Solo X-Country - Almost

This post is for my instructor, Ed, who complained to me that I haven't been keeping up the blog. He's right - posts have been slow in coming. So too have been the flight hours - unfortunately. I flew 1.9 hours today, and before that it was a week and a half ago when I last logged .9 hours. We had a wedding last weekend which took up all my spare time, not to mention the planes have all been booked pretty solid any other time I've wanted to get out.

In any event, I'm slowly plugging away. My hope is to finish before the end of October. To do that I need 2 solo cross country flights (total 5 hours), 2 (?) more night landings, practice, and a passing grade on my FAA written exam. Oh, and I'll have to schedule and pass the checkride.

I set out this morning to do the first of my solo cross countries. Ed and I reviewed the two possible plans I'd made last night, and I took off intending to head for Port Angeles. The weather was fine in both Seattle and in Port Angeles, but apparently not in-between. I was in the air 15 minutes before I knew I had to turn around. The sky was much clearer to the South, so I headed for Vashon thinking I'd be able to head out towards Elma, which was my backup destination. I cancelled my original flight plan and filed and opened another for Elma. Sadly, I got about 2/3 of the way to Elma when low clouds and rain turned me back again.

Not to be deterred, I've scheduled a 2nd attempt for Wednesday afternoon. I'll have to take off from work, but weather permitting I'll fly to Port Angeles and back no problem.

Also, Wednesday evening Ed and I are going to get some night flight in. Should be fun.

I totalled up the hours in my logbook. Including the 24 hours I had at age 17, I'm up to 50.1 hours. Woot!