So today was the day for the long haul. I spent several hours both on Thursday and Friday planning the flight, picking checkpoints, etc. Early on in my training I was told what the long XC would be, so I had messed with the route on skyvector a bunch of times and had a good idea what it would be. The route was FRG-SCH-PVD-FRG. I was much more thorough with this flight than with other XC's I have done; checking out each VOR for non-functional radials, finding out that I would have to call Boston Center rather than Providence Approach if it was after noon, etc. Woke up really early to get the latest weather, and met my instructor at 8:30am to review my planning. He again went over the procedure for departing a class C airport since I hadn't done it before, and I was off to preflight.
FRG-SCH: I had done the first part of this leg a bunch of times before, and most recently on my previous XC to POU. My checkpoint times were as good as they have ever been, and I felt real comfortable with everything. The only thing I felt a bit unsure about was my reliance on VOR's; I was concerned that if left to visual-only checkpoints, I would not be able to keep a course. I continued on and eventually contacted ALB approach to enter the class C and was soon handed to SCH tower. I reported my position relative to ALB, and they had me report 2 mile right base for runway 4. I was looking at what i thought was ALB, but the layout didn't match. I kept flying northwest until i got a call from SCH tower asking my position. They had me ident several times and said they were only getting a primary radar signal, asking me to recycle a few times as well. (still dont know what the deal was there, since I didn't have trouble anywhere else) By this time I was a bit distracted, and realized that what I thought was ALB was actually SCH. I was still cleared for runway 5, but hadn't yet gotten my bearings and was confused by towers instructions. Eventually I figured it out, and turned for a left base for runway 5. I hate making mistakes, and I apologized to tower explaining that I was a student pilot who was unfamiliar with the area. He said no apology was necessary, and I continued on to a surprisingly good landing.
SCH-PVD: Since I was the only activity at the field for the time I was there, tower remembered me when I called up, and he offered progressive taxi instructions. I had taxied on inactive runways a million times before, but this time it didn't click. I guess I was still a bit nervous after my snafu earlier. As he had me turn onto runway 10 I thought he was having me depart from there, so I asked, in a confused and inquiring voice, "cleared for take off?", even though i hadn't done a runup yet. durrr. I forget his response, but I continued and took off runway 4 without incident. Soon after, I called ALB approach, and they vectored me around a bit. I told them my route was southeast, but from the vectoring I had to fly south to get onto my planned route. App noticed I was not going southeast as I said and had me clarify.
Perfectly smooth ride from this point. I was at 5500MSL which I hadn't flown before, and it was a bit hazy below about 2500'. The mountain tops looked like islands in the haze, it was pretty cool. I was able to fly hands off for a while, and tried to move around a bit to stretch my legs. Only once was I advised of any traffic which was near Springfield, MA; surprising for such a beautiful day.
Contacted PVD approach without a hitch and began my descent. I sight the field, and am told to report a 2 mile left base. I guess that point came and went, so tower asked if I have the field in sight and I reply telling him that I do. Here we go again, and tower tells me that I am headed for Quonset, which is a few miles south of Providence (OK, maybe 8 is more than a few). I am pretty much on the extended centerline of 34 for PVD, so App tells me I am cleared to land, and I head in. Taxi around to the FBO which I called earlier, but didn't see a line guy around. Good thing they had their UNICOM painted in enormous numbers on the building; I hadn't written it down. Filled the plane's tanks, emptied mine, and headed back out after about 20 minutes.
PVD-FRG: This was my first time departing from a class C, but it was no big deal (I had only done touch-and-go's at ISP before). My instructor gave me the CRAFT acronym that morning, and I knew exactly what to expect. Called clearance delivery, ground, then tower and was up in no time. They vectored me around a bit and put me right on my intended course. Very smooth over the LI sound, and very quiet on the radio. As I got close to the LI class C, I realize I wasn't handed off by PVD App. Guess they dropped me without telling me. I called a bunch of times without response, so I figured it was ok to switch over to LI App, and was cleared through their class C without any vectoring or altitude change. Same old routine heading back into FRG where I had the worst of the 3 landings that day. Go figure.
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