Solo cross country qualifier blog

[aerofoil1]

Hello all
I thought I'd share with you my flying expedition today for who ever may be interested !
After a month of cancelled bookings due to rubbish weather we've had recently not to mention the after math of the US hurricane ! Anyway finally today the weather was good enough I was beginning to lose hope!
So last nights forcast looked promising problem was im in work (Monday to Friday) so I can't miss this oportunity ! Phone in sic!
Pre flight planning all done feeling quite nervous actually managed to jump in the wrong aircraft !! Not a great start
So in the correct one now CFI says don't cock it up , like I want to? no sir I'll try my best
After finally tuning the radio for airfield information I'm ready to go
So I'm at 2,500ft planned altitude everything looking ok hmm where's halfpenny green airfield ? Oh dear not quite on track I'm thinking holy **** it's the 1st leg and not looking rosy finally I find the airfield and everything back on course. Got to Gloucester airport no problem and a smooth landing followed and straight to the loo to spend a penny and grab a coffee Jesus I need one ! The next leg is an easy one plenty of reference points and everything normal
Land at Leicester but miss the taxi way turn off ! Oops not good so o ask for permission to back track the runway thankfully there ok with it I feel a bit of a muppet not bur I was over concentrating in my defence ! Last leg back to home airfield talk to east midlands for zone transit gulp here goes but actually it went ok they give me clearance and swarm code I even manage to input correctly!! Land at home airfield and what a relief I've done it !!!!
Today has been truly amazing and now looking forward to skills test

[thing]

Well done Aero, to me the QXC was the most satisfying flight in training.

[The500man]

Well done!

Land at Leicester but miss the taxi way turn off ! Oops not good so o ask for permission to back track the runway thankfully there ok with it I feel a bit of a muppet

I remember on my solo cross country trip I made a stop at Southend, and when leaving I was issued a take-off clearance while at the hold, so I entered the runway and back-tracked to the numbers to line up ready to take-off. When I was almost at the numbers the controller asked me if my Cessna 152 required back track to use the full length of runway! I Felt like a muppet at the time since it obviously didn't, but now looking back I think there's never a point in having runway behind you, so would do it again! Similarly if you missed your exit while slowing down, nothing wrong with that! No point stamping on the brakes and wearing them out just to make the exit. (if you taxied slowly past your exit on the other hand then there is of course no excuse and you are in fact a muppet! :))

[rich_g85]

Congratulations aerofoil - I completed my QXC quite recently, Bournemouth - Exeter - Bristol - Bournemouth. If it makes you feel any better, I forgot to ask for start clearance at Bristol and felt equally daft. Luckily the 'student' callsign saved me :)

[aerofoil1]

Well my brain was certainly over worked there were times I thought I can't do this but I just focused and got on with it failure was not an option for me!
I also had to back track Leicester runway after missing the taxi turn off and yes I did feel like a muppet as I used hardly any of the runway on landing !
Well done on your x solo too
Skills test is booked for next month then the skies the limit hopefully if that goes well !