My Long Solo XC Nightm.. uh, Adventure!

If heaven hasn't good whiskey, what's the point? Congrats on the training milestone. I recall a training flight with a busted door (held on with a shock cord, no foolin') to a 15 foot wide strip nestled in the hills that had a mechanic with the part I needed.

Got beat up pretty good yesterday myself. Either go above the clouds or skirt below them, boy did I call it wrong.
 
steingar said:
If heaven hasn't good whiskey, what's the point? Congrats on the training milestone. I recall a training flight with a busted door (held on with a shock cord, no foolin') to a 15 foot wide strip nestled in the hills that had a mechanic with the part I needed.

Got beat up pretty good yesterday myself. Either go above the clouds or skirt below them, boy did I call it wrong.
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That darned hindsight - always 20-20!
 
I agree with all the previous posts, great flight and great writing. It is not easy to find people nowadays (especially the younger ones) that know how to properly use their own dang native language. But you made me feel better about your generation today. (a praise from an aging guys) ;)

I love flying around NE, especially the places around Boston. Pardon me, "Boa-h-sten". ;) Never got a chance, though. Maybe in the future.
I wonder why you didn't take the scenic route out of RI, east along the coast (climbing) and then follow the shore inland (north) over PVD. At least that's the way I would have gone. While I'm down there, why fly home the shortest route? I'd want to see pretty cost lines. :) But then again, it's just me, an aging guy. ;)

Now you've made a nice long journey on your own, with 0 help. You encountered problems and you dealt with them. You exercised what can be called "authority". You were ... wait for it ... a Pilot in Command. :)
Again, good job, glad you enjoyed it, sounds like you had a blast, despite some sticks that piled up underneath your feet.

Now the best advice I could give you (not that anybody asked, dangit) is no specific advice at all. (confused? :D ) Instead, I can hint that if you look back at your trip with a little bit of distance (and a good beer in your hand, rightfully so), you will see other options. THINK of them, analyze them, "quaterback" your own dang trip if you have to. But learn from it. As I do from every one of my trips. The saying goes "a good pilot never stops learning". They're not kidding.

Now go fly some more! (and post pretty pictures of the East Coast sounds, inlets and islands ... and lighthouses! You're not that far from Pigeon Cove ;) )
 
I flew w/ a student once along the Cliff Walk in Newport RI where the summer "cottages" of the Vanderbilt's and those folks are, and they ain't cottages. Fun and interesting.

Cajun, you need to check out this.
 
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I just went through and listened to some of the ATC chatter from that day - mostly the highlights, such as when the tower guy barked at the other pilot in Nashua, and when Providence was asking pilots if they saw any smoke or fire on the ground, and when I lost radio... oh, and when Groton made fun of me for my weird frequency. Good stuff! lol

Funny enough, I'm already ready to get back up there.

Big Bad Lou - I actually flew along that coast a few weeks back on my way down and back from Block Island with my instructor. Beautiful.
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Cajun_Flyer said:
Thanks! And I assure you, I have no intentions of giving up on being a pilot. It was just a moment I had on the last leg of my journey when I thought, "This isn't fun anymore. So why the heck am I doing it?" Of course, once I got back on the ground, all the reasons came flooding back to me. Besides, it's usually the things that present the greatest challenges that also provide the greatest rewards.
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You hit the nail right on the head with your last sentence. Flying is the ultimate "learn as you grow" adventure. I've never experienced anything in life that teaches while giving so much of a reward back( and I'm a teacher by trade.) The challenges you face now in your training are there to learn from and you are fortunate enough to have a CFI right along with you to bounce thoughts off of. Take advantage of that- ask questions, develop your knowledge, learn the ins and outs the best you can. When you are on your own and flying along on that beautiful late afternoon with the sun setting along side your wing tip and the orange and reds and whites and blues of the sky all are blinding you by there beauty, you'll be forever greatful that you went the distance in your training.

Please, do us all a favor and keep writing about your experience!
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
There, I chatted with a couple old pilots who were really confused to see a young lady climb out of an airplane – BY HERSELF!
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You must have flown into the museum of natural history, where such fossils are kept on display.

Sounds like you had a great adventure :) Thanks for sharing!
 
Keep it up! Some go really well and a few don't but they all make wonderful memories that will last a lifetime. Learn from each and apply to the next XC
 
While I have the unfortunate task of dealing with Cajun_Flyer on a daily basis, she is becoming quite the pilot. In my line of work, one of the things I truly look forward to is watching the students grow. A students growth is almost always taken as one dimensional growth (aka how they fly), but flying is so much more than that. Flying is an experience, one that not everyone gets to have. It can become a way of life. It can become a support system financially for a family. It can become an escape. It can be an overwhelming fear. Or it can become the most exciting hobby you can think of.

The way this article was written is how more people need to approach their fight training, and maybe just every day life. Things are going to happen that were unplanned, no matter how MUCH planning you put into it. It is inevitable in daily life and it is inevitable in flying. How you handle those punches really defines you as a person and as a future pilot.

This gets me back to the growth of the students. I remember a mere 6 months ago a very nervous yet excited student walking into our building. This student is now a strong, confident, intelligent, and lets not forget quirky woman who is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of becoming a pilot.

Aviation is a wonderful thing and to watch students of any age gain so much confidence and pride out of something, it's inspiring.

Congrats on your flight and for making SMART decisions.

One step closer!
 
This is the greatest solo cross country post I've ever read! Well done on the flight and way to keep it FUN, too!
 
We have a student AND her CFI on board, that is pretty interesting.

And Cajun Flyer, no more pretty pictures of civilization, please. Or you will be banned. Where I live, you "might" have 10sm visibility but after those 10 miles, you see all white. Yes, humidity, haze and smoke from Mexiko, 11.9 months out of the year. The best time to go up for pretty pictures is after a cold front passage where we can actually see 50sm+ (for a day or two).
 
BigBadLou said:
We have a student AND her CFI on board, that is pretty interesting.
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That's not my CFI... that's the guy who glares at me when I forget to hand over my SIDA badge at the end of a flight, fusses at me when I walk through the terminal doors with someone instead of separately (security reasons) and answers every one of my calls with, "What did you break this time?" AKA, the manager.
 
Awesome job Cajun. I love reading about your journey and this is no exception.
On the being a girl flying topic, I listen to approach and the local CTAF on my scanner at the office all day and I smile every single time I hear a woman pilot on the radio. There was a massive Air Force plane flying right over my office late last week and a lady came on the radio and I just looked up in complete awe and gave her a salute. I don't know why, but I think lady pilots are the coolest ever and you're the coolest lady pilot ever. ;)
 
Damn girl, how much did you have to pay that guy to come on here and blow your horn for you? :p

Weren't we POA regulars doing a good enough job? ;)
 
We are a full service operation so the buffing of egos is included in your rental rate.
 
I don't even want to think about how much money I've handed over to Rich. :/

I'm not sure why he (or my instructor) worry so much over me with the airplanes. As is obvious, I'm a perfectly safe pilot...

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Still need to figure out what those weird little hash-lined polygons all over my sectional charts are, but, I mean, come on... details, details.


OBLIGATORY DISCLOSURE: Yes, this is photoshopped. :)

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Cajun_Flyer said:
I don't even want to think about how much money I've handed over to Rich. :/

I'm not sure why he (or my instructor) worry so much over me with the airplanes. As is obvious, I'm a perfectly safe pilot...

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Still need to figure out what those weird little hash-lined polygons all over my sectional charts are, but, I mean, come on... details, details.
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So wadja do to attract their attention? Lol. How's your plans for San Diego and Catalina going? Have you found an instructor and a plane out there yet?
 
I enjoyed hearing a different female pilot going out for some student pattern work at APA the other day.

Nobody has control of the voice they're given, and this poor girl had the squeakiest "sounds tiny" voice I've ever heard over a radio. But she commanded it.

She had me and my CFI chuckling lined up fourth behind her for takeoff.

All the radio calls were flawless but her voice made it sound oh so funny. And I'm sure she's aware of it. But she rocked the radio calls. No problems at all.

Just one of those things you don't hear too often. If there was a stereotypical "tiny blonde cheerleader ditsy" voice, she had it. But she made it work for her!

I was kinda busy making sure the three holer jet in front of me wasn't gonna blow me backward or something crazy and keeping my distance. "Dot Com" bird.

I forget who was in front of him but the controller goofed and cleared them to taxi to the hold short behind "squeaky" (for lack of a better name), and then they got stuck there in front of "Dot Com" and I, and the controller apologizing to everyone that the IFR release/clearance for the jet up front hadn't come through yet. Ugh.

Soooooo we sat. Controller was probably on the land line to DEN going, "Seriously guys?" Hahaha. Oh well.
 
If you need a recommendation for a school or rental aircraft in the Los Angeles area, the flight school I went to is the best. Yelp says so.

Also, things going wrong on your solo xc is entirely the point. Some annoying thing, be it minor or major, happens on every flight. My solo xc seemed to be more about dealing with those things that come up which didn't come up during training, and learning how to roll with it.

Excellent write up, btw. Took me way back ... to last year ...
 
luvflyin said:
So wadja do to attract their attention? Lol. How's your plans for San Diego and Catalina going? Have you found an instructor and a plane out there yet?
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The CFI has been found. A plane reserved. As long as the weather holds up and the island doesn't blow away, I'll be doing a very exciting xc out of San Diego soon. Catalina Island is going to be a great first out-of-town entry in my logbook (and, hopefully, an even greater memory).

Regarding women on ATC - there's one who flies out of my airport who has a really shrill voice. Nails on the chalkboard. But she flies a jet, so she still has way more cool points than I do. Then there is this guy who sounds REALLY old - like maybe not even still alive kinda old. He whispers all his transmissions. Honestly, when he comes on, I get chills down my spine. I hate my voice, but thankfully I don't sound shrill or, well, dead - so at least there's that!
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
The CFI has been found. A plane reserved. As long as the weather holds up and the island doesn't blow away, I'll be doing a very exciting xc out of San Diego soon. Catalina Island is going to be a great first out-of-town entry in my logbook (and, hopefully, an even greater memory).

Regarding women on ATC - there's one who flies out of my airport who has a really shrill voice. Nails on the chalkboard. But she flies a jet, so she still has way more cool points than I do. Then there is this guy who sounds REALLY old - like maybe not even still alive kinda old. He whispers all his transmissions. Honestly, when he comes on, I get chills down my spine. I hate my voice, but thankfully I don't sound shrill or, well, dead - so at least there's that!
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I'm prayin to weather gods for you. Enjoy
 
Worked with another controller in the USAF who used a totally different voice when he transmitted. Couldn't figure that one out. He was a weird dude anyway. :)
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
The CFI has been found. A plane reserved. As long as the weather holds up and the island doesn't blow away, I'll be doing a very exciting xc out of San Diego soon. Catalina Island is going to be a great first out-of-town entry in my logbook (and, hopefully, an even greater memory).
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Have fun. Flying around new terrain with an instructor is a great motivating experience. And there is lots of good flying around LA. It doesn't look at all like the east coast.

Another really good one is Big Bear. You can learn about how density altitude affects the airplane, well. And it's a beautiful flight.

I flew up there in a Warrior shortly after I finished my PPL, with an instructor, out of Lancaster (KWJF). I learned more in that lesson than any previous, hands down, especially a really important tidbit that Vy drops FAST in a PA28, as weight goes down or altitude goes up. Climbs at 70 KIAS at 8500+ DA were substantially faster than climbs at 79. We covered some real winds (it BLOWS in the desert), mountain turbulence, reading winds against terrain, a Warrior checkout, high DA operations, and took that thing up to almost 12000 DA on the return.
 
I was actually debating Big Bear vs Catalina, but ultimately settled on Catalina. I'll probably be back that way again next summer, so will give Big Bear a shot then if so. It looks beautiful.
 
beautiful write up.. its that long cross country that scares the hell out of you.. i had a bunch of surprises on mine as well. Everything changed in weather compared to what i planned for..
 
Ahh my solo XC...about a year ago this month. Arrived at KHII (Lake Havasu) two hours behind schedule in a 172 that had already tried to kill me once on my fourth solo....

As I managed to fight through the turbulence and 1384629 ATP students in the pattern, I landed, walked into the FBO to use the facilities...

I walked out to the line guy standing at the bathroom door:

"Is 7JH yours?"
"Yes"
"Did you take the left fuel cap with you?"

$&?!.

After crew-car-ing it into downtown Havasu at 3pm on a Friday to unsuccessfully find a replacement, the kind folks at Desert Air called an owner of a similar 172, who was kind enough to let me borrow one off his plane so I could get home.

I returned it via UPS that afternoon.

How did it vanish to begin with?

Now, my cantankerous instructor was having a fight with the airport owner at the home field so he was bringing in his own 100LL in from another field.

That morning, his transfer pump in his pickup came from together.

So I waited an hour and a half. Preflighted and ready and waiting for fuel. I was ready to alter my plans and pick up fuel at the big airport 10nm away on the outbound leg when he got it working. Well, he fueled it and left the f$&@/Ing cap unlocked. It was later located in the run up area at my home field.

Long story slightly shortened, it's now 3pm, 98 degrees and windy.... I took off and pointed the nose towards the sky and wished for the best. I was supposed to T&G at Blythe, but after setting up for the wind favored runway and fighting through severe turbulence over the afternoon desert, I heard a Cherokee taking off, opposite direction.

I aborted and headed straight for the next stop...NYL, where I would fuel the plane, then back to my dirt strip.

The next time I flew the plane after that, the panel almost fell into my lap on takeoff (shock mounts came from together) and then the next flight, the single-shaft magneto worked its way loose.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I had a fuel cap come off on a club plane once, an older model 182. I had stopped at a neighboring field where we had pre-purchased fuel at one of the FBOs. The nice line guy fueled the plane as I watched, and I spot-checked one of the caps but not the other. Went on to my destination and got back without any sign of excess fuel "usage", but in the morning one of the other members, who had the plane reserved, found a fuel cap missing. Turned out it was (of course) the cap that I neglected to check. He scrubbed, and I had a flight scheduled for the following morning, at which time we begged a fuel cap off another 182. I felt terrible about getting to fly when it was my fault that the fuel cap fell off, when another member had had to scrub because of my stupidity. But I went, as my flight that morning was to a music festival for which I had pre-purchased tickets.

The moral, of course, is to ALWAYS check BOTH fuel caps (and the fuel level) after a lineman fuels your plane, even if you are watching them like a hawk. You have skin in the game; they don't.
 
About fuel caps and "excess consumption."

I flew right seat on a 182 ferry not long ago. The flight was short, a bit under an hour. Apparently the cap popped off in flight (or so the PIC said). Total fuel consumption was quite normal, but the uncovered tank sucked fuel across the cross feed so that it contained more fuel at the end than when it started.
 
Years ago I was BS'g with the guy across the road (a T-37 IP) and we looked up and noticed something streaming from the plane. I said I bet the fuel cap is off, he says ya think so, I say yup. He called the base ATC as he knew where the Tweet was on the departure. Turns out I was right, they had the Tweet RTB and it was off and a solo student pilot. Of course I didn't tell him I had that happen to me on a C182. :D
 
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I remember my xc solo like it was yesterday, although bit more uneventful than yours. Worst I had to deal with was a pilot from a jump plane cutting me off in the patter at my second destination, and not hitting any of the jumpers as I tried to land.
 
azure said:
I had a fuel cap come off on a club plane once, an older model 182. I had stopped at a neighboring field where we had pre-purchased fuel at one of the FBOs. The nice line guy fueled the plane as I watched, and I spot-checked one of the caps but not the other. Went on to my destination and got back without any sign of excess fuel "usage", but in the morning one of the other members, who had the plane reserved, found a fuel cap missing. Turned out it was (of course) the cap that I neglected to check. He scrubbed, and I had a flight scheduled for the following morning, at which time we begged a fuel cap off another 182. I felt terrible about getting to fly when it was my fault that the fuel cap fell off, when another member had had to scrub because of my stupidity. But I went, as my flight that morning was to a music festival for which I had pre-purchased tickets.

The moral, of course, is to ALWAYS check BOTH fuel caps (and the fuel level) after a lineman fuels your plane, even if you are watching them like a hawk. You have skin in the game; they don't.
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This. After it's fueled, I always visually inspect fuel levels.
 
OP.... you're awesome! Great summary and even better job handling the situations. I learned a lot from this, so thank you!
 
MetalCloud said:
This. After it's fueled, I always visually inspect fuel levels.
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One of the benefits of flying a low wing is that I can see both fuel caps at all times.
The first thing I do when I walk up to the plane is check the fuel levels and stick my nose in the hole to get a good sniff. I smell all my sump samples as well to make sure it smells right.
 
tuwood said:
One of the benefits of flying a low wing is that I can see both fuel caps at all times.
The first thing I do when I walk up to the plane is check the fuel levels and stick my nose in the hole to get a good sniff. I smell all my sump samples as well to make sure it smells right.
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You're doing it wrong
 
Very enjoyable read. I had a few of those moments on my long XC as a student too... Looking back, I laugh at them, but at the time, I thought I might die. As someone else said, things happen. They're going to happen on every flight... But, as you gain experience, the way you deal with them changes, and they turn from potential catastrophes to minor(if that) annoyances:)
 
tuwood said:
The first thing I do when I walk up to the plane is check the fuel levels and stick my nose in the hole to get a good sniff. I smell all my sump samples as well to make sure it smells right.
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Ever taste test it?
 
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