The Real Solo (No it really is)

I just got back from the time of my life. I did my long solo cross country today and I still have a smile on my face that will not go away. I flew the same route I did when Richard and I went to do this at the end of January. The actual course is from KTKI (Collin County Regional Airport or McKinney as we call it) to F46 (Rockwall Municipal) to KGLE (Gainesville Municipal) to KCWC (Wichita Falls Kickapoo Downtown). The route looks like this and covers 140 nm.After I decided not to do a touch and go at KGLE it got bumpy. I was flying at 3000 ft and between KGLE and KCWC it got bumpy. I was a little concerned that I might not be able to safely land at KCWC. I started my descent about 10 miles out and got to about 2200 feet and it smoothed out. When flying, we calibrate out altimeters to MSL or mean sea level. So when you go to an airport, you have to know the height of the airport above sea level. You always try to reset your altimeter about every 50 miles. 25 miles out of KCWC, I tuned into their automated weather and got the current altimeter settings. KCWC is 1003 feet above MSL so when I was at 2200 feet, I was 1197 feet above the ground. This makes me think that I was in a boundary between the surface winds and the winds aloft. Winds blow at different directions and speeds at different altitudes. Today was supposed to have surface winds from 170 (South) at 8 - 10 knots. The winds at 3000 feet were from 300 degrees at 11. I was somewhere in between in the soup.

I finally got into Wichita Falls, canceled my flight plan, got some more fuel, grabbed a snack and some water, filed a new flight plan and then was back in the air. It got tricky here. I tried for over 20 minutes to get in touch with someone with FSS to activate my flight plan. It wasn't until I was past UKW (the Bowie VOR station) that someone finally answered me about activating it. I'm sure glad that they didn't automatically activate it or I would have been in big trouble. If you don't close your flight plan when you land, after a half of an hour passes, they start calling your house looking for you. If they don't get any response there, then they start a search party. So always remember to close your flight plan, even if you activate it late.

The rest of the flight was awesome. I turned north so I could get a straight in approach to KTKI on 17. I really wanted to do another ILS approach but didn't ask for one. I was granted a straight in approach, which suited my ILS need just fine. This landing was probably one of my best ever. Straight down the centerline, perfectly aligned and smooth. Just like my friend Tony says, a perfect grease job.

All in all, a 10 on the wow factor. Let's hope that there are more days like today. Can you see the excitement? It's quite stunning, eh?

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