A lot has happened since I last flew. I am at the point in my training where my CFI thought I was ready for my first solo cross country flight. For those of you that aren’t pilots, don’t get excited. A cross country flight is a flight to an airport further away than 50 nautical miles, not literally across the country. For my first trip, my CFI thought I should fly to KEVY then to KRJD, and finally back to our airport (KANP). I think my CFI purposely sent me to two airports where most of the VORs were out of service and the automated weather reporting stations were also down. It was just more adversity I had to add to the equation of this flight and rather than becoming upset about it, I just thought about how I would overcome it.
I planned the flight and after a few weather cancellations, it looked like it was time for the trip to happen. The first day my CFI would let me make the trip, I could not sleep the night before. I self cancelled (OK, my wife made me cancel too) because I did not get a full night of sleep. Another day my CFI would let me go, there was some haze in the area. Even though local PIREPs (pilot reports) said it wasn’t that bad, the little voice in my head said I shouldn’t go. It probably didn’t help that I cut my thumb open on a razor and was taped up like a cartoon character. Every cancellation made me feel like a little piece of my manliness was stolen from me and the anticipation was really building up. About a week later a hurricane blew through offshore and cleared up the weather. The winds changed so that it was blowing across all of the runways I would be landing at. I decided that I would tackle the crosswinds, but wanted to do it on a day I didn’t have to think about work… so I took the day before Labor Day weekend off and went for it. I think it is important to note that the night before my flight, my son Aiden decided to give me a little advice: “Dad, try not to bend the plane tomorrow!”. Wow, that boosted my confidence.
After all the pre-flight activity, my CFI cleared me to go around 3PM on Friday September 4, 2009. I called my wife to let her know I would be landing around 4:30PM after I filed my flight plans. I think I actually took off around 3:45 after my wife finally let me off the phone, which was a little later than I originally planned. I got up to about 2,000 ft and exited our local traffic pattern. I then talked to Potomac Approach for our local SFRA clearance protocol. Each time, I was sure to say “STUDENT PILOT” after my “755SP” call sign so everyone know there was a pretty nervous guy up in the sky that did not have the experience of a full pilot. The controllers were pretty nice and did talk a little slower than usual to make sure I understood everything they said.
I reached my first checkpoint (the West side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge) and turned towards Rock Hall, MD, which was my second checkpoint. Somewhere in the middle of the Bay I looked around the plane, then about 270 degrees around me outside and had a feeling…. it felt kind of like taking myself as a 12 year old boy and plunking me into my 34 year old body and then thinking “Oh my, I’m flying a plane all by myself over the Chesapeake Bay!” Who would have ever thought? Most of my life, I was scared to fly. Now I am flying a plane. There’s irony for you!
I made my second checkpoint without a problem. I was looking for my third and fourth checkpoints (some towns and big baseball fields on the Eastern Shore of Maryland) while talking to ATC providing me flight following (traffic advisories). I looked up and realized that I was at a river (which ended up being the Sassafras River), and if my memory was correct it was my fifth checkpoint! I could not believe how fast everything (literally) flew by! I was also happy my dead reckoning navigation was working well because I was exactly where I was supposed to be! This was about the point where Potomac ATC dropped my flight following and could not hand me off to Philadelphia ATC because they were not responding to them, but was nice enough to provide their frequency. The controller was really great, he told me everything I needed to do to get on Philadelphia’s frequency. I knew I was getting decently close to the airport (KEVY) and listened to Philly ATC. It was much busier than Potomac and not easy to jump in for flight following for the few minutes of flying I had left. I decided since I was closing in on the airport pretty quickly, I would start reporting my position on the common KEVY frequency. I did not see the airport, but knew I was getting pretty close pretty quickly. The Cessna 172SP moves along at a good pace let alone when you’re the only person weighing it down (don’t worry, my CFI isn’t THAT heavy). At this point in my confusion, I will admit, I looked at the GPS to see where I was. I cheated, and I feel bad about it. I couldn’t keep up with everything going on and it seemed like the safest thing to do. I found that I was nearly on top of the airport in no time. What I did not expect was that 3-5nm on a map puts things closer than you would think when you are a few thousand feet above them. For things that close, you have to look down and not straight out your windows. After I successfully located the airport, I noticed that I did not hear anyone using the airport on the radio. I decided to overfly the field at a higher altitude than traffic pattern in order to check the winds and to see which runway was in use. At this point a seaplane flew across my path from left to right in front of me and was climbing higher than I was. That was very unnerving! I was trying to concentrate on my landing and this traffic came out of nowhere! Even though I was on his right and had the right of way, I dropped 500ft and banked to the right just like my CFI once taught me. Now I was about 500ft above the traffic pattern and looking for the winds… they said runway 35 was active. I set myself up for the landing and I will admit… it was a pretty good one! I’ll take the good landings when I get them.
I taxied back to runway 35 and pulled off in the runup area to switch my charts and navigation logs. After I performed my runup (I figured sitting at idle for a few minutes might warrant it) I waited for the same seaplane I saw before now landing at this airport (he had wheels too). He landed and cleared the runway, so I made my radio calls and took off towards KRJD. After I navigated the traffic pattern towards KRJD and departed, I called up Philadelphia ATC for my flight following. Although I said “STUDENT PILOT”, I think there is an air traffic controller in Philadelphia somewhere that wasn’t happy I was in his airspace. I had a little trouble communicating with him at first, but we got everything straight and all was good. Philadelphia handed me off to Potomac and they guided me the rest of the way. I must have said “STUDENT PILOT” too many times because they even called out the airport to me. However, I thought he said “Traffic at your 12 o’clock” because I said “Traffic not in sight”. He said “755SP I said your airport is at your 12 o’clock and there is not traffic at your 12 o’clock”. I couldn’t help but laugh, say thank you, and tell him I had the airport in sight. My problem was that the plane was still traveling faster than I expected, plus miles up in the air are really small so you’re usually having to look down more than “out” the window. That is something I’ve vowed to work on for my next solo cross country. I’ve flown with my CFI many many times, but this realization came to me on my first solo flight because I had to do everything inside the cockpit. It could have been worse, so I was still happy. I remembered thinking that KRJD was the same width as KANP, but was much longer and looked really really tiny from where I was. I wondered how I was going to get the plane on that runway. I was duped by an optical illusion that I once read about, but didn’t realize until I actually had it happen to me.
Getting into the pattern after overflying the field at KRJD was not my most admirable moment as a pilot. Basically, I messed it up. I don’t know how, exactly, but I messed it up and wasn’t even level or pointing exactly where I wanted to point when I was abeam the numbers. I thought I could correct it by the time I turned to my base leg for runway 12, but I realized I should just try again because I didn’t think it was correct or safe for me to continue how I was flying. I called a go around on my base leg. I think that was a first for me, calling a go around on my base leg when I wasn’t even pointed towards the runway. I executed my go around and announced on the radio that I would circle around the airport and announce when I was reentering the traffic pattern (correctly). I’m sure there were people somewhere listening to me on the radio and laughing, but I didn’t care. I needed to do it right and that was the best way I could think of doing it. The next time around wasn’t as bad, but I was higher than I wanted to be. That’s atypical for me because usually I’m dragging it in. I landed on runway 12, but it wasn’t one of my better landings. I taxied back to the runup area next to runway 12 to settle my nerves, switch my charts, switch my navigation logs, and get my head on straight. By the time I took off from KRJD I was supposed to be landing at KANP, so I wondered if my CFI was concerned. I should have probably text his phone, but I wanted to continue to concentrate on the plane and my flying solely.
I took off and contacted Potomac to get my flight following. ATC cleared me during my flight following into the SFRA, so that was another radio call out of the way. I really do love VFR flight following. I don’t know why people don’t use it more often! The flight was uneventful other than wagging my wings at some traffic in the area. There seemed to be more traffic in the area than normal because of the holiday weekend. Other than overshooting runway 12 a little when I was on my base leg turning final, my landing was pretty good at KANP! I was glad, because my family (Andrea, Aiden, Madeleine, and Charlotte) decided to come to watch me land. I was about an hour after I told them I would be back, but I was back! Nothing was bent, but I was pretty sweaty and nervous. I was glad it was all done and now I’m excited for my next cross country solo.
I learned a lot from this trip. I learned how I must pick better visual checkpoints and to expect checkpoints only 10nm apart to come at me really fast. I also learned that 3-5nm in the air means what your looking for is probably down, and not out a ways. I think those are all things that will get better as I fly more. At least, that’s what my CFI told me after my flight. He said he wasn’t surprised that I used the GPS and actually expected I would. He said as I become more confident all the multitasking will become easier for me.
I really wanted to kiss the ground after I landed, but I thought that would scare my family too much. I was glad I was back safely and proud to have logged my first solo cross country flight. It was something I needed to do, and I finally did it.







