Lesson 74 - Long Cross Country (redux again)

 If at first you don't succeed... Okay, technically speaking, this was our 4th attempt at flying my long cross country route to Pueblo. The first attempt was cancelled due to maintenance on the plane. The second attempt was thwarted by hot weather and an underperforming airplane. The morning of our third attempt, my instructor calls me saying he was sick as a dog and nearly vomited in the cockpit during his morning flight. I'm not a huge fan of flying in a vomit-filled airplane, so we both thought it best to reschedule. So we did. Six o'clock the following morning. 

I am not a morning person. I can function well enough to let the dogs out and maybe get the kids to school, but please don't ask me to do anything complex. Like fly an airplane. And my daughter was going to join us as well, and she is not a morning person, either. Unless she is, which randomly happens when she decides she wants to watch the sun rise. (I assure you, she is my kid, but I don't know where that comes from.) However, I'm trying to push through this process as quickly as possible right now, and I need to get this flight out of the way sooner rather than later. So we agreed to meet at 6 the following morning. 

Adrenaline and energy drinks do wonders. I was surprisingly alert when we arrived at the airport. The sun was just thinking about peeking over the horizon, and the weather looked beautiful. My daughter and I met with my instructor, we looked at the weather, talked about the flight, and everything looked good. We got out to the plane, prepped it, pulled it out, and by 7 am, we were airborne. Cooler temperatures and a plane known for its superior climb performance made a world of difference compared to our previous attempt. This was my first time in this plane, and it handled remarkably well. 

I was in my element on this flight. Things were just clicking. The skies were smooth, ATC along the way was not at all busy so it was easy to get calls in. We first flew to Colorado Springs. My in-laws live there, just north of the airport, so it was fun to point out their neighborhood to my daughter as we flew over. Landing at the Springs was pretty textbook. Unbeknownst to me, my daughter took video of my landing, so I'm glad it was smooth. we just did a touch-and-go in the Springs, then headed south to Pueblo. 

This was my first time flying down to Pueblo. While I had visual landmarks picked out for the trip down, ATC had me fly east, taking me away from the intestate which was to be my reference. So much for that, but Pueblo isn't that far from the Springs, and by the time ATC directed us to turn south, we could pretty much see the general area where the field is. I just scratched my visual waypoints off the list and pretty much flew direct to the airport. If we were to have more time available, we would have stopped and gotten food in Pueblo, but I had to be at work at 10, so we just landed, taxied back, and took off again. 

Here again, my landmarks for leaving Pueblo were behind me on our departure, so I scratched off the first waypoint and redid our course to match our departure. Once we passed over Colorado Spring East, which is a small airport not surprisingly east of Colorado Springs, we were pretty much home free. I was thinking about pulling out my foggles and doing some instrument work, but I just wasn't feeling it. I wanted to enjoy the flight. As I was contemplating that, my instructor suggested that he teach me how to use the autopilot. Well, yeah. I can do that. I had flown with a more basic autopilot in an older plane a few flights previous, and this one was a definite improvement. It holds airspeed and altitude in a way that doesn't roll in a bunch of trim and unwittingly slow you to nearly stalling. We flew with the autopilot engaged for nearly 25 minutes, just sitting back, taking in the sights, and really doing not much more than remembering why I torture myself. When we reached Castle Rock, we shut off the autopilot, contacted Centennial, and came home.

All in all, this flight was everything I had hoped it to be. I was confident in every phase of flight. My landings were solid. Not perfect, but solid. My instructor saw that I had a good command of the entire process, and I was able to give my daughter a good introduction to flying. We simply had a grand time. It will be fun to fly this again by myself once I get past my stage check (again), which is now the singular focus of my next few lessons.