Dual cross country flight with a $100 hamburger!!!

[N918KT]

Today, we flew our original cross country flight as planned with an extra stop to go to an airport restaurant for lunch, where I had my very first $100 hamburger!!!

I asked my CFI if Central Jersey Regional Airport has an airport restaurant but he says that Sky Manor Airport in NJ has a restaurant on airport property. So we flew our cross country as planned, with a lunch stop at Sky Manor Airport.

Landing at Doylestown Airport was a hard landing. The approach was okay, only that the winds or turbulence must have pushed the airplane upwards as it was trying to settle on the runway, and we touched down very hard. Ouch! We took off on the runway immediately, which we actually did a touch and go.

Navigating from Doylestown to Central Jersey Regional, the wind was trying to push us south east. I was looking at the avionics, especially the HSI with the GPS course, so he turned the EFIS off so I can look outside. He told me I should correct the wind drift by looking at a landmark outside and fly towards that landmark instead of looking at the HSI. He did compliment during debrief that my navigational skills were good.

The approach into Central Jersey Regional Airport was good but at the last moment we did a go around, with my CFI said we didn't really needed to land at that airport.

Flew to Sky Manor Airport for lunch. It seems that even though the winds were blowing from the east, everyone was using runway 25. My CFI handled the landing since we were landing with a tailwind. Still puzzles me why everyone would land and takeoff with a tailwind at this airport. Had lunch at Sky Manor Airport restaurant, and we overheard a pilot talking with other pilots thinking of doing light-sport training. My CFI went up to him gave him some info about his flight school, and answered some questions he had about the medical requirements of sport pilot.

I then quickly preflighted the Sportstar MAX and my CFI handled the takeoff. We used the autopilot only part of the way back to Allentown, which was pretty cool. He helped me set up the approach into Queen City Airport and I finished the landing.

So we had a debrief after the flight, and he says that my navigational skills were good, but I was looking at the HSI indicator, but eventually I looked out the window more during navigation. He says I made progress with takeoffs and landings, and he told me that I may be able to solo soon, hopefully in 3 weekends (We are not meeting next weekend or the weekend after that, because I am going on vacation and he is going to Oshkosh Airventure). I told him about Dr. Paul Shuch's suggestion on this forum about doing the solo before my college semester starts, studying and taking the written exam sometime during my semester, and finishing my training up during winter break, and he approves Paul's idea.

I cannot wait to solo, and I am very excited about it! This is the first time in my training where I thought a solo flight is actually possible and I can imagine myself doing my first solo!

[FlyingForFun]

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[N918KT]

Thanks for the advice FlyingForFun. I will keep that in mind.

Hey Paul (drseti). Art approves your suggested training plan for me, just to let you know.

[Jack Tyler]

"In VFR weather conditions, you need to be looking out the windows and only glancing at the instruments."

To be sure that's true, and I'm wondering if your (that's N918KT's) instructor has taught you how to do this while steering a straight course? Once you have climbed, leaned, trimmed & initially steadied up on the course you want to steer, do you then pick a physical landmark some distance ahead that is directly on your intended course? You can then use that as your steering reference while scanning ahead and to the sides? That keeps your traffic scan in the same horizontal plane as your heading check, thereby only needing to glance at the altimeter on occasion to maintain both course & altitude. Every few minutes you then verify the heading remains correct (via the chart and/or GPS) or modify it as needed, and then consider what new, more distant landmark you need to use as your heading reference.

[psjoe]

Hi N918KT-
Glad to hear you are progressing. I am getting ready for my check ride and AF/D is something I am concentrating on. Per the AF/D "TOUCH AND GO LNDGS PROHIBITED." at KDYL. Did your instructor go over the AF/D for the airports you would be flying to on your XC?
Thanks -Joe

[N918KT]

Hi N918KT-
Glad to hear you are progressing. I am getting ready for my check ride and AF/D is something I am concentrating on. Per the AF/D "TOUCH AND GO LNDGS PROHIBITED." at KDYL. Did your instructor go over the AF/D for the airports you would be flying to on your XC?
Thanks -Joe

Yeah, I didn't know that touch and gos are not allowed at Doylestown. Is that rule just for that airport or is it an FAA rule? Will I get in trouble if the FAA finds out? I didn't know it was not allowed.

[3Dreaming]

Hi N918KT-
Glad to hear you are progressing. I am getting ready for my check ride and AF/D is something I am concentrating on. Per the AF/D "TOUCH AND GO LNDGS PROHIBITED." at KDYL. Did your instructor go over the AF/D for the airports you would be flying to on your XC?
Thanks -Joe

Yeah, I didn't know that touch and gos are not allowed at Doylestown. Is that rule just for that airport or is it an FAA rule? Will I get in trouble if the FAA finds out? I didn't know it was not allowed.

From your description, you made a go around from a balked landing. Should be no problem with doing that. This would be different from a series of touch and goes.

[drseti]

Every single landing should be thought of as an approach to a possible go-around. If something doesn't look right, go around! If something doesn't feel right, go around! If something doesn't smell right, go around! If your wheels have already touched, and you feel a need to go around, it's still a go-around. It's only a touch-and-go when you plan it as a part of a series of circuits intended to maximize your number of landings in a given lesson or period of time.

BTW, I don't normally believe in the training value of the touch-and-go. Maybe because I started as a taildragger pilot, and in a conventional landing gear, the trickiest part of a landing is the part you miss out on when you do a touch-and-go. For elaboration, see this:

http://avsport.org/publicat/nonfict/touchngo.htm

[N918KT]

Every single landing should be thought of as an approach to a possible go-around. If something doesn't look right, go around! If something doesn't feel right, go around! If something doesn't smell right, go around! If your wheels have already touched, and you feel a need to go around, it's still a go-around. It's only a touch-and-go when you plan it as a part of a series of circuits intended to maximize your number of landings in a given lesson or period of time.

BTW, I don't normally believe in the training value of the touch-and-go. Maybe because I started as a taildragger pilot, and in a conventional landing gear, the trickiest part of a landing is the part you miss out on when you do a touch-and-go. For elaboration, see this:

http://avsport.org/publicat/nonfict/touchngo.htm

Thanks for the reply Paul. Art did taught me early on
that every landing is a go around with a possible landing if everything falls into place. This kind of mindset will make me react quickly to go around rather than processing the fact that I have to go around for a couple of seconds