(A) The FAA defines a cross-country as a flight where the final destination is at least 50 nautical miles from your home base or a flight into unfamiliar areas and airports.
Moody Aviation’s extended cross-country is an accumulation of various types of training done throughout the program including: cross-country procedures, emergencies, congested airspace flying, mountain flying, special purpose takeoffs and landings, flight planning and weather avoidance and flying to commercial standards all the while. This all-encompassing cross-country tours the western United States and lasts 12 days (see map. Last picture in the cross country set). The purpose for the extended cross-country is to further develop skills needed to fly in all types of conditions, weather in the states or overseas. It is not something that every school does, but Moody does it for good reason. To be pushed out of one’s comfort zone, out of the familiar and into the unknown, and be able to apply skills to any situation is what being a competent pilot is all about. For me, this trip accomplished just that. The first half of the trip was mountain flying, and mountain flying we did. The absolute thrill of aviation seeps out of me when I get to fly into an unknown canyon or mountain pass in search of the smallest airstrip that looks like nothing more than an abandoned road, and then land there! A recent graduate from Moody was once questioned by a classmate about their extended cross-country: Can you describe where you are going today? “I have no idea where we are going today! We are going to these airports that are not on charts. And when you want to find out where they are in the world, you get this other chart, that's not official, and then you guess where it is on the ‘real’ chart. And were going into airports that blend into their surroundings completely.” Good to know… are these airports at least paved? “Absolutely not!” These dirt/sod/rock curvy and sloped airstrips are what most airstrips that mission aviators fly into overseas. Finding them is difficult enough, but landing and taking off is a whole other matter. Several overhead passes at different altitudes must be made to determine: slope, wind, obstacles, length, and surface condition. All factors must be known in order to know the plane can safely land, and more importantly take off from it. Landing must be done safely and comfortably for both plane and passengers. Seems easy enough, but sadly many of the airstrips we went into had numerous aviation related deaths due to being casual or negligent with the smallest issues. The first half consisted of overnighting in Nampa, ID; Idaho Falls, ID, and Salt Lake City, UT with each pilot racking in around 10 hours of flight time. Some airports that we visited include (if you want to google them or reference the pictures): Slate Creek (1S7), Memaloose (25U), Smith Prarie (2U0), Bruce Meadows (U63), Indian Creek (S81), Johnson Creek (3U2), Twin Bridges (U61), Sand Wash (uncharted), Horseshoe Canyon (uncharted) and many more. There was a two day hiatus in Salt Lake where the four teams met and were able to relax before starting the second half of the trip. There we went Jeeping with friends the instructors, spoke at a church event at the airport, and relaxed as we told stories from our trip so far. The second half of the trip, although not as cool as mountain flying, was just as important. It involved flying into and navigating in “congested airspace”. This is know as Class Bravo airspace, where special rules apply, different charts are needed, more pressure is on, and a lot more airplanes are. Only 37 airports in the U.S. are in this kind of airspace (none in Iowa go figure), and the airports themselves including the airspace around it are busy at all hours. We overnighted in Boulder County (outside of Las Vegas), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Roseburg (Oregon), and back to Spokane via Portland all the while flying into stressful airspace and landing at many airports racking in another 10 hours flight time each. Two of my favorite airports this half were Catalina Island (KAVX) and Half Moon Bay (KHAF). Although it wasn’t my favorite, it was still pretty cool landing and taking off right next to the huge 747s. To sum up, this journey of over 4,000 miles was a flight of a lifetime, a true crescendo to the training at Moody thus far. Other than making me more excited about being a pilot as a ministry overseas, it has made me more confident with my skills. It is one thing flying in a known area practicing various skills for an hour or two every day. However, flying with 3 other crazy people in a small airplane for many hours, towards an unknown area with unknown weather, applying everything that encompasses our training thus far and doing it as a competent commercial pilot is a different beast entirely. The added stress with the new situations {simulated failed instruments/engine/systems, (pretend) dying people in the back of the plane, diversions, real or fake weather ahead… the list goes on} makes ideas, concepts, and skills stick for me as a pilot… and I love it. I’m excited for where God has me now, and for what he has in store for us in the near future. God is so good for allowing my classmates to go through something like this and all the glory goes to Him. If you want to see more about the trip, you can: take a look at the photos under Extended Cross-Country, look up previous class cross country videos on youtube (search: moody aviation extended cross country), or wait for my own compilation video to come out soon. Thanks for reading.
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