At 6:20, I made my touch and go, as I glanced at my watch I realized this was going to be tight, I figured I would be landing in Eau Claire right at sunset. On my way out, tried to catch flight following from Minneapolis Center, of course, called the wrong frequency, but ATC was very friendly, directed me to 125.3. Called them up, and I was a bit too low, 4000 ft, which I later realized was the wrong altitude assignment, I should have been at 4500 (VFR traffic), don't know how I could have missed that in my planning!!!!! Won't happen again. Anyway, I was too low for radar coverage, but they invited me to stay on frequency, turns out there was some jumpers (parachuters) over Lake Wisota, and they helped advise me to make sure I stayed clear of their operations. I tell you what though, the extra chatter and interaction with ATC over the parachuters really taxed my multitasking abilities, it was all I could do to maintain heading, scan for traffic, watch my checkpoints, and keep altitude (which I kept wandering around 4000-4300, and automatic failure if this would have been a checkride). I definitely see the appeal (and subsequent dependency on GPS systems to lighten the workload). Just south of Lake Wisota, caught the river, and then quickly found the airport. Got handed off to Eau Claire tower frequency, a Citation was on approach for 22, tower had me on left traffic for 14, and they called my base turn, which resulted in about a 2.5 mile final, but that was ok, gave me a really long and easy look at the runway to lineup. The runway lights were on, boy that was a weird feeling, the sunset had just dipped below the horizon as I heard my wheels *chirp* on touchdown at 7:04 pm. Taxi back to parking, and my first real solo cross country was history! 1.7 hours official time added to the log book.
I am up to 36.1 hours, technically less than 4 until I hit the minimum for the checkride, but I won't be ready that soon. I still need 3 hours of night flying, 3 hours checkride preptime, over 2 more hours of solo time, including a super long cross country (1 solo cross country flight of at least 150nm total distance with full stop landings at 3 points and one segment of at least 50nm between T/O and landings). So, I figure I could be ready for the checkride probably between 45-50 hour mark, but no rush, the neat thing is I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Boy, it seems like yesterday I was struggling so hard with landings, persistence pays! Looking forward to a weekend at the cabin for some bow hunting, but weather doesn't look like its going to cooperate, no matter time up north is always well spent!
2 comments:
rawesome. You should long cross country near madison and I'll meet you at the airport. :) Jake
Congrats! You are officially on the down hill slide.
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