Like a real pilot, big triangle solo

Story

I got to be a real pilot for the first time over the week end. I can tell it’s been a busy week end. What I was targeting was to complete the EASA requirements for the license examination. The requirements are the following:

10 flights hours as pilot in command, of which
5 hours of cross-country flight
One qualifying cross-country (X-C) flight of at least 270 km (150 NM), during which full stop landings at 2 aerodromes different from the aerodrome of departure shall be made

I started the week with 6h34 solo flight time on the clock. So I knew I had to do my qualifying cross-country which is around 2h30 and another flight of more than one hours. I elected to do a solo flight on Saturday doing some navigation and air work followed by the qualifying flight on Sunday.

I couldn’t have been luckier with the weather. That’s true that I changed plan on Saturday morning. I should have been off block at 10AM but fog on the runway prevented any VFR activities. Early in the morning I was in discussion with my instructor to the flight at the end of the day. That was a perfect move as the weather cleared up and, as you can see in the footage below, the aircraft had great performance in cold and dense atmosphere.

The weather stayed great for Sunday and I had a full day without a cloud in the sky. I completed my journey with 192nm on the clock which is more than enough to fulfill the EASA requirement. I added below a track log.

Learning

I need to stay on top of my fuel selection. On both days, I returned the plane with uneven fuel quantity in the tanks because I got distracted by other flight aspects as I was closing towards Eindhoven airport. That’s not been a problem during the navigation but has to stay on top of my mind all the time.
Air work was not particularly great. Specifically the highly important emergency landing. I guess, back to simulator training.
Navigation and dead-reckoning was really going ok.

Fun part

When I landed in Teure I did a coffee break at the restaurant next to the airport. On that day I sat at the bar and got drop on the counter a coffee and my aircraft key. Just saying/writing sounds surreal.