Long Solo Cross-Country

A beautiful, summer morning, as you can see in the photo...this was 8:30...right before I took off. I had spent the last 3 days toiling over my chart, plotting courses, triangulating VOR's, teaching myself how to do wind correction angles and groundspeed with the E6-B, time en route with the E6-B, trying to remember the nuances of filing a flight plan, putting coordinates into my $89 GPS "yellowjacket". I was nervous, I had only gotten a few hours of sleep. First our cat was in a big fight on the front porch, that was at 12:30am, then at 2:00 Teddy woke up with a bad headache...finally I fell asleep about 2:30...alarm clock hit me at 5:50....but, I didn't feel tired...I was too excited and too scared to be tired! After a mad dash of confused preparation and certain I would mess up something, I left home and headed to KFES. After preflight, adding a quart of oil to Hotel Alpha, making sure all of the radios were set up, buying a bottle of water that I knew I would need, I yelled "clear!" (as in clear the prop out of the airplane window) at 8:34. As I taxied to runway 36, I was amazed to see a giant hawk perched on the end of the row of T-hangars you can see behind Hotel Alpha's tail. He wasn't disturbed at all by my presence...I stopped the plane, and I literally saluted him...I felt it was a good omen to see a fellow pilot. I regret not having taken his picture, but I had other things on my mind. A few minutes later and I was airborne, headed west to the VIH VOR near Rolla National. That's when things started to challenge me...first the VOR's weren't working, both dead as hell. I had Yellowjacket, so I didn't panic. I also, turned on my instructor's fancy GPS and all was good. Then panic....I forgot to activate my flight plan...I called FSS on the phone...I told them I left 10 mintues ago and they weren't that happy, but I told them I was a student pilot and asked them to activate it and luckily they were then very friendly about it and all was cool...except for the weather (which was really hot) and the VOR's not working, but the DME radio was reliably clicking down the nautical miles towards the VOR, so I wasn't worried...before I knew it, I had Sullivan right below me as scheduled and soon after that I had visual on the VIH VOR and Rolla National....then more trouble...I had planned to land on one runway based on the weather I was listening to at Rolla, but the windsock was going wild and I decided it was better to land on runway 4....not a good choice! I ended up in a big 10kt crosswind and I flared too early due to the wide runway changing my perspective....so 10 feet off the ground and I'm about to do a crabbed splatdown right into the runway...I lowered the nose just enough to ensure I didn't stall, then pulled back just in time to prevent a hard touchdown, straightened her out as best I could and had a soft, but wobbly landing...I noticed I didn't fear for my safety at all, just worried about how embarrassing it would be if I "screwed the pooch" as the men of the Right Stuff called it. I learned a good lesson or two...first I should have stuck with the original runway and second, I should have done a go around instead of fighting through that landing...but it was all OK (one reason I didn't want to go around was the unbearable heat at pattern altitude), even if my confidence in landing safely ever again was destroyed! Now it is about 100 degrees, I called my instructor on the ground and ask about the VOR's...he did an excellent diagnostic job on the phone fighting over the noise of the engine...finally, we figured out that I wasn't using the right decimal place! How embarrassing...but oh well, we got them going and I was ready to take off...this time on the right runway!! The rest of the flight to 3DW, Springfield downtown, was textbook....everything worked perfectly and my confidence was back...I even called the Springfield tower, my first ever communication with a tower and advised them I was flying under their airspace soon...they gave me a squawk code and that was that...now I was really nervous about my next landing...this time I would have an audience, filming it no less. I am from Springfield and I had my cousin, uncle, step-dad and best friend from high school waiting for me...I didn't want to mess this up and luckily it was perfect....my confidence restored, I pulled up and a nice young fella topped her off with fuel, washed the windshield and pulled over to the little terminal. It was great seeing everyone there waiting for me and it is an experience that I will never forget my whole life. We all went over to the Hong Kong Inn over on Glenstone and had some classic Springfield-style cashew chicken. I drank 2 huge Cokes trying to rehydrate...it was 106 degrees with high humidity!! An hour later, we all headed back to the terminal. My buddy and cousin both took turns sitting in the plane and I filed my flight plan, did a few wind calculations and prepared to head home, this time with a pretty good tailwind...and luckily I even activated the flight plan before I took off!!!
Happily, I bucked the strong winds and had a smooth takeoff for my family and friends. I came back around climbing in the pattern parallel to the field, gave my wings a waggle to wave to my group below and then turned her towards home. I had to stay under 2500 MSL for awhile due to being under SGF's airspace...soon I was clear and I climbed to 5500 MSL where it was a cool 78 degrees! Everything on the trip home went perfectly, except I was having trouble holding my altitude as the afternoon turbulence picked up, but otherwise it was really nice. All of my radios and equipment worked and I was on course the whole time. I really loved the blue of the sky up there, I almost felt at peace and forgot the fear and stress that accompanied me on most of this trip. Another favorite moment was when I flew over Sullivan again...I looked down from 5500 feet and saw the city swimming pool...I could barely make out people in it...I figured they were kids and I smiled and it made me feel really good to know there were probably kids down there having a good time in that pool, cooling off, while I was a mile above them, stressed about getting home and hoping that I wouldn't have another stressful landing. But, down there, they were carefree and and totally unaware that I was worried about landing and worried about money too...learning to fly is expensive and the issues surrounding that were gnawing at me the whole day, making a tough assignment even tougher. But, finally, with Yellowjacket confirming all of my VOR work, I saw the Mississippi River up ahead and KFES nestled in at the base of what was a mountain and now is a concrete factory. The winds were stiff, but blowing mostly right down 36, I was coming in a little too high, I was I tired, stressed and burning hot...sweat filling my eyes and stinging as I came out of my cool altitude and back towards earth. I was still a little high as I neared the field...I added another bit of flaps and I came right down...straightened her out and made a perfect landing....It had been a hell of a day...I made a few mistakes...but I learn from those mistakes and all the time I am getting better... Now, I am totally focusing on the written for the next few weeks and trying to get the finances in order. I made a big step on my climb up my Everest and as usual, it is a tough climb, but I was mostly satisfied. I made it!

One more thing: My nice Hawk friend was nowhere to be seen, he was probably up in thermals enjoying that same lift and turbulence that gave me so many fits holding my altitude.