Looking To The Sky

First 50-Mile Cross-Country Flight

Yesterday, after a few weeks of trying to do so, I was able to finally fly a cross-country flight down to Corvallis (CVO), up to Salem (SLE), and back home to Twin Oaks (7S3).  The flight was one of my longest to date around two hours, but great to be able to check off my list of things to do before getting my license.

I know what you’re thinking, “Corvallis isn’t cross-country”; however in aviation, a cross-country flight is considered to be a flight over 25 nautical miles from the airport where the flight originated.

Corvallis airport is 57.8 nautical miles from Twin Oaks giving the distance required to be able to mark off landings for my 50-mile cross-country flight.

I began my flight by pre-flight checking 2108Y, but as Rick and I were about to start her up, we found out the battery had died 🙁  Thankfully, we were able to hop into 734KU and continue the rest of the flight as planned.

The flight to Corvallis and up to Salem, I flew using the points I had marked on my map.  Points like airports and river bends to make sure that I’m on course.  The given name for this is dead reckoning.  The flight to Corvallis and then to Salem had some slight curves to the course, but overall I was able to get to my destinations with no trouble.

I flew two landings at Corvallis and Salem.  The Corvallis airport isn’t controlled (no tower), so it was just a matter of me announcing what I was doing on the radios to those in the area.  Salem is a controlled airport however and therefore around ten miles out I made a call to the tower requesting permission to enter the airspace and to land.

Heading into Salem I had my first experience with being told to fly right into the runway.  Every other landing before this I made a call, flew the pattern, and then landed.  I gave my location around three miles out and came in for my extended final.  I was higher than I should have been my first landing, but I had plenty of time to get down.   I landed with great success.  I followed this up by taking off and having one more successful landing before taking off back to Twin Oaks.

On my way to Twin Oaks, I flew with my foggles and flew using the VOR.  After reaching the south practice area around the location of the Newberg VOR, Rick had me perform some turns blind.  Along with trying to recover from conditions Rick put the plane into while I had my eyes closed.  I did a great job with my 180-turn, but my 360-turn wasn’t so great, also my climbing turn (I didn’t turn at all!)  The recoveries went well for the most part.

After the crazy flying, I flew and landed back at Twin Oaks with a great final landing.  For being one of my longest flights, not a lot went wrong.  There were a few critiques here and there by Rick, but in light of the crappy weather and conditions, I was quite pleased.

Logs:

Total Flight Time: 2.0 Hours
Simulated Instrument Time: 0.5
Landings: 5

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Until next time I report my flying (which probably won’t happen till I return from Hawaii!); take the time and enjoy the below video. DON’T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT!!!

This video is the chopped up version of my solo at McMinnville (MMV) which I did on the 11^th of February.

Categories: Private Pilot Completion

Tags: Cessna 172, cross-country, flying, IFR, K7S3, KCVO, KSLE, N734KU, Rick, Training, Turns, VFR, Video

Short Flight Soloed at Twin Oaks!