Instead of recreating all the touch-and-go's and staying in the local area, I have decided to skip ahead to my first cross-country flight. I start in San Marcos on runway 35 with the engine running. The Flight Planner has told me to fly a heading of 042 degrees, so off I go. I find it hard to maintain my desired altitude of 2500 feet and the heading at the same time, but eventually it settles down.

I find myself flying through the Austin Bergstrom airspace, which was not an issue in 1989. (Bergstrom was a closed Air Force base at the time.) I watch the airport pass by out the window, one of the few identifiable landmarks for me today. The scenery below is mostly green patches, with an occasional lake or radio tower.

The Map function on the simulator comes in handy, verifying my course. Once the heading and altitude are set, I have some time to play around with views and zooming in and out. I find a virtual cockpit view that lets me see all the instruments and out the windscreen at once, but I do have to change to the other cockpit view to see the instruments better. Again I appreciate the ability to get outside and look at the airplane in flight.

I experiment with the navigation radio, and find that I can tune in the College Station VOR, and I can twist the knob on the indicator to confirm my bearing from the station. The faithfulness of the simulation still amazes me.

It is a long trip, about 45 minutes, and I don’t want to mess with the yoke too much. I realize that I can get up and walk around! The plane keeps flying, and I can get a drink of water or go to the restroom, unlike in a real Cessna 150. (I do not use the autopilot feature because I never did, but most planes are steady and stable.)

Eventually, I can see from the map that I am approaching Hearne. I pull back on the throttle and descend to pattern altitude. I have a little better view of the runway with my zoomed out virtual cockpit, but I pause the simulator on base to confirm my location. Another advantage of flying the computer!

I land and shut down, and walk away from the desk; I don’t even have to fly back to San Marcos to get my car.

VIRTUAL LOGBOOK​

First Virtual Cross Country

C150 SX-BDG (FSX)

From: KHYI (San Marcos, Texas)

To: KLHB (Hearne, Texas)

Landings: 1

SEL: 0.7 hours

LOGBOOK: March 12, 1989

First Cross Country

C152 N5323P

From: T98 (San Marcos, TX)

To: T98

Landings: 3

SEL: 3.2 hrs/ Dual: 3.2/ Sim.Inst: 0.4

Remarks: Dual x/c, hood time, pilotage, VOR, T98-Hearne-LNW-T98