A Tight Turn

This weekend turned out to be great weather for training.  Saturday I went up to South Carolina to land at Hilton Head.  I did not shut down and actually never left the active movement area so no chance of spreading or getting germs.

On the way back I was planning to stop at Keystone for some cheap gas.  They have airplane gas for $2.58/gallon which is a really good deal.  As I was coming across the Florida border I noticed showers forming over the airport from what became Tropical Storm Arthur.  Not wanting to fuel in the rain, I diverted and tucked the plane back in the hangar. 

Looking at the weather this morning, it was a perfect opportunity to train and get gas.  I filed to 42J (Keystone) via BUHAR.  BUHAR is an imaginary point in space which we can find with our GPS equipment.  Why BUHAR, well the weather was cloudy so I would need to do an approach to find the field and BUHAR was a legal starting point.

Heading out I had some broken clouds and initially was in and out.  This became solid in and then I was above them cloud surfing at 3000.  I was cleared direct BUHAR and things were looking good.  I planned to let the autopilot do this one.  The approach was loaded and active and with the GPS steering, the plane would get to BUHAR, make the right turn, fly to TOLBY, make another right and once I was heading straight in, I just needed to hit the approach key and the plane would capture both the lateral and vertical guidance and take me down to the runway.

The one complication is that the approach  takes you 2.5 North East of Gainesville and they had departing traffic.  The controller offered a vector around or I could get a vector straight in but tight.  I chose tight.  This added a bit of pressure but I had briefed the plate and was ready.

I disengaged the autopilot and hand flew the initial portion.  I was turned to 300 degrees and descended to 2000.  Since I was now in tight I needed to boogie on down.  I configured for 700 feet per minute and as I was reaching 2000 got my turn to 20 degrees to join final.  On the way down I had reset the GPS and activated Vectors to final. 

Rolling out aligned, I re-engaged the autopilot in approach mode.  It was tracking and I watched the glide slope come alive.  At intercept the gear came down and the plane started descending.  300 feet later I popped out of the clouds with the runway in sight.

By the time I fueled, the clouds had started to break up and I was able to see home from 20 miles out and accept the visual approach.  After putting the plane away, I saw one of the airport residents.  He wanders around but is sort of quiet.  He did pose for me though.

Sunset

I don't usually fly much at night but I do like to keep current.  The rules say that to carry passengers at night you must make 3 landings to a full stop at least 1 hour after sunset.  Why one hour, well it is not really dark at sunset.  In fact, as long as you are on the ground within 30 minutes of sunset, it is not a night flight.

Last Saturday the weather was pretty perfect and I decided to get night current.  Sunset was at 8:04 so I too off around 8:40 and did some sightseeing on the West side.  I then headed into JAX international for 2 stop and goes. 

Craig only has 4000 feet which makes stop and goes less attractive.  At JAX I had 8000 feet to land stop and then go.  After my 2 landings at JAX I headed back for my final landing at home.  I put the plane away and was current again.

I like sunset flights but unless you are night current the clock is ticking as soon as the sun sets.  You need to be on the ground in 30 minutes or less.  With my currency, I was no longer under this constraint.  With such incredible weather, I asked CC if she wanted to go watch the sun set with me.

Sunset had moved to 8:08 but that sunset is for those people on the ground.  At 3500 feet, it was 8:14.  We took off at 7:45 and enjoyed the pre show.  We took a swing down the beach and then over downtown to see the buildings in the last bits of light.

Then we headed South of Navy Jax for the big event.  I turned East as it got close to setting and then made a wide turn to the right to bring the main event into view.  It is pretty amazing, you can actually see the disk sinking below the horizon (Take that Flat Earthers).

Once the sun was gone, I eased back on the controls ans started a gentle climb.  A few hundred feet later the edge of the sun slid over the edge of the earth.  I dropped the nose and started down, making the sun set again, was a double header.  As we descended twilight faded rapidly. 

We took our time heading back and landed just before the end of twilight so technically it was not a night flight.  As we pushed the plane back in the hangar we could see the moon rising over the now dark airport.  Was a great way to enjoy the weather while social distancing.