Long cross country

A few days ago I had to do my long cross country flight. This includes a full stop at three different airports that are all seperated by at least 50mi. My first stop was Redwood Falls. When I departed mankato it was a little cloudy, but nothing to worry about. By the time I left the airport the clouds had moved in and there was a pretty much solid layer from 3 thousand to 4 thousand feet. As a student pilot i'm sopposed to stay underneath of the clouds. It was too bumpy there and i was too low, so i decided to climb above the clouds. I settled at about 7 thousand feet and the air was nice and smooth. It was like I was floating on a sea of white cotton balls. Nearing RWF, I had to decend through the clouds. I found a spot that looked somwhat open and started my decent. About ten miles out i busted through and got the shit beat out of me. The valley plus already bad weather conditions created some severe turbulance. As I got closer and closer to the airport the turbulance got worse. I was actually a little scared, dont tell anybody. Apon reaching the airport the turbulance drove me down below pattern altitude and i was scared I would hit a tower or somthing, many of which were barley visiable. Coming in for final I damn near shit myself, my plane was going everywhere. I used my rudders to control the nose, and had a smooth landing. At the end of the runway you are sopposed to taxi back and take off again. While turning around I got stuck in a snowdrift! Thats just the beginning.

First Solo Cross Country Today!

Yesterday I had my solo cross country phase check. Its like a check to see if you know what you are doing enough so that you can fly to other airports alone. You have to go with a different instructor and I feel like it went pretty well. It takes about three hours, two hours of oral questions on the ground and then about an hour in the air. After the phase check my instructor text me last night and told me to create a flightplan for Redwood Falls. This means that today I should be flying there for my first solo. I've flown their once before with my instructor, but I don't think we landed. Im pretty excited and I think it will be alot of fun. The GPS makes it pretty easy to get there, but if that fails I can still get there with my compass, and sectional. The weather is sopposed to be good so it will be nice if it stays that way. The trip is about 52 mi. and should take me no longer than 35 min one way. I didn't get much sleep last night but hopefully that wont be a factor. I am really tired though and after I fly I have speech from 3-4:15. I will probably be passed out by five. Friday will be an easy day for me though, one class from 2-3 and I'm done. There is a test in that class tomorrow, but I should do alright.