"Chris AKA (Dude)" wrote:
Yeah back in the air after almost 2 months off. Fortunately the plane
was ok. Some guy moved forward with the plane and struck a orange
rubber cone. No damage was done but because it was considered a "Prop
Strike" the engine did have to come out and get inspected.


Congrats on your solo. So are you working on cross country now?

I just got signed off today to do solo landings at another untowered
airport (61S - Cottage Grove, OR) all of 8 NM away from my home field of
77S (Creswell, OR). The plan for next week is to fly to Eugene, OR
airport (KEUG), a towered field.

I fly in a 2003 Archer III but it will be nice when she gets out and
there is more room like you said and better performance.

Sounds nice! I think the C-152 I'm flying was built when Gondwana was
still whole. Runs fine though, and renter's insurance is cheap thanks to
its low replacement cost. :-)

If any of you want to check out my videos of my flight training please
do. http://www.youtube.com/user/cholubaz I have cockpit video plus all
the ATC and COMMS of most every flight so far.

I've looked at some of your videos. Quite demanding! On the other hand,
I've already had a NORDO (and no transponder, or at least not in mode C,
if my MRX is any indication) biplane do a straight-in touch-and-go that
we spotted on long final just about when I was going to turn base.

Another time, a transient (probably a student on cross-country) pulled
out onto the active when another plane was on short final. (The landing
plane announced a go-around of course.) Never heard any calls from her -
probably had the wrong frequency.

Then there was the plane we thought was NORDO but my instructor had a
hunch and called on a CTAF frequency that 77S used to have - and managed
to reach the plane (after they had landed.) He let them know the proper
frequency and that it had been changed. Off-air he told me the frequency
had changed about 3 years ago - so they were using mighty old information
or charts!

Today while doing a 360 turn to check for traffic before leaving 61S, I
spotted a plane that was almost above us. No signal on the MRX and no
radio calls, and with wind dead calm we weren't sure which way he would
go, so we just watched to see what he did. My CFI tried to raise him, but
with no luck. Eventually he turned and landed on the runway we were
using. After I had done my solo landings and my CFI had cooled his heels,
I learned from him that the NORDO pilot had come over to him and
apologized - he was using a handheld and could hear us, but he realized
after the radio call from my CFI that we couldn't hear him.

Oh - and yesterday after we got back and I was shutting things down I
discovered I had never turned the transponder switch from standby to
altitude mode. We were both annoyed that neither one of us caught that.