First Solo XC Today

ReverendSlappy

ReverendSlappy

Ejection Handle Pulled
Joined
Jun 20, 2006
Messages
11,475
Location
Chicago
Display Name
Display name:
ReverendSlappy
Well, I'm getting ready to leave for MDW to pick up my instructor. Then it's a quick flight over to IGQ to drop him off, and I'm on my own down to DNV and back to IGQ.

I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty excited! (And maybe a touch nervous, but really only about my FP calculations being correct... I hate math! :D) My last two flights were the first times I've been away from the airport solo, and each one of those times I felt more and more like a real pilot. ;) Hopefully this will be the same.

Wish me luck, and I'll post about how it went either when I get back later today or tomorrow when I have more time.
 
ReverendSlappy said:
Well, I'm getting ready to leave for MDW to pick up my instructor. Then it's a quick flight over to IGQ to drop him off, and I'm on my own down to DNV and back to IGQ.

I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty excited! (And maybe a touch nervous, but really only about my FP calculations being correct... I hate math! :D) My last two flights were the first times I've been away from the airport solo, and each one of those times I felt more and more like a real pilot. ;) Hopefully this will be the same.

Wish me luck, and I'll post about how it went either when I get back later today or tomorrow when I have more time.
Click to expand...


YES!! This, IMHO, is the most exciting of all your solo flights.

I remember my solo cross country so much more than my first solo.
 
Well, it went really well... after one really lousy landing at IGQ, I headed on down to DNV, chilled for a bit while the plane was getting gassed up, and back I came for another really lousy landing at IGQ.

It was quite the feeling to see the airport off in the distance after such a long (for me, anyway) flight. I had just started thinking to myself, "Well, it should be right up ahead some... hey, that's it right there!" Pretty rewarding.

It started off a bit strange though... all my waypoint times were way off on the way down there. I couldn't figure out what was going on... "How could I have been 3 minutes late to the last one and now I'm 2 minutes early to this one?" After the 4th waypoint, I noticed the problem... I had been using my waypoint log labeled "DNV-IGQ" instead of "IGQ-DNV". :redface:

Anyway, got to DNV uneventfully (I didn't even have to cheat and use the DNV VOR), greased the landing, met a really nice airport bum and his young son just hanging out there, grabbed a can of pop, had a smoke (I know, I know), and back out I went for an easy flight to IGQ. Good times!

Long X-C is the weekend after next. Hope that one goes just as well as this one!
 
Last edited:
ReverendSlappy said:
Long X-C is the weekend after next. Hope that one goes just as well as this one!
Click to expand...

Excellent!!

Those are the most fun and really cause you to believe that you are truly a pilot.

I remember the X-C far better than the solo as well, ABE (Allentown PA) to POU (Poughkepsie NY). That's when it hit me that all this navigation stuff really does work. Don't sweat the brain burps, happens to all of us.

Gary
 
Congrats Slappy, sounds like you had a better 1st X/C then i did. I never found the airport,kept turning around about 1/2 mile short (Airport was just behind the hill). Next thing you know you'll be taking the checkride and passing it. CONGRATS Again . keep up the good work.
Dave G.
 
SOLO XCs WERE THE BEST!

I still think that is when one really becomes a pilot. Yeah the first solo is kinda cool but XC is when you really leave the nest. You picked a good weekend to fly. I had a Coast Flight yesterday (Saturday) and on Sunday I was all over Southern Wisconsin picking up CONUS Challenge airports. It was all just a perfect weekend of flying.
 
Good job on the solo x-c!
I remember mine... it was the first time I felt like a real pilot. I flew a lot that day.. am guessing that every controller in central and downstate IL heard from me that saturday (not because I was in their airspace, but thought there was a chance I might be if I strayed off course, and I had no one else to talk to :) )

Looking forward to the checkride story!

Leslie
 
Cross countries are the most fun part of learning to fly. Not only are you potting around in the sky, you are actually going somewhere, using all that you've learned.

Have fun with the long XC.
 
Ghery said:
Cross countries are the most fun part of learning to fly. Not only are you potting around in the sky, you are actually going somewhere, using all that you've learned.

Have fun with the long XC.
Click to expand...

Completely agreed. You have a destination, and you get to put all of your skills to the test without that nagging instructor there. :D
 
Thanks for all the well-wishes, folks! I was up again yesterday with my instructor, and it turns out I'm a lot closer to the light at the end of the tunnel than I had thought... I can't fly until the weekend after next, when I'll do the long X-C, but after that, it's all just polishing up for the checkride. Woo-hoo! I'm starting to get pretty excited now.

And yeah, it really did feel like "the real thing". I think it set it when I was at DNV... On final, I noticed a couple of crop dusters waiting for me to land... I thought to myself, "Alright, gotta make this one a greaser if these guys are gonna be watching." :D After I did, I think it really became clear when I was shooting the breeze with the airport bum there... Without realizing it right then, I think that was the first time I had talked to another pilot about flying without feeling nervous and unsure of myself.

Anyway, thanks again for all the kind thoughts -- not to mention the oodles of knowledge I've picked up by lurking in the aviation-related sections. This is really an awesome community! :)
 
Good job. I'll echo the others when I say the solo XCs were the best. Wait until the long XC. That's the flight where I really felt like a pilot, what a great feeling that was!
 
Good job, Monseigneur! It's funny how, when I got out of the plane after my solo long cross country (which was actually my first cross country!), I felt actually like a pilot, for the first time ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top