I went on my first day/night cross country flight lastnight, and I've never made so many stupid mistakes in my life. Well maybe that's a slight exageration, but I still feel like an idiot after some of the stuff I did.

I was for the most part pretty accurate with my flight planning, though I'm really slow and it took me forever to finish it. I then also filed a flightplan.

My navigation was going well, although I wasn't resetting my heading indicator to the compass as often as I should, so I was off course by a couple miles a couple times during the flight.

My main problem though was trying to stay within 100 feet of my altitude and at my planned heading, while navigating, looking at charts, and writing on my nav logs, ect

I felt like a pre-solo newbie making hard landings. Maybe it was landing at night that was messing me up, I don't know.


I was tripping over my words on the radio, and generally messing up radio calls

One of the airports we went to was the Spokane international aiport (KGEG), which is normally very busy. When we were a little over 20 miles out, I contacted Spokane Approach and continued flying towards the airport. What was odd was that the radio was very quite. Once approach controll handed me off to the tower, there was no other traffic so the tower cleared us for the option of touch and goes, or stop and goes. It wasn't untill we were entering the downwind for another landing before a Horizon Dash 8 took off, and another one was inbound to land, so the tower cleared me for a touch and go.

On our last landing my instructor asked the tower to give me light gun signalls to show me what they looked like.

We were lucky lastnight because the skies were mostly clear, with an almost full moon. Navigating at night was easier then I thought it would be.

Flying over the city lastnight was also cool

We were almost home when my instructor decided to throw me for a loop, and she wanted me to 'pretend' we had to make an diversion to another airport, and to use my plotter, flight computer, and charts to determine distance, heading, fuel, and flight time to the airport. Trying to stay at my assigned altitude and heading was real challenging

We were 10 miles south of our homebase airport and my instructor told me to make a position report on the common traffic advisory frequency, so I did, but on the wrong frequency

When we were back on the ground at our home aiport, my instructor started talking about my solo cross country

I think she has more faith in me, but I don't think i'm quite ready for that yet because of all the mistakes I made. I know I could probably do it and make it back in one piece, but I'd probably royally screw something up.

Besides, how can I go on a solo cross country when I need to work on my landings more?

I still had a lot of fun, But all the little mistakes I made are depressing to think about, and makes me wonder how i'll ever get it all perfect

You guys are scaring me. My first solo (not cross country, just around the pattern) is a couple weeks away, and I don't feel like I will be ready for it any time soon. I'm still getting the hang of landing and I'm improving, but still...

You'll be alright Andrew, I guess it can't go perfect every time.

Sounds like just an off day- and things are a lot different at night, sometimes. And I wouldn't feel too bad about that DG- sounds like it needed attention more often than they usually do...
I agree that if your instructor says you're good to go, believe it. but if you really don't feel ready for the solo flight, speak up about it. One short dual flight where the CFI specifically adresses the things you're unsure about will probably fix you up in that case.
How well could you see the light gun, BTW? That's a nice touch, giving you a chance to see that.

Am I the only person who had literally zero anxiety about my first solo, even with my family and friends watching? ???

I mean I literally was not nervous at all.  I had done the pattern a million freaking times, I could glide it in, I was right near home, it was like no big deal.  It was actually a low point for me, my landings sucked cos I ballooned every landing-if I balloon a flare, there's no saving it, I'm coming down hard.  THAT, three times over.  And I landed long each time.  I was like "meh, let's just go to school."

Want something to be nervous about, be nervous about your first solo x-country.

But oh dear Mine is Sunday and once again I don't feel nervous, and x-countries are not my strong point

And why is everybody else doing a 3-leg long x-country!  I have a four-legger, all to controlled airfields! *pout smiley*

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I didn't use a GPS untill I had to switch to using my current trainer after my last primary trainer was crashed. I know they're usefull, but I don't want to have to become dependant on them.


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I soloed about a year and a half ago, and after 50 hours, i'm still alive


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Something I can blame it on  

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whew, glad I'm not the only one



I wish I could get over fumbling over the radio, especially using the tail number of my old trainer that crashed (RIP )

I'm nervouse now, but knowing myself (as I do reasonably well) I might not be when the time actually comes. Either that or I will be skaing like a leaf and ready to vomit, one or the other, no in-between.

I think my main problem with trying to plan the diversion is that my instructor told me to use my plotter to get the heading to the other airport, but I was trying to get an exact heading, not an approximate heading, which distracted me, causing me to get off on my altitude and heading

Thanks for the tips!

This stuff kind of goes out to all working on their PPL... presolo and everything else.

Try and not worry too much about your previous performance.  Focus on what you will correct and what you will be doing for the next flight (or portion of the flight).  Dwelling on the previous flight (again, or portion of the flight) only results in neglecting what you need to pay attention to next.

What I did during my PPL training was immediatly after the flight I would grab my notepad (I never have fewer than three in my flight bag BTW) and write myself a personal evaluation.  Everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Even if it was something stupid like losing the pencil.  That helped A TON. 

And as everyone has been saying... the thing about the XC flights is not the stick and rudder flying, but the planning and orginizational skills.  You're just starting, it takes time to develope your personal rutine.  Also, it is far more difficult to keep the cockpit all nice and tidy with the flight instructor with you.  When she's gone you'll have a whole other seat to pile your stuff on. 

As for stumbling over your words... everyone does that.  I do that, (especially when I'm flying N5429... just cannot seem to ever be able to say that clearly) every now and then.  Mostly my problem now is saying the correct airplane I'm flying... (ie, Warrior XXXX, Arrow XXXX, or Cessna XXXX lol)  What I do to help anunciate is just say the full transmission at least once to yourself aloud before actually saying it over the radio.  After a while you'll just be able to spit things out as fast as they say it to you.

All this stuff just comes with experience.  I've finally gotten over the 200 hour mark and am at the stage where flight planning only takes about 30 minutes (I still like to be thurough though.) and I finally feel somewhat relaxed during enroute phases of flight.  But, that's also what instrument training does to you. haha.  After getting that rating, this VFR stuff will seem like a cake-walk and you will be LOOKING for stuff to keep you busy. 

And you just found one of the great things about flying at night... low traffic!  And (on average) extremely helpful ATC who actually volunteer's extra info.


And last but not least... where are you based out of?  I did a bunch of XC flights this summer up to Spokane and whatever that place is called up by WSU. lol   I'm based out of Ellensburg.