Alright back to my flight. I went to Hemet Ryan from Gillepsie. That is from SEE to HMT. Now for the path. There are bunch of stuff we had to take care in figuring out the flight path. Few of them are: airspace restrictions, the terrain, visible landmarks, near by airports, altitudes, winds and weather etc. Winds and weather were good and was not an issue at all. A straight line through to HMT from SEE would take us through some nasty Bravo airspace. So we had to go around the space. So we thought we would first head out to Ramona (RMN) around San Vincente reservoir. And then shoot over to French Valley via Pauma Valley and then head to Hemit. Now having figured out these as my check points, we had to figure out at what altitude we had to fly. Since we had our magnetic course in the second hemisphere, we had to fly at even+500 feet according to hemispherical rule. The hemispherical rule says "If you are above 3000' AGL and on a magnetic course between 0 and 179 included, the altitude should be at odd+500' feet. If the magnetic course is between 180 and 359 included, then the altitude should be at even+500' feet." To obey this rule, we decided that we would fly at 4500' on the to route and at 5500' on the way back. I got the visual check points, the estimated times to reach them, the magnetic headings needed and the radio frequencies required on the way. Having gotten these, I had to call up the FSS and file a flight plan with them. We asked for a flight plan in a round-robin fashion, which is another way to say it is a to-and-fro without any other landing in between. The briefer told us to open the flight plan on 122 MHz once we are airborne.
I got the plane pre-flighted, which is the process in which we determine if the airplane is good to be flown. The process consists of checking the fuel quality and quantity, the nuts and bolts of the plane, the flight controls. When I went to check the fuel quality, there was water in the fuel tanks. I had to drain the fuel for a while to get clean fuel. After I pre-flighted the plane, we, my flight instructor and I, got into the plane and called the ground for clearance to taxi. Well, after the initial calls and hold shorts, we took off. The winds kept changing direction. We had to adjust the heading every once in a while. The Earth looks very beautiful from air. On the way out we couldn't really see Pauma Valley Airport, as it was just behind a line of mountains and we got a little off to the right side of the intended path. It was beautiful flying over the other airports.
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