BRAND NEW PRIVATE PILOT ~~~

That's right !! I passed my Private Pilot checkride today. As of 4/21/2010, I'm a pilot, not student pilot anymore. I now have the priviledge to take passengers and be pilot in command. This is one of the best feeling in the world. After all I've come through, it has paid off. the studying, the training, the stage checks. everything is where it's supposed to be right now, I will keep moving and advance in my training. Thanks to my family and everyone who has supported me financially and mentally as well as those providing resources and made it availabe to me. I will upload some pictures when I have some, I haven't flown very much recently. I'm excited to get my first "stripe" on my shoulder. .This is where it begins....

CROSS COUNTRY DTO- DUA

this is my last cross country i need to advance in my training, my destination this time is Eaker Airport in Durant Oklahoma. should take me less than 2 hours for the entire trip, and it should be fun and challenging, since this is my last one for now, I wanna make this a perfect one, which means, I will time my trip, revise my flight plan as I advance through my checkpoints, get Flight Following, and no more mistake !
this is one of my checkpoints, as you can see ! right on the spot. redline is my flight path, circle is my check point.

this picture was taken on the way back, so it's on my left side.

the next checkpoint was a beautiful reservoir with a dam east of it.

very nice scenery.. next up is a class D airport which I will be flying over, I don't have to talk to them because I will be higher than its airspace, but it's always recommended..

very good flight ! had a lot of fun sight seeing, I'm satisfied with this flight for some reasons, first of all, communications with tower was perfect, talking with pilots around the destination airport was also perfect, talking to radar service was perfect, landing was GREAT, executed my flight plan very well, hit my spots and was on time. next on my agenda is to have a couple flights with my instructor and go over some PTS and night take off and landings, make sure i'm ready for the big test.. wish me luck .!!!

SOLO CROSS COUNTRY

This was about a week ago, I was nervous, of course. and a little mistake was taken place, but nothing big.
the flight started from Denton, I was heading east to Graham Airport, one the way there, I will pass a checkpoint south of a lake with a small uncontrolled airport beside it, and the whole point of this training is to see if I can pass the checkpoints on schedule, and if not, calculate why, and revise the plan based on the new information. For example, if I calculate my ground speed will be 85 miles per hour, then I know it will take me 20 min to fly 17 miles. But if the wind that day suddenly changes, and the time it took to fly 17miles changes to 25 min, then I should calculate my NEW speed and apply that to my next checkpoint, how long it will take, how fast, how much fuel, etc..
as you can see, my first checkpoint was pretty much on the spot !

when I arrive at Granham Airport, the wind was reporting gusting to 25NM, and it was almost a direct crosswind, but i still tried to land ! ultimately I aborted landing and kept on heading to my next destination.. the thing with "gust" wind... is that...it's not constant, it's sometimes there and sometimes not, and that is very unstable when i'm trying to land, and a little bit dangerous if you don't know what to do in a gusty situation.
my next airport is Mineral Wells airport, nothing special there except that I didn't expect anyone would listen to my radio as I'm self announcing my position( uncontrolled airport), it was quiet so I didn't think anyone was around that area, but as i'm on final and I made my last announcement  "Mineral Wells traffic, cessna 27705Q, 3 miles final, runway 18, mineral wells" someone answered " Im right behind you" ... haha and he asked me how fast I was going so he could slow down a little bit, it was pretty exciting because we were so close and he was a twin. it was special because that's the first time I made myself useful to others in a uncontrolled airport, I did what I supposed to do, they know where I was and what my intentions were, it was all done very professionally, I was pretty pleased, made me feel almost like a real pilot... hehe...

but the real mistake happened at my own airpot ! when I went back to denton, I miscommunicated with the control tower so for a minute, he was looking for me and I was right next to the airport... he said " cessna 05Q, make a right 270 and enter right downwind for runway 17" it was clear, but somehow I thought he said 720...2 loops ?? ok...if that's what he wants.. so I was there circeling ... and then he said "05Q, are you still circling ? enter right downwind for runway17" haha...and the worst thing is... my instructor was at the airport doing traffic pattern with another student and he heard the whole conversation !  gosh... he had so much confidence in me that I wouldn't make mistake but still I did and it wasn't even difficult ... after that, of course I didn't feel very well about that even though 95% of the flight was great,  I still think I did poorly, it's kinda like a round of golf, you can hit pars and birdies all day, and if you bogied the last hole... dinner taste awful !
i'm sure many people know what i'm talking about..
anyway, I passed my stage II check, and I'm a couple more flights from getting a checkride for a private pilot license ! wish me luck !