ismael chang ghalimi

First Solo Cross Country Flight

Today, I made my first solo cross country flight. A solo cross country is a flight made to an airport located more than 50 nautical miles from your departure point. This one was from San Carlos (KSQL) to Modesto (KMOD). Beside some light turbulence past Coyote Hills, everything went fine. I plugged my flight plan into the GPS and let the autopilot take me there, while getting flight following from NorCal Approach. It felt almost too easy. Next time, I’ll do it with dead reckoning instead, this should make it more challenging.

Congratulations! I flight trained and am a private pilot in Arizona. I wish I’d known about those SkyVector online charts earlier. Stopping here was educational.