first solo to nearby airport

first solo to a nearby airport (KOKV, Winchester Va) and 2 landings and then return home. turned out ok i think.

pay attention and cross check

I decided to do some flying using MS Flight Sim X tonight for practice. I also wanted to do everything as if I were in the plane so I had my chart, airport directory and checklist and did everything correctly on the way from JYO (Leesburg) to OKV (Winchester). I also let it use the local time so it was dusk at takeoff. I setup the autopilot on the way out and let it get me there. I found the airport and landed. Then I had to come back...I was all pleased with myself for doing everything as if it were for real. It was dark as I was about to take off. I bugged the course I wanted for the return, took off and turned on the autopilot again and just panned around. After a while (btw, one thing I didn't do was a correct nav log since it was a shor t flight so I didn't have the leg times written down which would have been much smarter) I thought "hmm, I should be there already". After a while longer I was sure I should have been home so I decided to find myself and tuned the VORs to AML and CSN and centered the needles. I couldn't believe what they were telling me. I was way south of where I should have been. I broke down and took a look at the FSX map because I thought I was reading the VORs incorrectly and I actually was waaay south of where I should have been. I quickly deduced the reason, when I bugged the heading for the return I couldn't see it very well (it was dark and I didn't have the panel lights on) so instead of 117 I had set it to 187 (a profound difference) which pretty much pointed me towards Florida. If I hadn't been pleased with myself and had actually taken a minute to think I would have realized my heading was "just plain stupid" and not make the mistake. Once again I learned, pay attention and cross check everything you're doing, particularly at night.