I got to take my long solo cross-country today! 2.4 hours, 156 NM, and two new airports. There was an overcast layer way up high (which dropped to about 9000' by the time I was on my way home, but still up there) and the air was so smooth - one of the only great parts about cold-weather flying is how smooth the air is. Preflighting when it's 21* F is not fun, but still absolutely worth it!
Almost across the lake - my first airport. I didn't get many pictures of this one. I notice that the longer I fly in a flight, the more comfortable I am taking pictures, so the last half of the trip always has better photographs!
This one, I landed on the grass runway - my shortest runway yet. It was only 1,976' long, so I did a soft and short field landing and take off! After a quick stop to plan the next leg, I was off again. The ceilings were supposed to start dropping later in the afternoon, and I really didn't want to get caught if they started dropping early, so I was trying to be as efficient as possible. The landing was awesome. I used way less than half the runway, and it was pretty textbook. The takeoff not so much. LOL The grass had several interesting bumps that I'd managed to somehow avoid on the landing but not on the takeoff. I let it distract me way too much, and I started climbing out at normal pitch angle, forgetting that I was doing a short/soft field takeoff and thus was at a way slower airspeed...yeah, I caught that just in time. Shove the nose over, baby! That was really freaky, especially taking off of the short runway, without a lot of good options straight ahead. I am pretty sure I will never do that again any time soon! I got myself "reset", and climbed out at the proper airspeed. After I'd leveled off at my cruising altitude, I realized that my near-stall on takeoff had freaked me out so much I'd completely forgot to raise the flap notch I'd put in for the takeoff. Thankfully, that was the last stupid thing I did on this trip.
En route to the next stop. Interesting propeller effect in this one! I spent a lot of time admiring the patchwork of grays, browns and golds - there's supposed to be 3-6" of snow in the next few days, so it's a limited time only view! LOL
At the second airport, I landed on an asphalt runway almost twice as long as my home runway, so that was an easy landing. Then taxi to the FBO at the second airport for a bathroom break and flight planning. 444 has rabbit ears! At this airport, I got marshalled in to a parking spot right in front of the FBO. Since it was so cold, I opted to let the line guy fill the plane up and went inside the warm FBO.
It was a super nice FBO, and had the most awesome recliners in the pilot's lounge...I almost decided to take a quick nap, but thought that sleeping defeated the purpose of being efficient. It was tempting, though! I did my planning, paid for my gas, and then headed towards home. Takeoff was absolutely flawless, which was nice for my self-confidence after the last one.
I was cruising back at 4,500', and I could see wispy clouds starting to form far beneath me. I was very glad that I had been in a hurry, because I didn't want to be up in the air when those clouds thickened up. I made it back fine, though, with a nice landing on the grass. Once I got back, there was no line guy to fill the tanks for me, so I had to do it. It was cold. LOL I fired 'er up and took 'er back to the hangar.
At the home drome! I got 'er in there! It's an adventure pushing the plane back into the hangar by myself. I'm not strong enough to push back with my hand on the towbar, so I have to position the nosewheel and then push on the wing until the nosewheel straightens out...lather, rinse, repeat. It takes a while, but it always feels like such an accomplishment when the plane's back inside.
I was so much more comfortable flying into new airports this time around, which was a nice surprise! Unfortunately, even though I tried to pick the busier airports, nobody was around. LOL At the first airport, it got busy after I left - there were at least three planes in the pattern together less than ten minutes after I'd left. It sounded like a very interesting situation, as two out of three didn't know where the other planes were. Just hearing that made my stomach hurt and I was really glad I wasn't there at the time.
I am totally wiped out again, but it was a nice way to end a pretty difficult week. It definitely wasn't a perfect flight, and there's lots that I learned (like, don't let yourself get distracted on takeoff for any reason!!! I still can't believe I did that. That was so close to a bad ending. I try so hard to stay away from those!), but it was overall a pretty decent flight. I still have .6 of an hour left of solo cross country, but then I only have to take my night flight and do checkride prep. It'll be weird to fly with my instructor again. It's been a month since I've flown with her!
Almost across the lake - my first airport. I didn't get many pictures of this one. I notice that the longer I fly in a flight, the more comfortable I am taking pictures, so the last half of the trip always has better photographs!
This one, I landed on the grass runway - my shortest runway yet. It was only 1,976' long, so I did a soft and short field landing and take off! After a quick stop to plan the next leg, I was off again. The ceilings were supposed to start dropping later in the afternoon, and I really didn't want to get caught if they started dropping early, so I was trying to be as efficient as possible. The landing was awesome. I used way less than half the runway, and it was pretty textbook. The takeoff not so much. LOL The grass had several interesting bumps that I'd managed to somehow avoid on the landing but not on the takeoff. I let it distract me way too much, and I started climbing out at normal pitch angle, forgetting that I was doing a short/soft field takeoff and thus was at a way slower airspeed...yeah, I caught that just in time. Shove the nose over, baby! That was really freaky, especially taking off of the short runway, without a lot of good options straight ahead. I am pretty sure I will never do that again any time soon! I got myself "reset", and climbed out at the proper airspeed. After I'd leveled off at my cruising altitude, I realized that my near-stall on takeoff had freaked me out so much I'd completely forgot to raise the flap notch I'd put in for the takeoff. Thankfully, that was the last stupid thing I did on this trip.
En route to the next stop. Interesting propeller effect in this one! I spent a lot of time admiring the patchwork of grays, browns and golds - there's supposed to be 3-6" of snow in the next few days, so it's a limited time only view! LOL
At the second airport, I landed on an asphalt runway almost twice as long as my home runway, so that was an easy landing. Then taxi to the FBO at the second airport for a bathroom break and flight planning. 444 has rabbit ears!
At this airport, I got marshalled in to a parking spot right in front of the FBO. Since it was so cold, I opted to let the line guy fill the plane up and went inside the warm FBO.
It was a super nice FBO, and had the most awesome recliners in the pilot's lounge...I almost decided to take a quick nap, but thought that sleeping defeated the purpose of being efficient. It was tempting, though! I did my planning, paid for my gas, and then headed towards home. Takeoff was absolutely flawless, which was nice for my self-confidence after the last one.
I was cruising back at 4,500', and I could see wispy clouds starting to form far beneath me. I was very glad that I had been in a hurry, because I didn't want to be up in the air when those clouds thickened up. I made it back fine, though, with a nice landing on the grass. Once I got back, there was no line guy to fill the tanks for me, so I had to do it. It was cold. LOL I fired 'er up and took 'er back to the hangar.
At the home drome! I got 'er in there! It's an adventure pushing the plane back into the hangar by myself. I'm not strong enough to push back with my hand on the towbar, so I have to position the nosewheel and then push on the wing until the nosewheel straightens out...lather, rinse, repeat. It takes a while, but it always feels like such an accomplishment when the plane's back inside.
I was so much more comfortable flying into new airports this time around, which was a nice surprise! Unfortunately, even though I tried to pick the busier airports, nobody was around. LOL At the first airport, it got busy after I left - there were at least three planes in the pattern together less than ten minutes after I'd left. It sounded like a very interesting situation, as two out of three didn't know where the other planes were. Just hearing that made my stomach hurt and I was really glad I wasn't there at the time.
I am totally wiped out again, but it was a nice way to end a pretty difficult week. It definitely wasn't a perfect flight, and there's lots that I learned (like, don't let yourself get distracted on takeoff for any reason!!! I still can't believe I did that. That was so close to a bad ending. I try so hard to stay away from those!), but it was overall a pretty decent flight. I still have .6 of an hour left of solo cross country, but then I only have to take my night flight and do checkride prep. It'll be weird to fly with my instructor again. It's been a month since I've flown with her!
