Practice x-c

[Update: Link at bottom.]

Husband and I flew over to Luray (W45, Luray, VA, of Luray Caverns fame). We had a jerk of a headwind going out there, so what would be 1:10 in calm conditions was 1:45. Coming back, though, we made excellent time -- 1:01.

Husband did all the flying on this trip. I followed along on the sectional on the never-ending trip out there, practicing identifying features on the ground and correlating that to landmarks on the sectional. Pilotage practice, we shall say, and a few instances of using intersecting radials from different VORs to pinpoint a location on the map.

On the way back, I also did the radio calls. This was first to get flight following from Washington Center, who handed us off almost immediately to Potomac Approach. There were a few traffic advisories, but nothing major.

Flying to and over the mountains was neat and pretty; from the picture above, you can see why they call them the "Blue Ridge" mountains. The clouds on the way back were fantastic. The sky looked furry.

I'll try to write up more tomorrow; it was good practice for navigate and communicate.

Update: Husband wrote up an account on his blog Vectors To Final, and put up some other pics and some video.