Today's flight
The trip you planned in lesson 17: KARB to Battle Creek (KBTL) and back, with me in the right seat as your passenger. You fly it from your own log, talk to ATC the whole way, land at a towered field you have never seen, and come home. Somewhere past Jackson the weather ahead starts to look worse than the forecast: lower clouds, thicker haze, earlier than anyone said. You set your turn-back trigger on the ground. Now you decide: continue, divert or turn around, and you fly whichever you choose.
Then a second trip: Lansing (KLAN), your first Class C, then Charlotte (KFPK), a field with no tower, and home. Each flight is about 2 hours, so book longer blocks.
Every flight
Before every flight
- P
Pilot. Am I fit to fly today? IMSAFE: - Illness
- Medication
- Stress
- Alcohol
- Fatigue
- Emotion, and eating
- A
Aircraft. Is this airplane ready, and right for today? Documents, inspections and open squawks; fuel and oil on board; weight, balance and performance for today's load.
- V
Environment. What will today's flight meet? NWKRAFT, what 14 CFR 91.103 asks you to know before every flight, then the airspace and the route: - NOTAMs and TFRs
- Weather, against your minimums
- Known ATC delays
- Runway lengths
- Alternates
- Fuel required, with reserve
- Takeoff and landing distances
- Airspace: the Class B limits from the current chart
- The trip: heading, time, landmarks, wind and runway
- E
External pressures. What is pushing me to go today: a passenger, a schedule, a plan I don't want to cancel? Would I go without it?
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If it goes wrong. The takeoff emergency brief, out loud: an engine problem on the runway, after liftoff with runway left, and after liftoff without.
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Who flies. Who does what today, and how we hand the controls back and forth.
Who runs it today: You, unprompted. You brief me as your passenger, and I listen.
Deeper today: Weather, The trip and External pressures. Weather: a fresh briefing the morning of, compared with the one from lesson 17, and the go or no-go said out loud. The trip: your navigation log, updated with today's winds aloft before engine start, your plan B airports and frequencies on it, your turn-back trigger written at the top, and a VFR flight plan filed. On the second trip, Airspace adds the Class C: where you will call Lansing Approach, and the equipment it needs. External pressures: say what is pushing you to finish this trip today, so you can see it when the weather tests your trigger.
Recall
From earlier lessons
What makes this flight count as cross-country time for the private certificate?
Reveal answer
It lands at a point more than 50 NM in a straight line from where it started (14 CFR 61.1), and you navigate there. KBTL is 67 NM from KARB.
You are VFR, not instrument rated, and the weather ahead closes in. What do you tell ATC?
Reveal answer
Where you are, that you are VFR and not instrument rated, what the weather is doing, and what you want. If you can't stay in VFR conditions, declare an emergency.
On a solo flight, how do you work out your latest time home?
Reveal answer
From the fuel you measured, the handbook's fuel burn and the reserve you require: the time the fuel runs down to your reserve, not to empty.
What does it take to enter Class C, and what are the VFR weather minimums in it?
Reveal answer
Two-way radio contact with the controlling facility before you enter, and a transponder with altitude reporting and ADS-B Out. Three miles visibility, and 500 ft below, 1,000 ft above and 2,000 ft sideways from clouds (lesson 17).
Why Pilotage and dead reckoning check each other; if you only do one, a small mistake grows unnoticed.
On course, on time
- At each checkpoint: write the time, and work out a new groundspeed and time to the next one.
- Off course: correct the heading for the drift you found, not only back to the line.
- Fuel check at every checkpoint: what you have used so far against what you planned.
- Towers and high ground on the chart near the route: know where they are, and stay well above them.
Why The heading indicator drifts, and the compass is how you reset it, as long as you know how the compass lies.
The compass
- Reset the heading indicator from the compass only in steady, level flight at a constant speed.
- The card by the compass gives this airplane's deviation on each heading. Use it.
- Speeding up or slowing down on east or west: Accelerate North, Decelerate South.
- Turning to north, roll out before the compass shows it; to south, after it passes.
Why The radios confirm what the chart tells you, and take over when the ground is hard to read.
VOR and GPS in the air
- VOR: tune it, identify the Morse code, then center the needle and read the radial and TO or FROM.
- Tracking: turn toward the needle, then find the heading that keeps it centered.
- GPS direct-to: the quick answer to "where is the nearest airport". Check it against the chart.
- If the GPS and the chart disagree, believe the chart and a VOR, and tell ATC.
Why Flight following puts a controller and a radar on your side of the trip, and makes every later decision easier.
Help on the radio
- Open your flight plan with flight service after takeoff, then ask for flight following.
- Your transponder sends your code and altitude; ADS-B Out sends your GPS position.
- ADS-B In, on the panel or a tablet, shows traffic and weather, but not an airplane with no transponder.
- Close each flight plan on the ground, every time. Nobody else will.
Why Visibility is something you measure, not a feeling, and the trigger you set on the ground is the decision.
Watching the weather ahead
- Estimate the visibility from the chart: pick a landmark you know is 5 miles ahead. Can you see it?
- Get updates: flight service, the ATIS ahead, and a PIREP of your own.
- When the trigger happens, act: turn first, toward better weather or your plan B, then work out the rest.
- Tell ATC what you are doing. A changed plan is still a plan.
Why A diversion started early is just a different trip.
Divert or turn around
- Divert: pick the airport, turn to the rough heading, then measure the course, distance, time and fuel.
- On the KBTL trip, KJXN sits close to the route about halfway.
- Turn around: a gentle 180 back to where it was good, then home or the nearest good field.
- Either way, open a new plan in your head: new fuel, new time home, new frequencies.
Why Being unsure of your position is normal and fixable, as long as you deal with it while you have fuel, altitude and daylight.
Lost
- Fly the airplane and hold a heading. Don't wander looking for a landmark.
- Climb if the airspace and clouds allow, to see farther and talk farther.
- Tell ATC you are unsure of your position. Use the GPS and a VOR to fix where you are.
- Still unsure, or the fuel getting short: land at the first good airport you find.
Why A precautionary landing, with the engine running and time to choose, is far safer than a forced landing later.
Landing before you have to
- When: the weather closing in, lost, the fuel getting short, or an engine slowly getting worse.
- Decide early, while you have power to fix a bad approach and daylight to see the ground.
- An airport first. A field only when no airport works: look it over for wires, ditches and slope.
- Then land, call, and sort the rest out on the ground.
Why A mistake near the Class B is fixed by acting fast and telling the truth, not by hoping nobody noticed.
In the Class B without a clearance
- Get out the shortest safe way: turn away, or descend below the floor if that is closer.
- Tell Detroit Approach what happened and where you are, and do what they say.
- Afterward, file a NASA report (ASRS) and debrief how it happened.
- A moving map with airspace alerts is a backup, never the plan. Your limits block is the plan.
Why Class C is a busy airport with a radar approach control, and the way in is one thing: two-way radio contact.
Class C at Lansing
- Call Lansing Approach well outside the Class C: who, where, altitude, the ATIS, and that you are landing.
- Your callsign in the reply means contact, and you may enter. "Aircraft calling, standby" does not.
- "Remain outside the Class Charlie" means exactly that. Hold outside and wait.
- Inside, they sequence you to the airport and keep you apart from IFR traffic. You still look outside.
Why Your solo cross-countries need a list of training done and logged first, and these two flights cover most of it.
The training behind the trips
- KBTL: ATIS, tower, three runways and plenty of training traffic. Read back, and ask when you aren't sure.
- Land and hold short: you may decline it, and a student pilot should.
- KFPK: no tower. Listen on the CTAF early, and say where you are and what you will do.
- Also on the list: a stretch under the hood, best angle and best rate climbs, and a short-field landing.
A real accident
On July 10, 2002, a student pilot on a solo flight in a Cessna 152 from Oakland County International (Pontiac, Michigan) became lost. He called the Pontiac tower, and with help relayed through another airplane he flew over an airport and described it: it was Jackson (KJXN), but nobody confirmed it and he did not land. He picked up the Pontiac VOR and turned toward it; when the tower asked about his fuel he reported a quarter tank, and the engine stopped from fuel exhaustion about four minutes later, near Gregory. The airplane nosed over in a soft field. The NTSB found the probable cause was the pilot's improper decision not to land at the intermediate airport, with becoming lost, fuel exhaustion, the soft terrain and inadequate help from ATC as factors. When you are lost and an airport is under you, land: the problem is easy to solve on the ground. NTSB report CHI02LA187
Your calls
Decision points
- Go or no-go the morning of each flight, after the briefing, compared with the plan from lesson 17.
- When the weather ahead reaches your trigger: continue, divert or turn around. I may set it up with a simulated lower ceiling if the real sky doesn't.
- I may tell you you're lost, or ask you to find yourself without the GPS. You decide how.
- At KBTL, whether to accept what the tower offers (a runway, a hold short) or ask for something else.
- At Lansing, "remain outside" and a long wait: hold outside, skip Lansing for Charlotte, or try again later.
The whole flight
Also on this flight
| Part of the flight | Who |
|---|
| Every-flight routine, weather and updated navigation log | You, unprompted; you brief me |
| VFR flight plan, opened after takeoff and closed on the ground, both flights | You |
| Preflight, start, taxi, runup, takeoff | You |
| Departure under the Class B and flight following | You |
| Checkpoint times and fuel, at every checkpoint, both flights | You |
| Resetting the heading indicator from the compass, at least twice each flight | You |
| VOR fixes: at least two each flight, each within a few miles of the GPS | You |
| Hood work en route, and at least two best angle and two best rate climbs | You; I watch for traffic |
| Diversion: at least one each flight, turned toward within a minute of the call | You; I set it up, some unannounced |
| Lost exercise and a simulated precautionary landing at an airport | You; I set them up |
| Arrival at KBTL and at KLAN with the tower, at KFPK on the CTAF | You |
| Lansing Approach and the Class C | You |
| Return to KARB, tower, pattern and landing | You |
| Logging the cross-country training and each 61.93(e) item | Instructor |
| Debrief | Both, you first |
The standard
Ready to move on when
- You fly the route from your log, know where you are at every checkpoint, and keep times and fuel up to date. By the checkride the ACS asks for altitude within 200 ft and heading within 15 degrees (task VI.A, Private Pilot ACS).
- You call your turn-back trigger when it happens and fly a diversion to an alternate: turn first, then a heading, distance, time and fuel worked out in the air.
- You reset the heading indicator from the compass correctly, and fix your position with a VOR and confirm it with the GPS.
- You enter Lansing's Class C only after two-way contact, and can say what would not have counted.
- You can say and fly what you would do if you were lost, in the Class B without a clearance, or running short of fuel or daylight.
- You open and close your own VFR flight plans.
- Your logbook shows the 3 hours of cross-country flight training (14 CFR 61.109(a)(1)) and every item of 14 CFR 61.93(e), so the solo cross-country endorsement has a record behind it.
At home, before the next flight
Chair fly it
- Next is a flight through the Class B with a clearance. Read the Class B part of the airspace chapter of the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and 14 CFR 91.131.
- Find on the Detroit terminal area chart where you would ask for a clearance, and what you would do if it didn't come.
- Say the request out loud: who you are, where you are, your altitude, and what you want to do in the Class B.
- Replay your diversion from today: how long it took to turn, and how long to have a heading and time.
After the flight
Debrief
You go first, then the instructor. Three points at most, and you write down one thing to work on next time.
- Your first cross-country: which moment will you remember from it?
- When did you first see the weather change, and how long did you take to act on it?
- What would you do differently on these trips if you were alone?
Notes for teaching this lesson
Before the flight
- Lansing is 50 NM from KARB, not over 50, so on its own it would not count as cross-country time; Charlotte, 52 NM away, does. The two flights together give the 3 hours of dual cross-country (61.109(a)(1)) and most of the 61.93(e) training.
- Two flights, each about 2 hours: book longer blocks. Fly KBTL first; the Lansing and Charlotte trip second. The lost exercise and the precautionary landing go on whichever leg the traffic and weather allow.
- Check the student's updated log, the morning briefing and the go or no-go reasons. Ask about anything missing; don't fill it in.
- Brief which surprises may come: a diversion, a "you're lost" exercise and a simulated failure. The student has soloed, so some may be unannounced, always in safe conditions and never near the Class B or the ground.
- Know the KBTL and KJXN numbers from the Chart Supplement yourself (lesson 17's notes list them from the 29 October 2026 edition). Check the KBTL remarks for the aerobatic practice area and the training traffic.
- KLAN and KFPK: this page lists no frequencies, runways or hours for them. Read the current Chart Supplement yourself, and check the student's numbers against it.
- Lansing (Capital City) is a Class C airport in the AIM's list. Entry: 14 CFR 91.130; the "standby" rule and the services inside: AIM 3-2-4. Distances (KARB to KLAN 50 NM, to KFPK 52 NM) are from the outline's FAA airport data; the student measures the KLAN to KFPK leg.
- Compass errors (deviation card, acceleration error, turning errors, the "15 plus half the latitude" lead for northerly turns): PHAK chapter 8. Precautionary landings: AFH chapter 18.
- The 61.93(e) list, in full: charts and dead reckoning with the compass, performance charts, weather (including estimating visibility in flight), emergencies, area departures and arrivals, collision, wake and windshear avoidance, hazardous terrain on the route, the airplane's instruments and equipment, radios, short-field, soft-field and crosswind takeoffs and landings, best angle and best rate climbs, and instrument flying. Lesson 15 covered short and soft fields; log what each flight adds.
In the air
- If the real weather doesn't reach the student's trigger, describe a lower ceiling ahead and let them call it.
- For the lost exercise, cover the GPS and have them find themselves by pilotage and a VOR, then confirm with the GPS.
- Do the hood stretch and the climbs en route, well away from the Class B shelves and other traffic.
- For the precautionary landing, pick a real reason ("the oil temperature is creeping up") and let the student choose the airport and fly a full approach with power.
- Ask for a visibility estimate at least once each flight, using a landmark whose distance they can read from the chart.
- Common errors: not writing checkpoint times, chasing the course line instead of correcting the heading, resetting the heading indicator in a turn or while accelerating, forgetting to update fuel, delaying the diversion decision, working out the diversion before turning, missing a handoff, entering the Class C on "aircraft calling, standby", not listening to the ATIS early enough, accepting a land and hold short clearance, and forgetting to close the flight plan.
Curveballs
The student has soloed, so the ones marked unannounced may come without warning, in safe conditions only.
- Unannounced: "the GPS just went blank" on the way home. Chart, compass and VOR.
- Unannounced: "the oil temperature is climbing." A precautionary landing at the nearest suitable airport, with power.
- Briefed: a described lower ceiling ahead, when the real sky doesn't reach their trigger.
- Briefed: you play Lansing Approach and say "remain outside the Class Charlie", or "aircraft calling, standby".
- Unannounced: "you're lost." Cover the GPS and let them find themselves.
After the flight
- Mark the first: the first cross-country, and the first Class C.
- Log the cross-country flight training toward 61.109(a)(1) and each 61.93(e) item flown, and check off the list against lessons 15 to 18.
- Praise a diversion or turn-back made for a good reason. It is exactly what the solo cross-countries need.
- Talk about the student's own trip from lesson 2: does it fit the long solo cross-country, and what would its plan look like?