The next leg on my trip to Florida was to New Orleans, heading 087. I took off to the north in the Cherokee Six and turned right. There was not as many wetlands as I had expected until about halfway into the hour-long trip. I could still see the Gulf on the right horizon. As I approached New Orleans, the program started glitching, especially in the spotter plane view. Random triangles and polygons of a different view flickered and pulsed on the screen, as if glimpsing into another dimension. The virtual cockpit view did it as well, though not as bad. The cockpit view was not affected, so I made a straight-in approach to Runway 17 at Louis Armstrong Regional. Unfortunately, I crashed. Obviously I need to shoot some touch-and-goes, but I survived. Maybe it was the glitch that distracted me, or maybe it was the rum to celebrate my birthday.

The next day I flew the same route, this time in a Cherokee 140 (the first plane I owned.) The cockpit of my virtual model appears as time-worn as a real one. The bow-tie yoke brought back memories. In this model, the GPS was much larger than yesterday, causing me to work a bit to see all the instruments. But, of course, the only important ones (Heading (DG), Airspeed (ASI), and Altimeter) were easily visible. I got the altitude and airspeed steady, but had a difficult time holding a heading. I had to hand-fly the entire way. No glitches today, but I noticed a lot of antennas and an oddly large number of smokestacked "factories" as I followed the Mississippi. About 10 miles out from the airport I got a visual on the runways and set up for a straight-in. On my approach, I saw a Boeing 747 taking off from the runway I was landing on. It flew over me by at east 1000 feet. It was not a pretty landing, but I managed to taxi to the terminal and park right next to an MD-80.