I flew a cross-country flight to Port Meadville Airport (GKJ), which is located about 80 miles north of Allegheny County Airport (AGC.) The airplane I flew was Cessna 172 (N596CS,) and the expected flight time was about an hour.
The weather around Pittsburgh was not good for several days before the day of flight. The sky was supposed to clear up by noon according to the terminal aerodrome forecast, or TAF. However, the weather recovered a little later than the forecast. So, we changed the initial plan; my instructor filed an IFR flight plan, and we took off as IFR. We were supposed to switch to VFR as soon as we are clear of clouds. Of course, I'm not instrumental rated. So, I flew as directed by the instructor until switching to VFR.
Initial plan (which was not implemented) was to fly north after taking off AGC until hitting I-76. Then, change the course slightly to the west, and fly straight to GKJ. We were supposed to fly over lake Arthur and then follow I-79. But, since we changed the plan, we ended up with reaching way to the west of the intended course. (We did not get lost, simply had to take a different path.) When we saw the intersection of I-79 and I-76 on the right (which we were supposed to see on the left) we switched to VFR.
After switching to VFR, the sky was clear, and I had a very good scenery. I took some photos from the airplane as shown below (click to enlarge.)
<= Grove City Mall. A large outlet mall. On the right of the
mall is I-79.
<= Grove City Airport, which is located on the north of the mall.
<= Probably a water reservoir. I could not find a name on the
sectional chart.
We were about 15 miles south of GKJ when we came above the bridge of I-79 over the lake Wilhelm. Then, I had GKJ in sight. According to the AWOS, the wind direction was 280. (90 degree off from the forecast :-P ) The runway of GKJ was 7-25, and we chose to land runway 25. When we came closer, I saw a small hill over the final of runway 25, with a tall tower on top. I hesitated to descend at the end of downwind, and I turned too early to base. Perfect ingredients for too-high-on-final. Well, I managed to land. The airplane floated long time over the runway due to the too high airspeed as a result of steep approach on final. At least I flared well.
So we arrived at GKJ. I parked the airplane beside the terminal, where three doors away from the public road outside the airport :-)
<= Terminal of GKJ
<= N956CS parked outside the terminal.
We walked to the famous hot dog stand "Footlong Hot Dogs." The hot dog stand was just five minutes walk from the terminal. As advertised, the hot dog was a foot long. It was worth a try.
<= Footlong Hot Dogs
Then we came back to the airport and headed back to AGC. According to the weather briefing, the sky was clear, and VFR condition enroute.
<= Lake Wilhelm on the way back.
The flight was just as I planned, until we came over the lake Arthur. The VOLTS warning (low voltage warning) light came on. Oops, we got a problem! Initially the light was blinking, but it then became steady. We might lose avionics. We were just about to come to the Butler county airport (BTP) so I discussed with the instructor about making an emergency landing at BTP, but he said we should be able to make AGC. We contacted Pittsburgh approach and reported that we may lose electric power, and in that case we would not be able to make a radio communication, and Pittsburgh approach controller relayed the information to AGC tower. The instructor told me to prepare for no-flap landing, because we cannot lower wing flaps if we lose the electricity.
But, somehow the battery lasted to the end. When I called AGC tower, I was told to make right base runway 28. I confess that I'm not good at right traffic pattern. And, I was confident in drawing a good traffic pattern, if I started from downwind, but I sometimes make a bad traffic pattern if I join base. And, I did it again :-P I was too high when I turned to final. Luckily, runway 28 of AGC was long enough (actually very long for Cessna.) So, I made a safe landing. I've got to practice right traffic pattern more.
Although we had a small problem in the end, the flight was fun. The area we flew over turns red in fall, and the scenery from the above is supposed to be beautiful (according to the instructor.) I will come back to this area in fall.
By the way, I was cleared for solo flight. I would fly with an instructor once again (I'd like to practice cross-wind landings once again before going solo. But, after that soon I'll start solo, and I'll post some articles in this section.
