Pat's First Solo Cross Country
November 10, 2003
My instructor reviewed my flight plan for a trip from Westminster, MD to Winchester, VA and back and asked me lots of questions today. I must have did OK because he signed my log book and medical and I was approved to go on the trip solo. We did the trip dual a few days ago and it was pretty easy to get there and back after practicing the trip in the simulator.
I planned to fly at 4500 for the trip down and 5500 for the trip back, using the FDK and MRB VORs as navigational aids. It took 43 minutes to get there and 36 minutes to get back due to the winds. It was a very calm flight except for the SFC to 2500 feet where it was a little bumpy.
As a ham radio operator, I had the privilege of using some new technology (to me) in order to capture my exact track. The use of APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) allowed me to gather my position via GPS and send it to ground stations on 2m (144.390MHz) who would then forward to a web database for display. Below, you can see my actual track compared to the white line that I drew to show the course. Click here for more information on APRS.
Click on the images to enlarge
The above images were generated from a CGI script on findu.com. Steve Dimse, K4HG, developed the site to give anyone with Web access the ability to track APRS stations. With some help from Steve, I was able to create an image of a Sectional chart and use his data to plot my reported positions. The position reports are sometimes not accurate, as the chart and the GPS coordinates don't match 100% of the time. Also, a receiving station needs to be within listening range of my transmitted signal and forward it through the Web in order to appear on this site. Even though I transmitted my position every minute, only about 70% of the positions made it to the Web site. Click here for all of my APRS stations and locations Click here to see my APRS setup
Pictures
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