Auburn - Firstair - Auburn / Cessna 152 (N708YL) / VFR

For some reason, I never seem to be able to get into the cockpit before late afternoon or sunset. This two-leg flight was no exception, as I began it only a short time before sundown, and it was getting pretty dark by the time I finished it.

In my crusty little Cessna 152, I left Auburn and climbed to a mere 2000 feet (less than 3000 AGL, VFR). Having plotted out my route in advance, I started out on a heading of 018 towards Lake Youngs, which I easily spotted after take-off. From there, I turned to 357 towards the south end of Lake Sammamish. I had to make a tiny detour between the two low mountains that separate Renton from Issaquah, then back towards the lake. I followed the lake north and finally intercepted the SEA006 radial, which I followed up to Firstair. It was a short flight and quite pleasant.

The return flight, which I began right at sunset, went equally well. Again I stayed at 2000, and I retraced my initial route to get back to Auburn. No problems encountered. I held my heading and altitude quite well both ways.

Soldotna - Merle K. (Mudhole) Smith / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N704TL) / VFR-IFR

Inspired by a story about a helicopter pilot who went down in weather in this area some years ago, I decided to try a flight from Soldotna, Alaska, to Cordova. They are about 160 nm apart.

I filed and started out VFR, but there were clouds east of my departure airport that I just couldn't get around, so I obtained a pop-up IFR clearance to my destination. By then I was at 11500 trying to get over the clouds, but I requested and got 9000 after being cleared.

Unlike the flight of the helicopter pilot that inspired me, my flight was uneventful—but my weather was pretty bad, too. It deteriorated as I continued east, with solid cloud layers above and below me and mostly a lot of mist ahead of me. I couldn't really see anything useful, although occasionally I did catch the vague outline of land and water below me. Fortunately, my Barons have all those fancy avionics and are certified for entry into icing conditions, so I was good. And I did pick up a little bit of ice, but nothing serious.

The flight was practically a straight line from Soldotna to Cordova, although I had filed BROIL.NOWEL.JOH. Part of this was off-airway, which was no big deal for VFR but a bit more of a concern for IFR. I just checked the quadrant altitudes on the en-route chart to make sure I was clear of terrain before requesting an altitude. Actually, 7500 would have been fine, but 9000 was even more fine, giving me almost three thousand feet above the highest terrain.

I was very happy on this flight because I executed a superb IFR approach to runway 27 at Cordova. I didn't have ATC online, so I had to fly the approach myself. Once over Prince William Sound, I requested 5000 and flew along until I was just southwest of the airport. I then turned northeast until I had GIPRE at a bearing of 092, just like the plate says. I turned to 092, descending to cross GIPRE at 4700, then descended per the plate while making a procedure turn to come back. All in all, every step was properly executed; as I rolled out of my procedure turn, I was already aligned with the ILS and just beneath the glide slope. I made most of the approach from there on autopilot, but I got the field visually a few miles out and turned off the automation to fly in by hand in nearly-calm winds. Touchdown and taxi to the gate were fine.

I parked just before sunset, although at this latitude in summer, “just before sunset” lasts for quite a long time.

Santa Monica - Phoenix / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N705TL) / IFR

Time for some more cross-country IFR.

I'm a creature of habit, so I chose KSMO to KPHX (yes, as a matter of fact, I do insist on using ICAO airport codes!). This was a night flight, but flying my Barons SPIFR at night doesn't bother me, with all the fancy avionics I have in them.

I filed a departure and arrival, too, which is exceptional for my small GA aircraft. I took the PEVEE1.TRM departure out of Santa Monica, and the BLH4.BLH arrival into Phoenix Sky Harbor. All of the en-route portion of the flight was at 11000, since I had to be there to get over the mountains and the BLH4 (intended for jets and turboprops) also specified a recommended altitude of 11000 at the gate.

All went well. On the way out of SMO I was surprised to hear ATC conducting a PAR approach. It brought back memories of the old movie Airport, in which the heroes ask for a PAR approach for some strange reason (I guess a PAR provides more exciting dialogue and more suspense than an ILS).

ATC was offline in ZAB, so I cleared myself for a Freeway visual approach. Only problem here is that I had no ATC to assign altitudes. After ARLIN, where I'd normally get vectors, I vectored myself northeast to intercept the localizer for 7L (even though I planned a visual approach, I like having back-up), and cleared myself down to 3100 from 5000. That was a bit iffy because there are a few spots in the terrain that reach up past 3100, but I know the area pretty well and I have TAWS on board so I wasn't too worried. At one point I did see terrain below me in the darkness, scattered trees and stuff, but the radar altimeter said I was 2000 feet above and the TAWS showed no terrain problems ahead so I continued on.

The weather was very clear, hot, and calm at Sky Harbor (something about that name—Sky Harbor—sounds appealing to me … I picture little planes tied up to cloud banks in a sky-high version of a pleasure harbor). I let the autopilot line me up until I was 11 miles out or so, then switched it off and flew the rest by hand. Landing was smooth and without incident, and I taxied across 7R and over to Cutter, my favorite FBO (probably because they have the old Phoenix tower from the 1950s as decoration). They've also been in Phoenix for as long as I can remember.

Santa Paula - Santa Ynez / Cessna 152 (N702YL) / VFR

I try to find short flights for the 152, since it is so incredibly slow. This evening I flew from Santa Paula to Santa Ynez, a distance of only about 59 nautical miles. It still took nearly an hour.

The flight went perfectly in every respect. I flew at 4500 feet all the way. The only problem—there's always something!—was that I had the sun blazing into my eyes almost every single step of the way. So it was hard to admire the scenery. All I could do was squint through sunglasses. Why do I always seem to have the sun in my eyes? But other than that, it was perfect.

Montgomery Field - Santa Monica / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N705TL) / IFR

It was time for a little IFR practice, so I fired up one of my Barons at Montgomery Field, and flew to Santa Monica with some virtual passengers. I flew the TEC route SANN9 at 6000.

The main problem with this flight was a change in the location of POPPR, one of the waypoints on the TEC route. It used to be northwest of SLI, now it is southeast. Unfortunately, my aging GPS database still has it northwest, which I only discovered while reviewing the route after take-off, so I had to define a user waypoint with the new location.

This illustrates a problem with simulation for the moment: it's not always possible to have updated navigation databases on the sim, which makes using updated, current procedures potentially difficult. Most waypoints and stations don't move, but some do, and procedures get updated, deleted, or added in other ways. There's no way to update the basic sim database, and the GPS units I use (Garmin units implemented by Reality XP) have proprietary databases that Garmin doesn't update. So with time, inevitably things drift.

I managed to complete the flight, though. After I redefined POPPR in the GPS unit, I was cleared direct ELMOO and then for the VOR approach to runway 21 at Santa Monica. All went well and I landed at KSMO without incident.

Corona - Oceanside / Piper Dakota (N9706W) / VFR

After resting a bit in Corona, I decided to make a quick flight to Oceanside. It only took about half an hour. The descent into Oceanside was rather steep, but the landing was pretty smooth.

Santa Paula - Corona / Piper Dakota (N9706W) / VFR

So I was standing around at Santa Paula again, debating which aircraft I should take up for a spin among the several of my fleet that are sitting here at the airport. Suddenly, a man runs up to me, whom I recognize as famed Dr. Clayton Forrester of Pacific Tech, and asks me to take him to Corona, which somehow doesn't surprise me. That gives me an excuse to fly, and we hop into one of my Piper Dakotas, N9706W, sitting on the ramp.

I'm getting to know V186 by heart, and I quickly set up a route to the Fillmore VOR and then along V186 to PDZ, at which point we'd slip over the Class C and drop down to land at Corona.

The night is very clear, and we take off without incident, making a left downwind departure and then direct to FIM. Night operations are prohibited at Santa Paula (the runway isn't even lit), but with someone as renowned as Dr. Forrester, it was easy to get an exception made. I find it puzzling that KSZP has a left-handed pattern for runway 22, because there are mountains south of the field, whereas none to the north. I guess noise abatement is more important than safety of life. It's always a challenge to clear those hills, and in this case I had to pull up substantially when I realized that they were right in front of me (maybe that's another reason why the airport doesn't allow night operations?).

After that, it was just a matter of cruising along V186, which we did at 5500 feet, high enough to keep us out of the Class C airspaces at Burbank and Ontario. When we got do PDZ, I turned to 130 degrees and flew clear of the Class C below us, then descended briskly to to 2500 feet and turned around towards Corona. I looked for Lake Matthews to help me orient myself, but I couldn't see it in the darkness … however, I could see Interstate 15 and the Riverside Freeway, which I knew intersected just southeast of Corona Municipal, and that helped me get my bearings. There's also a dry wash of sorts east of the field (I don't know if it has a name), and I could see the darkness of the wash to help me.

Anyway, the beacon at the airport was easy to spot, and we landed without incident. Dr. Forrester hitched a ride to the Puente Mall to deal with those pesky Martians, and I decided to dematerialize here for the night.