Long Time Flying

So I finally was able to go up and fly today. It was surprisingly familiar to me. I was a bit nervous taxiing out, but by the time we lifted off, I felt right at home. We took off on runway 12, which faces the 4 stacks that separate Whiteman Airport and Burbank Airport airspaces. One must make their crosswind turn before these stacks or they'll end up in Burbank airspace. Another cool point was that our base leg is right over the 118 freeway. My instructor and I noticed a traffic accident on the 210 North. Cars were backed up all the way on the 118 for those wanted to take the 210 North. It was cool to see these traffic jams and I'm sure very few people get this view on a common occurrence in LA county. My landings were OK, not perfect. I couldn't maintain my 65 knot descent speed to landing, but something I'll probably fix next time. I had to work on using knots instead of miles-per-hour like the plane I flew previously, also the flap switch, which wasn't too difficult. These are some of the communication procedures I have to get used to being at a controlled airport:


Taxi and takeoff procedures:

125.0: ME: "Whiteman Ground, Cessna 4936D at Vista ready to taxi."

GROUND: "36D (winds and altimeter setting), taxi to and hold runway 12."

ME: "Taxi to and hold runway 12, 36D."

135.0 ME: "Whiteman Tower, Cessna 36D holding short runway 12 departing left closed traffic."

TOWER: "36D cleared for takeoff, left closed traffic approved."

ME: "Cleared for takeoff, 36D"


Landing procedures:

ME: "Whiteman Tower, 36D left downwind abeam."

TOWER: "36D cleared to land"

ME: "Cleared to land, 36D."


Taxiing after landing procedures:


Returning to departure:

ME: "Whiteman Tower, 36D taxiing back to runway 12."

TOWER: "36D taxi back runway 12."


Returning home:

ME: "Whiteman Tower, 36D taxiing to Vista, good night."

TOWER: "36D good night."


I also need to remember to "clean the airplane" after taxiing beyond the hold short line (flaps up, carburetor heat cool, transponder on standby). It was great to be back up there!!

Here's the cockpit:

Vista Air

I finally was able to take a trip down to Pacoima and get things ready for me to start training at Vista Air at Whiteman Airport. My new instructor is Robert. We're going to get me back up so that I can get back into flying again, since I haven't for more than a month. We'll do a cross country to KSBA (Santa Barbara) and that's where I'll probably fly for my first solo cross country. I'm excited to get back into the air. The plane that I'll be flying is a 1979 C172. The plane I flew at KPRB is a 1973 C172. The differences include: airspeed indicator in knots instead of MPH, flap extension switch is notched at each degree of flap. So instead of having to hold down the switch until the needle points to 10 degrees, I can just switch it to 10 degrees and not have to wait until it gets there. These differences will make my flying experience a little less stressful, especially when I'm solo. I can't wait to get used to being up there. Here's a picture of the plane: