Lesson 32 - Cross-Country Trip - Part 2
September 28, 2023
I was ready with my flight plan to fly. The in-flight plan was to get the VFR flight-following service from Rostraver to Zanesville, and then again get the flight following for the flight back to Rostraver.
What is VFR flight following?
VFR flight-following is a Radar Traffic Information Service that focuses on traffic advisories. You request a flight-following to your destination, and ATC will serve as another set of eyes in the sky to keep you informed of other traffic, that potentially could cross your flight route. You also gain the benefit of safety alerts from ATC. But this is not a right for VFR traffic. Flight following is provided at Air Traffic Controller’s descretion. Their primary responsibility is to separate IFR traffic. Many factors, including workload, frequency congestion could prevent the controller from providing flight following service to VFR traffic, so it should be considered as a supplemental tool, and not primary tool.
That is why it is imperative to have a sound flight plan beforehand.
How to obtain flight following?
Flight following can be avaialble anywhere radar coverage is available, and generally it is available at normal cruise altitudes. For low-level terminal radar coverage, you would generally need to be operating near a Class B, Class C, or Class D airport, wth terminal radar services. You can locate the correct frequency, which can be found in A/FD ( Airport/Facility Directory), or sectional chart.
After I got to the field, I did the usual preflight inspection, made sure there was more than enough fuel for the journey. The plan was to get fuel at Zanesville and then come back to Rostraver, and on our way back do another landing at Washington County airport, which was just along the way. We were tracking weather, especially low ceilings. We were expecting it to move further north, clearing the path for our planned route.
I took-off and after departing the traffic pattern to the west I requested the flight following to Zanesville. There is a lot happening inside the cockpit. Your primary job is to fly the plane on your planned route, and at the same time, to navigate and communicate using flight following from ATC. These tasks do require your attention, which your “flying” task demands the most. In order to request flight following, changed the frequencies to PIT DEP, and talked with ATC
Me: Pitt Departure, Cessna November One Niner Six Eight Zero with a request.
ATC: One Nine Six Eight Zero, Pitt
Me: Can we pick up flight following for Zanesville please
ATC: Zulu Zulu Victor (ZZV - Airport identifier for Zanesville), what’s your aircraft type, and what you climbing to?
Me: Cessna 172, that is correct Zulu Zulu Victor, and we are at 2500 climbing upto 4500 after this ceiling.
ATC: November Six Eight Zero, squawk Four One Zero Five Ident. Altimeter Three Zero One One.
Me: (After squaking in the code 4105 in the transponder and Ident) Four One Zero Five Ident for One Niner Six Eight Zero.
ATC: Alright, Maintain VFR
Me: Maintain VFR for One niner Six Eight Zero.
As I experienced first hand, it is extremely challenging to fly the course. I saw the heading needle moving a bit around, but I was able to get it back on course before it was too late. Drew was keeping that heading in check by constantly reminding me to fly the course, but I have to do this thing alone, so I have to divide my attention while I am flying, navigating, and communicating with ATC.
As we climbed to the TOC, my first check point was Bentleyville town, which was way farther out than I had expected. The low ceiling were not helping with visibility either. So I could not see that, but at the same time, I was trying to make new references. The interstate I-70 was a good companion all the way to Zanesville. THen there was Route 43 intersection, thatw as a good visual checkpoint too.
As I was cruising along and checking my checkpoints visually, I was also noting the time it took between each checkpoint. To my relief, my planned estimated time, and actual time were pretty darn close. When the journey is going well as per the plan, the certainly helps with the confidence.
The cloud ceiling was not moving as quickly as we expected it to move. Soon we started to see the scattered layer of clouds in front of us, and much thicker layer behind it. If I was by myself, I would not fly in those conditions. Drew asked me if I wanted to turn around (make a decision as a PIC), or if I wanted to fly around the scattered clouds and join back where it got clear. I knew that we have more than enough fuel, but as a PIC the correct ADM was to turn around and go back to Rostraver, while we still could. Given that we were already 10-15 minutes in the journey, and not to make this a complete waste of time, (since first, if we deviate, all my planning goes out the window, and second, the visiblity was getting poorer on the course), Drew decided to go around the cloud deck and rejoin the course where itw as clear. He took control and started turning South.
ATC was watching. He picked up what he was trying to do and said
ATC: November Six Eight Zero, I see you are going south there, but there is a moderate precipitation, its about 10 miles in diameter. If you are trying to stay away from it, I recommend about One Sixty heading.
Drew: I appreciate the recommendation, we are gonna go with the One Sixty heading for now, we might turn back to Rostraver, this weather is deteriorating.
ATC: Yeah, you are kinda stuck in that area right now, I mean to get around it. It’s clear around the Zanesville. But you probably have to fly that 160 heading for 15 miles or so to get south of it.
Drew: I appreciate the advise, than you.
That conversation was not as daunting as I had practiced in my chair flying, it was just two people talking and sorting through the issue. That was good to know.
There was a lot of chitter-chatter on the flight-following as the controller was talking to all different airplanes. It was pretty busy, but for the most part, I was able to follow. Out of nowhere I heard the communication for me coming through
ATC: Six Eight Zero
Drew: Six Eight Zero
ATC: Six Eight Zero, you are going to keep on going southbound and contact clarksburg on One One Niner Point Four Two. They know what you are trying to do. Nineteen Forty Two.
Drew: Ninteen Forty Two, thanks for your help.
We switched the frequencies and I initiated communication with Clarksburg Approach.
Me: Clarksburg, November One Niner Six Eight Zero, at Twenty Five (referring to my 2500 ft altitude).
ATC: One Niner Six Eight Zero, Altimeter Three Zero One Zero.
Me: Altimeter Three Zero One Zero. One Nine Six Eight Zero.
ATC: One Niner Six Eight Zero, you are trying to get to Zanesville, correct?
Drew: Yeah that was our plan, but our Nav Log is blown and we are just playing around and learning some things.\
ATC: If you want, I can give you a vector around the southern tip of the cell that we are working with here, but the choice is yours. If you want to go back to Rostraver, I can work that out for you too.
Drew (to me): What do you want to do?
Me: Let’s go to Zanesville.
Drew (over radio): We will take the vector for Zanesville, thanks for your help.
ATC: One Niner Six Eight Zero, fly heading Two Two Zero. Maintain VFR
Drew: Two Two Zero, maintain VFR. Six Eight Zero.
Rest of the trip was more or less the same - just keep listening to the radio chatter, and when you hear your tailnumber, respond. As we rejoined the course, I got to check few more visual checkpoint from my planned route, so that was a good insight into how it looks from 4000 feet atitude. That should come handy when I do this trip by myself. By the time we reached Zanesville, the fuel farm was closed for the day - another wrinkle in my oribinal plan, but that’s why I had planned for extra reserve - exactly for situations such as this one. I flew to a nearby Cambridge airport (KCDI) and filled up gas there. From there I requested another flight following back to Rostraver. My flight route looked okay overall. That supposedly straight line could be more straight.
The big takeaways from this trip were:
The confidence that I can do a cross-country trip.
Task saturation still flusters my brain and that shows in my flying. I was able to maintain heading and altitude, but I can still do better. I know Drew is holding me to much greater standard now. I am doing better at dividing my attention, but I need to do it at more rapid pace.
Communication - at times the phrasing was confusing, but it is OKAY to acknoledge that you did not understand it the first time. More often than not ATC will understand and will help you out. Going nordo becasue you are trying to remember what ATC told you, does not help you.
NOT A SINGLE TIME I REFERRED TO MY CHECKLIST. I know that I performed the tasks to best of my knowledge but validating it against the checklist is important. I had remembered to do so before we started, but the task saturation got to me, and I forgot to check it. I have to be better at that.
This week has been the busiest week of my flight training so far. We acomplished a lot. I need some time to process everything and get ready for next lesson.
I am also learning a lot from your lessons. Soon I can call myself a Theoretical Pilot.