ever flew on and the aircraft that changed my life forever. Before the tragedy of 9/11, I was able to get the behind the scene access and ride up front with the pilots.

For every birthday and Christmas, I wanted everything and anything involved with aviation. All of this led up until Christmas 2009, when I received a gift certificate from my Dad for a discovery flight at Piedmont Flight Training at Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem. I knew after that flight, that I was destined to be a pilot for the rest of my life. Though I had a choice of a Piper Archer and a Cessna 172, I started with the Cessna, and have stuck with the Cessna ever since.

Flight training for me was on and off to start. I was so inconsistent with coming in to the flight school; it just took me forever to complete my training. I even took a 1-year break during my junior year of high school because my grades started to slip, and schooling was my top priority at that moment. June 19^th, 2011, was my first milestone, my first solo flight! The feeling when you look over to see your instructor not there is like no other feeling in this world.

Next were my short cross-country and long cross-country flights. All the training, studying, takeoffs and landings, and countless hours of flying all led up to July 29^th, 2013. It was on that day that all my dreams became reality. It was the day that I passed my private pilot check ride.

To read more of Tom's "Share Your Story" article, click below. (If you're already on the full article, ignore this)

So What Exactly is a Tecnam Aircraft? - My Flight Training Experience in Tecnam Brand Aircraft

Ever since the beginning of my flight training, the first thing I'm asked when people find out that I'm a pilot is "So what kind of plane do you fly?" I reply, "A Tecnam Eaglet or Sierra." With a look of puzzlement, I know it's happening again... another person who has no idea what I'm talking about. 

I then say, "The Eaglet that I fly is sort of like a Cessna." 

• "Ohh, now I know what you're talking about," most people respond. 

The Tecnam P92 Eaglet is very similar to the Cessna 150: 

This isn't just common to non-pilots. It's something I encounter nearly every time I correspond with ATC or Flight Services. I'll state "We're a Tecnam Eaglet off Hanover...," always getting the expected reply of "Tecaa what?" I'm still surprised how little some sects of the aviation community know about Tecnam brand aircraft. I've resorted to just stating that I'm flying a Light Sport to avoid confusion with ATC. 

I'd like to say that I've been lucky to do the majority of my flight training in Tecnam brand aircraft. My flight school, HOVA Flight Services (out of Hanover KOFP Virginia), is the central headquarters for Tecnam North America. Our airport receives big shipments from the Italian-based company frequently, for aircraft assembly. I sometimes walk into the maintenance hanger to see quite a few planes partially assembled, going down the production line. 

So what is a Tecnam? Here is a description of the company: 

• "For over 60 years Tecnam has been committed to serving the General Aviation community. Be it the 6th generation Tecnam P92, the best selling P2002 or the P2006T Twin, Tecnam are firmly established as the aeroplanes of choice with General Aviation customers and operators. Be they private pilots enjoying flying for leisure or some of the world’s leading Flight Training Organisations. With over 3,500 Tecnam aeroplanes operating around the world today, Tecnam customers and operators are supported by a global network of over 60 dealers and 100 Tecnam Service Centres. The Tecnam team's passion for flying has undoubtedly resulted in Chief Designer, Professor Luigi Pascale, creating some of the most innovative and stylish aeroplanes. More importantly Tecnam’s wide range of aeroplane models afford its customers and operators superb value for money, from the low initial purchase price to unbeatable operating costs."

My experiences in Tecnam planes have been great. I most frequently fly the P92 Eaglet, but used to do all of my training in the P2002 Sierra. Both planes have a stick configuration instead of a traditional yoke. The only downside to the stick is that you don't have much lap space for a kneeboard or anything else. Other than that, they fly like sports cars compared to our school's much heavier Cessna 172s. 

There's nothing wrong with flying the heavier C172, it's just different, but I really enjoy the light touch of the Tecnam. Do keep in mind that the Tecnams I train in are light sport aircraft. One thing many people don't know: while you can't train in anything other than a LSA for your Sport License, you can train in a LSA for your Private License. I chose to do this and train in the Tecnam vs. the C172 mainly due to saved costs. I'll be transitioning to flying the C172 after my PPL, so that I can have more people onboard. 

Only 2 seats

Some people say if you can fly a Tecnam, you can fly anything. This is because they are highly responsive aircraft and in a way unforgiving. Because you're flying an extremely light plane, you really do feel turbulence a whole lot more than in a heavier aircraft. Being extremely responsive goes both ways. You become used to lightly moving the stick to control the aircraft. This becomes a problem when moving into a heavier aircraft, where much more pressure and force is required. 

The P92 Eaglet that I fly in has a partial glass cockpit. There is a Garmin 430 and Multi-Function Display on the glass end, with many of the critical engine and flight instruments being the old steam gauge type: 

On the positive end of things, the Tecnams climb like rockets. The takeoff and landing distance is incredibly short. In the video below, you can see how quickly the Tecnam can take off with a relatively small headwind:

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If you ever get the opportunity to fly in a Tecnam, I'd highly recommend it. Check out http://www.tecnam.com/ for more information. Below is list with some different aircraft they offer. 

Tecnam Brand Aircraft Available:

 P92 Echo

 P92 Eaglet

 P92 Tail Dragger

 P92 SeaSky

P2002 Sierra

 P2008 

P2010 

 Astore

 Snap

P2006 Twin

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In the videos below, you can see some videos I've made throughout my training in the Tecnam P92 Eaglet and P2002 Sierra. I'm hoping to take my first multi-engine lesson in our school's P2006T soon as well. 

So now when someone tells you that they fly a Tecnam, you know exactly what they're talking about.

Thanks for reading and watching!,

-Swayne Martin

Twitter: @MartinsAviation