First Solo Cross Country

Took all week to finally get some good weather for this flight. Was too windy or the ceilings were low the other days. Flight went well. Right off the bat I had to divert from my flight plan so it was kind of messed up. Tower had me go a little more northwest, past highway 20 to avoid some other traffic. I didn't really keep track of my flight log in terms of times and stuff but not a real big deal. Was a little hazy on the way to Waterloo, I was getting kind of nervous about that. Pretty bumpy ride with all the rising thermals. Other than that, it was pretty uneventful - which is a good thing. Called up Ft. Dodge radio, opened flight plan... Then over to Chicago Center to pick up flight following - basically you are watched on radar the whole time, they know where you are etc. Then called up Waterloo approach... Then over to Waterloo tower. Airport was pretty much a ghost town with the exception of some sexy Black Hawk helicopters. One of them was hovering around the departure end. It was awesome. But basically they cleared me to land like 10 miles out so that was win. Just entered a downwind and turned it around and landed runway 6. Made a full stop and then took off and turned right, past the black hawks. I went direct to Cedar Rapids from there. I was looking for the airport well hard on the way. I finally saw the airport and what looked like the runway I was supposed to land on. It seemed like forever before approach handed me off to tower but they did in time. I dropped down for a nice straight in approach for 13. There was one other guy behind me but not a big deal. Made a full stop and then took off back towards Dubuque. I got a little mixed up with frequencies... They handed me off to departure and I apparently put the wrong one in. I was like 'oh sh-' but I looked at my list of frequencies I printed and got it sorted out real quick. The flight back to Dubuque was pretty nice, seemed like any other flight back from training. The timer on the GPS for the ETA just kept ticking down. I looked at it and it was at like 45 min but then what seemed like a minute later it was at 25 minutes and before long I was talking to tower to land. My landings at the other airports were really smooth but my landing at Dubuque was as bouncy as a kangaroo. I was really kinda ticked about my sucky landing but whatever, I had just done my first solo cross country and it felt great. With all the anticipation, I have finally put this under my belt.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• First
• Solo
• Cross
• Country

[GeneralGoopy]

Learn to land buddy. Those were flat landings

[RoyaIPilot]

@GeneralGoopy ur flat

[RoyaIPilot]

Landing at Waterloo - 4:55

Landing at Cedar Rapids - 7:23

[concarnage5]

he used like a 1/10th of the runway to take off haha

[golden290]

@golden290 Pilotage*

[golden290]

Glass panels? you spoiled SOB! =D I had to do mine in a Grumman Cheetah =\. Dead reckoning in plain ol' texas? kinda rough.. None the less, Great flying!

[RiderCore]

Where did you get tis Helicopter and how does it calls???

or you're a rich man??

[reeselmt]

@Gosbecol123 Not nice dude I am his mom.

[Gosbecol123]

@reeselmt stfu

[PaintYourFriends]

The Propeller hipnotyzed me lolz what kind of pilot do you plan to be?

[Legitjet]

Hey, I'm a UD aviation student as well, I'm doing my first solo cross country tomorrow on this same route!