Fly Patch Fly!

Flight Hrs: 1.5 / Total Hrs: 3.6
Aircraft: C-152 / Airports: KGEG & KDEW

Most flight schools will have you spend the majority of your lessons working on this area.

Let me just say, the “go” part is a lot easier than the “touch” part.

We flew just north of Spokane International (KGEG) about 10 miles to a little uncontrolled airport in Deer Park, WA (KDEW). It’s a nice wide open area in a valley and there isn’t too much traffic. Just west of the airport is our “north practice area”. But, today it was all happening at the airport.

Flying the pattern
I didn’t realize this, but when you fly into an airport you can’t really pick any runway and just fly right into it. There’s specific runway you use, based on the wind direction (you always want to be landing as straight into the wind as possible). Also, there’s something called “the traffic pattern”. This is usually ~1000ft above the ground and it typically goes in a counter-clockwise direction around the airport (though sometimes, you will be told to fly a “right pattern”).

Not only is there a specific pattern you fly, but you also have to enter the pattern at a specific place. Midway down something called “the downwind leg”. There are 5 different legs of the traffic patter:

Upwind: This is straight out from the runway.

Crosswind: You turn from the upwind onto the crosswind leg.

Downwind: This runs parallel to the airport but in the opposite direction of your eventual landing.

Base: When you’re about 45 degrees out from the numbers painted on the runway, you’ll turn left to the base leg.

Final: At this point you’re flying towards the runway ready to land. There’s also something called “short final” but I don’t know exactly where that starts.

When you’re at an uncontrolled airport like KDEW, you have to make sure you’re telling everyone in the area what you’re doing. This is done on a common frequency that’s printed on your sectional maps. You then just announce your position in the pattern. For example:

“Deer park traffic, Cessna 54036, left downwind for touch and goes runway one-six, Deer park”

You always start and stop your calls with the airport you’re flying into. I guess these radios can go a long way and someone at another airport using the same frequency will think you’re in that pattern. You also have to tell them what kind of plane you’re in and your tail number (that’s the one that’s painted on the side of plane and starts with and “N”). Then you let them know where you are in the pattern and what you’re going to do (touch and goes).

Every time you turn to a different leg, you have to tell everyone where you are in the pattern. This isn’t easy to do when you have a deathgrip on the yoke and you’re freaked out about turning the plane that close to the ground. A few of the calls (actually most of them) my instructor had to make. The button you press to talk is on the yoke, but it still feels weird trying to press it.

As you turn to “final” you’ll see a set of lights. Runway 16 at DEW has four of them right next to each other (called PAPI lights). These tell you whether you’re too high or too low for the landing (almost always better to be too high). If you have 2 white lights and 2 red lights, you’re right on target. 3 or 4 whites and you’re too high and 3 or 4 reds, you’re too low.

Not only do you have to watch your slope angle into the airport, but you also have to use your ailerons to stay lined up with the runway and then use your rudder to keep your nose pointed directly down the runway. All this while watching your airspeed. There’s a reason this is one of the most difficult parts of flying. I ended up getting a lot of help from my CFI Dave. We did 3 touch and goes before heading back to GEG.

This was a lot of fun, but there’s SO MUCH to think about. Dave says I’ll eventually figure this all out and it will become second nature. Not that it will be easy, just that I won’t have to think about each step individually.

Dave says we’re going to do some more touch and goes on my next lesson. I have a lot to think about before then.