Posted by Kelly @ 04:09 PM, May 06    
I’m glad to see you had to do this without using a GPS… those skills will serve you well in the future. And no shame in getting lost – you just taught your viewers a good lesson, and hopefully you’ll inspire them to learn GPS-less too!

Posted by John Galt @ 05:15 PM, May 06    
That next cross country that is solo is a real mind opener! I finished about 54 hours of PP training then had to stop but was able to do 2 solo x-ctrys and your mind is running a mile a minute. Its a great feeling when youre done. Thank you again for a wonderful video series, it's fun to live vicariously through you :)

Posted by Paul Aseltine @ 05:36 PM, May 06    
Hi Brady. It has been a while since I posted a comment even though I have checking to see your progress most every day. My son in law Diego is keeping track of you from Buenos Aires Argentina. I have been one of your FANS since you started that process. I am proud of you for showing poise even when you were temporarely lost. I am praying for you for your safety during all your training. Keep up the good work!

Posted by Douglas @ 05:41 PM, May 06    

Not bad, Brady. The landings are getting more consistant, I see.

No VOR in the plane? I did my Private training in a plane with dual VORs. (No GPS) Great for getting a cross fix and pinpointing your location if you get "misplaced".

I still don't use (or even know how to use) a GPS. Seems like cheating, to me. Of course, it might save your butt when you get "misplaced"!

Doug

Posted by Douglas @ 05:49 PM, May 06    

Not bad, Brady. The landings are getting more consistant, I see.

No VOR in the plane? I did my Private training in a plane with dual VORs. (No GPS) Great for getting a cross fix and pinpointing your location if you get "misplaced".

I still don't use (or even know how to use) a GPS. Seems like cheating, to me. Of course, it might save your butt when you get "misplaced"!

Doug

Posted by Brendan @ 06:39 PM, May 06    
Brady, glad to see a video! You aske "how many students learn with / without GPS. I got my PPL last year in Oregon, and was allowed to use the GPS more than I should have. I think the more you do WITHOUT a GPS the better! It will help prevent that lost feeling sometime in the future! You can use a GPS anytime you want later! Yes, I have one, but I am not as good with a sectional as i WISH I was!

Posted by Randy Epstein @ 07:03 PM, May 06    
Brady,

Great job, you're almost there!! I can remember my first solo cross country. I was in Arizona and had been flying along tracking the VOR. I was timing myself and thinking that I ought to be near the airport. I came over a little mountain ridge and looked straight down to see the airport. I was quite relieved.

As far as the GPS I did my recent trianing leading up to my certificate in a G1000 equipped 172. That didn't stop me from using VOR's or pilotage for my cross countries. I do own a 296 now and take it with, I like the track feature, but still also use the VOR's for navigation and am always looking for check points. with the sectional in my lap or my wife's lap.

Keep up the good work!!

Posted by Bryan Blazek @ 07:06 PM, May 06    
Brady-

Nice job with the first cross country. Everything looks like it went as planned and everyone gets misplaced at least once. On your solo cross country you should head down to 02C. It is a nice 50nm flight down and just a nice grass roots airport. Hope to see you in the sky!

Bryan

Posted by Dave @ 07:11 PM, May 06    
WTG Brady. As far as being lost, no I never have been lost. Been a few times I didn't know where the heck I was, but since I'm still here, I was never lost.

Posted by Brett Campany @ 07:17 PM, May 06    
Great work on your first XC mate, I've got 3 XC's to do this weekend, one each day so that's going to be really fun. How far into your planning are you going? Basically I'm looking at using 10nm markers, track and distance magnetic and that's about it until the day.

Posted by Ian @ 08:20 PM, May 06    
Hey Brady

Good Job on Your first cross country flight!

Up here in canada last weekend we had the 17th annual Canadian Aviation Expo
http://www.canadianaviationexpo.com/

Had a great time the aviation community is a real blast got to meet some nice people and even got to go up in a cessna 172 and a helicoptor made me want to be a pilot so much more. They have one of two Air worthy Lancastors in the world at the museum amazing plane Hope some of the viewers where there! If not see ya next year!

Posted by alex @ 10:51 PM, May 06    
nice job I just finish my private it was a blast

Posted by John G @ 03:00 AM, May 07    
Nice XC Dude!, here in South Africa, we are not allowed to use a GPS for nav. We also revise our ETA's etc.. on the Flight Log.
I've completed my dual x-country last month, busy with some GF flying and then my solo x-country, YaY!

Nice landings!

John

Posted by Garrett @ 09:57 AM, May 07    
Looks like your coming right along Brady. Not much further now huh. I am a little farther back in my training than you are, but look forward to my XC and Solos. Fly Safe buddy!!

www.mypilotchronicles.com

Garrett

Posted by Garrett @ 09:58 AM, May 07    
Looks like your coming right along Brady. Not much further now huh. I am a little farther back in my training than you are, but look forward to my XC and Solos. Fly Safe buddy!!

www.mypilotchronicles.com

Garrett

Posted by Ron H @ 11:32 AM, May 07    
Hi Brady,

To answer your question about getting “misplaced”, I never have but did think I was more than once. Had to really cross check on the sectional to get that weird feeling you describe to go away. Didn’t like that feeling at all so I took additional steps that made it easier to know where I was at any given time.

One thing I did while gaining both confidence and experience early in my flying (pre-GPS!) when planning a long cross country flight was to draw my course right on the sectionals or WAC charts with a blue pen (easier for me to see than black). That made it easy to follow my course and easy to refold the charts as I progressed along my flight. About every 15 minutes I would mark my position and time right on the chart. I would always know exactly where I was no more than 15 minutes ago when going someplace new. In your Remos 15 minutes is about 25-30 miles so you may want to adjust the time interval to something more comfortable. It also makes it easy to confirm ground speed, make time and distance calculations and heading corrections if the winds aloft change on you. Keep in mind too, that I was learning in the southwest where you can fly over a whole lotta nuthin’ for a long time.

I have a few questions for you and this may all be planned for future flights but I’m curious.

Did your instructor have you file a flight plan for this flight?

If not, does he plan to go over that with you at some point?

Can’t tell on the video if you have a Nav/Com or just a Com radio. If you have the Nav/Com are you learning how to use VOR’s to navigate? Our Remos is equipped with a Nav/Com and a backup Com radio plus the Garmin 496 in a docking station so we can use both.

Has he mentioned anything about showing you how to get VFR flight following from Center?

What about calling for weather in flight and will he show you how to give a Pilot Report?

Do you plan to get endorsements for additional controlled airports since you’ll need them as a sport pilot?

Thanks, and I look forward to every new video you post.

Posted by Kirk @ 12:43 PM, May 07    
Brady,
I'm impressed that you're willing to reveal the learning process - yep, we all learn by making mistakes, hopefully little mistakes.

I remember a couple of my early student solo cross-country flights 40 years ago. My base was a controlled field, but traffic was GA with an occasional biz jet for the nearby big companies.

I flew a triangle and the first landing was another controlled field I'd seen with my instructor. VOR nav was fine, winds required a small correction angle. I entered the pattern acting like I did this all the time, landed fine, switched to ground control planning to get my log book signed at the FBO and discovered I was sharing a taxiway with a United 727 headed right toward me! I had no idea this little airport, actually smaller than my base, had big commercial traffic twice a day. If I'd known that beforehand I would have been tense. This showed the value of training and confidence in following procedures.

The second memorable flight was a cold winter day on a 100+ mile out and back. Despite the cold and snow on the ground, the air was clear with 50+ mile visibility. Winds were vicious, however, 20+ headwind at a nasty angle. At cruise in a PA-28-140B I had a 15 degree wind correction angle. If felt like I was in a slip the whole flight. It was a long flight out, and a very short flight back, but the views were spectacular. Flying along the Ohio edge of Lake Erie I could make out Canada most of the flight, sitting warm in my plane.

Posted by Brady Lane @ 03:50 PM, May 07    
Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments and for sharing your cross-country experiences. Keep 'em coming - I love reading your advice and what you've encountered on cross-country flights.

Kirk, I was a bit nervous going into CWA because I knew they have airline traffic - in fact I've flown out of there before on an airline. I was expecting to have to deal with wake turbulence, increased traffic and everything, but there wasn't a jet in sight. At least I was mentally ready if there were.

And thanks for your questions Ron. I try to include as much as I can on the blog, but obviously Jason does show me things that don't make it to the blog. We've talked about filling flight plans and obtaining in-flight weather reports, but didn't do it on this flight. He said he wanted to keep the workload to a manageable level for this first cross-country, but said we will likely do them on future flights if it's appropriate. And no, we don't have any other navigational equipment in the plane other than our eyes and a sectional chart. I'm sure I'll learn to navigate with VORs and such as I start flying in other planes. The more I learn the more I learn how much there is left to learn.

Posted by Tom @ 09:17 PM, May 07    
Hi Brady:
I fly in SW Ontario Canada...in fact straight east of you- east of Lake Huron. The geography is much like Wisconsin-i.e. flat farmers fields.
I didn't have a GPS for quite some time. But once flying with a friend we got misplaced like you did. Except it was about 10-15 mins. Visibility was a hazy 6-10 miles so it is quite easy to get disoriented. We did find a town and did what my instructor once told me to do. Check the name on the water tower and set off to our destination from there. It's a bit humiliating but it works.
The next day, I bought a GPS to back up my map reading. Wouldn't fly without either today.
It is a lonely feeling being misplaced...but always remember to fly the airplane. AVIATE,NAVIGATE, and COMMUNICATE!
Tom
SW Ontario, Canada

Posted by Jim Nichols @ 11:10 PM, May 07    
Good job. You are correct is your assumption that there are advantages and disadvantages for both GPS-less and with GPS.
I did my entire private Pilot training and check ride with a G1000. Let me tell you, that thing kicks tail. If you can afford it that is the plane to buy. Biggest disadvantage? Now I am retraining in an older 172, because the only aircraft i can afford to buy will not have a glass panel. Oh well. it was sweet while it lasted. Keep up the good work.

Posted by David Peel @ 11:45 PM, May 07    
'Enjoyed the ride Brady. Thanks for sharing and keep it up.

Posted by Steve Carroll @ 04:42 AM, May 08    
Brady, What are you paying per hour for the Remos?

Posted by Brady Lane @ 09:14 AM, May 08    
Steve: Remos has generously donated the plane for us to use in this project (as well as EAA's Air Academy program), but to reflect a normal training experience I've been calculating what it would cost per hour to rent a similar aircraft on the field... $99/hr. wet (w/ fuel). Add $36/hr. for an instructor and the total for an hour of dual instruction comes to $135.

Posted by Paul @ 11:28 AM, May 08    
Brady - A couple years ago, I decided to fly from Arlington (AWO) to Lynden (38W) by the Canadian border. Since I fly an open trike, I decided to be sneaky and enlarged the appropriate parts of my sectional and cut it into three parts to fit my kneeboard. When I stopped at Skagit Regional (BVS)for gas, I would take out #1 and replace it with #2 portion. Well, as I was gassing up, I was beset by a group of curious pilots who really thought my craft was cool. So, off I went toward Hwy 9 when I noticed I hadn't switched the sectional. Instead of going back, I figured I'd do it by 'memory' - I'd fly up the valley until a big cut out onto the Fraser River plain. But, when I got there, there were TWO cuts and a huge plain in front of me (half of which was Canada). The 'misplaced' feeling set in hard. I figured I could land at some field and ask the directions to Lynden if I had to. I had plenty of fuel to wander around for a while. Then I noticed a stock yard by a school and realized that I was near Everson, my wife's home town. Then, there should be a bridge across the Nooksak. Yep! And the hardware store, Yep! Then follow the river to Lynden where the airport would be just south of the golf course - Yeah, sorta. Could that be the airport? Looks like an asphalt sidewalk with #07 painted on the end.

Posted by Philip Wallace @ 01:39 PM, May 08    
Hi Brady,
I've been following along on your pilot training and want to congradulate you for setting up a video blog so that others can watch as you learn. Your video blog brings back many great memmories for me as I reflect back on my training to become a private pilot. The confidence that we gain along the way is incremental and with each hour of training that confidence grows. For me, the most rewarding part of learning to fly, are the friendships we gain along the way. From the very first day it was clear that every pilot or want to be pilot all share one thing in common, a love of airplanes. When people share common interests, friendships are easily made and we gain from each and everyone of them. I was very lucky when I first started out because the instructor I had was an old WWII fighter pilot and he had flown everything from L19's, the F4U Corsair, to the famous P51D Mustang. The first day we met was on the flight line. I watched as he and his student taxied back to the tie down and climbed out of a PT19 trainer. My first impression of him was one of exictment and I said to myself, this is to good to be true. I knew right then and there, at that moment, that we would become life long friends. My instructors name was Bruce "Pops" Pronk and he was a wonderful man with a passion for flying and of passing on that passion. Sadly, Pops passed away a few years ago and I felt this emptyness that I still feel today. We always stayed in touch and we used to get together for breakfast up at the "Prop Stop" resturant that was located on the airport where he tought me to fly. I could go on for days about the many great times I shared with Pops, and I would love to tell you more, but for now, lets just say goodby and God bless. It's because of the grace of God that we enjoy this wonderful thing we call, flight. Keep the rubber side down when landing and you'll get to do it again tomorrow. God bless you Brady.
Regards,,,Philip Wallace

Posted by Bill @ 10:48 AM, May 09    
Hi Brady - fantastic blog you have here. Keep up the good work!!

In the UK we appear to place a greater emphasis on flying a pre-determined heading, calculating ETAs, ATAs and of course fixing our position with reference to VRPs along track rather than flying VRP to VRP. Do you create pre-flight PLOGs with planned true/magnetic headings, planned speeds, ETAs etc, that you take into the cockpit to aid you?

I've done a couple of cross countries now and have found myself off track a handful of times.

I tend to use the standard closing angle technique to get back on track:

1. Establish distance off track e.g. 1.5nm

2. Turn towards track by a standard closing angle of 40 deg for a 90kias aircraft (angle varies with different KIAS)

3. Hold revised heading for the same number of minutes as you were miles off track e.g. 1.5 minutes for 1.5nm or 180 seconds for 3nm off track etc.

4. Turn back onto original heading

5. Adjust ETA by adding 1/3 of the time spent on the Standard Closing Angle (for a 90KIAS aircraft – again this differs with different KIAS).

Hope to read more posts soon.

Bill.

Posted by Doug @ 05:37 PM, May 10    
Hi, Brady,

When I take people flying I take my handheld GPFS along. When I get home I then download the track from the GPFS into the computer, print the track on a map, and give it to my passengers as a memento of the flight. The software I use does a 2-D track and it would be cool if I could give them the 3-D track like the one you included. Can you share with us how you created this? What software did you use?

Doug

Posted by Brady Lane @ 09:34 PM, May 10    
Using Google Earth, import your track then click “get info” on your path. Under the altitude tab, select “absolute.” If your GPS records altitude it will then display your altitude on the map as you climb and descend. Use the compass to tilt your view so you can see your path from an angle. Feel free to call me at the EAA office (1-800-JOIN-EAA) and I can try to walk you through it. I’m still learning new tricks with Google Earth, so if somebody else knows more, please chime in.

Posted by Terry @ 01:29 PM, May 11    
Nice job, remember if you ever get "misplaced" again that water towers usually carry town names. Believe me, I know, had to use it once before I was IFR.

Posted by Doug @ 11:26 PM, May 11    
Thanks, Brady! My gps is an old one so it make take some work to get the track into Google Earth. I'll need to spend some more time to try and make it work.

Posted by Mike Coates @ 11:28 AM, May 14    
I got myself lost(misplaced) the first time I went off on my own after I soloed. I flew around until I finally spotted a landmark that I remembered while flying with the instructor and then realized what direction I needed to go to get back to the airport. I was extremely nervous until that moment. In my case it was a lake that I remember passing each time I drove to the airport and knew following the road near the lake would get me back.

Posted by Bob Blakeslee @ 03:55 PM, May 14    
My first cross-country with my instructor was hectic to say the least. He insisted that I did it without GPS and one 35 mile leg was over swamp land - no land marks at all, no roads, no towers, no powerlines, no lakes, nothing but trees and wetlands. To make it worse, he sat there frowning not saying anything - no help at all. I took off, figured I use the sun, found my plane's shadow on the ground and estimated what angle I had to fly in relation to that shadow in order to fly a SW heading. It was very disconcerting to be flying in a direction not knowing if you are right and always running in the back of your mind, "How much fuel do I have left"? Flying in a Quicksilver at 45mph, it was about 50 minutes of worry. When I finaly saw the town and approaching airport I was only a couple miles off. Although I never wanted to do that again, the experence paid off when I was flying solo and my GPS died, I had to fly pilotage and it was no big deal at that point.

Posted by Philip Wallace @ 11:44 PM, June 11    
Hi Brady,
I really enjoy reading your blog and it reminds me of when i first started flying. I learned to fly in a Cessna 172 and soloed in 13 hours. I was real lucky and just by chance I found and bought a 1963 Piper Colt which is a two seater similar to the Tri Pacer but without flaps. The plane hadn't been flown in about a year and the guy that was selling it was moving his family to California and needed to sell it. The thing is thou, I wasn't even thinking of buying a plane because I figured I'd never be able to afford one. I was looking thru the local Want-Adds for a metal cutting band saw for the RV-4 I was going to build. The RV-4 is one of Vans Aircraft's earlier models of kit airplanes and I had the bug to build one. That's a whole other story for another time so I'll get back to the Colt story for now. After flipping the pages of the Want-Add and not finding what I was looking for I noticed there was a section with listings for airplanes. So just for giggles I started looking over the listings and low and behold there was this 1963 Piper Colt that had just been listed in this weeks new Want-Add. The asking price wasn't in the add so I gave the guy a call and we talked for a little while and I got the low down on the plane and why he was selling. So after about 15 minutes of talking I asked for his asking price. I was kind of shocked when he said six thousand dollars because either the plane was a wreak or it needed a complete airframe and engine overhaul. Six grand was cheap and he said it would come with a fresh annual if I wanted to pay cash. Well to make a long story short, I made arrangments to meet him at the airport on Saturday morning and was real excited to have a look at it. It was Thursday when we first spoke so two days seemed like forever and I couldn't wait to see it. So that night I made the drive to the airport and also figured I could get a look at it before he had a chance to do any work/cleaning up on it and that way I'd have a better idea of how he cared for it. So on Thursday night I made the drive to the airport and after looking around for a while I finally found it. It had been sitting behind a hanger and the wheels were burried in the sand to a depth of about 4 or 5 inches and the tires were just about flat. My first impression was that it probably needed a lot of work but as I looked it over it really didn't seem that bad. I opened the cowling and pulled the dip stick to find the oil was nice and clean and the engine was clean to. No oil stains or wet areas to be found and the only real thing I could see was that it needed a paint job. It was getting dark and I thought I had sniffed around enough for now so it was time to split. On my drive home I wanted to call the owner because I had a ton of questions and my interest was really peaking by now. So I had to tell myself to chill out and just wait until Saturday. It seemed like forever for Saturday to come around and when it finally did I was up with the birds and made the drive for the second time to the airport.
When I got there he had the plane in a different spot from where I had first seen it. He had pumped up the tires and he had the battery on a charger. We finally met in person and after shaking hands we started talking about the plane and he told me that it had been about 6 months since he last flew it and that the tires needed to be pumped up because it had been sitting behind the hanger since his last flight. I liked that he came out and told me what I already knew about the tires and since he didn't seem like he was trying to hide anything I felt that I could trust him to be honest. As we talked and poked over the plane he gave me a history lesson of what he knew about it. Turns out he had owned it for about 7 years and flew if regularly and showed me the log books with all the maintenance records for the airframe and engine. Turns out the plane still had a current annual that had about 3 or 4 months to go before it was due but told me he would pay to have a fresh annual if I was to pay cash within the next couple of days.
Well after thinking it over I finally got the courage to make an offer. I offered 5 thousand cash and had half right now and would be back with the rest once the annual inspection was completed. We haggeled over price for a little while and finally setteled on $5300.00. I had just bought my first airplane. What a week. I never thought that on Monday morning I would own an airplane by Saturday and was so excited that I called my flight insturctor to let him know. He was just as suprized as I was.
I got a call from the owner a couple of days latter and he told me the annual would be done by next Saturday. What perfect timing. I made the necessary arrangements to have my next flight lesson so that we could fly out to the airport with my flight instructor and another pilot so that me and my flight instructor could fly the Colt back to our base. Everything worked out great, and when we got there I made my final payment and he signed over the Colt to me, but there was one little problem. The brakes didn't work. I was really bummed out and thought it would take at least another week or so until the brakes could be fixed and I could actually take owenership of the plane. Well my flight instructor stepped in and told me that we didn't really need the brakes for landing back at out home airport because there was a long grass strip that we could land on and it was plenty long enough to slow us down so if i didn't want to wait I could fly it home today. For the inconvienence the seller offered to fill the tanks and I figured what the heck,,lets go for it. The return flight was awesome and I couldn't believe I had just bought an airplane. Upon landing at Norwood my instructor took control and landed on the grass and just like he promised we slowed down with plenty of room to spare. We taxied to my new tie down spot and I was now the proud owner of a 1963 Piper Colt, otherwise known as the flying milk stool because of the way it looks. I had the brakes fixed within a few days and after a little instruction in the Colt, I was now signed off and could fly solo. So within two weeks I had soloed two different planes and was feeling pretty good about myself. I could go on and on and tell you plenty of stories of all the great times I had with the Colt but surfice it to say, over the next six years of owning the Colt I had gained over 500 hours PIC time and flew to so many places and met so many fantastic people. I think pilots are some of the finest people you'll ever meet and I never met one that I didn't like. I didn't have the coolest plane in the fleet but even the guy's that flew corprate jets became friends of mine. We all shared the same love of flying and it never mattered what one or the other flew, it was always about planes and the hanger talk was just as good as flying on a clear summers day.
Keep up the good work Brady,,I look forward to your next installment.

Best regards,,,Phil