Things have been very busy in the last week, with two solo cross country flights totalling 6.7 hours of Hobbs time.
Solo Cross Country #1: KSQL-KMOD-KSQL
This was a relatively easy cross country flight, and my route took me by way of SUNOL and TRACY intersections. Flight planning was easy, and finding KMOD was no problem, even with fire-induced haze from a blaze about 25 mi away. I had been studying up on the KLN89(B) GPS that most of the C172S West Valley fleet have (some have KLN94), and was disappointed to find that the KLN89B in N54JA was inop.
N54JA:
Solo Cross Country #2: KSQL-KSMX-KMAE-KMOD-KSQL
Yesterday’s cross country was a beast. I had never logged more than 2.1 hours in flight on any one day, and this cross country came in at 4.9 hours (and around 450nm). I purposely chose KSMX (Santa Maria) because my grandmother lives there, and thought it would be nice to have lunch with her. In addition, it is an airport that I have been to a number of times because my uncle (who recently passed away) had a hangar there and as a kid I had flown out of there with him.
I decided that the prospect of an inop GPS unit was too much to bear, and plunked down $500 for a Lowrance Airmap 600C. I programmed the routes for each leg of the journey, and voila…navigation magic. That said, primary navigation was by pilotage, dead reckoning, and VOR nav, but it was extremely nice to have the 600C.
The trip from KSMX-KMAE got very bumpy over the mountains coming into the central valley (it was 39° in KMAE (Madera) and 40° in KMOD (Modesto))
Everything went off without a hitch, and it was very nice to be able to fly in for lunch with family (my mom/stepdad ended up coming to the airport as well).
My routes were:
KSQL-KSMX via OSI SANTY SNS PRB KSBP
KSMX-KMAE via KSBP PRB ROM
KMAE-KMOD via HYP
KMOD-KSQL via TRACY SUNOL
With my night and solo cross country requirements now met, it won’t be too much longer until the checkride.
Panel at 7500 enroute to KSMX:
Mines in the mountains near ROM (coming into the central valley) enroute to KMAE:
KMCE below (enroute to KMOD):
Back home at KSQL (N35583):
