The original route was ETB-ENW-JVL-ETB:
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| From Blogger Pictures |
Ceilings to the east over MKE and ENW did not look good. This was evident from both the METARs and simply driving east to west to ETB.
Glenn arrived and looked over my flight plan. We talked about doing only ETB-JVL-ETB, and he agreed.
I set up a nav log for ETB to JVL and prepared to file. After a quick call to 1-800-WX BRIEF and a weather briefing from a friendly briefer, it was time to file. I ran through the list, trying to speak confidently, although I have to admit that I was nervous. As I went down the list, I added those two magic words "Student Pilot" to the remarks section.
Moments later, I was out pre-flighting the plane (a Cessna 152 with 7500 hours). I methodically went through pre-flight, then sat down and buckled up. The last time I attempted the solo cross country, I rushed through the pre-flight and forgot to open my flight plan as a result. This caused me to become a bit distraught, return to the airport, and attempt to open it from the ground. Although safety was in no way compromised, it was quite embarassing.
Needless to say, I remembered to open my flight plan this time.
I powered up the plane, did a run-up, and was off. The winds were gentle and forgiving; a mere 6 knots.
The trip out to JVL was surprisingly uneventful. Throughout the whole, 44 minutes, I expected something to go wrong. I was just waiting for a hidden cloud layer to consume the plane, or my radio to fail, or to have an engine fire. Nothing happened.
I made it to Janesville without a problem, speaking the magic words "Student Pilot" once again. The controller talked slower and tried to make it easy for me.
I turned left base for Rwy 4 and made a pretty decent landing.
Minutes later, it was time to head back to ETB. During the flight back, I was grinning ear to ear. I had already completed the difficult part of the flight; getting back to West Bend was easy.
I was more organized on the way back. I timed checkpoints and found my groundspeed was slightly lower than I planned for. Staying on course was no problem.
I finally made it back to ETB after having to descend a bit early in order to avoid a scattered cloud layer at 2700 AGL.
I triumphantly stepped out of the plane and back onto terra firma after 1.8 hrs and 134 n.m. of flight.
3.2 hrs of solo cross country, .6 simulated instrument, then checkride prep!
Written test on Wednesday.
