My Aviators - My Journey as a Woman Pilot

My wheels were off the ground at 10:30am this morning. I climbed to 1200 and turned crosswind. I decided to do a quick touch and go and examine the visibility before I headed south. Mike (works as a line guy) just landed with his grandkids and warned me that visibility sucks because of haze. He was right. I had plenty to stay VFR but it kind of robbed me of the great views on a clear day.

My touch and go went great, I once again proved I haven't forgotten how to land, one of these days I will believe that before it happens :) I took off on 15 and headed North for a few minutes while I got clearance to transition through QC airspace. Once I had radar contact I proceeded on course of 195. Things were progressing beautifully. I requested flight following for QC approach and they switched me off to Chicago Center. Chicago switched me to Kansas City Center and the flight down was pretty uneventful. I did pass over a plane headed perpendicular to me about 1000 feet below me, which was really cool. It is the first plane I have encountered in flight (other than others in the pattern or on my training field). I terminated flight following about 8 miles north of Quincy and descended to land on 13. It was super quiet at KUIN so it was just me hanging out. I landed, a pretty good one, secured the plane, and headed into the FBO (great river aviation).

I was expecting to eat at Tailwinds the restaurant on the field. However, the FBO informed me that it closed a few months ago. Oh no! My first $100 hamburger was a bust. Then Great River Aviation saved the day, they offered me their crew car to head into Quincy to eat something. Not what I had planned, but I thought I had enough time to head into town to eat something. I drove the main strip and didn't see anything other than chain restaurants. So I turned back and decided to stop at Fridays. So my first $100 hamburger was really a club sandwich :)


Once back at the FBO I did a quick weather check and headed out to the plane. On my way out I took a picture of the plane sitting on the field and a very nice gentleman asked if I wanted my picture taken by the plane. AWESOME! He got a couple of good ones too.


I did my preflight and was ready to start up. There was another plane getting ready to go do some training so I was trying to hold off on starting up until he headed out. So I waited and waited and waited. I finally decided there were not going to go anywhere so I started up and wouldn't you know, they started to taxi. GRR. So I followed them down the ramp and waited for the them to run-up and take off. It took forever, I was literally hearing cha-ching, cha-ching as the hobbs meter ticked upward.

Finally off the ground I headed north. I wasn't going to pick up flight following on the way back, but that would have negated one of my goals for the flight. So I called up Kansas City Center and got flight following for the way back. I am glad I did because there was a crap ton of traffic. The ATC guy was like stay on your toes you have targets heading at you from everywhere. I was on the radios like crazy. The first target I didn't have in site and he was unverified at my altitude so I requested an altitude change to 5500 feet. Approved I climbed and saw the traffic as I was on my way up, he passed under me and was no factor. Another plane passed over me at about 6200 feet and in front of me by about a 1/2 mile. The third one was well below me and no factor again. After the Burlington VOR and the traffic was clear, they switched me off to QC approach. They had trouble with my transponder, so I cycled it and they still didn't have it. I was advised to stay at 5500. About 10 miles from QC airport they picked up the transponder again.

With Davenport in sight I was approved for frequency change and started my decent. Winds were more than I would have liked coming back into Davenport. They were 110@12G20. Once I was below 2000 feet it was super bumpy, I came in and landed on 15. It was not my best landing but I was pretty proud of it for being at my personal max crosswind of 10kts (it might be time to bump that up to 12).

Landed, secured, paid, headed home. I have had my fix for a few days at least. Kind of hoping to fly again on Friday, we will see if I have some money and the weather cooperates.

Goals set for this flight

• Transition through QC Airspace for ATC Practice - Check


• Pick up Flight Following for ATC practice - Check


• Land at a new airport - Check


• Do a couple of touch and goes and concentrate on rudder usage - Didn't really accomplish, the three landings I did I was very conscious of my rudder but didn't get to do touch and goes like I wanted.


• Concentrate on in air rudder usage - Check, very conscious of it, still needs work.