Lesson 69 – Alone Again

Yesterday was my first solo flight since January 7. I was going to do a short cross country but the weather to the west didn’t allow that. Instead, I went out to the practice area for some air work.

I did a few steep turns and a few minutes of slow flight to get started. Then I picked one VOR to the west and one to the east and switched back and forth between the two to get some practice intercepting and flying courses to and from. I also did some pilotage practice by picking out features on the sectional and then finding them on the ground.

Before I knew it, it was time to head back to the airport. The ATIS was reporting winds 130 at 10 knots so, when I was assigned runway 5, I considered asking for runway 14 instead. After thinking about it a little, I decided to give the crosswind a try. I would be ready to go around if anything didn’t look right and, if that happened, I would request the other runway then. As it turned out, I made the landing without a problem.

My main goal with this flight was get back to solo flying and I achieved that easily. I had expected to be nervous after so long but, once I was in the airplane, I felt comfortable being alone again.