“I’m current but not confident.”
How many times in your flying career have you said that? Maybe it’s been a few weeks since your last flight. Maybe the last landing you made wasn’t your best. Maybe you had minor surgery and were just getting back to normal.
That was the text message from M2 owner, Larry King. He had a big trip planned from Dallas to Utah coming up, and wanted me to fly as a safety pilot before his departure day. To make sure his skills were sharp.
“I am in. What’s the plan?” I replied.
“How about Mesquite (KHQZ) to Shreveport (KSHV), then to Longview (KGGG), then to Tyler (KTYR), then back to Mesquite? We can shoot an approach at each airport, and I have enough fuel, so we don’t even have to get out of the plane.”
Larry doesn’t do anything halfway.
We met at his hangar on a marginal VFR day to brief the flights. Assembling the relevant information using ForeFlight was pretty simple. Longview’s main runway was closed. They were mowing at Tyler. The usual stuff. Larry timed out the flights and filed all four at once. Our phones lit up like a Christmas tree. My job, initially, was to handle the radios and keep us organized. From my “old school” habits, I printed paper charts for each destination. We briefed the probable instrument approaches before departure and filed to the initial approach fix (IAF) where possible. Since the flights were short (38, 17, 16, and 25 minutes), things would happen fast at M2 speeds.
Off we went to Shreveport.
Climbing to FL 250 on the first leg, we needed engine ice as we flew through some light precipitation. The Shreveport ATIS reported 10 knot winds favoring runway 24 but said they were landing 14. Larry asked for the GPS to 24, and approach control agreed. Nice decision.
As we taxied back, ground control asked if we were ready to copy the next clearance. “Tell them we need a few minutes to get sorted out,” Larry said. He deleted the old flight plan and uploaded the new one into the Garmin G3000. By the time we were ready, tower had switched runways to 24.
Off we went to Longview.
We asked for direct to NEVER intersection, the IAF for the GPS runway 18 approach. Larry kept his speed down at our 3,000-foot cruising altitude in a busy training environment. On the ground in Longview, I sorted paper charts. “Are we in Longview or Tyler?” I confusedly asked.
“Longview, I’ll taxi slower, so you can catch up.” Larry laughed.
For the last two legs, I had Larry handle the radios as well. It was a real workout, programming the G3000 for takeoff speeds, landing data, loading approaches, listening for each ATIS, etc.
By the time we landed in Tyler, he was in the groove. I was exhausted.
As I drove home from Mesquite, Larry sent me a copy of his digital flight report card.
“96” isn’t bad, he texted. Practice makes perfect.
Fly safe.
