This was my last required cross-country flight and the longest one of the ones I have done so far. I flew from Madison County Airport to Chattanooga to McMinnville, Tennessee and back to Madison County. The entire flight took 2.1 hours including time at both airports taxiing back after landing.
The flight to Chattanooga was a little bumpy due to wind blowing over all the hills on the way. I tried to get flight following from Huntsville International as far as I could, but it wasn’t long before they said the terrain was preventing them from getting me on radar. The flight into Chattanooga was really pretty–I followed a valley right into the city.
The airport was a little busier than Huntsville International has been the times I went there. I was 4th in line for landing on runway 2. They had me fly a few miles south of the airfield while waiting for the other planes to land and then come straight in from about 5 miles out. I heard on the ATIS that a taxiway was closed–I was prepared and brought a map of the airport with me and was able to tell where it was closed. After landing I asked the tower if they wanted me to turn off at the next taxiway which happened to touch the closed section and they said it would be better to go to the next one. They eventually had a passenger jet enter at that taxiway and back-taxi down the runway so they would have room to take off. Ground control gave me instructions back to where the taxiway closed and you had to get on the runway to either back-taxi or make an intersection departure. I asked tower for an intersection departure and they let me go before the passenger jet.
The flight to McMinnville was nice–there is a huge valley carved out by the river that empties into Lake Guntersville. It looks like you’re flying off the edge of the world when you get to it. There was no traffic at all at McMinnville and I did one landing before heading back to Madison County.
All my landings were three-point landings. I feel like I am a lot more in control of the landings than I was in the past. I feel like I can sense when the nose is not pointed how I want it and am coordinated enough with the stick and rudder to get it how I want. So the landings felt nice–just no wheel landings for this flight.
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