I finally got a chance to use my new headset! One word, amazing! The quiet nearly put me into a daze on our way up to Palm Springs [KPSP]. One downfall, I need to readjust my auditory senses to a much quieter airplane. For example, on one of the final legs to land, it sounded as if the engines were at idle long before they needed to be, they were so quiet. I had to double check my manifold pressure to verify they weren’t.
So, we flew to Palm Springs, for 10 night take offs and landings at a tower controlled airport. The pattern work was quick and straight forward. It seems like I have not had a chance to do a lot of direct pattern work in the past month, this was a nice refresher. On the seventh landing we turned base and we’re pointed directly at a 737 on final for the parallel runway, oh for fun. After my tenth landing, I was feeling comfortable enough to test out some tunes with the new headset, prior to our flight back home. Oh wow! Flying over the Californian mountains at 10,500’ at night listening to Stairway to Heaven puts a whole new perspective on music. For those of you wondering, the music mutes anytime ‘any’ communication is made, be it from ATC, the co-pilot, myself, traffic avoidance, etc. This will be a nice feature in my up and coming cross country flights.
The flight back on FlightAware.com.
I did my first ever full approach through IMC (Instrument Metrological Conditions) into home base [KMYF]. In other words, I got to fly through the marine layer (CLOUDS) on the ILS approach, completely in the soup. The effects from the NAV lights offered a new sensory experience. A lot of fun! 3.5 hours of flight time.
Study, study, study. My instrument checkride is less than 2 weeks which means I need to pass the written as soon as practical.
I also got a chance to invest in the protection of my hearing. I picked up a new headset. A Lightspeed Zulu. As far as headsets go, this is one of the best. It is comparable to the Bose X, only $150 cheaper, Bluetooth capability, auxiliary input, and a trade-in program. I love Bluetooth, I will be connecting this thing to the plane, my phone, my computer, my car, my house, my dog, and anything else I can get my hands on. I can not wait to put it to the test in the actual aircraft.
The flight to Phoenix was great. 3.3 hours out and 3.2 back, with the following legs and missed approaches:
The leg from Montgomery [KMYF] to Yuma [KNYL] as filed: Flightaware.com to the VOR RWY 17 approach into Yuma. Runway 17 was actually closed, but ATC still allowed us to shoot the approach and go missed.
The leg from Yuma to Casa Grande [KCGZ] and onto Gateway Mesa [KIWA] as filed: Flightaware.com. Shot the GPS RWY 23 into Casa Grande and went missed and then ATC vectored us to the ILS or LOC RWY 30C approach into Mesa.
Mesa Gateway was a pretty neat airport, 3 parallel runways. I believe it was an old military base gone half civilian. William and I walked into town for a bite to eat before returning home.
The flight back was really neat. Flying over the mountains near Palm Springs in the dark was a new experience for me. We did have a near full waning gibbous moon which offered some neat shadow effects on the terrain below. We landed at French Valley Airport [F70] and Ramona [KRNM] to satisfy a VFR cross country flight requirement for my commercial rating. We landed in Montgomery sometime after 1 AM.
Planned for my 250NM cross country to Phoenix. We had to cancel at the last moment because our plane was grounded due to a slash in the nose gear tire. We spent an hour and a half in the sim instead and I took practice tests for the Instrument Written from 6 -10.
