Went up yesterday for some last minute practice before my exam tomorrow. It was a beautiful day to fly: 5°C and not a cloud in the sky (although the ATIS was reporting few at 26,000′).
During my run-up I hear Ground telling everyone to contact Tower on 119.9 for departures. Oh no! I immediately flashed back to the “poker run” last summer.
I’m number three waiting to take off.. not bad. I decide to do a circuit before heading north to practice.
My second take-off was right behind a 150. The 150s are smaller and slower than the 172s.
Tower: “Are you able an immediate take-off?”
Me: “affirmative”
Tower: “Taxi into position and hold, keep the power on, follow the 150 in front of you, fly runway heading and contact tower on 124.4 when airborne”.
By the time I roll into position Tower already cleared me to take off.
This is the first time I’ve had to contact another frequency while climbing out. Not a problem though, I made it part of my pre-take off checklist: flaps up, mixture rich, landing light off, check runway tracking, contact tower on 124.4:
Me: “Buttonville tower, DQG with you on 124.4”
As I suspected, I overtook the 150 at a blazing 105KIAS.
People were making positions calls left, right, and centre in the practice area. I saw probably 5 planes on the way up to Keswick all going in different directions. I was able to find a little pocket (my favorite, just east of Keswick on the east side of Cooks Bay, near Baldwin) to do some upper air work.
I decided to come back in at 1,800′ (thats low) just to keep out of everyones way. Little did I know that you can’t pick up the ATIS from that height from where I was. Coming back was no big deal, just had to switch back to 119.9 on final.
1.3 hours logged.
The weather is looking good for tomorrow hopefully we will have no surprises.
Good luck on the exam and enjoy the experience.
Let us know how it goes.
Good luck Blake; you’ve been waiting a while for this, so I hope it pans out!