Pilot Life: Solo Cross Country to Delta

According to my instructor I still needed to log an additional three-tenths of an hour of solo cross country flying; I don't know how that is considering that my previous instructor told me I got the hours I needed for cross country flying, but I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to refresh myself as pilot-in-command on a longer flight! After getting rained out all last week just waiting for an opportunity to get this flight done, today was the day!

I took N968CT to Delta and back for the solo cross-country flight.

I wrote up my flight plan up last night and I woke up first thing this morning to make edits and finalize it. Once I got to Spanish Fork, I presented my flight plan to my instructor so he could go over it; he was fine with the flight plan and endorsed me to take this flight. I called up the Cedar City Flight Service Station and filed my flight plan; I also requested the standard briefing on weather and relevant flight information while I was at it. I practically remembered everything I needed to apply for a long-distance flight, so everything was running smoothly!

Once my flight plan was filed, I headed out to do my pre-flight on the airplane. My instructor gave me a few reminders and he cut me loose. Once I was done with pre-flight, I hopped in, turned on the engine, taxied, did my run-ups, taxied some more, and then took off. Once airborne, I followed Interstate I-15 below me southbound, called up Ceder City Radio, and activated my flight plan.

The flight went off without a hitch as I made my way to Nephi, my main waypoint between Spanish Fork and Delta. I checked weather there and made my position call on the airport's CTAF. Once past Nephi, I turned to the southwest towards Delta. Again, I checked weather and wind conditions there and began making my position calls on the Delta Airport CTAF. Using my GPS, directional gyro, and magnetic compass for navigation assistance, I eventually spotted the Delta Airport; winds were favoring Runway 35 so I flew overhead midfield 500 feet above pattern altitude and turned to the right to enter the left-downwind leg. I also happened to share the airspace with a Cirrus SR-22 from Southern Utah University so that made things a little more interesting!

I established myself on the downwind and once I saw the traffic pass below me, I began my descending and throwing in the flaps as necessary and turned onto the base leg. Once on final, I made my to the runway and touched down. I throttled the engine forward again and got back in the air. I climbed away from Delta and headed back towards Nephi to do the inverse of the route I've taken to get down there to return home.

And just like that, my solo cross-country flight has hit the halfway point. I navigated my way towards Nephi and applied everything I was taught do. Once past Nephi and Payson came into view to the north of me, I called Cedar City FSS and closed my flight plan. From there I called up the Spanish Fork CTAF and made my routine position calls. I flew overhead from the south midfield and 500 feet above pattern altitude; once I was a mile northeast of the field I circled back to the right and descended to pattern altitude on the 45 degree entry to the downwind.

From there, it was a routine landing from the pattern as I was able to kiss the ground and the cross-country flight came to an end. I taxied back to the ramp and parked the plane, satisfied that I was able to do this successfully. With this cross-country flight checked off, I only need to brush up on my maneuvers and keep the skills sharp until the checkride.