Student Pilot - First Solo Cross-Country Flight - Leg 1 of 2

Shorter 5-minute version - http://youtu.be/37N03a7s3bo Go to Leg 2 - http://youtu.be/H5lkUkna17Y To see 3D view my flight plan in Google Earth, click on this KML file and open it (if offered), or save it locally and then open it: http://www.teamandras.com/temp/XC1.kml Audio adapter I use with my iPhone to record communications: http://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/8650 August 10, 2013 - John Wayne Airport (SNA), Orange County, California - First student pilot solo cross-country flight in an Evektor SportStar - Leg 1 of 2 is the flight from my home airport of John Wayne to Ramona, an airport I had never flown to before. This leg was planned as a coastal route, from John Wayne to the Newport Beach coast, then South along the coastline past Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente, and finally Oceanside, where I turned inland and flew toward Ramona airport. On the learning side, I had a somewhat snarky flight services specialist (wish I would have said, "five minutes from now, Zulu"), needed a little help from SoCal to find the airport, did a really poor job of communicating how I wanted to orbit the airport before landing (I need to learn to use compass directions, not phrases like "half circle," tower sounded frustrated with me), had a pretty crappy landing at Ramona, and decided to do a go-around when I got home because I was a little low. On the good side, I managed to confirm that the restricted area over the coastline of Camp Pendleton was "cold, and in "Leg 1 of 2," had a beautiful flight over the California coastline, met some nice folks at Chuck Hall Aviation, managed to buy fuel, didn't break the plane, and made it home. On the way back, in "Leg 2 of 2," I had an equally beautiful flight over the coastal mountains. All in all, it was A LOT of fun.