X-Plane

Last night I "flew" from Bowman Field to Bloomington (KBMG) and it was a fairly successful trip.

I found all my checkpoints, kept heading and altitude withing limits, I think. I tracked VOR FROM Bowman and BOR TO BMG as well.
Landing was good.

This morning I took the trip back from Bloomington to Bowman. I kept track of time until the last 15 miles. I used simulated"real" weather, which I didn't do last night due to taking a daytime trip at night. Today, the air was really bumpy, and I had a strong crosswind to deal with.

Notes for improvement:
I tried to follow my first heading to the 2nd and 3rd checkpoints. I could tell it was wrong, and adjusted, but forgot to use the figured heading.

The color-copied chart was hard to read and didn't have a compass rose. Still, the real chart is a pain to use since we are using a course that angles across multiple folds. This also affected having frequencies of airspace that I was transitioning. If you're going to redo the chart, must be legible and have compass.

I did not see any checkpoints after Salem. At this point I switched to the Bowman Field VOR and followed it. I never saw Clark County Airport, either. As far as I can tell, I passed right directly OVER the WAVE towers (or whatever that is east of Greenville) My altitude was high enough to be 1000 feet above, but my plan had been to skirt them and then return to VOR heading.

I didn't have my Bowman Field Airport diagram, and had to work to picture the approach to runway 14 (which actually might not be open today, due to stuff on it).

I forgot to reset the Mixture to rich, and landed with it out.

The approach to landing was ok, up until the last, at which point we were in the grass. I have yet to be able to deal with crosswind landings on this simulator. Thank goodness I do a little better in the real world.

I'll fly the sim again tonight since I'm taking the trip tomorrow.

I'm going to meet Peter at Seneca Park to start to review for the oral exam. I don't know if I know ANY of the answers orally. Do I still remember them on paper? I'm going to review by taking a practice written test, then re-check my cross country for tomorrow and take that with me, too.

I'm really behind on the rest of my journal. I have notes scattered all over the place.