Up and Down...

A couple of weeks ago I completed one of the biggest (if not the biggest) part of flight training other than actually completing and passing...the solo long cross country. This entails obviously flying solo but also a full flight plan. I did mine from my home airport of Augusta (3AU) to Emporia (KEMP) down to Independence KS (KIDP) and back to 3AU. The total course was just shy of 200 miles and allowed me to use dead reckoning (using your flight planning, previously known positions, and ground clues to figure out where you are) as well as the Emporia VOR (EMP) going to and from Emporia. A VOR a VHF omni directional range which allows you to tune a navigation radio to that VOR's frequency and find your radial to or from that VOR. I also had the Wichita VOR as reference going back to 3AU from KIDP but used mostly dead reckoning and GPS on this leg since the VOR it is not really a good line from KIDP to 3AU and the VOR (however I could have flown to a point where I would have intercepted a radial from the VOR that would take me to 3AU). Overall the flight went quite well, in fact the flight planning was the hardest part. The second hardest part was waiting for the weather to improve. The plan was to meet with my instructor at 8AM on a Sunday morning and hopefully be "wheels up" by 9:30. We were doing great until good until we got to the whole flying part. Due to some rain the day before and cooler temperatures there was some fog and low ceilings at KIDP that I had to wait for. Just before 10AM it finally started to improve so he let me go and to check it on my way and wait and KEMP if it was not good enough. Sadly I had to do this as well and waited another 20-30 minutes there. When the weather was finally good enough I launched out of KEMP for the last two legs which went very smoothly except for a Southwest Airlines crew that got confused and took one of my hand off's from Kansas City Center, after that got straightened out it was smooth sailing. It felt great to finally be done with a big part of learning to fly. The down part of this post is with mixed feelings. I am very excited and can't wait to finish my license and use it, however my aunt and uncle who own the plan decided to put a Garmin 430 (GPS and communication system) in it. As a member of my generation any "new" technology is cool and I can't wait to use that as well. Hopefully later this week it will get back and I will get back in the air. By my count I have one hour of night flight, two hours of simulated IFR and three hours of prep for the practical and oral test. I have continued to study for that part, check back in a couple of weeks for hopefully a very exciting post!