I glanced at the VFR Planning Charts, will look more at them tonight. Originally thought I was going tomorrow, but the weather doesn't look good, and its been over a week since I flew, so tomorrow (if it stops raining) I'll do some pattern work and maybe some ground reference.

The airplane I'm flying is a 1961 C150A. I love that little plane, but its a little tight for a kneeboard, so I'll just use a regular clipboard. The nicest thing is that it just had a King/Bendix GPS installed in the panel a couple of weeks ago. I know, I know, "don't count on the GPS". Still, its nice to hit the "DRCT" button, key in an airport (or better, select "nearest airport") to double-check or help bail you out if you're really messed up.

My first one will barely qualify for an X-C. Round robin C62-I76-C62 (Kendallville, Indiana to Peru, Indiana and back). Total of 114 miles. Looks like we're going to have rain through next week, so I might not be able to go for a while now. I76 is right across from Grissom AFB and I cross an MTR in route (which might be interesting these days). Neither C62 nor I76 have a tower. Last week I flew into EKM (Elkhart, Indiana) for my first exposure to ATC. Did the 3 solo landings to a full stop. My instructor almost didn't let me solo there though, until I had my caffeine bolus I was a little shaky. I hadn't landed behind jets before and I'm used to the pattern being 800 AGL instead of 1000 AGL. Losing those extra 200 feet was a little different for me. But, I did fine. For that flight I had prepared a VFR flight plan, although it was really too short to do that (iirc, 37 miles from C62 to EKM). Didn't matter though, as soon as we left to head back, my instructor says, "Ok. The GPS doesn't work, there's a thunderstorm in front of you, what do you do?" I said (as I started my 180), "Head back to EKM. Do you want me to call the tower back?" He said, "Nope. You can't go that way because there's another storm with hail that crept up behind you. Now what are you going to do?" I said, "Is anything happening at Goshen?" He said, "Not yet." I said, "Okay, Goshen is closest, I'll head over there." So, I flew over a railroad, found it on the map and did a touch and go at Goshen.

Anyway, I better get back to work. I'll post on this thread when I complete the X-C.

Thanks again,
Mikem

My dual xc I used a chart out of the Gleim Pilot Handbook. It was fine, but there was *too* much information on it (even my instructor said so). So, I came up with my own, which is similar to the first one on the link. And I do mark down the time over checkpoints, although I confess I don't figure "fuel remaining" at each checkpoint, assuming I'm ontime or ahead. If I start to get behind, then of course, I'd be calculating fuel remaining.

I flew today. I had planned to do some pattern work, but the wind was pretty rough at pattern altitude. Got smooth (well, constant wind anyway) above 2000, so I did some ground reference, turns to a heading, etc. and played with the GPS - which freaked me out. I'd been up about 45 minutes and decided to head back to the airport. I haven't played with the GPS much, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I dialed in Direct to C62, looked out the window, looked back at the GPS and without noticing that it had a SNAFU, I turned to the indicated heading. Then, I noticed something. I was west of the airport, flying to it, was on track according to the GPS, but the sun was behind me. A closer look at the GPS and it had decided I needed to fly to EKM instead of C62, all on its own. I've gotta get more used to that display or not use it at all ;-)

Thanks for the well wishes. Today was useful in another way as well. The wind was straight across (perpendicular to) the runway and was blowing much harder than when I took off by the time I got back. Weather report said winds were going to increase to 10-15 with gusts up to 25, but that was supposed to be later this afternoon. Our wind speed monitor is down, but the sock was standing out straight when I taxied back - and perpendicular to the runway. Probably not too bad for a more experienced pilot, but that was the most cross wind I've faced - and uh, I think that's all I want, at least for now ;-)

bcnu (maybe in the air),
Mikem