Solo x-country done.

Finally the weather and my schedule looked like they were going to cooperate so I booked a time slot for Sunday morning. A couple of days out it looked like it would be nothing but blue sky, but by the time Sunday actually arrived it was scattered with an overcast over the island at about 6,000 feet, and worse at the other two airports located on the mainland.

Basically my cross country looks like a triangle. Charlottetown to Moncton - 75 miles, Moncton to Trenton - 105 miles and finally Trenton to Charlottetown - 55 miles.

I went out to the airport early and did all my paperwork, nav calculations, checked the weather, metars and notams etc. Next I called the weather briefer and got a briefing, then I checked with Dave to discuss my options. It looked like the cloud layer on the mainland might drop down enough to prevent me from completing my last leg (Trenton to Charlottetown). I decided to proceed anyways and if the overcast on the mainland looked like it was getting worse I'd return to Ch'town early. I called my flight plan in and then I was off a few minutes later.

My cruise altitude to Moncton was 4,500 feet, the overcast above the island was about 6,000 feet. It stayed like this until I crossed over the Confederation Bridge, on the mainland the overcast got lower and lower until I was found myself at only 2,000 ft ten minutes out from the airport. On the trip over I took note that the cloud was lower to the south so I decided to get a touch and go in at Moncton and return home. I contacted Moncton tower and told them of my intentions, there were quite a few other aircraft in the circuit. At this point forward visibility directly ahead sucked, I could barely see maybe 7 miles distant as I looked down at the ground at an angle. Bouncing around in the soup with other aircraft nearby was not fun.

I told tower that my visibility sucked and that I did not have them in sight, tower gave me a vector and said that I'd see the runway it in a minute or two, which I did. I was lined up perfectly to join the base leg of runway 24, damn that guy in the tower was good. I started getting everything setup for landing and then did a quick calculation in my head as to what I'd needed to fly in order to return home. (This was something that I realized after the fact that I should have done before hand).

I did my touch and go and during climb out I started getting jostled around pretty good, it was difficult to read the compass and I had not adjusted my heading indicator for some time (forgot). Visibility really sucked, it was difficult to see anything directly ahead of me and I could only see the ground out for maybe five miles. I called clear of the zone and then requested flight following, next I checked in with Moncton centre and told them that I was returning to Charlottetown instead of Trenton. I knew that the weather would get better as I got closer to the coast.

I continued on my course for a few more minutes, with my thirty knot tailwind my ground speed was about 130 kts, then I saw a landmark that I did not expect to see. After referring to the map a couple of times and then my course, which I admit that I wasn't really keeping a close eye on , I determined that I was about 30 degrees off course! WTF! I connected the dots and decided what needed to be done to fix things, a 45 degree turn to the left would get back home and out of this damn soup. Not having 50 miles visibility sucks.

I had just completed my course correction when Moncton centre called to ask me if I knew where I was. Oh the embarrassment... I think that I actually hung my head in shame. I replied that I did, mentioned that I was over a known landmark and then admitted that I was much farther south then I wanted to be, and that I had just made a large course correction to the east. Moncton asked for a pirep, which I gave them back as heavy haze at 2,000 ft with about 7 miles ground visibility. They told me according to another pirap that it should get much better as I get closer to the coast. At this point I was over the main highway that leads to the bridge, so I told them that I was simply was going to follow it, thanked them and signed off.

It was certainly nice knowing that I had someone looking out for me and all I really had to do if I got lost was to give them a call. On the other hand my pride to a hit with me being so far off course. I muttered less than nice things to myself for the next ten minutes until the coast came into view, visibility was getting much better now.

I called Moncton centre to tell them that I was climbing to 4,500 to cross the straight, it was difficult for me to tell just how close to the overcast I was. I had to dodge a low flying cloud as I crossed the straight, then a minute later everything went completed white! Visibility outside went from good to nil, that fast, this is not good I thought to myself. I must have either drifted up into the overcast (I was now at 4,600 ft) or the overcast had come down to me. Either way I could no longer see the ground! I knew that I had not flown into a cloud ahead of me so I only had to descend to get back to where I needed to be, my eyes went immediately down to my instruments.

I concentrated on keeping my scan going while I turned carb heat on and then reduce my throttle for a nice 500 ft per minute descent. This was not practise anymore, this was real, mistakes like this kill people. Every few seconds I'd take a very quick peek out the window and then back down to my instruments. I keep remembering Dave telling me to keep my scan going, don't fixate on one instrument. After what seemed like an hour, but was actually less then 20 seconds, I broke down out of the overcast and could once again could see the coastline below me. I maintained my descent and turned for Charlottetown, twenty minutes later I made a decent landing and taxied Fern back to the apron and shut her down. I felt like a stupid student pilot, tired as well.

I really thought long and hard about not including my off course excursion to the south and then my accidental flight into overcast while crossing the straight. I finally decided to include both of these events so that you could learn from my mistakes.

I was able to determine after the fact why I was so far off course. I made a couple of simple mistakes, I subtracted 180 degrees from my original heading but didn't factor in the winds then became fixated on scanning for other traffic in the area, to the determent of maintaining an accurate heading. (Just because it feels like you going in the right direction doesn't mean that you are). I had also flown into the overcast and survived. I have to say that the instrument training that I received paid off in spades. I immediately determined what needed to be done and then I relied on my instruments and training to get me out of a difficult situation.

This flight was very frustrating for me... mistakes were made. Flying in the soup far from home is no fun at all.

I have learned much from my experiences today, hopefully they will make me a better pilot.