Flying the Ferrari

My ears and sinuses continued to hold up and the weather cleared, so I got some night flying in.  I need a total of 3 hours of night flying, including a cross-country trip of 100 nautical miles or more and at least 10 take-offs/landings.

Night flying, however, is not to be taken lightly.  It's as close to instrument flying I can get right now, and I've found that I'm heavily dependent on my instruments during night flying, including directional gyro, altimeter, and the instruments that tell me my rate of climb, pitch of wings, and pitch of nose.  When you have proper instruments, it makes night flying far less daunting and actually enjoyable, and safe.  I found this out because I got to fly the Ferrari of the plane fleet tonight, N5210A...  =D

One-Zero-Alpha is a C-172, and only 7 years old.  It costs more than your average car.  The thing is packed with every instrument needed, placed right in front of you and large in size, perfectly lit.  Not to mention the large GPS moving map screen, and two VORs, and a navigation system linked to both the VOR and the GPS.  The navigation capabilities of the plane are unmatched, as you can enter your flight path and it will show up on the GPS screen as you follow it, as well as find other aviation landmarks and VORs.  It also has two radios, so I can have up to four frequencies (each radio has one active, one standby), which is going to make cross-countries soo much easier.  A weather map is being installed in the next couple of weeks as well.  It also flies faster and handles far better than the C-152 (43H), and makes flying really, really enjoyable.  It's been awhile since I was in a 172, and although I love, dearly, 43H, I do miss the 172s.  I pretty much learned to land in them, which is a feat of itself because these things really want to keep flying, and the enjoyability of flying them is incredible.  On the ground, its very impressive and in the air, especially at night, its very calm flying.  All in all, fabulous flying machine, on the ground and in the air.  The only thing it doesn't do is come when called and roll over and such, but I'm going to see if I can train it...

I've just about got the 3 hours in, and I got in the 7 more TOs/Ls I needed to hit 10.  I had a few that were great and Tom got to keep quiet during them, I had a couple that were ok but needed some direction to set them up perfectly, but my first one was pretty shaky.  I like the variation of my "skillz", makes for easier counting!  I'm much, much, much more comfortable landing and flying at night now.  I think now I need to focus on getting back into the 172 occasionally and practicing TOs/Ls because I don't think I'll ever, ever fly at night in anything other than the 172s.  I also doubt I will make a cross-country alone except for this plane, simply because of the navigation capabilities.

So, what's next?  My night cross country =D  After tonight, I'm actually extremely excited for doing it.  I was nervous thinking about a night flight, to an unfamiliar airport, and to a *gasp* international airport (Richmond).  But, with my night TOs/Ls doing well and the fact that I'm comfortable with the plane at night, and knowing I really can't get lost, and having Tom there as backup support, I'm stoked!  It may or may not happen tomorrow night, due to possible weather and the condition of my ears, so we're playing it by ear (pun intended).  If I don't go tomorrow night, I won't go until next week because of needing to devote nights this week to my capstone project/homework.  Just something else to look forward to =D

Annnddd, my first solo cross-country will be coming up, maybe Friday afternoon?  This will be nearly as rewarding as my first solo, for sure.  I'll go to Lynchburg and back, so it'll be familiar but still a lot to think about.

Ahhhh SO EXCITED!  

A thought for land lubbers and sky lovers, from a fellow pilot: flying or driving, a swivel of the neck can save your neck, it's crowded up there