{"id":1214,"date":"2006-02-01T22:52:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-02T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2010-12-06T21:49:15","modified_gmt":"2010-12-07T02:49:15","slug":"de-l%e2%80%99ivresse-aux-couleurs-de-saphir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1214","title":{"rendered":"de l\u2019ivresse aux couleurs de saphir"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Flew west to Morganton, just northwest of Hickory, NC. There was hardly any radio communication to manage and the scenery was rising into the mountains and very beautiful in the morning. I got a little lost on the way out there, but between the three navigational methods at my disposal (ground reference, dead reckoning and radio navigation) I got it figured out and found my way.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Life at 4500 ft.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Just out my window. Also a wing strut and a tire.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The terrain rose quickly. The Appalachians were like a wall in the distance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Over the shoulder, looking into the morning sun.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The vitals. Top row, left to right: Clock (unused–I use my watch), airspeed indicator showing 97 kts, artificial horizon, altimeter (almost 4600 ft), navhead 1 (for radio navigation). The directional gyro (DG) under the artificial horizon shows a course of 275\u00b0, almost due west.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What saved my hide on the way out–the Barrett’s Mountain VOR beacon (circled). I drifted north of my course and couldn’t get a fix using the map alone, so I tuned in the VOR and used it and some other landmarks for reference, like…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

…the long lake leading up to Hickory.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I laugh at you pithy little cars. Stoplights, pshaw.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Almost to Morganton. It’s the long clearing almost perpendicular to my flight path.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On the ground at Morganton, taxiing back for takeoff. It’s a friendly little airport. They (over)enthusiastically responded when I called in asking for a traffic advisory and told me to “Come see us again!” as I left the pattern and made my way back.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Your bonafide pilot. According to my instructor, aside from the official FAA endorsement (private pilot license), I can do it all now–operate the plane and get to and from a distant location entirely by myself, which is really all there is to flying.<\/p>\n

More news tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1811,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions\/1811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}