Lesson #39: Another Solo XC

On Sunday, April 9th, I did another solo XC—this time to Pontiac, IL (PNT). This flight was rather boring. When I got to PNT, I was lined up for a long final on 24 and the winds agreed, so I took that entrance to the pattern. I was vigilant to announce my position and intentions from about 8 nm out and repeat them every couple of miles so anyone else approaching the field would know what I doing. There was only one other plane at the field, and it was departing when I first announced myself, so mostly I was just talking to the empty air.

I like to fly high—I flew at 8,500 ft to Pontiac. From that altitude, the factories and smoke stacks that had been so prominent at 4,500 ft on my earlier trip weren’t distinguishable at all. Which factory? Tower? I don’t see a tower! In the future, I will stick to using interstate highways and population centers as landmarks when flying at higher altitudes.

However, not seeing a tower landmark when I expected led me to perform a 360-degree turn to figure out what was going on. I apparently wasn’t 100% coordinated during the long turn because when I pulled wings-level back on course the low fuel-flow enunciator chirped at me. I glanced at the engine instrument panel and saw that my fuel flow was at 2.6 gallon/hour! I thought about engaging the fuel pump and switching tanks, but since I thought I knew the problem, I wanted to give it a moment to work itself out. This might seem a poor decision, but I had a lot of altitude to burn, if needed, and I wanted to know if there was a real problem with that fuel tank or with the fuel system as a whole, and switching tanks at that moment wouldn’t have provided me that insight. I was actually pleasantly surprised with myself to have thought through the situation so thoroughly in the span of second and handle the unexpected problem—a potential emergency for a solo student pilot—so calmly. I’m not patting myself on the back; rather I’m encouraged to know that I don’t go to pieces when something goes astray when I’m alone in the cockpit.

Now you’re all caught up with my recent flying.