Third cross country

Closed escrow on our new house this week, and moved in over the weekend. Couldn’t fly at all since the night x/c, so I went out midday and flew around the pattern. Good warm up before our x/c to Bakersfield. This one I did pretty much all alone, with Kent just observing. Spotted all of my landmarks, kept my workload low, and stayed on top of the checklists. Spotted the airport in plenty of time and slipped it in for landing. I have a tendency to come in too high (which is better than too low, if you ask me) and have to lose a bunch of altitude in a hurry. I’ll work on that.

Had a nice dinner, then headed back via GPS for the first time. Wow – talk about EASY! You basically program the route into the handheld, and follow it on the screen. This was a fairly old Garmin GPS 90, and it had LOADS of features. The newer ones do a WHOLE lot more. Going to an airshow in Pomona this weekend, so I’ll do so shopping. Probably no buying, but shopping.

After we finished, Kent said I was ready for a solo x/c. I asked what I should plan, and we decided on either Hemet/Ryan or Palm Springs. After looking at the chart, I think I would rather to Palm Springs, just because the route is not so complicated. I’ll plan that and try to knock it out next week. Probably one more after that, then a long (>150 miles) cross country. Still studying like mad for the written and oral!