The third stage of the course primarily focuses on cross-country flying. This means that students are required to plan and execute a flight to a remote airport, located more than 50 nautical miles from the departure airport.
Although I had experience preparing mass and balance, weather briefing, and fuel, I had never prepared and filed a flight plan before. Fortunately, creating a flight plan is relatively easy in the US and can be done online.
The most challenging parts for me are still approaches and ATC, especially IFR clearances. The flight itself is relatively easy, requiring only instrument monitoring and keeping all flight parameters within their limits.
However, we encountered an issue with our flight plan. I used 100wxbrief.com to file our plan, which defaulted to EST timezone. Since I used UTC for my logbook records and other related services such as weather, our plan was filed for 5 hours later. Despite the Visual Meteorological Conditions, we decided to continue in simulated Instrument Conditions with the instructor acting as ATC, and we changed our flight plan for the return leg to obtain proper clearance.
I still need to work on my approaches to better maintain the glideslope and approach path. However, the enroute part of the flight is going well.
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