**Disclaimer: Wrote this a couple weeks back on my way back to school after spring break. Haven't been able to really publish until now because of school work...with that said, enjoy!**
Spring break 2015 has at last come and gone...and it's official! I completed my first solo cross-country flight. Before I was able to go on that flight though, I had to get checked out with my instructor first.
Early Saturday, we went up and practiced all of the required maneuvers, and they all went pretty well for my first time flying in two months. The only thing that I had a little trouble with was recovering from a stall, lowering the nose of the plane too much after the stall to try and gain airspeed to recover. In the process, I lost a bit more altitude than I should have and that's where I went awry. Don't worry though - after the initial stall recovery attempts, I completed the recoveries and was able to 'pass.'
After that early flight, I had some lunch and spent some time hanging around the airport, waiting for the winds to die down. As a student pilot, I have 'concrete' limits on things like wind, visibility, and cloud ceiling. The limits placed on me are 10 knots of headwind, 7 knots of crosswind, visibility of 8 miles, and cloud ceiling of 2,500 ft. On Saturday, the winds reported both at Valparaiso (VPZ) and Lewis University (LOT) were fluctuating just in and out of my limit range. At about 3:30, the winds fell within my limits both at Lewis and Valpo and I headed out!
My flight took me from Clow Airport (1C5) to Valparaiso/Porter County Municipal Airport (VPZ) in Northwest Indiana. The FAA regulations say that a cross-country flight is a flight that's over 50 nautical miles (straight line distance) one way from departure to destination. Thankfully, the straight line distance here is 52.6 miles - just far enough outside the limits where it'll work for me, and I won't waste my time going too far.
My route was not a straight line from 1C5 to VPZ for one main reason - I had to steer clear of the Chicago Midway airspace (the solid magenta rings). In order to avoid this, I headed along a more southerly route and overflew Lansing Municipal Airport (IGQ) and then headed direct to Valpo, By the time I actually got to Valpo, winds were very light (4 knots) and I had possibly my smoothest landing to date - flights both ways also had no turbulence, which made for an awesomely smooth ride. Very enjoyable.
Below are some pictures that I took while cruising over to VPZ...
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Southwest 737 crossing my path about 2,000 ft above and 1-2 miles away
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| Another view of the quarry, with I-94 cutting through the middle |
The rest of the week (Monday through Friday), I tried to schedule my longer cross country flight (which I needed to complete my 5 total cross country hours). However, Mother Nature didn't quite cooperate with me, as winds were almost always greater than 12 knots, sometimes gusting, which is well above my limits and therefore prohibited me from flying.
Saturday was a much different story. For the first time all week, winds were at 7 knots or below and the skies were crystal clear, which would have been perfect for some flying! Sadly, some others had the same idea that I did when I tried to schedule a Saturday time block, as almost all of the Saturday slots were already rented by other pilots. Even if I were able to get my flying in on Saturday, I'd be waiting until I got back from school for the summer to go on a checkride and officially get my license. While it's unfortunate, I guess it just wasn't in the cards for me this time and I'll just have to keep playing this waiting game.
In my next post, I'll talk about how the weather changed on me unexpectedly before landing back at 1C5 during that cross country flight to and from Valpo.
