Handstands Across America » Solo

Second Solo XC to Mount Airy & Mountain Empire

Sam E. — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:33:00 +0000

View Larger Map

2 New Handstands!

Mountain Empire

Mount Airy

More Photos Here

First Solo XC to Danville

Sam E. — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:03:00 +0000

View Larger Map

Danville, VA Handstand

Akward Pano of Danville Terminal

Danville FBO Office (Next 2)

Took this one for Justin

Leaving Danville (Next 3 pics)

Out the front on the way back from Danville

Solo XC posponed due to iffy weather

Sam E. — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:45:00 +0000

However… I went up locally and flew for over two hours.

Can you find where I did “S turns across a road” and “Turns about a point?”.

View Larger Map

So, Danville XC is now supposed to be tomorrow AM.

Here are some pictures from today:

The New River near Claytor Lake

More New River

I-81 going over the New River

Zoomed out, the same bridge

Part of Claytor Lake

“The Quarry” where people usually get community service hours for trying to run down the railroad tracks and cliff jump into it.

Lane Stadium

Lane Stadium Again

Recognize Main St?

Revised Plan for XC Solo?

Sam E. — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:35:00 +0000

If i go from Blacksburg->Danville->NewRiver->Blacksburg… That is 150.4 ooo I love minimums Might end up doing that instead to make it more straight forward, being my first solo XC and all.

Plan for First XC Solo

Sam E. — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:47:00 +0000

I have to plan this flight out and get it approved on Saturday, but I should be flying it for my long solo cross country (Which must have a leg which is at least 50nm and must be 150nm total at least). This flight will have a 64nm flight to Danville and will be 154.6nm total, so just right!

Excited/stressed to plan/hope weather is good.

Blacksburg->Danville->”Blue Ridge Airport”->New River->Blacksburg (154.6nm)
View Larger Map

Flying Solo: Day 2

Sam E. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:10:00 +0000

Yeah… so not as awesome as day one. Started out with 3 Take Off and Landings (TO&Ls) with Cecil and my 3rd was a good pattern and a good landing. He asked if I wanted to try solo and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.

It stinks that there is construction currently and you have to back-taxi down the runway. This caused me to have to back taxi before every takeoff.

I made it back in one piece after each of my 3 solo TO&Ls, but it wasn’t very smooth.

My patterns weren’t consistent,
I had a big jump in altitude in one of them (150ft),
I ran up some higher RPMs when I wasn’t trusting the numbers when turning base to final,
There was some choppy air and peak gusts at 7,
My last landing dolphined a bit and bounced a little (Lee and Rachel from the flying club were watching this last landing which was kind of embarassing).

Anyways, I was happy I got that experience, but I will focus on trusting the numbers, and flying smoothly the next time up. If the weather is good, We’ll be heading over to KPSK and he might let me do some TO&Ls there.

Phew.

UPDATE: Here’s the track I took.

View Larger Map