Well, I attempted my official cross country solos 3 times before I actually completed the first. I learned my lesson and blocked off 5-6 hours and didn’t rush and had plenty of time to spare at each airport. My first successful solo was from Bedford, MA to Sanford, ME to Concord, NH and then back to Bedford. It went off without a hitch on an absolutely beautiful day. The most exciting part of the trip was as I was passing Pease Airforce Base in Portsmouth NH, a big C-130 took off and was practicing touch and gos. It was unbelievable how huge that plane was and how fast it could be. I got a little nervous and proceeded to do a 360 to make sure he really was doing touch and gos and I didn’t have to worry …. the little Cessna can’t exactly out run one of those guys.

My second flight was Bedford to New Bedford to North Central and then back to Bedford. This one went pretty well too, except when I landed in New Bedford and stopped to re-group, the plane wouldn’t start. Yikes … now what? I called my home airport and the maintenance guy was great. He walked me through a procedure called a “hot start” which I had never done before. It worked !!! Great, I was on my way. I finished the flight and basically completed all my required hours for solo training.