Fourty Five Seconds over the Piedmont at 3000 Feet.
On June 2nd, a few days before I was going to be out of town for three weeks, I got up early for my first cross country to Richmond County (KRCZ). I was pretty nervous. This was the first time that all of the skills I had been practicing would come together. I would be on my own.
I got to Davidson County (KEXX) around 8:30 a.m. and took a long time to preflight N4369R. I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect. After I climbed in and started the engine, I probably took 10 minutes setting the radios and GPS so I wouldn't have to do it in the air. I finally decided that I needed to get going, so I taxied out to Runway 24. I took off, exited the pattern, and turned to 161*. While I was climbing to 3500, I called Raliegh Radio to activate my flight plan. then I switched to Greensboro Approach and requested flight following. While I had the GPS and the iPad as backups, I really wanted to make this trip by ded reckoning and pilotage. I had picked some really clear check points and did a good job of estimating my time.
About 20 miles from KRCZ, I was handed off to Fayetteville Approach. Then at 10 miles out, I cancelled flight following and descended to pattern altitude. I entered a mid-field cross wind for Runway 31. I turned downwind, base, and then final. On short final I noticed I had a pretty strong crosswind from the right. I was glad that the runway was 100 ft wide, because I landed on the left half. I taxied to parking and asked the attendant to top off the tanks. I closed my flight plan by phone and went in to the FBO to get some water.
I had to take a moment to let it sink in. I had flown all the way to Rockingham, by myself - 60 nm by the air in about 50 minutes. This would have taken 100 minutes by car.
My first cross country solo to KRCZ was a real confidence booster.
