Flight# 39 - My First Solo Cross Country

It was very stressful yesterday. I was still reeling from it this morning. So I took my time to head to the airport and prepare for the cross country trip without Bill sitting next to me. I made a call to 1-800-WX-BRIEF to get the standard briefing about the whether and airspace restrictions along the route (GIF to OCF). It seems there is going to be parachute activity near Ocala! Since I already went on this trip with Bill twice so far, once during night a few days ago and once yesterday during the day time, it shouldn't be that difficult to fly there alone and come back. I identified a few landmarks on the Sectional chart along the route and filled in the Navigation log. Bill signed me off for the solo trip in my log book and on the student pilot certificate.

I might have been feeling nervous unknown to me because, I tried to start the engine without going through the start checklist first! The engine won't start because the mixture was set to lean! One of the mechanics, Liz,  came by and told me to set the mixture to rich. It was embarrassing to say the least. I also taxied with flaps on! I caught that at the Run up. Any way, the trip was exciting without any complications. I really enjoyed looking at land marks while flying to make sure I was on course. I originally thought of traveling at 4,500 ft but, it was foggy beyond 3,500 ft. So, pretty much I stayed at 3,000 ft for the whole trip. My magnetic heading calculations were based on winds aloft between 3,000 to 6,000 ft. So, on the way to Ocala, I was slightly right of the intended route as there was no wind below 3,000 ft.

After reaching Ocala, I had to go around to make a 2nd attempt at landing as the base to final turn was too tight and over shot the runway on the 1st attempt. The lineman directed me to the parking area. I had lunch at the airport's restaurant before heading back to Winter Haven.

There is a horse statue in the Landmark Aviation's lobby. Notice the horse heads on the body of the horse! There is a jet outside being serviced. I took off right behind it. This town must be having a horse track. Look at the jockeys lined up on both sides of the path way. Bottom left is Landmark Aviation's entrance. The restaurant is inside this building. The bottom right picture shows the 4655X on the ramp. The Qantas airplane still there!

Next time, I need to remember not to pick Transmission lines as landmarks. I couldn't locate them on this trip even though I saw them yesterday! Even though I used dead reckoning, I also used Ocala and Orlando VOR radials to confirm I stayed on course. The picture on the left is of the VOR at Ocala. The trip back was little bumpy as there were lot of thermals. I encountered a few gliders along the way near Leesburg. I recorded this trip on GPS. It can be replayed in Google Earth by downloading this file.

The Hobbs time of this flight was 2.3 hours. Cumulative Hobbs time: 43.6 hours.