After a comfortable journey out here, thanks to a points upgrade on Virgin, I got settled into my new home - a room in a lovely apartment in downtown Long Beach with a really friendly couple as my hosts. They kindly invited me out to a bar with their friends one of whom happens to be training to fly at the same airfield I am flying from.
On my first trip to the airfield today, this connection proved to be hugely helpful as the school I was originally booked with hadn't scheduled me in for any time in their aircraft aside from the check out, and they were all completely full for 2 weeks - so I wouldn't have been able to do any flying! Luckily I called the guy whose number I'd been given at another flight school on the airfield and got a check out immediately with good availability throughout the next two weeks.
The first flight was a chance to get used to the slightly different radio telephony in the States, and also to learn the pattern for the airfield, as well as getting checked out on the slightly larger Cessna 172 - my flying up until now has been in a C152 or a Piper Warrior. We took off on runway 25L, just as a 737 landed behind us on runway 30, and then turned out towards the south, getting a great view of the Queen Mary in the harbour, before climbing to 3500 ft to practice a couple of stalls. On the way back I learnt the approach and circuits for both runways.
After a break of a few hours for lunch, I had a second accompanied flight, this time to practice the LAX special VFR route. Having trained close to London, where all the airspace is so strongly over-protected, this was an absolutely incredible experience. You cross overhead the sixth busiest airport in the world at 4500 ft on a specific radial from Santa Monica VOR, and as you are on a pre-agreed route you are not even in contact with air traffic control. I'll try and grab some pictures of this tomorrow when I do the route again.
We descended to 3500 ft for the return across LAX, before landing at two different airfields Torrance-Zamperini, where Angelina Jolie flies from, and Compton, which is uncontrolled so you just make an approach, calling out position reports as you do your circuit. I was given one helpful piece of advice by my instructor, which was that if you can't depart the airport for some reason and need to get a cab, don't leave the airfield until the cab arrives as it's not the nicest part of town......perhaps I just won't land there again!
Now I'm all signed off and ready for a trip on my own tomorrow.
On my first trip to the airfield today, this connection proved to be hugely helpful as the school I was originally booked with hadn't scheduled me in for any time in their aircraft aside from the check out, and they were all completely full for 2 weeks - so I wouldn't have been able to do any flying! Luckily I called the guy whose number I'd been given at another flight school on the airfield and got a check out immediately with good availability throughout the next two weeks.
The first flight was a chance to get used to the slightly different radio telephony in the States, and also to learn the pattern for the airfield, as well as getting checked out on the slightly larger Cessna 172 - my flying up until now has been in a C152 or a Piper Warrior. We took off on runway 25L, just as a 737 landed behind us on runway 30, and then turned out towards the south, getting a great view of the Queen Mary in the harbour, before climbing to 3500 ft to practice a couple of stalls. On the way back I learnt the approach and circuits for both runways.
After a break of a few hours for lunch, I had a second accompanied flight, this time to practice the LAX special VFR route. Having trained close to London, where all the airspace is so strongly over-protected, this was an absolutely incredible experience. You cross overhead the sixth busiest airport in the world at 4500 ft on a specific radial from Santa Monica VOR, and as you are on a pre-agreed route you are not even in contact with air traffic control. I'll try and grab some pictures of this tomorrow when I do the route again.
We descended to 3500 ft for the return across LAX, before landing at two different airfields Torrance-Zamperini, where Angelina Jolie flies from, and Compton, which is uncontrolled so you just make an approach, calling out position reports as you do your circuit. I was given one helpful piece of advice by my instructor, which was that if you can't depart the airport for some reason and need to get a cab, don't leave the airfield until the cab arrives as it's not the nicest part of town......perhaps I just won't land there again!
Now I'm all signed off and ready for a trip on my own tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment