Man, it's been more than a few weeks since I've posted an update.

I've completed my cross-country flights (one flight to a small airfield on a lake in southern Virginia - W63 Marks Municipal - and my towered flight to KISO - Kinston) and have about 3 hours of solo time and some dual left to complete before the checkride.

We practiced confined approaches during the last lesson and it was very fun. The first field we landed in was pretty good sized so, it wasn't a big deal outside of just checking the wind and setting up for the approach. However, the second field we picked out was tiny! It probably wasn't that bad, but it seemed like a postage stamp to me

On the approach I saw some telephone wires that I hadn't seen on the high recon so, that really drove home the idea that, you need to be aware and looking until you're down on the ground. Just because everything looks good from your recon doesn't mean that there isn't something lower that you just missed or was hidden by trees or buildings.

Another thing I discovered was that, especially in heavily wooded areas, when you go out to setup for the approach, you can lose sight of your actual field or it will appear completely different because of the different perspective. So, to avoid confusion or landing in the wrong location, you should always pick out a few reference points on your approach path to make sure you're lining up like you intended even if you can't completely see the point you intend to land from your position.

This is a short post because I'm at work and don't have a lot of time, but I did want to update my status quickly and mention that I'll be adding a few more posts in the next couple of days about some of the major events that I've missed over the past several weeks (like my towered cross-country and progress on autos/starting 180 autos).

Safe flying!

Kelly