Chelsea's High Altitude Fail! Pilot Stories

then all of a sudden my phone flashes and it's Las Vegas fisdo [Music] so I was out in Kingman Arizona with my Cessna 150 I had just I was wrapping up a six month stent that um I spent out there doing radio engine overhaul I didn't have my IA yet but my airplane was coming up on its annual inspection and I was out of town I was already out of town but I was out of town of being out of town so I was gone and my lease was ending at my place so I came back in town and I picked up a fairy permit and I had to wait till Monday morning till the fsdo opened I called the Las Vegas Fisto submitted everything I had already done the inspection did my logbook entry I was waiting for that uh fairy permit to hit my inbox so it was about midday on the day that I left Kingman Arizona in the 150 to head back to Louisville Kentucky my home base after the six month work period and I'm waiting on the ramp the plane's packed I'm fueled everything and I have this fairy permit hit my inbox and I am like already on the primer the throttle the starter everything and I am climbing out saying goodbye to the sweet little town and the Boneyard and everything is starting to disappear behind me I'm coming up to the Hualapai mountains it was like a really sweet moment and then all of a sudden my phone flashes and it's the uh Las Vegas Fisto and I didn't answer I'm flying and I was like oh crap well if something was wrong I just took off in an under the airplane and now thanks to adsb they can see everything and he's of course been on my tail number all day so the iPhone translated and he just said I just wanted to make sure that you got your uh oh I see you're already Airborne all right have a safe flight so he saw that I took off literally within a few minutes of getting my fairy permit so along this cross country I had uh many challenges and although I had already flown the plane from Louisville Kentucky to Kingman Arizona the route back was presenting new challenges for me so my original route out west was the southern route so I went South um through Albuquerque area and it's almost green on the sectional that whole flight you don't really get into the higher elevation you don't start dealing with those mountainous train issues where are you gonna go if you lose the one and only engine that you have on the front of your airplane keeping you alive so I was really nervous actually for this flight back and at first I almost didn't even want to do it solo because I was like What if I make the wrong decision I've never flown a pass through the Rocky Mountains I was really um using all of my resources to call friends people that I knew that had flown reaching out to friends of friends have you flown this past what is it like do you think I mean I crunched all the numbers three times over and the plane you know with margin healthy margins said it could do it and I just briefed you know what's my what's my plan and I was probably overthinking it quite a bit but one of my biggest concerns is actually something that ended up biting me but not not too bad thankfully and that was density altitude and it's something that you know you hear about during all of your training but you really really cannot understand the way it affects your engine your propeller your airframe the lift on all components the and that once it's all added together the performance toll you take on already what is considered an underpowered pattern trainer of an airplane with the o200 engine it's pumping 100 horsepower out of the factory on a perfect day perfect condition if you're lucky here I am I'm leaving Kingman Arizona and my first stop was St John's Arizona beautiful flight I flew right over the Sedona airport on my way there said goodbye to the red rocks and it was all just it was a really good good day but because I had waited until later in the afternoon for that fairy permit to hit my inbox I was kind of coming in there later um but my ultimate goal was to be able to make the pass on that first day my planned route was Kingman Arizona St John's Arizona and then across to just the east side of Albuquerque and I knew if I could make it there it was downhill from there so like I said we've all heard density altitude like it is freaking serious but I found out just how serious that afternoon so I landed at St John's I was gonna do a quick turn uh refuel and my rule is I don't land anywhere without an hour Reserve period um and that has been my role since I got the plane I still have the little I don't have a have a fuel totalizer I have a start stop watch um and I always write down what my feel was when I check it so halfway through the fight you're like wait was that this or this calculations with strong margins is my rule of thumb so I land in St John's never been there before top off with fuel crunch numbers again because they have a banner posted at this airport I think the airport is at five or six thousand feet and density altitude is a huge they have it like a scoreboard there because it's so serious and I have a photo of it and I'd have to go back I think density altitude was around 8 000 that afternoon I had exactly amount the right amount of daylight to make the pass to get to my next stop and exactly the right amount of fuel to make it there within our reserve and this is the part of the the trip that I was nervous that I was reaching out to everyone about you know and and so I was heightened and crunch numbers took off and when I took off and I experienced density altitude that afternoon I have never felt more uncomfortable in an airplane there was no performance I was not climbing in fact in certain Parts while I was trying to Circle and gain altitude I was even sinking I was like a freaking Buzzard looking for dark spots on the ground to go and try to get those thermals and I spent all like climbing out of that airport there was a high school and I remember looking out at the people's face like I wasn't like Treetop but I was close and I was like holy cow this is not I was so uncomfortable so I climb out I go over an area that's darker and I am I'm not getting altitude and I only got up I needed to make the pass at 11 5 was my goal um and I was still below the pass and I spent an hour circling to gain altitude an hour so at that point my fuel Reserve just is gone so I came back in and landed and I had a tent because I'm doing this whole cross country I don't know like where I'm gonna end up if I have an unplanned stop or if there aren't accommodations or whatever the situation may be um if you're going that far across the country in that slow of an airplane it's gonna be a few days at the minimum so I go back to the airport and at this point I'm like I land and I'm pretty shaken up because I'm like I've never felt that sinking feeling quite literally at full power like so I went over to pop my tent and I get it out of the plane and you know the airport manager drives over because I went to like the corner of the airport like we're out west it's the desert so I'm getting ready to start setting up my tent and the airport manager puts over and he's like excuse me ma'am what are you doing and I explained it and he's like uh you can sleep in the FBO if you want we have a couch and I'll leave a car so he left me his car and rode like his motorcycle dirt bike home so that I would have a vehicle I went in town that evening there was a Mexican restaurant but next door there was a Mexican who was selling like fruit and vegetables and I hadn't socialized with anyone and I was like I had just got back down on the ground feeling chatty and I went over and talked to him and he was like well are you going to get food at this restaurant I said yeah and he's like well I have fresh tamales and I'm like you know I don't have um a microwave or anything I'm staying at the airport he was like no I mean they're fresh like they're and he pulled them out of the cooler he's like they're still warm my wife just made them best tamales I've ever had in Eastern Arizona and St John's and I spent that evening at the airport on the FBO couch eating warm tamales fresh tamales and I left at the crack of dawn the next morning re-topped off with fuel and making that pass was a huge accomplishment because originally I didn't even want to do that flight alone but I think if I had another pilot with me probably with more experience than I would have had I would have leaned on them as you know a crutch I think we all call our pilot friends you know what do you think about this situation uh am I looking at these I still do and I rely on my mentors and my flight instructors and stuff like that to help me understand am I making those decisions correctly but when I took off at Sunrise the next morning I was recapping that whole flight the night before and I made the pass I made it past Albuquerque to my next fuel stop and for me crossing the mountain felt like it was like climbing the mountain and then you're on the downhill like it was like figuratively speaking like a mountain climb for me so as an aviator as a pilot the whole adventure and closing the journey closing the chapter of being out west and kind of having the all behind me it it felt good on my way home to feel like you know I had done all of that as safely as I could and learned some lessons along the way and then you know I was homebound thank you [Music]

Channel: Taking Off

Views: 37,919

Keywords: aviation, aviation news, christy wong, dan millican, flying, flying news, general aviation, in the hangar, inthehagar, learn to fly, plane news, planes, taking off, takingoff, chelsea smith, aviation101, josh flowers, cessna, cessna 150, mountain flying, density altitude

Id: LiRTiLAWHgM

Length: 11min 6sec (666 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 15 2023