Cross Country – Week 8 – 4/8/2024

Luke P -

Whenever I use the term cross country to people outside of the aviation world they always have this surprised look on their faces. At first this really confused me because I didn’t think it was anything crazy but then I realized that when I say cross country, people thing I literally mean across the country. The truth is, it’s a lot less grand than that. For my purposes the definition of cross country is just a flight between airports that are over 50 nautical miles apart.

Throughout my early flight training I was looking at cross countries as this far way task that was going to be difficult. The truth is when I actually got there it didn’t feel like much. In fact the actual motor skills flying part of cross countries is pretty easy most of the time. The bulk of the work for the cross country section of training is on the ground. The flight planning is the most difficult task and honestly that becomes pretty simple by the end of it. My first cross country was with my instructor between Flagstaff, Wickenburg, and Williams. Pretty much the only task for most of the flight is making sure you’re still going straight and level. Thats not to say it isn’t fun though. Flying, especially in light aircraft, allows you to see the world in a way you wouldn’t get to otherwise. Arizona has quite a beautiful landscape so I get to see really amazing sights on my cross countries. On my first cross country we had to go around Bill Williams Mountain on approach into H.A. Clark Memorial Field. With the snow on top it was really pretty and it made me so glad that I don’t live in Kansas. Even though it wasn’t a super huge challenge, I completed that first cross country with my instructor and I was really excited to go forward with training.

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