Cross Country #2 (IWA-AVQ-E63-IWA)

Although today started with a 3AM wake up call, it was an amazing adventure on our second cross country flight back to the same destinations (Marana and Gila Bend). We had smooth skies with very little traffic and we used air traffic control flight following so we didn’t have to listen to or worry about all the practice radio traffic which can get pretty exhausting. That said, the communications with professional controllers, was a whole new experience that is going to take some getting used to.

Probably the most interesting thing I noticed today was that the entire flight seemed to slow down, and not because we were flying at a lower speed, but as the pilot I was able to keep up with the plane anticipating most actions and making the necessary settings changes to prepare for the next tasks – it was a very neat experience.

And the best part of the day was I greased three landings and the same thing held true, the approaches and landings seemed much slower and I was able to make the necessary corrections to hold centerline and to touch down relatively softly.

All in all it was the best day of flying thus far and really left me with confidence to continue training and learning.

And to welcome me back they brought out even more cool planes!