Cross-Country -- References

I have tried to put together a good list of references where you may go for more information about basic aviation that I referred to in my series on my recent cross-country flight. This is not meant to be a thorough bibliography on general aviation or learning how to fly, rather it is meant as an introduction to some important concepts. I have grouped the references by the related article (with a link). It is not necessarily my intent for you to read all of these references, rather that you may want to check out a couple of the links that might be of particular interest to you.

Over the next few days, I will be working on adding some of this information to the aviation links and info page of this blog, so stay tuned for that. I have worked hard to ensure that all these links work, if you should find a broken link, please post a comment.

Part 2, what is a cross country:

• The Association of Aircraft Owners and Pilots (AOPA) has a website devoted to learning how to fly, including free resources, it may be found here.
• Definition cross-country from FAR: The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) defines cross-country time in some detail in FAR Part 61.1 paragraph (b)(4)

Parts 3 and 4, planning for the flight and plotting the course:
Air space

• Airspace for Everyone is one of the documents in the Safety Advisor Series from the Airplane Owner's and Pilot's Association's (AOPA) Air Safety Foundation (ASF). In the short Airspace for Everyone document (SA02) you will learn about the different classes of airspace in the U.S., as mandated by the Federal Aviation Regulations. Illustrations accompany the text. I think that this is a good place to start if you want an overview of airspace in the U.S.
• The ASF's Airspace Guide, shows how different airspace is designated on NACO's aeronautic charts. I referred to this often when I was learning about how airspace is depicted on aero charts, and continue to use this as a resource.

Aeronautical Charts

• Page 8 of NASA's aviation navigation tutorial brings you to an interactive page on the symbols used on aeronautical charts.
• For the complete scoop on all of NACO's aeronautical charts, there is the freely available NACO Aeronautical Chart User's Guide (11th edition). This guide is broken down into six sections, two sections apply to sectional, terminal and a couple of other charts used when flying under VFR, Introduction to VFR symbols and VFR Chart Symbols
• The FAA makes digital versions of the NACO charts available for GPS devices. I have been able to read these files in my pdf viewer software. The files are very large. To access these charts go here.

Flight Restrictions
For more information about temporary flight restrictions, visit the FAA TFR website.

Weather

• Weatherwise Safety Advisory from the AOPA's Air Safety Foundation (ASF) website may be found here. This is a good intro to aviation weather.
• The ASF has a few freely available interactive courses on weather and aviation (Weatherwise), they are located here along with the ASF's other interactive courses.

Part 5, take-off from KABE:

• Information on Lehigh Valley International Airport including, but not limited to a map of the airport is freely available from flightaware.com, it may be found here
• The ASF has a very nice interactive course, Pinch Hitter Interactive Course where you learn about basic aerodynamics, control of the airplane, and emergency operations. It takes about 4 to 60 minutes to go through the course. It is designed for people who fly regularly with a pilot, but I think that anyone interested in learning something about basic aviation will benefit from the course.

Part 6, navigation and radio communications:

• Airspace for Everyone
• Avweb got permission to from the AOPA to post an article from the AOPA's Flight Training publication on Class B Airspace.

Part 7, more on radio communications:

• To read about flight following services see this, read this Avweb article.
• From Pilot Friend on the phonetic alphabet used in aviation radio communications, go here.
• I deleted the reference to Pilot Friend's article on pilot-controller communications because it refers to flights under instrument flight rules (IFR). While the sequence of communications is similar to that used by pilots flying under visual flight rules, I thought that the references to IFR and IFR routes might confuse some. I'll try to look for another short article to post here.

Part 8, Tappan Zee Bridge and KHPN:

• If you are interested in reading more about the Tappan Zee Bridge, go here.
• Taxiing signals from pilot friend. 
• A map of the Westchester County Airport, and other information about the airport may be found on Flight Aware, go here.

revised on March 11, 2013

Cross Country (part 9): return to KABE

Rob takes a slightly different route on our return flight to Lehigh Valley International Airport (KABE) so that I can see one of the ridges near West Milford, NJ. There is a small general aviation airport in West Milford, NJ near Greenwood Lake (4N1), so we fly from Westchester County Airport (KHPN) to 4N1 to KABE. This is not far from the Sparta VOR we flew over on our flight to KHPN earlier. Rob gives our course to the controllers. After we clear the immediate airspace around KHPN, we are told to fly under class B airspace. The floor of class B airspace in the area is 3,000 feet, the controllers tell us to fly at 2,500. Rob does not request flight following, he will be navigating using the instruments in the Cherokee and his aeronautical charts. I continue to scan for other aircraft.

There is an area that I had done some hiking a few years ago, the Abraham S. Hewitt State Forest, not far from 4N1. I think it would be fun to fly over the this ridge top forest. I regret not taking photos for you. See the Google Earth image below showing some of the locations mentioned in this article. The image at the top of this article is an extract from an aeronautical chart.

The airport, 4N1, is near the southern end of Greenwood Lake, so I help Rob look for the airport. Rob spots 4N1 first, he radios the common air traffic frequency used at 4N1 to say that he is overflying the field from west to east at 2,500.

Rob is flying into a head wind. Our ground speed to about 93 knots, 20 knots lower than our ground speed on the flight to KHPN.

Rob circles around to the north after overflying 4N1 and we fly over the ridge I hiked a few years ago. Things are starting to get quieter on the radio as we fly farther away from the edge of class B airspace. It is getting a little late, so I tell Rob that I have seen what I wanted to see in the Greenwood Lakes area.  He sets a course to KABE. We fly over the Sparta VOR. Soon we are in airspace that is more familiar to me.

All to quickly we enter KABE airspace. KABE approach hands over to the tower and we enter the pattern for landing. We taxi to the ramp. Rob has to tie down the Cherokee for the night. Rob asks me to get out of the Cherokee and help out by pushing/guiding the plane back to the tie-down area.

I will be posting one final article in this series, probably this Wednesday, with some references where you may go for more information on some of the aviation terminology that I have used in this series.

Cross-country (part 8): Tappan Zee Bridge and KHPN

Rob has made good time on our flight to KHPN because he has a tail wind, with a ground speed of about 113 kts. I see the Hudson River in the distance and know that we will soon be flying over the Tappan Zee Bridge crossing the Hudson River approximately 40 nautical miles north of mid-town Manhattan (in New York City, NY). The controller comes over the radio giving Rob an altitude and course to the Westchester County Airport (KHPN) across the Hudson River. He tells Rob to use the Tappan Zee Bridge as a visual navigation point. Rob may still be talking to the NY Approach controller handling aircraft on approach to KHPN.

I am paying attention to the altitude that we are flying because I am busy getting my camera ready to take some shots of the bridge as we fly over. Having crossed this span numerous times by automobile, sometimes literally crawling across the bridge in traffic, it is a thrill to fly over the bridge in less than a minute or two. Rob banks the plane a little to the left so that I can get some good shots of the bridge, thanks Rob!

At the appropriate time, NY Approach hands Rob over to the Aircraft Control Tower at KHPN who gives Rob instructions for landing at KHPN, including the runway that we land on. Unfortunately, I do not make note of the runway we arrive on. After we land the Tower hands Rob over to ground control, Rob tells ground control that we want to go to the restaurant. He is unfamiliar with the airport, so he asks for progressive taxi to the restaurant. Ground control gives Rob step by step taxi information to Signature Flight Support where he will park the Cherokee. When he gets to the Signature ramp, a signal man is there guiding Rob in with hand signals. This was another thrill for me, as this is the first time that I have seen this up close and personal from the cockpit. At first I regret not taking pictures for you, but I find out later that photographs are not permitted, so it is a moot point.

The signal man puts a covering over the engine, and chocks under the wheels. The Signature Flight Support staff direct us to the restaurant inside the terminal. We get a bite to eat, and have a chance to chat about the flight. We go back to Signature, I pay the $28.00 landing fee. I am impressed by Signature, the staff is nice, there are computer terminals available, snacks and beverages, a lounge, and items that the corporate or general aviation traveller will find useful. I think that they have maintenance facilities and a hanger.

Cross-Country (pt 7): more on radio communications

While we are still on the ground at Lehigh Valley International (KABE), Rob tells the controllers our course -- KABE to Sparta VOR to Westchester County Airport (KHPN) -- and requests flight following. Flight following, aka traffic advisories, is a service provided by controllers to pilots flying under visual flight rules (VFR). The VFR pilot asks the controllers, as Rob does, for flight following. The catch is that controllers grant flight following on a space available basis, meaning they can say no if their work load is too heavy. In our case, after we leave KABE airspace, the NY Approach controller grants Rob flight following.

As we get closer to and then enter class B (or bravo airspace), I get to listen to and learn what traffic advisories mean. The controller will say something like the following:

"Cherokee 2345 alpha , traffic three o'clock, five miles west bound, 6,000 feet"

The pilot looks for the other aircraft and if he immediately sees the aircraft will respond by saying something like:

"NY Approach Cherokee 2345 alpha , traffic in sight."

Or if the pilot does not immediately site the other aircraft (this may have happened to Rob once or twice) he might say something like:

"NY Approach Cherokee 2345 alpha, looking."

In the above response, I believe that pilot is telling the controllers that he is looking for the other aircraft. He sights the other aircraft very quickly and then tells the controllers something like:

"NY approach, Cherokee 2345 alpha, traffic in sight."

As we are flying along on our way to KHPN, I listen to the communications. Sometimes, but not always, I can hear the controller calling Rob and follow along as Rob responds. Other times, I miss the controllers call, but because the protocol is that the pilot repeats back the instructions to the controller, I get a sense of what is going on. An example of this is the traffic advisories that I have just discussed. Rob turns the traffic advisories into an opportunity for teaching and asks me if I can see the aircraft. I admit that I often did not see the aircraft on the first try. But I do see some or most of the traffic in question. This takes some getting used to, and I have to be honest and say that I do not see all the aircraft that Rob has me looking for.

As the controllers give Rob traffic advisories, I practice looking for the traffic. Some times I see the traffic and sometimes I don't. At the same time I am listening to the fast paced radio communications over my headset. I am glad that I have listened to aviation communications using online scanners such as LiveATC.net, providing me with the opportunity to get used to listening to communications in the confines of my house.

I begin to appreciate that radio communications take some getting used to. I have new found respect for student pilots learning radio communications. This is my first time in airspace with such busy and fast paced radio communications, I understood more than I thought I would. I am pleased.

We continue to fly, Rob piloting the aircraft and I listening and looking. In the distance, I see the Hudson River. I know that we are north of the Hudson River Exclusion Zone adjoining NYC. We are getting close to KHPN.

Next up: the Tappen Zee Bridge and KHPN

Cross-Country (part 6): navigation and radio communications

I am having a ball. I had already told Rob about the course that I had plotted the night before. He liked what I did so he set one of the navigation radios to the frequency used by the Sparta VOR. I have my aeronautical (sectional) chart on my lap with my penciled in course. As we pass over certain roads and other geographic features, I am sometimes able to look at the chart and see exactly where we are. Sometimes.

We are getting closer to class B airspace, but first we have to cross into or "pierce" the mode C veil that surrounds class B airspace. All aircraft entering mode C must have a mode C transponder.

I was talking about the transponder in an earlier post. Simply, the transponder reports our position to controllers. Before we get into class B (or bravo) airspace, we will enter an area 30 nautical miles (NM) from the center of class B airspace known as the mode C veil. I got raster files of the NY terminal aeronautical charts from the FAA; terminal charts depict class B airspace and includes the mode C veil. I extracted a portion of this chart to post here and put in an approximation of our route. The mode C veil is shown by the purple line, I have marked where our route "pierced" the mode C veil with the letter "T" and an arrow. A working transponder is required before piercing the mode C veil.

Rob turned the transponder on before take-off and set the code to 1200 (for aircraft under visual flight rules). Before we left the airspace around KABE, the controllers told Rob to change the code on the transponder to a unique four-digit code (e.g. squawk 4321). When we get to the mode C veil, we are all set.

Before entering class B airspace, 10 NM later, the controllers have to clear Rob to enter class B airspace. If the controller does not specifically clear Rob to enter class B airspace he has to stay out. In that case he would have flown below the 3,000 foot floor of class B airspace that is on our route to Westchester County Airport (KHPN). However, the controllers, in this case NY approach, have already cleared Rob to enter class B airspace, giving him an altitude and a course. This important bit of communication happens over a minute, maybe two. I have noted on the image where our route (in red) crosses into class B airspace (represented by the blue line) on the chart excerpt above.

Hearing the interchange between Rob and the controllers when we are given clearance to enter class B airspace was another thrill. Up until now, I have never been in or near class B airspace in a general aviation aircraft. The radio is busy, Rob says this is the busiest that he has experienced. I stay quiet. I know that Rob needs to pay attention to the communications, so I don't want to bother him with unnecessary chatter. Instead I concentrate on listening to the communications. It is fast paced, and I am pleased that I understood most of the communications.

Next up in part 7, more on radio communications.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The image below is another excerpt from one of the aeronautical charts that I posted last week. This time I have noted the location of the three large airports in the NY-NJ metro area:

Newark-Liberty International in Newark NJ (KEWR)
John F. Kennedy (KJFK) and Laguardia (KLGA) both located in NYC.

Some of you may have flown into one of these three airports at one time or another, so I thought you might be interested in seeing what this airspace looks like on an aeronautical chart.
________________________________________________________________________________

Note, I need to point out that airspace and airport classifications take some getting used to. Aeronautical charts with their weird colors, circles, and other notations take even more time to get used to. Next week, I will provide you some references where you may learn more about airspace and airport classifications, aeronautical charts and other information discussed in this series. In the meantime, if you can not wait, please refer to my aviation links and info page on my blog where I have linked to some information on airspace and aeronautical charts.

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.

Cross-Country (part 4): plotting the course

The night before my cross-country flight I checked the weather forecasts and planned a possible route that for the scenic ride from Lehigh Valley International Airport (KABE) to Westchester County Airport (KHPN). The weather looked to be good for the flight the next day with low winds and good conditions for a flight under visual flight rules.

I admit that I had paid that much attention to the navigational aide known as a VOR since before I passed the FAA written private pilot exam. So, I wanted another opportunity to observe VOR navigation. The VOR is a ground based radio beacon that pilots use to navigate by referring to an instrument in the cockpit. The VOR transmits its signals in 360 degrees.

I planned for a route flying first to the navigational aide known as the Sparta VOR (SAX) and then proceeding to Westchester County Airport (KHPN). I wanted to show you the route that I plotted, so I went to the FAA website where I downloaded the NY Sectional raster file. the files are very large, so I cropped and saved a smaller image. I then drew the course on the image, adding some labels. The Sparta VOR (navigational aid) is circled. On this route, if the controllers let us into class B airspace, we will only be in class B airspace for a shorter time compared with the alternative of a direct route to KHPN.

I added the distance and true course to the image, but it may be a little hard to read.

KABE to Sparta VOR: 48 nautical miles, 70 degrees.
Sparta VOR to KHPN: 38 nautical miles, 102 degrees.

Nautical miles (or knots) are used in aviation. One nautical mile equals approximately 1.15 miles.

Aeronautical charts take some getting used, but I wanted you to see what one looks like. However, I thought that some of you might want to see the route plotted using more conventional maps. So, I went into Google Earth and using an aeronautical chart overlay, I added a marker for the Sparta VOR. I then deleted this overlay, reverting back to a normal image.

Next up, I'll get to the flight itself and talk about starting out from Lehigh Valley International Airport.

Cross Country (Part 3): Planning for the flight

A student pilot will sit down the night before a cross-country flight, look at the aviation weather forecasts for the next day with an eye towards the forecasted winds. Information they would like at includes but is not limited to:

• forecasted wind speed and direction,
• fuel capacity of the plane from the airplanes manual (aka pilot operating handbook or POH),
• gallons of gas used per hour (from the POH),
• nautical miles to be traveled (determined using the aeronautical charts),
• information about the destination airport(s) including but not limited to a diagram of the airport, runway information, radio frequencies used, etc., and
• noting all radio frequencies for the flight, including frequencies used by navigation aids.

On the morning of the flight, a student pilot/pilot will check the aviation weather forecast again, and adjust any calculations, if necessary. Finally, they would check for temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) and Notices to Airman (NOTAM) along their planned route.

This is a scenic ride, and I am not a pilot student or otherwise, nor am in flight training. Nevertheless, I did take a look at the weather forecasts the night before and the morning of the scenic ride. I made sure that I had a copy of airport diagrams, and noted radio frequencies that the pilot might use on the flight. I looked for TFRs and NOTAMs that might affect the route of the scenic ride prior to leaving for the airport.

In addition to the experience of a longer flight, I was especially interested in navigation and listening to radio communications. I will continue to write more about what I did before the flight in my next post. I will get to navigation, radio communications, and more in later articles. Stay tuned!

Cross-Country (part 2) - what is a cross country?

I want to take a little time to talk about what a cross-country flight is and it's role in flight training of student pilots. While I am not a student pilot nor am I in flight training, I wanted the experience of taking a scenic ride in the form of a cross-country flight.

Students seeking their private pilot's certificate (single-engine) have to complete a variety of piloting tasks, both dual time with their instructor as well as solo time. Before flying solo as a student, the instructor endorses their pilot log book for the specific solo task. One of these tasks is to log a certain number of solo cross-country flights. It is way beyond the scope of this article to go into these definitions and requirements, but one of the articles that I am including in this series of articles about my cross-country flight will focus on where you can go for more information about flight training and aviation safety.

What I can say is that when I was ground school, the instructors discussed cross-country flights, saying that a cross-country flight is a flight of at least 50 nautical miles (NM) to another airport where you land at the airport and come to a full stop. We also spent some time in ground school talking about all that must be done by the student pilot before going on a cross-country flight. In addition to ground school time, students spend time with their individual instructors going over the their cross-country flight in some detail.

As I understand it, Cross-country flights come after a student pilot has learned take-offs and landings, climbing and descending, straight and level flight, radio communications, navigation skills, weather advisory services, flight planning, runway markings, temporary flight restrictions, and the hand signals that ground crew members use as you are preparing to park your plane. A student pilot's first cross-country flight will be with their instructor (dual time).

If I am remembering my ground school training correctly, with the possible exception of looking at the charts and planning a route, most of the pre-flight planning done by the pilot prior to a cross-country flight requires an idea of the weather forecast as well as checking for any flight restrictions that might be in place along the planned route. Most of the real pre-flight planning, including checking for new flight restrictions, happens either the night before or the day of the flight. For example, a current wind forecast is an important component of any pre-flight planning, and might be available 12 to 18 hours before take-off time. On a flight into the wind (aka a head wind), ground speed -- how fast the airplane is moving relative to the ground -- the flying time to the destination will be longer. Conversely, if the wind is at the tail of the aircraft (aka a tail wind), you will get to your destination a little quicker. Ground speed affects fuel consumption.&

Stay tuned for my next post in this series where I will be writing about what I did to the night before/morning of my cross-country scenic flight.

And speaking of my next post in this series, I am still in the process of developing an outline of the series of posts that I will be writing on my cross-country scenic ride. I'll try to post some sort of outline in a day or so. I know that I promised some more pictures, but they don't really fit into today's article. I will be posting one last set of pictures from this scenic ride in a later article, I promise.

Cross-Country: part 1

I'm posting a few photos that I took today before I started on my cross-country scenic ride. The plane for this scenic ride is a Piper PA-128-140 Cherokee. We departed from Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, PA (KABE). I'll post more about my cross-country, an article and some more pictures on Friday. She is a nice plane. The door into the plane is on the passenger side of the plane, requiring that you step up on the wing to enter. Note the clouds, broken clouds at about 4 to 5,000 feet. By the time we flew back, we had scattered clouds (more blue sky and fewer clouds).

Piper Cherokee

Planes

Taxiways at KABE

Taxiway at KABE

I was standing on the wing on the other side (outside the cockpit door) of the Cherokee

Standing on the wing looking towards the rear