My Second Solo X-Country

Congratulations on the 2nd x-c; you're not that far off your
certificate now, although it may seem a long way off.

A few morsels of food for thought:

1. As a student pilot, you are not allowed to climb through a layer of
few or scattered clouds and then fly on top of a broken or overcast
ceiling, before descending back down through scattered or fewer clouds.
You didn't specify how cloudy it was, but the fact that your time above
the clouds felt like forever implies to me that maybe it was a ceiling
(broken or overcast). If this is the case, bear in mind you're only
allowed to do this in an emergency, until you are a private pilot,
after which you still can't fly through ceilings but you can fly on top
of them from one area of few or scattered across an area of broken or
overcast to another area of few or scattered. Of course all this
assumes you are able to maintain the separation from clouds required in
the FARs.

2. Huntsville Center is not responsible for your safety nor for
preventing you from breaking the rules. Just because they have no
problem with you doing something does not mean you won't break any laws
or put yourself in danger.

3. You broke a cardinal rule of flying - you made the decision to fly
because you were anxious to do so. This is the stuff accident reports
are made of. Now clearly your instructor wouldn't have signed you off
to go if he/she didn't think the conditions were safe, so I'm not
suggesting that conditions were dangerous, but you are going to have to
get used to flying when you are confident in the conditions and staying
on the ground when you aren't, irrespective of how much you want to
fly.

Sorry if it seems like I'm being overly harsh - all of this is written
only in the interests of safety, and it's just my opinion - others may
disagree.

Tom


CareBear wrote:
Well, I did my second solo xc today. I went from 3A1 (Cullman, AL) to RMG
(Rome, GA), then to CHA (Chattanooga, TN), and back to 3A1.

I was supposed to depart at 8:00am CDT but had to wait until the ceilings
changed for the better. So I did not leave until 11:30am CDT. I had asked
my CFI if he thought I should fly another time and he replied with something
along the lines of how do YOU feel about it? Since I was anxious to fly, I
told him I felt good about it and I was heading out. (Looks like he smiled
but I can't be really sure).

The trip to RMG went rather smooth. There were no issues except I kinda
botched the landing a little since the winds were high. BTW, my school
still wants the logbook signed. (I guess they want to make sure the
students actually land).

Going to CHA was an "interesting" flight. The winds on this flight had me
really going bump, bump, bump. I was getting thrown around like there was
no tomorrow . After landing at CHA and getting my logbook signed, I
headed back to 3A1. This was a 94nm flight. About 40 nm from 3A1, I really
had an experience. There were clouds everywhere! The MEF for this quadrant
is 2200 feet. So now I got to make a decision since the clouds were about
2300 feet. I decided to go above the clouds. I talked to Huntsville Center
and informed them of my intentions. They had no problem with my decision
but cautioned me to get below the clouds when I see land again. I was above
the clouds about 10 minutes although it seemed like forever! I got below
the clouds about 25 miles from 3A1. Boy was I relieved. After landing and
tying down the plane, I went and completed my paperwork and logbook.

Thinking back over the day, I really feel good about this xc, even with the
difficulties that existed. I think these type of events will make me a
better pilot

--
CareBear