My second flight lesson on Saturday, April 8th, was a solo cross-country flight to Illinois Valley Regional Airport (VYS). The flight went very smoothly and I hit my checkpoint times within 20 seconds each way. I played with the Garmin 530 and 430 both ways, but did not navigate by it. I concentrated on maintaining my heading and altitude within practical test standards and was disturbed that I couldn’t seem to hold heading without giving it a lot of attention. On my flight back, I was further disturbed twice when I would notice a plane relatively close to me on a different altitude—why hadn’t I noticed them sooner?
When I returned to Lansing (IGQ), it was night. I was definitely planning on using the moving map GPSs to find the field, but as I approached the Chicago Heights VOR (CGT), I could clearly see Lansing’s runways illuminated so I turned toward the field, clicked the mic to keep the lights on, and lined up for an entrance to the 45 to 27. Landing on 27 would give me a couple knots of a tailwind on final, but I was lined up for it and there was nobody else around. It all turned out peachy—one of my best landings ever.
My most significant take-away from the experience, though, was that solo XC flying is boring! That might be due to the unending flatness of the Midwest, though.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
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No question that it can be boring. On my milk run (Santa Monica to Las Vegas) I will bring along my iPod. Night makes it a lot harder, because you can't watch the terrain glide beneath you (which is very close to enough entertainment all by itself).
I always get flight following, even for fairly short hops, so I have to devote some attention to spinning the knobs and talking to strangers. But on some of the long night flights the iPod (with Bob Dylan's XM Radio show loaded) have been vital.
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