Christmas Wrapping (Up)

'Tis the season, despite a lack of snow of the ground or bone-chilling temps. I'm not complaining any, as this awesome "El-Nino" climate has given me ample opportunity to continue my flight journey. This past week, I have flown twice already. On both flights, I accomplished some necessary "to-do" items on my flight training list.

First, I fulfilled my cross-country flight time requirement of 50 total flight hours. This was done with a special guest as my passenger, my Mother, Mary Anne!

To earn the remaining 1.4 hours needed for my cross-country time, I elected to take a trip down to Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport (KITH.) I have flown here many times before, and it is a beautiful trip. The coolest part is when you fly over the old Seneca Army Depot, and see the albino deer running around. We saw just that when we flew on Sunday! Canandaigua Lake was looking good, as well...

The trip went by flawlessly, and mum enjoyed her ride. On the way back to Rochester Int'l Airport (KROC), I elected to practice a holding pattern over the Geneseo VOR (GEE.) Okay, so you may be asking, what IS a VOR? Well, here's the definition...

"Very High Frequency Omni Directional Range. A ground-based electronic navigation aid transmitting very high frequency navigation signals, 360 degrees in azimuth, oriented from magnetic north. Used as the basis for navigation in the National Airspace System." - FAA

So, a VOR serves me, the pilot, as a navigational aid. That's all fine and well, but what is a holding pattern, and why are they done over a VOR?

"The primary use of a holding is delaying aircraft that have arrived at their destination but cannot land yet because of traffic congestion, poor weather, or runway unavailability." - Wiki

Since the VOR is a recognized landmark, WITH a navigational feature, it serves as a great point for holding. For pilot's flying in IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), flying a proper holding pattern is essential. 

Here below, you see the track of my flight from KROC>>>KITH>>>KROC, and further detail of my holding pattern "racetrack" over the Geneseo VOR (GEE.)

For reference, the Geneseo VOR is located on the Genesee EXWY. There exist 3 different entries methods for establishing oneself into a holding pattern, the Direct, Parallel, and Teardrop entries. The details are a bit confusing for me to explain on here, but, the above hold was made Direct. Now, as you can see, the oval/"racetrack" is not quite symmetrical. For one, I had to factor in for wind. This threw me off a bit, but I was able to correct. 

Today, I flew the smaller Cessna 150L for the sole purpose of perfecting my "holds" a bit more. My main focus, right now, is wind correction (as mentioned above.) Well, with wind being 10KTS today, Gusting to 24KTS, it was the perfect opportunity. Again, I headed to the GEE for holding practice. I departed KROC @ a heading of 212. This lined me up on the 018 radial FROM the GEE VOR (reciprocal course.) This is how a pilot navigates to/from a VOR, by use of radials (ex. 360, 180, 090, 045, etc.) 

Wow! That's a lot of weird shaped ovals, right? Well, as I mentioned, winds were coming from the West today at a speed between 10-30 knots. Again, the GEE VOR is located in the upper left of the above pic, on the Genesee EXPY. The blue line that lies closest to it was my last pattern flown, today, and it was indeed the closest. You can trace this line backwards to see an almost proper racetrack pattern (tho factoring in wind, this is actually fairly decent.) For 3 patterns before this, I had to gauge my wind correction factor, and I was finally getting a handle on it towards the end. I am happy.

Next Up! (ETA Dec 31st)

- FAA Instrument Knowledge Written Exam

- FAA Instrument Check Ride