First Real Cross-Country
Since I passed my check ride about a month ago, most... make that all of my flying has been local and giving friends the standard tour of the hinterland north of Dallas. Generally, the tour consists of taking off from KTKI and flying slightly northwest to overfly Deion Sanders' (yes, Deion Sanders the former Dallas Cowboy Cornerback) north texas estate, which is pretty much the only interesting thing to look at that far north of Dallas proper. After a couple of circuits around the Sanders estate, it's south over my house, then over to the Frisco Roughriders baseball stadium, then back to the airport. Generally, I will customize the trip for the individual and work in a flyover for their home too, if they live in the area.
Yesterday, however, was special. It was my first real cross-country flight that was not associated with meeting a requirement for my private pilot certificate. My Friend Robert and I both had the day off work and decided to go on a so called "$100 hamburger" run up to University of Oklahoma Max Westheimer Airport (KOUN) in Norman Oklahoma, to eat at a small diner next to the control tower called Ozzie's. The food was okay. It was not bad, but edible... the airport was outstanding and line service at the FBO was excellent.
On trip up to OU, we decided to use victor airways, so we took off from KTKI and flew due north until we intercepted the Victor Airway 573 at the YOGVA fix, flew that to the Ardmore VOR-TAC, then turned to Victor Airway 17 toward Oklahoma City. When we got to the WETIX fix about 15 south of Norman we turned toward the airport and landed on runway 21. We had trouble getting flight following from regional approach on our way out, so we just monitored the Dallas-Fort Worth Approach frequency and kept our eyes open. On the way back we flew direct KOUN to KSWI for some cheap AV gas before heading back to KTKI. Leaving Norman was very easy and we were able to get flight following down to KSWI.
The total flight time was 3.1 hours, counting all the time on the ground getting ready the trip took a little more than 5 hours. That included the pre-flight stuff, lunch, and our side trip to KSWI in order to refuel with much cheaper AV gas than KTKI sells. Overall, the trip was a blast! Robert and I had a lot of fun and we look forward to going on the next cross-country.
