Finally - Some Flight Time

About time. After the fiasco last time, I was definitely ready to get back into the air and keep my skills up. Since I eventually want to get an instrument rating, I've been working on planning mostly cross-country flights to work on navigation. It's not really instrument training, but it's work to polish up the flying and tighten the tolerances.

Today's flight was the same one that I had planned for last time. This time, it went off without a hitch...well, maybe just one. The winds were a bit much and I never made up my time flying into a headwind, arriving back home a bit late. But if that's the worst of it, I'm happy.

The trip was just two legs, with a VOR in the middle. I don't let the apparent simplicity of the navigation to make for a "routine" flight though. I monitored my progress, noted times at checkpoints, cross-checked my VOR with my GPS with my chart, and paid close attention to my heading and course. I also went through the radio frequencies of the fields I passed and kept in the habit of checking my engine instruments every few minutes.

Arriving in the vicinity of my destination (an uncontrolled field) I made the radio calls and kept an eye on a departing flight. Overflying the field, I checked the wind and then went out wide, descended to the pattern, and came in for a good landing. After a short stop to reverse the GPS flightplan and double-check my times, it was back into the air for the trip back.

It was a good exercise to arrive at an unfamiliar field, and I tried to maintain my altitude a bit better than I usually do. It still needs work, but it was a good post-checkride "lesson".