My first cross country was to be relatively, short departing from Bartow and flying
south east to Sebring, thirty six nautical miles away. From there I was to go west to
Wauchula, a further twenty nine nautical miles and finally north back to Bartow, another
twenty six nautical miles, making a total round trip of ninety one nautical miles. Bearing
in mind that the intention was merely to find each airfield and over-fly without landing,
the whole trip should take just over an hour.
Having marked the proposed route on the chart with appropriate check points at
approximately ten to fifteen nautical miles between each one along the route, equating to
approximately seven to twelve minutes flying time, and having completed the written flight
plan the night before it was merely a question of phoning for a weather report and
calculating the drift off track that would be caused by the prevailing winds.
Having spoken to the briefer and gained a relatively satisfactory forecast for the
trip, that included the prospect of isolated rain showers, it was now merely a question of
using the flight computer to calculate the magnetic headings for each stage of the flight
taking into account the wind, quoted as being 270 degrees at eight knots, the estimated
ground speed together with the distance for each leg and the estimated time of arrival for
each check point on the way.
After completed all the pre-flight planning it was up into the air for my first cross
country and a view of what the countryside actually looked like. Much to my surprise the
checkpoints on the first leg down to Sebring all appeared on time and in the right place.
The checkpoints that I had chosen for this particular leg were Lake Buffum, which by
flying along the east shore would ensure that I was on course, a pronounced dog-leg in the
Interstate road, I27, and the main road between two airfields, Avon Park and the US Air
Force base at Macdill. Both of these airfields have long, easily identifiable runways and
by this stage I knew that I should have sight of Sebring straight ahead.
Whilst it had been the intention to merely over-fly these airfields without landing,
as forecast it had started to rain and whilst visibility was still moderate, my instructor
decided that we should break for lunch and let the showers clear before attempting to
complete the next two legs of the trip. Two hours later the weather had cleared so it was
off into the air again to fly the next leg across to Wauchula. This leg was slightly more
difficult in that there was a real absence of recognisable landmarks once the route had
departed from the lakes around Sebring and I had to rely on small roads and rivers,
neither of which were easily identifiable from the air. Accurate flying was therefore the
key and, roughly on time, the small airfield could be identified straight ahead.
Bearing in mind the unscheduled stop we had made at Sebring my instructor decided to
stop at Wauchula and refuel before setting off on the final leg, back up to Bartow. Whilst
again there were relatively few landmarks on the way, there was one, the quarry works at
Fort Meade, which could be seen from the air for miles. We were straight on track for this
following which Bartow would be easy to pick out as it was just south east of a large
lake, Lake Hancock, and with about ten miles left to go I contacted the Tower at Bartow
with the usual pre-fix of "good afternoon" for permission to enter the airspace.
He instructed me to report on a left base entry for runway 27 and duly reporting in at
the required position and requesting a "touch and go" he cleared us to land.
After the touch and go, which had merely been to record the actual time of arrival, we set
off again to do some instrument work.
This was not something that I found particularly enjoyable especially as I had managed
to improve on flying by feel rather than fixating on the instruments and having to do this
now meant extreme concentration with a constant instrument scan. It was however an
important part of the training as it is designed to get you out of trouble in the event of
inadvertent entry into cloud.
The essential requirement was to be able to fly a 180 degree turn obviously relying
solely on instruments and without any loss of height quite apart from losing control of
the aircraft altogether due to disorientation caused by effectively flying
"blind". It also involved the ability to fly straight and level and be able to
climb and descend. The important part of the training was to develop a belief in the
instruments rather than necessarily believe what my instincts were telling me.
Returning back to Bartow, my instructor outlined what the following day would involve.
This would consist of my first solo cross country, effectively the same route we had
already flown but in reverse. I would fly from Bartow to Wauchula then across to Sebring
and back to Bartow. Having at least seen all the landmarks before I should hopefully not
get lost! Another three hours of flying meant that my total time was now thirty three
hours and twenty five minutes.
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