long XC solo nav's

Hi guys,

Damn, more then 2 weeks that I didn’t write on my blog. I’m so sorry.

But here it goes…In the meantime I had a couple of successful solo missions without any problems. Yihaa!!! *doing a happy dance*
The last missions were all ‘long cross country solo navigation’ missions. And if I say ‘long’ then I mean it. The longest missions in the training manual are 4hours. Which is sometimes cool, if you have work to do and what is sometimes a bit boring if you have long legs and nothing to do. Anyway the most of us are mostly busy taking pictures and eating candy/donuts while flying the long cruise legs but you can’t stuff yourself full of sugar for 4 hours.
My first long solo navigation was too Lake Havasu and together with the one too Flagstaff, it was the most beautiful navigation I ever did. It was very nice weather and I had to pass 2 nice lakes before I arrived at Lake Havasu. The lakes are always gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted and the lonely cloud smiling at its own reflection in the sparkling water. (sorry my poetic side wanted to say 'hello') Lake Havsu’s is a nice big airport – not controlled- and after landing there was not one, not two, but at least three “follow me” cars who led me to one of the fuel companies. Somebody told me to follow the ‘desert skies’ follow-me-car so I did. I parked my plane where the Marshall asked me to put it and immediately 2 guys came to top-off my Archer. When I went inside to pay the lady send me also to the pilots room. And that room, ladies and gentlemen, is THE room of all rooms. It’s the second reason why we like to go to Lake Havasu. Not only because the trip is a dream for your eyes, but because at Lake Havasu you have more than 15 different kinds of sweets, donuts and ice creams, popcorn, slush-ice-drinks, coffee, tea, water, coke, lemonade etc…and all FREE! It is the most perfect place to relax after a trip. View on the lake and mountains combined with the view of the airport and the lovely sounds of engines. It is the best place to plan a flight too. I had a slush-ice-drink-thingie while I relaxed a bit in one of the huge pilot sofas in THE room and I took a donut to eat on my way back to Falcon field. The friendly lady behind the desk also gave me a bottle of water because it’s very hot over here – can you imagine that? Hot? Here? No way! Ur joking!- and I went fat and happy back to my be loving 49Yankee. At the end of the day I flew 160 NM (a bit less than 300 km) in 4hours and 6minutes.
The trip to Flagstaff was also nice…but cold, very cold. When I left Falcon Field in the morning it was around 15 degrees. When I put my 44P on the ground in Flagstaff in the middle of the snow my Temp. meter showed -12°C. Normally I would have made a full stop landing so I could go outside to walk a bit around and check the area but I had only my little pullover with me. No single hair on my head that thought about going outside. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Still, it was strange, I left in nice and warm weather and in less than 30 min flying I was flying over snow, ice and more snow.
What else is new. Tomorrow I’ve my last VFR check. Mission 65. If I pass I’ll go to a new aircraft – DA40- and IFR flying. Which me luck…

pictures:
1. Hiking trip
2. Hiking trip
3. Hiking trip
4. Hiking trip
5. Trip to lake Havasu
6. Trip to lake Havasu
7. Trip to lake Havasu
8. Me and 2 Indian girlz