• 5 hours solo cross-country flight
• one solo cross country flight of at least 150 nm total distance with full-stop landings at three points and one straight-line segment of at least 50 nm between takeoff and landing locations
• 3 takeoffs and 3 full stop landings in the traffic pattern at an airport with an operating control tower

Now, it is one thing to “fly the traffic pattern” alone in your aircraft. It is another matter entirely to take off in that aircraft bound for other airports that you may have visited once before, if at all!

FLYING ALLIGATOR ALLEY I am not real certain what the route selection for my first cross-country solo was based on… perhaps my instructor’s consideration that if I had a straight road to fly along, I surely could not get lost! The choice of Alligator Alley, which spans the Southeast portion of Florida, was a good one.  Alligator Alley is the only way across the State between Naples, Florida and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You cannot miss this road – it is as straight as the day is long and surrounded by nothing but The Everglades.

Saturday morning, I looked over the chart and reviewed the route. This should be a straight-forward flight.

OBSERVER: Let’s see, can she go from Point A to Point B and back to Point A again?

I checked the weather via Intellicast.com and called Flight Service (1-800-WX-BRIEF).  Flight Service is a wonderful thing.  I got the current conditions and outlook for FXE (Fort Lauderdale Executive) and APF (Naples) and bundled up my daughter, The Bubblette, for the ride over to Grandma’s.

As I drove to FXE from my Mom’s house, I was reviewing the route, thinking about the Pre-Flight check, reminding myself to go over to Banyan once more to check the weather, thinking about the run-up, thinking about the take-off, the heading I wanted for Naples and calling Flight Service to activate my Flight plan.

OBSERVER: Inability to concentrate on task at hand.

Pre-Flighting the airplane, today, took on a new meaning – no one else was there, watching! With religious zeal I went over that airplane.  Flaps – check;  lights – check;  fuel – check…  from the left side of the plane around to the right and back up the left.  Then I grabbed my checklist and went over it, making sure I remembered everything.

With the Pre-Flight complete, I hopped into the left seat, tuned in Executive Ground and asked to taxi from Skytel to Banyan.

At Banyan, I went to the bathroom (for the fifth time that morning), checked the weather for the sixth time and filed a Flight Plan for a VFR Domestic Flight from FXE to APF making sure to use the two words that, as we all know, are like Magic Dust: Student Pilot.

I was ready to go – nervous – but ready to go.

In the plane I went, that voice inside my head talking: take-off, head west 270, request frequency change, activate flight plan, contact Miami, request Flight Following, find Alligator Alley…

All of the details that had to be taken care of to get me from FXE to APF…

I looked at the APF Approach chart again – making sure I could easily find the page, checking the frequencies and realizing that if I didn’t just get going, my Neural Checklist wasn’t going to get me there.

OBSERVER: Val… HELLO VAL! Stop Procrastinating, chicken shit. Get Going.

Sheesh.  Okay… take a look around…CLEAR!  Start the engine, get the ATIS for FXE and contact Ground for clearance to taxi to 080 and away I go.  The run-up is uneventful but I grab my checklist and make sure that my little pea brain didn’t forget anything.  I release the brake and taxi over to the Hold-Short line, calling the Tower letting them know I am ready-to-go-8.