Cross-Country (part 5): Take-off at KABE

The day of our cross-country flight arrives, the weather looks decent: broken clouds at about 4,500 feet with light winds and visibility of greater than 6 nautical miles. If the clouds are to pose a problem, I knew that both Rob and the Cherokee are rated for flight under instrument flight rules (aka above the clouds). I'll tell you now that the clouds will not be an issue. In fact, the sky will get clearer as the afternoon wears on. So, we will not have to go above the clouds.

I am psyched.

I am at the airport, finally finding the hanger were I am to meet Rob. We go out to the plane, a Piper Cherokee. Rob goes through his pre-flight check list both outside and inside the Cherokee. One important item is checking the fuel level, so he arranges to add fuel to the two tanks (one on each wing). Once inside he checks various instruments inside the cockpit including the radios. He sets the navigation radio to the frequency for the Sparta VOR, and sets the two bands on the communications radio, one to the frequency for ground control. He sets the other band to a frequency that we will use a little later.

He sets up the transponder. The transponder, a Mode C transponder, is a special piece of aviation equipment that will be required later in our flight. It communicates the position of our Cherokee to the radar used by various controllers along our route. He sets it to 1200, the code for VFR flight. Later in the flight, Rob will be directed by one of the controllers, to change this code (aka squawk) to another code.

After Rob is finished with the all the pre-flight checks, using his check lists, he radios ground control who gives him instructions on where to taxi, telling him to hold at area kilo where he does a final check, called a run-up (a check of the engine among other things). Ground also tells Rob that we will be taking off on runway 24. After Rob completes the run-up, we hold at kilo to wait while another plane clears the runway.

The take-off will be handled by the Air Traffic Control Tower (ATC). It is finally time, and Rob taxis to runway 24. This is not the first time I have been at KABE, I was at KABE about seven months on a scenic ride observing a maneuver called touch and goes where the pilot lands and then immediately take-off again. Not all airports allow touch and goes, KABE does. I had also flown on commercial flights out of KABE.

But this is different. I am in the cockpit of the Cherokee looking down a 7,000 ft runway at a decent sized international airport. There was something magical about this take-off. For me flying is peaceful and freeing. it is hard to explain but a part of the magic is sitting in the cockpit looking down at this long runway. This is so different from sitting in the back of a Boeing 717-200 on the way to Chicago.

I hear the familiar and comforting sound of the engine as our speed increased and we lift off. I am free. There is comfort in the communications with the controller at the tower who guides us through the take-off before giving Rob a course and an altitude.

Soon ATC will hand us over to Allentown departure, on another frequency and then Allentown Departure would hand us over to New York Approach on still another frequency. I trust Rob and all of the controllers to keep us -- Rob, myself, and the Cherokee -- safe. And the Cherokee, she is doing what she does so well, flying. I look out the windows watching the ground shrink as we climb to our cruising altitude of 5,500 feet. I sit, taking in the freedom. I am home.