AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 34

BRIEFING
FROM THE LEFT SEAT
BY NIKI BRITTON
I'm a fairly low time pilot (about 400
hours) who has never flown general aviation
outside my home state of California.
Most of my time is in my family's Cessna
182, with some Cessna 177, 172, and Cirrus
SR20 time. My typical flights usually
consist of unadventurous trips around
the patch, chill flights around the San
Francisco Bay Area, Northern California
wine country, and family flights south to
San Luis Obispo.
I'm a homebody and I like it that way,
but I also knew my home-centricity wasn't
exactly taking me out of my comfort zone
or helping me grow as an aviator. So, when
it was announced that AOPA's next sweepstakes
aircraft was a Cessna 182, I jumped
at the opportunity to co-manage the
Sweeps with fellow content producer and
CFI Alicia Herron.
As EAA's AirVenture got closer, the
nerves began to set in. At the time I was
chalking it up to being concerned about
getting the aircraft's avionics and annual
finished on time, but when the maintenance
was complete and the day came to
take off on the long journey, my nerves
remained the same. Thankfully I had Alicia
as my CFI and co-pilot. Having an experienced
cross-country pilot by my side
really built my confidence. Based at an airport
that sits just 281 feet above sea level,
I have no mountain flying and very little
high-density-altitude experience, so the
first leg was a challenging learning experience
for me. And as luck would have it,
we experienced nearly no turbulence as we
cruised at 9,500 feet msl over the Rockies.
I've done long flights before, but typically
those have been in my aircraft, which
I know intimately. In this new-to-me classic
straight-tail Cessna 182 that had just
come out of the shop, and flying over a lot
of new real estate, I was constantly scanning
the instruments and listening intently
to anything that could be amiss. This, I
imagine, caused me more mental fatigue
than I was used to, and I could feel it. I
slept hard that first night.
The route
Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa,
Arizona to Moriarty
Municipal Airport (0E0),
New Mexico
" Overall, day one went as
smooth as possible. It was
a grind, but an uneventful
one. We had autopilot,
significantly reducing our
workload. We were flying
in summer, so running out
of daylight, even heading
east, wasn't a concern. The
weather was perfect. "
-Alicia
0E0 to Garden City
Regional Airport (GCK),
Kansas
GCK to Nebraska City Municipal Airport (AFK), Nebraska
" By leg three, Niki was feeling the suffering, and by the time
we got to Nebraska City (home of Arbor Day, as I'm sure you
knew already) for the night, we were both ready to be in a dark
room in silence. But this was the evening of the nationwide
tech meltdown, and we had delays due to payment processing
issues, a spilt-milk problem that we were both nearly at our
limit for. We ate the world's most delicious pretzels of all time
at our overnight stop, the Lied Lodge, and chugged water after
a day of tactical dehydration. " -Alicia
" After meeting an
enthusiastic AOPA member
and taking his photo with
the AOPA Sweepstakes 182
at Moriarty, we filled the
aircraft tanks, emptied ours,
and took off for Garden
City, Kansas. This leg was
probably the most mentally
taxing for me as it was our
second, nearly three-hour
leg of the day with our last
leg, about two and a half
hours, still looming. " -Niki
34
34
AOPA PILOT / September 2024
AOPA PILOT / October 2024
ALICIA HERRON
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024
