Nearing the end of Stage 2

It's been a while since I last wrote an update, so I really figure it's time since I have already flown 3 times this week and it's already Thursday! Last weekend was a complete wash out due to the rainy weather and low clouds we had in last weekend. Since I fly on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, that completely washed those days out for me altogether last week. This week is not looking too far off from that. But, I manage to squeak a couple extra flights in to try to combat that.

Tuesday, I flew a night cross-country with my instructor down to Hyannis. Even though when you think about it, this would take a rather longer time to get there by car....it only took us a little under 30 minutes to fly there. We immediately turned around and headed back up, and after the first checkpoint at the Cape Cod Canal I made a diversion down to New Bedford and landed at that airport too. We then followed the GPS back up to Norwood, and finished the night off with 3 more take offs and landings to suffice the night flight criteria for my private pilot license.

I worked on my flight plans last night, one to Jaffrey, NH and the other to Hyannis, MA which was to be my first solo cross country. After getting to Norwood and checking the weather, we ended up changing plans because the clouds were too low to fly into Jaffrey, NH safely. Since the weather to the south was a bit better, we planned the first flight, the dual with my instructor down to Hyannis and back instead. Once we came back, we wanted to get my solo flight in before the weather got too bad this afternoon with the rain coming in. So I sat down and Josh told me to write up a flight plan for Martha's Vineyard. I successfully flew my first solo to Martha's Vineyard and back! It was incredible to have everything click and to know exactly what to do and when. It all just made sense! And I even had a moment to look around and enjoy my time up there too! The way back into Norwood was a little interesting because there were patchy clouds that were pretty low causing me to fly lower than I planned, and getting back to Norwood, the Automated Terminal Information Service was out, so I couldn't get any info prior to calling the tower for clearance. I.E. current information identifier, runway in use, wind speed and direction, altimeter setting, etc. But, got on with tower and they let me know that they were having problems with it. Phew! It thankfully was not a problem with my equipment!

The first solo cross-country flight.......A SUCCESS!!!!!!!!