1st Solo Cross Country

I had a beautiful day for my first solo cross country flight. I got to work this morning and it was 38F with frost on the ground. Some in Florida would say that's too cold, but it's just right for me. The sky was clear and the winds calm. Perfect flying weather.

I finished my flight plan at Bay Air. I had left my E6B in the plane on my last trip, so all the math had to wait until I retrieved it. Took me about 45 minutes to get the weather, NOTAMs, calculate courses, times and fuel consumption. After Rob arrived and checked my flight plan I was good to go.

The trip north was very uneventful. The air was calm. I hit all my checkpoints within a minute of the calculated times. I remember reading that another student pilot blogger had written that flying the plane is not all that hard, it's all the stuff that comes with flying that complicates the issue. Once at altitude and with a proper flight plan, flying in good weather could not be much easier. OK, if I had an autopilot it could be easier, but even without one it's not hard. Now, if you're trying to land at an unfamiliar airport and take some pictures things can get kinda sticky. That's what happened to me.

The automated weather was out at Crystal River, but someone at the FBO there was good enough to give me wind and active runway information over the unicom frequency. I would be using runway 9, which was opposite of the way I landed Tuesday with Rob. I'm coming from the south and landing on 9, so I'm supposed to overfly the field 500 feet above pattern altitude and make a teardrop entry into the downwind, and I want to get photos of the springs, which happen to be right under the left hand pattern for 9, and I'm at an uncontrolled field which means I have to announce every turn on the CTAF. If it seems like I was trying to accomplish too much, I was.

I got a photo that was not real good (the one at top), I completely butchered my entry into the pattern and who knows what I said on the radio. Lesson learned: Take photos while cruising, NOT in the traffic pattern. I completely forgot about the teardrop, and in an effort to get my photo, my downwind leg drifted far too close to the runway. My turn to final was tight and overshot lining up on the runway. Additionally, I was too fast. The good news is that the runway at Crystal River is 4555 feet long. That's almost 1700 feet longer than 18/36 at Whitted. I touched down on the second half of the runway and had room to spare. It worked out better than it sounds. As soon as I cleared the runway, the guy on the unicom announced that we were now using runway 27. Other inbound planes were announcing themselves on the CTAF, so I spun the plane around on the taxiway, announced that I was departing 27 to the south and got out of there. Anyone who saw me had just two words to say: Student Pilot.

I'm still unhappy about not getting good photos. In my youth, I was a scuba diver and had my checkout dive at Crystal River. The river is fed by several springs, one of which is huge. The water is as clear as a swimming pool and filled with fresh and salt water fish. Diving with the manatees is a big tourist attraction now. However, the springs were literally under the traffic pattern and I was not going to try to get another photo.

The return trip was as uneventful as the trip out. Calm clear air, checkpoints on time, very little traffic to worry about. After my series of screw-ups at Crystal River, I was glad to be back at Whitted. I have VOR ground school scheduled for Tuesday and a brief practice session. The kids will be in town for Thanksgiving, so I'm going to take them up for a little sightseeing on Friday. CFI Josh will be our chaperon. I'm really looking forward to that.

lesson 16

You'll need google earth to open and view the lesson 16 file.

Statistics:

Dual Instruction Time: 15.4 Hours

Solo/PIC Time: 7.3 Hours

Landings: 84