The first leg of my trip began at 6:00AM (13:00 Zulu) and was going to take me over SDL and DVT into the mountains towards the Colorado River. It was a beautiful morning and the scenery was incredible. I was hitting all of my checkpoints pretty much right on. All was well until my coffee spilled all over the right seat AND my logbook. Oh well, at least it looks used now. When I came within 12 miles of Lake Havasu, I radioed that I would be making left traffic for Runway 14. This would allow me to fly by the airport for observation.
Suddenly a voice came over the CTAF frequency saying that winds were calm and that the calm wind runway was 32. OK that's fine I can go straight in for 32 - oh, but wait, I read a NOTAM that said straight in approaches were not allowed. Cool! Fly out over the lake and make left traffic for 32.
Landed and had to pee really bad so I taxied to the FBO. Pee'd got a bottle of water and ended up putting a quart of oil in the plane - it was down under 5 quarts.
Off to Blythe. This is a really cool flight because you can basically fly down the Colorado River the entire way. It is a nice flight. Short too. Unfortunately, the airport is a total hole. I took a picture of the sole hangar at the airport. It has definitely been on this earth longer than I have. Made a quick bathroom break and headed back to Phoenix.
Upon leaving, I contacted Los Angeles Center for flight following. They were great. They handed me off to Albuquerque Center. All was going well and then I was handed off to Phoenix approach. Then Phoenix approach cleared me into Class Bravo airspace at 4500 feet for one of the west to east VFR transitions. I wasn't expecting this but I'm willing to try anything once. I then got handed off to another controller. I switched frequencies and the following exchange took place:
Phoenix Approach, Archer 2 8 7 Hotel Papa is with you at 45oo feet.
November 2 8 7 Hotel Papa, Phoenix Approach. Care to tell me why you're with me at 4500 feet when the previous controller cleared you to 5500 feet?
Phoenix Approach, Archer 2 8 7 Hotel Papa. I wrote down and read back 4500 feet. Since the controller did not correct my read back, I think I'm cleared to 4500 feet.
November 2 8 7 Hotel Papa, Phoenix Approach. Negative. You were not cleared to 4500 feet. Cancel Class Bravo clearance, radar service terminated, squawk 1 2 0 0, frequency change approved!
So I got that going for me. Which is nice...
Flew out, around, and under the Class B airspace the rest of the way. Still a little peeved about the controller's nasty attitude but they're in charge. I guess. Successfully completed my last solo cross country and I had a lot of fun too!
Flight time: 4.1
Total time: 72.4
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