Tuesday, December 18, 2007
first solo cross country (JYO - CHO - JYO)
i just got back from my first solo cross country. i went from KJYO to KCHO (leesburg, va to charlottesville, va). it went reasonably well. going down i flew via the LDN (linden) VOR and on the way back i flew direct to JYO (ATC flight following both ways) using GPS. i wanted the VOR practice which is why I went via LDN heading down there. it was probably excessive but i flew to 7,000 feet across some of the mountains on the way there but i have to admit, they still looked pretty close. coming back i was cleared by ATC into class bravo airspace (around IAD - Dulles) but i had to refuse it being a student pilot. overall i had one or two hiccups dealing with potomac ATC but i got there and back and nobody came out the worse (as far as i know). the weather was perfect. i think i saw CHO around 15 miles out but i wasn't sure that was what it was until i was around 10 or so (being a bit over cautious i suppose). i suspect that each time i said student pilot (initiating radio contact for each new ATC handoff) the real pilots in the area added a few miles of airspace between me and them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Congrats! I did my long dual XC to CHO earlier this month, and it was pretty busy that day (on a weekend) - if the weather is good next week I hope to go back for my long solo XC.
The mountains around the airport do get one's attention - they would definitely be on my mind if I flew out there at night.
Congratulations, my first solo cross country felt like a big milestone. Sounds like you did great.
Congratulations! Did you have to do a right pattern to land at CHO? I flew there on my first XC, and the winds were such that the controller had me do a right base. I think this would have been a big help to most pilots-- but this was my first right pattern. Somehow, my instructor and I had never done them. It was a little sloppy, but I managed to get it together on final. fun times!
thanks for all of the congrats. the CHO tower had me come straight in to 21. i almost asked to do a midfield crosswind and the pattern for practice. i do find the straight in a little more challenging though because it seems to be a harder for me to judge when to slow and start dropping the flaps. i was a bit low at first (and i was pretty much abeam the little hill with the antenna on top of it) on final.
Nice job! I hope you had fun!
Post a Comment